MORE STAFF BENDA BILILI

I've been doing some listening to this band today, via youtube and I've been reading some reviews and whatever else I can find on this band and particularly on how I can make my own Satonge. The sound of the band is made unique by this unique instrument, described as a paint can, a wire and a bent stick. In the live youtube video of about one minute, there's a mic cable running up inside the paint can it seems, thus I guess that's how they mic it. Perhaps a guitar transducer, a harmonica mic or a small microphone of some sort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRGRQJTD04M

Here's a review of their album from the Independent, with this excerpt pulled out about the Satonge and it's inventor/player:

Comprised chiefly of polio victims who prowl the Zoological Gardens of Kinshasa on their customised tricycles, they possess an extra layer of outsider status, while their musical idiosyncrasy is guaranteed by their able-bodied teenage prodigy Roger Landu, a virtuoso on the one-string satonge lute he invented and built.

But the dominant element is the high, piercing timbre of Landu's satonge, an instrument built from a paint can, a bent stick and a single wire, whose weird, modulating pitch is controlled by subtle tensioning of the string. Its peculiar, swooping tone, particularly during passages of high-speed picking, sounds like no other instrument, providing Staff Benda Bilili with their most unique quality.

HERE'S THE REST OF THE REVIEW AND THE LINK TO THE ORIGINAL FROM THE INDEPENDENT: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-staff-benda-bilili-tregraves-tregraves-fort-crammed-discs-1649269.html

Album: Staff Benda Bilili, Très Très Fort (Crammed Discs)
(Rated 4/ 5 )
Reviewed by Andy Gill
Friday, 20 March 2009
Even by the diverse standards of the Congotronics scene, Staff Benda Bilili are like no African group you've come across.

Comprised chiefly of polio victims who prowl the Zoological Gardens of Kinshasa on their customised tricycles, they possess an extra layer of outsider status, while their musical idiosyncrasy is guaranteed by their able-bodied teenage prodigy Roger Landu, a virtuoso on the one-string satonge lute he invented and built.

Recorded outdoors at night, using power "borrowed" via a 100-metre extension cable, the

songs on Très Très Fort come with a patina of distant traffic noise and, on "Polio", chirping crickets and toads. The band's sound features the rattle and twang of guitars and percussion in cyclical formation, fronted by combinations of vocalists whose voices blend with a distinctive quality reminiscent at times of Jamaican rock-steady vocal groups. But the dominant element is the high, piercing timbre of Landu's satonge, an instrument built from a paint can, a bent stick and a single wire, whose weird, modulating pitch is controlled by subtle tensioning of the string. Its peculiar, swooping tone, particularly during passages of high-speed picking, sounds like no other instrument, providing Staff Benda Bilili with their most unique quality.

Though rooted in the Congolese Afro-Cuban rumba tradition, the performances incorporate other imported rhythms, such as the gently strutting

reggae twitch of "Sala Mosala" and the funk undercarriage of "Staff Benda Bilili". The slower pieces, notably the waltz "Sala Keba" and reflective rumba "Moto Moindo", are lent poignancy by the engaging blend of voices, calling in the latter for black men to be less passive victims of the modern world and go out and catch their food again.

This attitude comes through strongly in many tracks, the result of the self-reliance strictures written into the constitution of a country that failed to provide these men with the Salk vaccine in the first place. "I was born a strong man, but polio crippled me/ Look at me today, I'm screwed on to my tricycle," sings SBB leader Ricky Likabu in "Polio", going on to encourage parents to get their kids vaccinated and educated. "Tonkara" (cardboard) is a similarly affirmative song about sleeping rough but not letting misfortune define one's spirit. Whatever tribulations are visited upon them, Staff Benda Bilili bear them with grace and some wit: Coco Ngambali's "Marguerite" is a lament of separation from his siblings, some now living across the Congo river; not just in another country, he says, but served by a different phone network. How much more separated can one get?

Pick of the

album:'Moziki', 'Staff Benda Bilili', 'Polio'

So I just reprinted their review because I think that Mr. Gill writes a great review, far better than I could articulate, mixing in their physicial reality with the music they create.

The spirit of this outfit what I admire. I did not seek out their ages but they are my age or younger and didn't get the same polio vaccines we did here in America. So they have these Mad Max-esque gas powered trike wheelchair/motorcycle combos in their country that they drive, as featured in some of the pictures on the prior posting I did. Instead of rifles, which might be featured from some more militant group elsewhere in that part of the world, they hold their guitars and bring peace.

Here's more of the story on this band from wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staff_Benda_Bilili

Staff Benda Bilili are a group of street musicians in Congo-Kinshasa. They live around the grounds of the zoo in Kinshasa, and play music which is rooted in rumba, with elements of old-school rhythm'n'blues and reggae. The core of the band consists of four senior singers/guitarist, who are all disabled (they suffered from poliomyelitis when they were young) and move around in spectacularly customized tricycles. They are backed by a younger rhythm section consisting of ex-sheges, abandoned street kids who were taken under the protection of the older members of the band. The soloist is an 18 year-old boy (2009) who plays guitar-like solos on an electrified one-stringed lute he designed and built himself out of a tin can.

Staff Benda Bilili have earned the 2009 Artist Award at Womex (World Music Expo).[1]

Staff Benda Bilili have sought to raise awareness about crimes against humanity in Congo, contributing to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation.

Background
Staff Benda Bilili was formed by Ricky Lickabu and Coco Ngambali with other polio victims as other bands in Kinshasa would not work with them and was later joined by a teenager, Roger Landu, who fashioned his own instrument from an empty fish can, a piece of wood and a guitar string.[2] The band rehearsed in Kinshasa zoo, because it was a quiet location, and played the streets of Kinshasa until they were heard by Vincent Kenis, a Belgian record producer specialising in Congolese music, who arranged for the band to record their debut album, Tres Tres Fort ("Very Very Strong").[2]

The "voting song"
In 2006, Staff Benda Bilili's song Let's Go and Vote ("Allons Voter"), written and performed by the musicians, was played repeatedly in the run-up to the 2006 historic polls on radio and television stations; it was reported to be responsible for a 70% increase in voter turnout. The credits on the video clip says it was produced by Monuc UN Mission in DR Congo and distributed by the UN

Development Programme (UNDP). The musicians were not offered contracts, but were reportedly paid $50 each. Staff Benda Bilili have filed a lawsuit in the Congolese courts seeking $100,000 for Monuc's use of their music.[3]

The videos and the film
Staff Benda Bilili were featured in the documentary film "Jupiter's Dance", by Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye (aka Belle Kinoise), who have been documenting the band's progress since 2005. They shot several videos, which have become quite popular on the internet. Barret and de la Tullaye have now finished a feature-length documentary on the band. Entitled Benda Bilili!, it has been selected by the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Directors' Fortnight) at the 2010 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and premiered on May 13, 2010 to critical acclaim on the opening day of the Quinzaine.

Career
Entitled Très Très Fort, the band's debut album was released on Crammed Discs in March 2009. It was produced over the course of three years by Crammed's Vincent Kenis (known for introducing and producing bands such as Konono Nº1, Kasai Allstars, and for the Congotronics series). Kenis recorded the band mostly in the Kinshasa zoo. The album also contains four of Barret & de la Tullaye's videos.[4]

Staff Benda Bilili's Très Très Fort album will also be released on vinyl by Crammed Discs, only as part of the limited-edition Congotronics Vinyl Box Set which includes most albums on the Congotronics Series.
Initial media reactions to Très Très Fort were excellent, especially in the UK,[5][6][7] the USA,[8] and France.[9]

In June 2010, Staff Benda Bilili contributed the song "Je t'aime" from Très Très Fort to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation. Proceeds from the compilation fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo’s women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo.

And finally, here's a wiki link to the country this outfit is from, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yikes, over five million people killed as of 2008 in a long running civil war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo