Pierre Kwenders: Influences

This Congolese-Québécois maverick updates classic West African sounds for 21st-century dance floors. Kwenders' love of rapid-fire melodies and relentless bounce can be heard in the joyous, soukous-spiked serenades of Papa Wemba, while in his simmered-down, soulful moments, he locks into the patient, hypnotic grooves of Afrobeat master Fela Kuti. And in cosmic rappers Shabazz Palaces, he finds contemporaries who share his Afrofuturist vision.