"Every so often there comes a record of such unlikeliness, of such overpowering rhythmic intensity and such majestic indifference to global musical trends that you're knocked sideways. This is one of them... Search where you will in rock and hip-hop, you won't find a more viscerally exciting album this year."
-Mark Hudson, London Telegraph (UK)

"amped-up, distorted call-and-response chants with dizzying plinking patterns that just grow fiercer and more jubilant as they stretch out."
-Joe Pereles, New York Times

"Mind-melting noise-funk from the Congo... rhythmically red-hot, full of transcendent builds that DJ aficionados will feel in their bones "
-Will Hermes, Spin (click here to view this article)

"Techno, Congo style. Heaviest album of the year?"
-David Hutcheon, Mojo Magazine (Congotronics, World Album of the Month, May 2005- click here to view this article)

“Congotronics is to the modern streets of Kinshasa what turntablism is to the South Bronx, what rave is to Ibiza and what the oral tradition is to Georgia’s Sea Islands… the funkiest dance/trance music from a region that could use a little release.”
–Steve Ciabattoni, CMJ

"thrillingly unique stuff, a torrent of kinetic sound that straddles the line between the traditional and the avant-garde. Konono No. 1 are the kind of band that remind us that music still possesses vast wells of untapped potential, and that there's virtually no limit to what can be developed and explored... it's among the most fascinating music I've heard and deserves a listen by anyone with even the remotest interest in the possibilities of sound."
-Joe Tangari, Pitchforkmedia.com

"a roof-shaking dance band... an incredible sound"
- Blender

"a rhythmic, gloriously frantic album that includes echoes of anything from blues, dub and rap through to bursts of line-and-response chanting and slinky riffs, along with passages of wild improvisation on the likembes that at times sounds like free-form jazz. This could be one of the unexpected successes of the year."
-Robin Denselow, The Guardian (UK)

"a blend of traditional Bazombo folk with gritty sound distortions that would make Jimi Hendrix proud… dizzying, danceable and frenetic"
- Newsweek

"It could really be from anywhere, at any time; its rawness at odds with the slow fall towards slickness and a polished, homogenized sound so sought after these days. And like all the best music, it needs to be played loud, as loud as their legendary, dizzying live performances."
-Dale Shaw, BBC

"As you try to sift through the dense crosstalk of twittering beats, your ears are beguiled ever deeper into Konono's rhythmic thrashing machine."
-The Wire (UK)

"an aural perpetual motion machine that goes from zero to heaven in breathtaking gradations… utterly great and refreshing."
-Mike Powell, Stylus Magazine

"insanely wonderful… truly fantastic stuff."
-Chris May, AllAboutJazz.com