Haut De Gamme – Koweit, Rive Gauche

A little more latin sounding than I expected, but solid non-the-less. 3/5

This is the soundtrack for every 80”s movie that has a palm tree in it

Just didn’t care for it at all. It’s not music I’d ever put on and i actually couldn’t wait for it to be over

I didn't really like this. But at no point did I hate it or feel the need to turn it off or skip a song. It's way to long, it's not in a language I understand (so who knows what the message is here) and apparently the guy is not a nice guy.

Probably music a movie would use as a background. And I'm not sure why it's on the list. But there are worse albums on here.

It’s a fucking 1.

Even without the child rape this guy was accused of in 2019, which is already going to give it a 1 regardless, this is just such a fucking boring album, my god. This is comprised of 58 FUCKING MINUTES of music that sounds like what you'd hear when they're showing b-roll footage of the zoo on a kids show.

The looping instrumentals that comprise the entirety of this album are not only egregiously long and tiresome and boring, but they’re just so fucking annoying to sit through. I talked about Kraftwerk sounding like an FL Studio loop once, but this literally IS one. I would wager to bet over half (if not all) of the backing instrumentals are like, 16 bars at most, on loop. Past that, he’s somehow delusional enough to think he can carry this album with his fucking vocals, while having not an inch of charisma to actually do it and while sounding like a constipated opera singer in training.

Honestly, the 58 minutes might be the worst part. By the time I got to the last track, I wrote the following down, and I think it sums up the crux of my feelings on the album:

“I truly do not care about any of this album anymore. The sooner I never have to listen to it, the better; it’s not even like it’s a bad album from a musical standpoint other than the obnoxiously obvious loops, it’s just painfully, painfully boring in a way that I haven’t felt since Maxinquaye, and honestly, the egregious nature of the looping may make this one even worse. However, at least this has a more positive and beachy upbeat tone throughout the runtime, so it doesn’t get like the depressingly sad type of “please end my suffering” boring. It just gets the ‘stuck at a 3-year-old’s birthday party with none of my friends & 7 other people in their 80s’ type of “please end my suffering” boring.”

Yeah, this is worse than Maxinquaye. This is the worst one we’ve gotten yet. Even if I were so kind as to give the music like, a 1.5 bumped up to a 2 because it “sounds happy,” this dude was convicted of child rape in 2019, so I just don’t even want to entertain the idea of a 2. It’s a bland, boring 1.

We better fucking get Dark Side of the Moon next or something.

Congolese music is always evolving micro genres and trends, even if the distinctions can be pretty subtle. This is light and airy soukous, it has the verse/chorus/dance structure and the distinctive non-stop guitar arpeggio attack driving it on and a very busy percussion section, but it's slowed down a tad and much more romantic than most dancefloor pumping soukous. His voice is well suited to this, a smooth baritone that patiently delivers the lyrics with whispered glissando flair. The intro of keyboard synth sounds in this era saved band leaders the cost of a full horn section, made touring easier,.and brought in a bunch of novel sounds, but it makes everything sound so awfully smooth and incredibly cheap cheesy and dated. Its dance music that confirms to genre conventions so dancers know the moves, which gives it a somewhat, well, generic feel, especially from afar.

oh man this sample library is pretty low fidelity, which makes me think I'm in for a ride on the cheese express. the bass tone is great though. Desepoir has a pretty cool intro. There is this infectious drive to it, which is nice. oh but the CHEEEEEEESSSSSEEEE sounds. lord save us.

Ah this is what graceland was aiming for

2.44

Honestly, this album offers up infectious rhythms and breezy guitar, a welcome break from the Anglo-American biasness of this list. Though the dated synths and repetitive arrangements make it a demanding listen. While the artist’s history adds baggage, it remains a high energy, sunny curiosity perfect for breaking up a standard playlist.

It seems crazy to take a point off for an album being too joyful, but here we are.

Overall, it was pretty nice, but the production seems pretty dated. This would be a much different record if someone went back and stripped it down and replaced the rhythm section parts with something more tolerable. Get rid of that annoying metallic ticky-tack drum line that is on every(?) track.

Kreolische afrikanische Klänge mit dem Hang zum Gewimmer mit brauchbarer Stimme unterstützt von Rasseln und Bongos - nicht mein Geschmack.

This was an upbeat good world/disco album, was swaying between and 2 or a 3, but the fact the man raped a 15 year old dancer sways any good feels I was going to give him, fair play to anyone separating the art from the artist, always harder to do when you know about the artist before embracing the art.

Totalmente desconocido. Tampoco es que sea fácil conocer estos autores más exóticos que además de africanos son de la órbita francófona. No me ha convencido, me ha sonado demasiado a orquesta de verbena. Como otros muchos no creo que sea imprescindible aunque tampoco sea malo.

Very cool, like not much I had ever heard before, and apparently the only Congolese album on the list. A worthy inclusion, if only to raise the profile of the music of sub-saharan Africa.

Koffi Olomide is a Congolese Soukus artist. Soukus is apparently Rumba music with a faster tempo, and more guitars. To me it sounds like Spanish music, sung in French, dripping with 80's cheese. Even the album cover screams 80's, with Koffi's blindingly white pants.

I feel like I don't have the knowledge to accurately rate this album, because I know nothing about Congolese rumba music, so how it stacks (good or bad) is lost on me. I know that I enjoyed the danceable beats achieved by the band, but whether it makes it good or bad in the grand scheme of things, I have no idea.

As I don't speak French, the bulk of this album ran together for me, so I can't really pick out where the songs started and stopped.

Favouririte songs: Papa Bonheur

Least favourite songs: Dit Jeannot

2/5

The music's okay I guess, a bit dated perhaps, but he sounds like a real piece of shit as a person.

My opinion about the music is irrelevant.

From the wikipedia page - 'In 2019, He was found guilty by a French court of statutory rape of one of his former dancers when she was 15 years old.[8] He was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence in absentia, as he did not attend court in France.'

Wow, l'œuvre d'art dit tout! J'ai d'abord aimé les rythmes pop, puis je me suis ennuyé.

It was the same song 9 times. Giving it a 2 rather than a 1 because at least it was nice background music.