Brothers Johnny, Jesse, Dylan and Danny Kongos make up the aptly named KONGOS. They are sons of celebrated South African singer-songwriter John Kongos, a multi-million selling artist and composer of major local hits. These globe spanning brothers grew up in South Africa and the UK to finally settle in Phoenix, AZ were they currently live and record.
Review:
“I'm Only Joking,” the opening cut from Lunatic, the sophomore outing
from Arizona-by-way-of-South Africa-based indie rockers Kongos, thunders in on a
bedrock of thick, tribal toms and similarly dense, compressed guitar that
suggests Muse by way of Konono No.1. It's an aesthetic that weaves its way
throughout much of the album, and brothers Dylan, Daniel, Jesse, and Johnny
Kongos, the sons of South African singer/songwriter John Kongos (who hit it big
in 1971 with the single “He's Gonna Step on You Again”), generate a huge
sound for a four-piece. The sleek, circular, and piston-like “Come with Me,”
with its relentless, accordion-driven Soweto pulse and slick, falsetto-driven
modern rock flourishes, sounds like Rammstein riffing off of Paul Simon's “Boy
in the Bubble, while the more refined, yet no less danceable "I Want to Know”
dims the lights for a bout of churning, midtempo reggae with electro-pop
tentacles. The worldbeat influences are applied relatively seamlessly
throughout, though each of the 12 tracks are, at their heart, radio-ready slabs
of stylish alt-rock in the vein of Kings of Leon, pre-Kid A-era Radiohead, and
even Coldplay. There's a wan, vaguely Everyman lyricism at work here as well,
which makes some of the slower numbers a bit of a chore, but when the band lets
it rip, as in the case of top-down, desert road jams like “Hey I Don't
Know,” “It's a Good Life,” and the aforementioned “Come with Me,”
Lunatic earns the shifty weight of its unhinged moniker.
All Music Guide – James Christopher Monger