REVIEWSVarious Artists, ‘Tradi-Mods vs. Rockers: Alternative Takes on Congotronics’

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• SPIN Rating:4 of 10

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Release Date: November 9, 2010
Label: Crammed Discs

Belgian label Crammed Discs has spent years marketing the trancey, electrified street music of Kinshasa as raw native truth with their Congotronics series, so it's unclear why they've asked this mostly Anglo crowd of musicians to reinterpret it. Are they exoticizing us or domesticating them? Half of the indie bands and dance producers featured here already play at tribalism (Deerhoof, Animal Collective, Juana Molina, the Boredoms' Eye), and while their contributions are respectable, the irony is that none of them manage to get as far out as they typically do on their own.