"...Pushed by a lot of energy, the new Angolan music had in that period an incredible development. In the musseques, the sand subburbs of Luanda, in Sambizanga, Marçal, Bairro Operaio e Sao Paulo, local genres like semba and rebita, already contaminated by the Portuguese melancholy of the fado, would mix up with the sounds of the Brazilian samba, with the Congolese rumba and rock. They were young urban bands like Kiezos, the Gingas, the Jovens do Prendo, the Ngoleiros do Ritmo and Bongos. Although most of this music incarnated the fever of the Angolans for independence, for some strange reason its rise was favoured by the paternal politics of the despot.
It was on this scene that artists like Teta Lando, Artur Nunes, Bonga, Urbano De Castro, Oscar Neves, Avozinho, Minguito and many other heroes of Angolan music exploded. They compose the wonderful mosaic of the double CD Soul of Angola – anthologies de la musique angolaise 1965-1975, released by French Lusafrica in 2001. There are no words to describe the vitality, the flow, the joy and the melancholy of the voices and electric guitars of this music which vividly talks about a dream never came true and of ideals destined to disillusion for a long time." T.P. Africa
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