Lambi Golo

The decade that has lapsed since TourÉ Kunda's 2008 album Santhiaba had led this reviewer to fear that the Senegalese pioneers – whose 80s hit Emma' was a memorable early world music landmark – were no more. Happily, the brothers Ismael and Sixu TourÉ are not only still around but on Lambi Golo have fashioned their best album in perhaps 30 years. After moving to Paris from Casamance in the late 70s, the three brothers TourÉ (the group originally included elder brother Amadou, who died in 1985) were in the vanguard of the popularisation of African music, playing a synth-driven form of mbalax, which by the 90s had begun to sound tired and past its sell-by date. Recorded in ‘village studio conditions’ (whatever that means), their renaissance owes much to a rootsier sound and some heavyweight guests lending musical ballast to their trademark harmony vocals. Manu Dibango defies his 84 years to blow some ineffably cool sax on the opener ‘Demaro’; Carlos Santana adds stinging guitar licks to a salsa-fied version of ‘Emma’; and the soulful voice of the Congolese singer-songwriter Lokua Kanza graces the lovely ‘Soif de LibertÉ’. Lambi Golo is an unexpectedly delightful comeback.