“Last Band Standing” from Orchestre Les Mangelepa is Eastside Radio’s Album Of The Week. Les Mangalepa formed in The Congo in the 1970’s, however they found a home and an audience in Nairobi, Kenya and have been writing and recording there ever since. You can see them to this day at their residency at the Nairobi Vibro venue.
This new album encapsulates some of their best-loved material, re-recorded and given a tune up using the current band members. Style wise it spans African rumba, jazz, funk and folk and while there’s certainly touches of that hypnotic Nigerian afrobeat sound it’s NOT a straight afrobeat record by any measure.
In 2016, Les Mangelepa made it our of their home continent after so many years, touring Europe and performing at the Afrika Festival in Hertme, Netherlands. The band have a considerable back catalogue that you can explore at Discogs here. You can find them on Facebook here. The album is out through Strut Records, and we’re pleased as punch to bring you selections from the album all this week on Eastside Radio.