When Coco Ngambali and Theo Nsituvuidi departed Kinshasan street band Staff Benda Bilili to explore new directions in African music, the duo tapped drummer Cubain Kabeya and several local youths to forge a studio extravaganza befitting Congolese diversity. Mbongwana Star’s riotous debut runs soukous riffs through rumba melodies, chasing fiery Afrobeat (“Nganshé”) with the gentlest of guitar reveries (“Coco Blues”) and percussion-heavy funkified rumba (“1 Million C'est Quoi?”), unleashing a modernised sub-Saharan sound both unapologetically urban and fearlessly groovy.