Virunga - Feet on Fire (1991)

Virunga is the vehicle for Samba Mapangala's exuberant-ass vocals, but the really important part this record is the interplay between the two guitars. These breaks will make any student of counterpoint absolutely green with envy. See 3:15 and on in Sungura. Notice the slight variations on the melody that foreshadow the the shift at 4:18. Tasteful, subtle tricks that connect parts of a song are music's unsung heroes.

Now let's talk about the best example: Jaffar. Here is a peek into what I'm thinking starting at at 4:02. Hey this is a rad little riff, but I'm really focusing on the lower counterpoint. Oh shit, it all just dropped into a fucking perfect groove, but now this next variation is even more perfect fuck they just returned to the original I've never been so happy to be listening to anything in my entire life. So, in order to demonstrate their hugely swollen and powerful brains, dudes somehow made the first riff approximately ten million times more interesting than when it first showed up as that lower counterpoint.

I'm only one chapter into my counterpoint book, so I can't really offer too much explanation of exactly what's going on other than to say that the interplay between these two guitar players is like a dolphin riding a unicorn: beautiful and majestic in every imaginable way.

I'm going to be in New York for a second, so no updates until I'm back at the end of the week.

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