The Comedy of Errors: Fede Lawu and Matchatcha - Toulouboule (16 May 1992)

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I always felt sorriest for soukous fans who only had access to John Peel through his European shows. On a couple of the shows that I heard from stations like O3 in Austria or BFBS, Peel would usually announce either a soukous or reggae track as the final one of a show, bid his audience goodbye either until next week or next month and the record would play for a minute or so before being faded out into the news or a European timecheck.  There was nothing Peel could do about this of course.  He would record the programmes either in London or at Peel Acres before sending the shows off in good faith.  However, to judge by his statements about Matchatcha for his Nachtexpress show on 6 April 1992, he might not have been totally uneasy about this state of affairs.  Matchatcha were Diblo Dibala’s latest band.  Although Peel’s admiration for Dibala’s musicianship was boundless, he nonetheless found Matchatcha to be a little too slick at times compared to Dibala’s previous band, Loketo.  For him, synthesisers on a soukous record diluted its effectiveness, as well as dating it.

For all that, Peel still found space on his playlists for Matchatcha - brilliance will out after all and with not only Dibala but Freddy de Majunga in their ranks, there was plenty of brilliance to go around.  His Radio 1 audience got to hear the track in full, 27 years ago today.  The album, Souci, was “lent to the programme and to you, by the William Melling Archive”. It’s my favourite soukous track out of those I’ve heard Peel play since the start of The Comedy of Errors rehearsals.

Video courtesy of AfricanSounds