Pandiyé

The daughter of the lead singer of the highly revered and innovative band Ziskakan, vocalist Maya Kamaty put forward her own cheery, soul-tinged take on the maloya of La Réunion in her debut album, Santié Papang, four years ago. She now takes a new direction in her follow-up, Pandiyé. Acoustic and bass guitars are replaced with electronic synths as the driving musical force, and though the more traditional maloya instruments remain – kayamb, roulèr, ngoni and gimbri – they largely add atmosphere and flourish to what is, at heart and in structure, an electro-pop album. The best tracks are those which, like ‘Varkala’, are built on more intricate riffs and drum patterns, adding a welcome skip of syncopation to the tunes, or like ‘Takambé’, where the production holds back enough to spotlight the soothing and searing intricacies of Kamaty's voice. Otherwise, it tends to get lost in the anthemic moments of big build-ups and fuzzy drops, which feel like they come ready-made from the EDM handbook. And aside from moments when the maloya and Indian percussion finally kick in, there's hardly a kick-drum or snare in the whole album that lands anywhere you wouldn't lazily expect it.