Ar Puro

The music of Guinea-Bissau – a tiny wedge of mangroves and jungle hidden between the borders of Senegal and Guinea – has produced several gems over the years. Yet the place remains something of a backwater, even for world music audiences, partly because there are no recording studios in the country. Traditionally Guinea-Bissau’s musicians have been forced to record in Lisbon, capital of the former ruling colonial power, which is where Super Mama Djombo, the best band to emerge from the country, cut enough material for five vinyl LPs in a single session in 1980. The group split up in 1986 and drummer Zé Manel emigrated to the US, where he continued to record as a solo artist.

Now SMD have reformed for their first album in 30 years, recorded not in Lisbon but in the surprising environs of Iceland. The result is a pleasing set of 11 songs, in the broad style known as gumbe, a swaying, polyrhythmic dance form, impressively embellished by SMD with ringing guitars, riffing horns and tightly woven harmonies sung in Kriolu. The songs, mostly by Manel and/or bandleader Atchutchi, deal with the social and political problems of the country’s troubled post-colonial history and the translations make for intriguing reading. Manel’s ‘Fe Na Bo’, for example, is an anti-drug song, its message delivered in typical African metaphor: ‘There’s a storm of white powder in the wind/If you quarrel with the sacred tree, where will you perch?’ It’s a highly engaging return, which combines a modern, sophisticated production with the freshness and charm of their original lo-fi recordings.