Words by Justin Turford
The endlessly great Swiss label Bongo Joe is ten whole years old although it definitely feels longer due to their increasingly prolific release schedule. A record label, shop, venue and festival, the label was founded in Geneva by Vincent Bertholet (more on him later) and Cyril Yeterian, a local musician who’s undefinable duo Cyril Cyril have a suitably oddball track on this compilation as does his “north-east African western punk pop band” Yalla Miku. Yeterian’s own musical life first tasted success as accordionist-singer with the Cajun zydeco trio Mama Rosin, a Swiss band in thrall to authentic-sounding Bayou music that managed a slot on the BBC’s Jools Holland show and toured widely. This love of genuine roots music with an irreverent, independent spirit and his Lebanese-Armenian heritage surely colours and inspires his sharpshooter A&R chops, recognising original voices that need recording and elevating overlooked artists from wherever.
With nearly 150 releases under the bridge, it is the team not just the founders who put the sweat in. A team that has put a city not previously known globally as a ‘music city’ on the map, a group of independently-minded art-lovers who have done wonders for their artists and frankly, for their ever-growing audience. An audience who waits for the latest surprise from the label. What is there to learn now?
BJ Team 2023 - Cyril Yeterian on right (Photo by Niels Ackermann)
One thing about Bongo Joe is that they love bands. Bands who play instruments, sing, write songs. Not any old bands though. Their own Geneva scene aesthetic of multicultural-post-punk-funky weird shit refracts and reflects through plenty of their roster be they from Algeria, Indonesia, Colombia or nearer to home.
The Mad Daddy of the global tropical scene Eblis Alvarez is present, supplying an absolute whopper of a tune under his Meridian Brothers guise, resembling a Sufi Carl Craig whipping it up on a pico soundsystem, all on-the-one claps and buzzsaw synth (I’ve invented a special dance for it if anyone’s interested). The first record I discovered on the label was the majestic version of Gülden Karaböcek’s ‘Nem Kaldı’ by the ace Turkish outfit Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, Derya’s haunting vocals and the revived atmosphere of 70s Istanbul have remained a constant in my life ever since. Luckily for you, it’s included here in all of its drama.
The label also love a great compilation and have released some significant collections over the decade including a wild ambient comp and another synth wave / post-punk selection from the burgeoning underground of post-Francoist Spain - check out the industrial splendour of ‘Moscú Está Helado’ by Madrid’s Esplendor Geometrico’s as an example. A fine collection from Sao Tomé & Principe led to two anthologies of one of the islands’ most beloved bands, Africa Negra, and a revelatory overview of the Synth Raï, Chaoui and Staifi scene of the North African diaspora in Lyons lends a standout track from Nordine Staifi, the mutant funk of ‘Zine Ezzinet’ a straight up classic in the mould of Talking Heads or any of the best no-wave outfits. The acclaimed Mexican DJ and broadcaster Coco Maria has also curated two fine volumes focussed on the contemporary Afro-Latino diaspora and one of her own tunes is included here, the tripped out jazz-dancer ‘Me Veo Volar’.
Another favourite of mine from the roster, the alien dancehall outfit Amami, get a drop with one of their less abrasive tunes, ‘Ivory’. Their post-punk, airhorn dub energy shares a kinship with Mauskovic Dance Band albeit with a more pronounced South American flavour, the Dutch outfit’s ‘Bukaroo Bank’ channelling early 80s tropical-punk and funky cumbia with a modern twist.
That ‘punk’ attitude is a vein that connects many of the label’s releases. A perspective on the world that allows room for the Turkish grooviness of Altin Gün, the East Asian disco-funky YĪN YĪN (both Amsterdam-based bands that have gained significant success), the untamed big band ensemble Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp (a 12 piece band led by krautrockers Hyperculte’s Vincent Bertholet, co-founder of the label and I suspect the conduit for the more gnarly acts on the books) or the psychedelic voodoo-dub-trance fireworks of the Haitian/Belgian outfit Chouk Bwa & The Ångstromers.
YĪN YĪN ‘The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers’ (2019)
What’s wild is that they could have chosen an entirely different set of songs to represent their decade of operation such is the diversity and the amount of releases. Unhinged Azerbaijani guitar music from Rəhman Məmmədli, the spiritual bamboo flute of Martinique’s Max Cilla, the São Tomé legend Pedro Lima or the narcotic dream-pop of Leoni Leoni all deserve a spotlight but as they say in the press release…
“This compilation isn’t a summary. It’s not a best of. It’s a trace. A selection among many possible ones.”
What is included, however, straddles their catalogue with swagger. The late, great Alain Péters’ individualistic, painterly take on maloya, the shuffling bow and percussion genre from the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, opens this collection as though it were a ritualistic burning of sage. We have pure joy from the Malawian duo Madalitso Band’s first album for the label, heavy psyche from Algeria’s Amazigh revolution rockers Les Abranis and the 21st Century raï and chaâbi of Sami Galbi, the Swiss-Moroccan solo artist hitting with heavyweight bass frequencies and intensely auto-tuned vocals.
There’s plenty more that hasn’t been mentioned on this compilation that might become your favourite new band or song sometime soon but until then, let’s toast a record label that has broadened the ears and minds of all who have encountered it. Passionate and with a non-exploitative international outlook, Les Disques Bongo Joe proves that the DIY approach still rings true in these shaky times and that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, it’s what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. 10/10th Birthday Candles.