Soukous

Soukous (from French secouer, "to shake") is a popular genre of African music from the Congo Basin. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s and gained popularity in the 1980s in France. Although often used by journalists as a synonym for Congolese rumba, both the music and dance currently associated with soukous differ from more traditional rumba, especially in its higher tempo, longer dance sequences. Notable performers of the genre include Tabu Ley Rochereau, Papa Wemba and Diblo Dibala.

Links To Peel
Peel was attracted to the music of soukous in the 80's through the work of Stern and other World Music labels including those from France, where soukous was gaining popularity. Tabu Ley Rochereau, one of the pioneers of the genre was one of the few soukous artists played by Peel in the early 80's. Kanda Bongo Man, a Paris-based artist, who was influenced by Tabu Ley Rochereau followed suit and pioneered fast, short tracks such as the kwassa kwassa after the dance move popularised by him and other artists. His music appealed to Peel and he invited the musician to do two sessions for his show, one in 1993 and the other 2002.

Another soukous artist that also followed the trend of kwassa kwassa was Diblo Dibala, who Peel described as the greatest guitarist in the world. So impressed with the guitarist that Peel and Andy Kershaw raced to Stern's African record shop after hearing that the artist would be there to get an autograph. Dibala repaid the compliment by giving name checks to both of them on the track 'Matchatcha Wetu.'

Artists like Tabu Ley Rochereau, Kanda Bongo Man and Diblo Dibala all originated from Zaire (now called Democratic Republic Of Congo) and dominated the soukous music with other musicians, but Peel did not only play soukous music from the Congo, he also played many from outside the country including one that was American based called Maloko, who did a cover of Wilson Pickett's In The Midnight Hour, which Peel described as one of the greatest covers he's heard. The track was later added to his Peelenium 1989. Other types of Soukous music played by Peel included Zouk style, which characteristically was fast paced and was popularised by Caribbean French Antilles artist Kassav, whose self titled album was later found in Peel's Record Collection: K.

Despite Peel's enthusiasm for soukous music, none of its records ever got entries in his end of year Festive Fifty, nominated by his listeners, although other types of African music from Zambia and Zimbabwe did. Nonetheless Peel did nominate some soukous records in his Peelenium.