Kikrokos - Jungle D.J.

Check this shit out. I found it awhile ago in my favorite local shop.

A great album with a TERRIBLE cover. When I sampled it in-store, I immediatly thought of Kongas, the latin rhythm-inspired project that was disco maverick Cerrone's first issue. Fantastic propulsive conga beats with great string arrangements throughout made me wonder who or what created this music. I laid my money down, buying it on the spot (a steal for $9.99) and drove home to see what I could find out on the web.

There's not alot out there. This from Discomuseum.com was the most in-depth info I could find.

Kikrokos was your typical disco studio concoction. Just like the girl group sound of the early 1960's, disco was a producer-driven medium. This allowed a producer to release any number of tracks, using any number of studio musicians and singers under any given name. That was what made disco so successful and also helped kill it.

Producer Michel Elmosnino took members of Kongas and various other singers and musicians, among them a yet to be famous Lene Lovich, into Studio Des Dames in Paris and recorded two tracks in 1978. He was aided by Alain Allet and Pierre Sesti, who also co-wrote the tracks. The album was remixed at Trident Studios in London and rushed released. Polydor pressed promotional 12" singles of a "Spectacular Remix By Jim Burgess" and rushed them into the greedy hands of club D.J.'s. "Jungle D.J." shot up the charts, and unlike many disco releases the album also sold well. The album, "Jungle D.J. & Dirty Kate," had a 15:00 version of the title track, a 7:04 reworking (Medley) of the same and the 9:45 "Life Is A Jungle."

The jungle rhythms, high energy arrangements and lush vocals struck a nerve with dancers around the world. But as with most studio concepts it's life span was only for a single release. The dreadful cartoon-ish cover would never have launched anyone's career, but the music inside was just to good to ignore.

Lena would go on to become a premier artist in her own right the following year with the quirky "Lucky Number" while the musicians would go on to record one more album as the Kongas before disbanding. No one knows what happened to Elmosnino, Sesti and Allet. But for one brief moment the elements all came together to produce this classic.

It seems I was right about the Kongas connection. I was also right about one other thing..."the dreadful cartoon-ish cover".

Let's take a closer look, shall we? Here's a closeup of "Dirty Kate".



The cigarettes tucked into her stockings are a nice touch (yikes!), but I wonder what that big poppy is doing in the picture?



Who on earth thought that this would be a good idea? With the "J" missing from the logo on his t-shirt, it makes it look like you're listening to "Uncle D.J." Why would you think putting razor-sharp stubble on a short-shorted "Jungle D.J." would get anyone to purchase this album?

But wait it gets worse. Look at the back cover.



The comic book illustrations only make matters worse. And they're a bit confusing. It's hard to see in the picture, but all the animals are listing the album credits, which MAKE NO SENSE because the people's names are all abreviated into little nicknames written in jokey pigeon/ghetto English.

OUCH!

If you can get past all that, take a listen to the main single, the epic 15 minute long "Jungle D.J." It's a freaking afro-rhythm, konga drum, disco work-out.

You'll Love it!

Enjoy!

Kikrokos - Jungle D.J.