Rollerblade Through Kinshasa's Busy Streets In Tshegue's Video For 'The Wheel'
Club Etoile Rollers make Kinshasa their playground in this new music video.
Tshegueare a Parisian-based duo producing haywire rhythms influenced by West & Central African drum patterns and a downright punk approach.
The duo, which is made up of Congolese singer Faty Sy Savanet and French-Cuban producer Nicolas 'Dakou' Dacunha, dropped their debut EP, Survivor, in 2017 and are now following it up with The Wheel—a single release that also features a remix from DJ Marfox.
"The Wheel" blends punctuated bass synth stabs with rapid-fire percussion as Faty Sy Savanet sings: "Just keep your eyes on the road, don't look back." The single is paired with an entrancing black-and-white music video that follows Kinshasa rollerblading group Club Etoile Rollers as they make the city's busy streets their playground.
The director Renaud Barret tells The Fader:
"An ordinary day in Kinshasa. I'm in a taxi on Lumumba boulevard, when suddenly my vehicle is in the middle of this gang of kids slaloming between cars. We exchange "thumbs up" signs of complicity, rolling side by side for a moment. One of them spots my camera bag, comes closer and asks me "Hey sir! Do you wanna shoot something crazy?" I couldn't refuse! This is the magic of a limitless city where each and every day brings incredible spontaneous possibilities."
"Now as I watch the beaming faces of these kids, thrown at full speed on their crumbling rollers, almost out of control, intoxicated by danger and only protected by their faith in good luck; I can only see a metaphor for the Congo's situation. But also a middle finger to a society trying to maintaining an illusion that everything should be controlled, supervised. These free riders remind us that life must be lived in the present. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Now!"
Watch Tshegue's new music video for "The Wheel" below and check out the single and DJ Marfox remix streaming below.