Congotronics is the first US release by Congolese band Konono No. 1, whose 72-year-old bandleader Mawangu Mingiedi grew up in the Bikongo region, some 300 kilometers from

Kinshasa

,

Congo

‘s capital.  As eMusic World/Reggae columnist Richard Gehr writes in a profile of Konono No. 1:

"[Mingiedi] learned the traditional music of the Bikongo people from his parents and grandparents, who played drums and trumpet-like elephant tusks.  Mingiedi learned another traditional instrument, a small bamboo likembé thumb piano.  When he moved to

Kinshasa

“To compensate, Mingiedi built a small wood and wire microphone, which he first connected to a radio speaker before building even larger speakers from scavenged parts.  During the ’60s he recreated the thumb piano out of metal rods and a wooden resonator box that, when picked up by his homemade amplification, created a loud, intriguingly distorted effect.  He augmented his ensemble’s traditional drums with percussive auto parts, but ‘the elephant tusk was out of the question because of laws and other things,’ so he rearranged the tusk tunes for likembé.  His group performed at weddings, funerals, and circumcision ceremonies in

Kinshasa

Other titles placing highly in eMusic’s Best of 2005 poll: the Mercury Prize-winning I Am a Bird Now by

Antony

and the Johnsons (#2), Feels by

New York

Music also conducted a survey of its 100,000-plus users, who named Stevens’ Illinoise their favorite album of 2005.  Other reader favorites included the New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema (#2), the Decemberists’ Picaresque (#3), Spoon’s Gimme Fiction (#4) and Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm (#5).

Complete poll results

eMusic’s Best of 2005 Writer Poll

01 Konono No. 1, Congotronics (Crammed Discs)

02

Antony

& The Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now (Secretly Canadian)

03 Animal Collective, Feels (Fact Cat Records)

04 Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise (Asthmatic Kitty)

05 Hold Steady, Separation Sunday (French Kiss Records)

06 Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree (4AD)

07 Annie, Anniemal (Big Beat)

08 Various Artists, Run the Road (Vice Records)

09 Slits, Cut (KOCH Records)

10 Bettye LaVette, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise (Anti Records)

11 Spoon, Gimme Fiction (Merge Records)

12 New Pornographers, Twin Cinema (Matador Records)

13 Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda)

14 Bobby Bare, The Moon Was Blue (Dualtone)

15 Danger Doom, The Mouse & The Mask (Epitaph)

16 Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (Vice Records)

17 Supersystem, Always Never Again (Touch & Go Records)

18 James Blood Ulmer, Birthright (Hyena Records)

19 Decemberists, Picaresque (Kill Rock Stars)

20 Go-Betweens, Oceans Apart (Yep Roc Records)

21 Eels, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (Vagrant Records)

22 John Doe, Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet (Yep Roc Records)

23 Deerhoof, The Runners Four (5 Rue Christine)

24

Washington

25 Clientele, Strange Geometry (Merge Records)

26 Gang Gang Dance, God’s Money (Social Registry)

27 Of

Montreal

28 Blackalicious, The Craft (Anti Records)

29 Albert Ammons, Hey Piano Man (JSP Records)

30 Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks (Side One Dummy)

31 Lyrics Born, Same!@#$ Different Day (Quannum Projects)

32 Nortec Collective,

Tijuana

33 The National, Alligator (Beggars Banquet)

34 Black Mountain,

Black

Mountain