Montreal’s Moonshine Collective proudly shares their latest album, SMS For Location, Vol. 4, out today in partnership with FORESEEN Entertainment. A massive collection of songs recorded in studios from Montreal to Lisbon to Kinshasa, the album features collaborations with Georgia Anne Muldrow, Sango, Florentino, Ase Manuel, Nate Husser, Kri$ The Spirit, and more.
The album arrives with a new video for Tibo Tisipa, from renowned Kinshasa director, King Christ. In this collaboration with MC RedBul, one of Kinshasa’s most prominent atalakus (a style of emceeing signature to Congo), Moonshine deliver a new dancefloor anthem following his hit song, Vacuum.Tibo Tisipa is about a character often to be seen in local nightclubs, a young man who sells his family estate and spends it in drinks and partying, the “Tibo Tisipa.” MC RedBul shines again with his acute sense of social caricature and mysterious nature. Watch Tibo Tisipa here.
Ahead of the album’s announcement, the collective released lead singles, Ginseng, featuring Bamao Yendé and Malembe, featuring Boddhi Satva, Polaris Music Prize and JUNO Award-nominated, Pierre Kwenders and MC RedBul. The album’s announcement came alongside singles, Onward, featuring. Sango & Georgia Anne Muldrow and Lelo, featuring Sarah Kalume & Uproot Andy.
In April, the collective shared singles, Ginseng and Malembe. On Ginseng, Bamao Yendé, a champion of marginalized musical styles with African roots, weaves a soulful sax melody through a UK garage-meets-batida beat. Malembe is the first collaboration between friends Pierre Kwenders and Boddhi Satva who craft a lithe melody that rapidly explodes with heavy bass and commanding vocals. Dropping MC RedBul’s energetic, booming voice into the mix alongside Kwenders’ lyrical resonance turns Malembe into a multi-layered musical conversation fit for pulsing dancefloors.
The visual for Ginseng (Zaïre Space Program | Act I) was filmed with Congolese artist collective FARATA in a township of Kinshasa, and directed by award-winning Congolese director Nizar Saleh Mohamed, with co-direction by Moonshine’s Pierre Kwenders and Hervé “Coltan” Kalongo.
Onward unifies cultures and musical styles with its soulful circular melodies, Brazilian funk samples and exhilarating, profound vocals. A paean to strength and resilience, the track juxtaposes Georgia’s smooth contralto against Sango’s clangorous, rumbling production. It’s as if her voice is the human spirit, and his beats are life itself, with all its roughness, obstacles, and beauty. On Lelo, Brooklyn/Toronto-based Moonshine favourite and Que Bajo party co-founder, Uproot Andy, layers Congolese artist Sarah Kalume’s Swahili and French vocals into the sound of his Global Bass movement signature, replete with uplifting melodic synths and balmy steel drum rhythms.
From deep underground in Montreal to under the Congo sun, the Moonshine party is back with its Afro-futuristic, bass-heavy, electro-funk sound. As respected curators of Pan-African music from across the diasporas, Moonshine’s latest SMS for Location album fuses levity and acumen, inventive electronic production with traditional instrumentation, all the while intensifying a collaboration between artists from around the world. SMS for Location, Vol. 4 crosses genres and continents to follow the producers, DJs and MCs from Montreal’s legendary Moonshine parties to underground UK clubs, Parisian Afro-beat soirées to Kinshasa’s booming electronic scene.
Earlier this year, Boiler Room’s Collective TV broadcasted live from Kinshasa, with atmospheric sets by the collective’s co-founder Pierre Kwenders, Congolese band, Kingongolo Kiniata, Congolese Montrealer AKAntu, and more artists. Stay tuned for more Moonshine as the phases wax and wane in the months ahead and learn more about the collective below.
