asin: B00000061N binding: Audio CD list price: $11.98 USD amazon price: $11.98 USD

Kwassa Kwassa collects the hardest-driving soukous material the Bongo Man performed during the 1980s at the height of the European-African soukous dance craze. While other albums, most notably Amour Fou/Crazy Love and Zing Zong, offer equally strong material, Kwassa Kwassa is unmatched in energetic power. There were no still bodies when Kanda Bongo Man led the rave and this album shows why. It was the last collection guitarist Diblo Dibala graced with his spirited, nimble fingers, and songs like "Sai" and "Cantique" boast the Bongo Man's brilliant talent for high-energy songwriting awash in melody. Other highlights include the tumbling "Lela-Lela," where the female backup singing adds a lovely, uniquely African touch, and "Belle Amie," which captures well the Bongo Man's reedy voice floating earnestly with a hint of melancholy. An album not to be listened to just once or twice, but rather over and over and over. --Karen Karleski