MUSIC

This is because "Congotronics" offers a one-of-a-kind meld of distortion and feedback atop a frenetic and powerful rhythm.

Using three electrified thumb pianos called likembes, shrieking whistles, and percussion instruments and microphones made from car parts, the combo feed their sounds through amps powered by car batteries and "voice throwers": huge megaphones on poles.

Tuesday evening at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, Konono No. 1 was not cacophonous, but instead a potent African dance band.

With one megaphone broken by an airline, the other blown out earlier in the tour, and the handmade amps and mikes at home, these rural transplants to the working-class suburbs of Kinshasa sounded more conventional with Western sound equipment.

Conventional, however, is a relative term. This multigenerational unit still featured sonics created partly by a cowbell that resembled a whirligig, a rough-edged lone cymbal and the metal-keyed bass, medium, and treble likembes.

But with the chanted call-and-response lyrics of vocalists Waku Menga and Pauline Mbuka Nsiala emanating more clearly than the voices on disc and the likembes low in the mix, Konono were almost folkloric.

A traditional Congolese band can still move hips, and Konono generated an hour of polyrhythmic grooves.

While there is not much variation in the arrangements, the rapid pinging, banging and plucking on cuts such as "Masikulu" and "Kule Kule" was still entrancing.

Menga offered a bit of blare on the whistle, and happily shimmied through most of the set. Perhaps intimidated by the ushers and the velvet-carpeted decor, the staid audience settled for vigorous head-nodding.

-- Steve Kiviat