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Event Details
Holocene is proud to partner with Soul'd Out Productions to bring you: KOKOKO!
“KOKOKO! excel at turning chaos into euphoria” Pitchfork
“Get to know the soundtrack of Kinshasa, a powerful protest project... KOKOKO!” i-D
“Energetic and explosive... inspiring a thriving alternative dance” TED Global “KOKOKO! is an explosive new musical collective that thrives on ingenuity” TIME “This is more than survival. This is genius” AFROPUNK
KOKOKO! Exploded onto the electronic music scene in 2018 and quickly rewrote the usual western narrative of what electronic music is and, more importantly, what “world music” isn't. The band's colourful approach, wild, uncontrollable sounds and instruments rapidly tore up any perception, pre-condition and performance of an African band of the past.
KOKOKO! created the DIY instrument spectacle that has since forged a path for other bands to follow, meanwhile KOKOKO! have become more electronic and percussive, they focus on the nighttime atmospheres of Kinshasa - filled with energy and everything from the equipment to the sound system pushed to their limit. With amps smoking, wires melting, and the crowd losing it. It's a huge truck coming forward at you..this is the new KOKOKO! sound. Represented on stage and on record by the duo of Makara Bianko and Débruit.
A wind of change continues to blow over the cultural landscape of Kinshasa. The wind has landed here in the west and is now fermenting and morphing into a spectacular cauldron of sound and performance. An amazing alternative scene has now been exported from DRC, and it is morphing... It is explosive and vibrant.
The band was born in Kinshasa when Makara Bianko, Débruit and a group of musicians from the Ngwaka neighbourhood met. They rehearsed and recorded together in a self-made studio made of material gathered around. After one month of playing and creating new sounds, they improvised a block party on a building site of the Kato street ghetto that would be the 1st performance of KOKOKO! And would define the collective that also includes art performers and dancers.
Supported by Pitchfork, TIME, i-D, BBC6, Afropunk and featured at TED’s TEDGlobal 2017 conference or Resident Advisor’s live videos, KOKOKO! is the DIY collective pioneering an inspiring alternative scene from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their introductory video amassed over 2 million views
across various platforms, and their hypnotic debut EP, TOKOLIANA, found favour in Resident Advisor, Bandcamp Daily, and BBC Radio 1.
with local support from YAWA (aka Amenta Abioto)!
