Its been a long time between drinks but TSHEGUE, the duo of Congolese singer Faty Sy Savanet and French-Cuban producer Nicolas Dacunha, are back with pulsating new single "The Wheel."
Another dynamic release featuring Savanet's hypnotic vocals and Dacunha's afro-beat meets tribal pop production, "The Wheel" has a dark undercurrent running through it, with the beat getting decidedly murky towards the songs end.
The song is accompanied by a video shot by Renaud Barret that documents the Club Etoile Rollers, a mixed-gender collective who skate the chaotic streets of Kinshasa hitching rides on the back of cars, buses & bikes. Speaking on the clip Barret says:
An ordinary day in Kinshasa. I’m in a taxi on Lumumba boulevard, when suddenly I’m in the middle of this gang of kids slaloming between cars. We exchange thumbs up, signs of complicity, rolling side by side for a moment. One of them spots my camera, & comes closer to shout 'Hey sir! Do you wanna shoot something crazy?' I couldn’t refuse. This is the magic of a limitless city where each and every day brings incredible spontaneous possibilities. Now as I watch the beaming faces of these kids, thrown at full speed on their crumbling rollers, almost out of control, intoxicated by danger and only protected by their faith in good luck; I can only see a metaphor for the Congo's situation. But also a middle finger to a society trying to maintaining an illusion that everything should be controlled, supervised. These free riders remind us that life must be lived in the present.
Hopefully we get a full album from TSHEGUE sooner rather than later.
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