Haut De Gamme – Koweit, Rive Gauche

Pleasant. Faint praise.

This album was an hour of my life I’ll never get back. Beyond Olomide’s reputation as, by all accounts, a deeply unpleasant individual, the music itself is a real struggle to endure. While there are fleeting moments that hint at something better, the overall sound feels like a dated, dubbed-out soundtrack that quickly wears thin. I found no reason to return to it and no track worth revisiting.

Favourite track: None.
Least favourite track: Honestly, every track on the album.
Album artwork: Awful.

It's fine. Pretty pleasant for background "world" music.

Flog of a human and flog of an album!

I don't really know enough about Congolese music to judge this properly, but I found parts of it pretty danceable and uplifting. I don't think I'd listen to it again, but glad to get something different from the generator for a change!

I didn't have the same visceral reaction to this as a lot of people here; the production is definitely awful in a few places, and each song is way too long, but I can't say I mind the overall vibe *too* much.

2.5/5

I can only handle so much repetitive, middling, tinny guitar. This album was easily 25 mins too long. It seems like Koffi had been influential to the African music scene, however his history of both alleged and confirmed violence (toward women in particular) is frightening. All together I did not enjoy this one bit. 1/5

It’s fun and different, but not something I would particularly gravitate to. I thought some of the songs dragged on a bit too long.

no

Very fun.

Een voor ons westerlingen een wat afwijkend plaatje. Omdat het wel interessant klinkt, pak ik het boek er eens bij. Ze kunnen het wel promoten zeg: "vooral voor een vrouwelijk publiek", "heerlijk stroperig", "met overvloedige synthesizerstrijkers" en "geprogrammeerde percussie". Gadverredamme, dat wil je toch niet horen? Ze bedoelen het overigens allemaal heel positief. Dat blijkt wel uit de rest van de pagina. En het klopt ook ergens allemaal wel. Het is best een fijne combi, die geproduceerde afrikaanse muziek. Niet alleen de computer duidt op een bredere oriëntatie. Ook het begin van veel nummers is vrij westers. Zo hadden we het begin van Désespoir (yep, stroperig, bah) begin jaren '90 gewoon op onze westerse radiozenders voorbij kunnen horen komen. En hebben enkele nummers zoals Dit Jeannot aan het begin iets wat ook uit Volendam had kunnen komen. Maar al die nummers bouwen vanaf dat westerse toch op naar een dansbare afrikaanse climax. Met in de hoofdrol een geinig gitaartje.

graphic design is my passion

Very feelgood throughout. Great uplifting licks and beats on every track. Shame I have to listen to these cars because it's very dance-worthy.

Shame about him being a p.o.s.

I gave it a good go but it’s just not my type of thing whatsoever. Some of the songs reminded me of the Lilo & Stitch soundtrack but maybe that’s a result of having kids and listening to a lot of Disney music.

Top Track - Désespoir for the sole reason that I found the opening really cheesy and it made me laugh.

I had never heard this kind of music before. It’s very fun to listen to and fascinating.

Very nice to have some representation from non-western music on this list. I wasn't the biggest fan of this one though. It's a very cheery and upbeat album for sure, but the late 80's / 90's production it's drenched in hampers my enjoyment of it a lot. I'm also not the biggest fan of Soukous in general, the music doesn't really have hooks and just goes on and on and on. It's nice to have the tempo increase in the songs after a few minutes, where they reach their peak enjoyment for me. Still happy to have heard this album and I feel it does deserve its placement here.

Not really my type of music.

Now look, I'd love to talk about all the horrible things this man has done but this is a site where we review music, not people. Not that it matters anyway because Haut de gamme / Koweit, rive gauche absolutely sucks. There is of course the fact that Koffi himself gets way too into the lyrics making them sound creepy even though i don't know what he is saying as i do not speak French, But the main issue is the music. While the novelty of them sounding like Super Nintendo songs in CD quality was there at the beginning, it quickly wore off when the songs went on for so long and did absolutely nothing to earn their length. Typically, i would say this is a case of separate the art from the artist but i don't think i need to do that when the art sucks.
Best Song: Elixir
Worst Song: Conte de fees

In the United States there is a group of water parks in Wisconsin known as the Wisconsin Dells. This includes various massive, themed water resorts in which you'll get the "premium" water park experience. That is, to say, as little used band aids in the lazy river as possible. One of these parks is known as the Wilderness, which is vaguely jungle themed. Of course, that means cheap sounding, vaguely African music plays throughout the whole location. On repeat. All day. This album, is that music. A bare minimum, diverse selection of tropical songs that fail to sound any different from one another, being just "not American" enough to fit the oddly racist themeing, while still not scaring any visitors away with anything too different. Just like the Wilderness, this album was selected by a white guy trying his best to be open to other styles and cultures, but does the bear minimum in actually embracing these vultures and looking beyond surface level. Not helping things is of course the selection chosen is a pedophile. I'm pretty sure Wisconsin Dells at least avoids that with its selection. Maybe. Who knows. This album sucks.

The Good: High Level!
The Bad: Something something left…
The Ugly: Not understanding the level that we are high in…

Who’d have thought that one needs to listen to an album by a Congolese artist before one dies? I was always under the impression that Senegal was where it’s at…

Also, to all those snowflakes who rate this album low because they scan through a Wikipedia page to read something about a rape and instantly cancelling the artist… keep reading the damn page, to see that he was never convicted of rape, but he did receive a conviction for assault…

Anyways, I’ve listened to the album, guess I can die now?