Franck Biyong - Trouble '2020

Tracks list

A FANTASTIC AFRO BRAZILIAN FUTURISTIC FUNK ANTHEM!
After a few other successful projects, Franck Biyong, the French-Cameroonian
Afro-Beat composer, guitar player and singer is back on Hot Casa with a
futuristic Afro-Brazilian club anthem.
The similarities and filiations between traditional West African drumming and
Afro-Brazilian religious musical rites such as the Candomblé are many: under
colonial rule African people and African slaves outwardly practiced Christianity
but secretly prayed to their own God, Gods, or Ancestor spirits. So we aimed at
keeping
the gritty urban menacing sound and poetry of Afrobeat with the percussive mass
rumble of Batucada with the poignant beauty of Carioca. We then got in touch
Cristina Violle, the first lady of “Samba de Roda” in Paris who
graced us with a startling inspired and heartfelt melody to address the same
issues of hope, resilience, courage and humility; the people who live in
Africa’s shanty towns of Brazil’s favelas again have in common a
shared living experience. The first completed version of the song then briefly
went on alternative radio, we also made plans to release a 12” vinyl
version of it, but for one way or another the vibe wasn’t right, things
weren’t really happening and we shelved the project, without thinking we
would get back to it again...until a
few months ago.
We went back to the studio last summer and started ironing the song again from
scratch. That same initial
spirit and energy caught hold of us again from the day we started and, like for
Francis Bebey’s “New Track” in 1982 or King Sunny
Ade’s “Syncro System” in 1983 who were recorded in Paris over
35 years ago, we worked
relentlessly to create a balanced but experimental track showcasing rootsy
sound, pop instrumentation, tight
world beat drumming, song structure, jazzy horns, spacey synthesizers,
choral-like vocal harmonies with call
and response figurative vocals. The recent “explosion of the African
arts” as Fela Kuti had prophesized it has blossomed into a worldwide
celebration of race, identity and empowerment; it demonstrates that these very
turbulent political and social times we’re living will encourage young
and older people to seek for more cultural knowledge and make them realize that
the layer of the African cultural existence is fundamental, and more importantly
globally accepted. African cultures smashed through deserts, across routes,
traveled borders disregarding modern day notions of geography and race for
centuries; today they are varied and diverse,
yet a common thread latches these identities into one family; an infinitely
large network of ‘life forces’.
We now proudly present this brand new record; just like the sightseeing you have
while strolling through
the streets of Paris nowadays, it may seem raggedy and raw at first but
underneath the surface, there is an underlying tension and complexity that
mirrors the contradictions and issues of this society trapped in a
labyrinth of identity crisis: against race and class antagonism as well as
immigration versus citizenship debate.
Much of the same could be pointed out about other multi-racial societies such as
the present day Brazilian one;
But ultimately, artists and the civil society will have to keep on seeking for
innovative ways to reinvent social
discourse and use whichever tool they may have at their disposal to address the
ills of a society doomed to
progress and evolve or grow gradually impoverished. Like our predecessors years
ago, we subconsciously did
our best to keep alive a longtime tradition of cultural tradition of African
Artistic Renaissance, pushing further musical themes of contemporary African
sound. To be continued... 

Tracklist:
01. Franck Biyong - Anywhere Trouble (Club Mix) (6:05)
02. Franck Biyong - Trouble (Beats) (3:40)
03. Franck Biyong - Anywhere Trouble (Radio Edit) (3:58)
04. Franck Biyong - Anywhere Trouble (Instrumental) (5:23)

Related artists