Music is the closest thing we have to a universal language. Sound doesn’t submit to border checks or controls. It can be a peace maker, ice breaker, battering ram a bargaining tool. It can be the key to survival or a ticket to ride.

So it was with Seke Molenga and Kala Kawongolo who travelled to Kingston from then Zaire with not a penny to their name nor a word of English, but with a bunch of songs in their hearts in 1977. (Legend has it they were lured to Jamaica by a promoter who then left the musicians to fend for themselves.) Their hard luck story took a dramatic turn for the better when Lee Scratch Perry invited them to the shelter of his Black Ark studio. They played him their songs and the seeds of a most unusual, spontaneous and fruitful collaboration were sown.

Along with their guitar and vocal skills the Congolese pair were dab hands on the horns. Most impressive of all was their percussive abilities, a factor that endeared them to their drum-loving host. Perry had a reputation for eccentric and unconventional approaches to recording and was known to count on mystical invocations to guide him. He took the arrival of Molenga and Kawongolo as a sign from Jah that he should reconnect with his African roots. The result is a buoyant and joyous sounding record unique to Perry’s canon.

This is the original crossover sound. Tribal grooves coagulate in a thick swirl beneath trademark Black Ark basslines. The two cultures connect in electrifying ways. The reggae beat thrives in a more ancient setting. The songs are sung with gusto in Lingala. There’s an exuberant spirit to proceedings. This record is a document to what happens when fate intervenes and fetches victory from the clutches of defeat. There is blood and there is fire.