Dernier Appel

The singer Tiken Jah Fakoly is next in line to Alpha Blondy on the somewhat specialised Ivory Coast reggae scene, and his album features that elder mentor figure as a guest vocalist on one song. There are two other two guest singers: Patrice and Nneka. Both of them are of German-African descent, via Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This variegation is eminently suited to Fakoly's cross-genre interlocking of reggae and West African sounds.

These sessions were recorded in Bamako, where Fakoly once lived in exile, and in Paris. Drums, bass, guitars and borderline-cheesy keyboards are woven into an acoustic assemblage that includes kora, balafon and tama drum. Fakoly's voice has a well-worn leatheriness and many of his songs are blessed by potent melodies.

The heavy keyboard bass of ‘Le Prix du Paradis’ redeems any taste failures elsewhere, ensuring this is one of the album's best cuts. Blondy joins in on ‘Diaspora’, one of the mellower moments, which speaks a universal pop-reggae language. ‘Tata’ immediately follows it, moving in the other direction with a deeply resonant bass drum and some stuttering underarm tama drumming, making it the most West African-sounding track on the album.