Punk Islands

For Indian Ocean music aficionados, M’Toro Chamou of Mayotte is no new kid on the block. Since 1998, we have become familiar with his urban music that mirrors his island's difficult heritage of slavery, defiance and submission, much in the same vein as fellow standout vocalists Baco and Mikidache. Yet Chamou's fifth solo album is something of a revelation: the guitarist-singer leaves behind his trademark fusion of rap and guitar-drenched pop for a hauntingly driven, more folksy style. It mixes his region's tradition of m’godro rhythms and vibrant backup vocals with Western and Afro-pop guitar-playing that ranges from searing rock to soothing acoustic. M’godro is this small island's version of Malagasy salegy, and the trademark jangling guitars on these ten tracks never lose their nervous edge while the album sails to relatively unexplored frontiers.

Chamou's powerful voice, meanwhile, continues to sing his vision of island disarray, anger and desolation while admonishing the new generation not to forget where they come from. The title unabashedly harks back to the 1970s punk movement, denouncing a France-imposed system in all its neo-colonialist globality. Chamou's use of the plural for islands is a political act in itself, linking the Comoros nation with its former fourth island Mayotte, torn away by the French in 1975 – an act that remains a constant heartache for all the populations concerned.