Samia Malik Live at Norwich Arts Centre

Samia Malik, who is also a visual artist, writes and performs songs in the traditional ghazal (rhyming couplets) format and although ghazals are generally about romance (or unrequited love), Malik subverts this poetic genre to explore contemporary issues of identity, race, gender and displacement through migration. Born to Pakistani parents in Saudi Arabia, she has lived in the UK since childhood and her songs appear to be largely autobiographical written in easy, everyday Urdu, at times peppered with translations in English.

Initially, there appears to be nothing particularly striking as her voice, although pleasant, has a fairly limited range and the songs appear somewhat vapid – at times the hint of a raga, at other times shades of that ubiquitous Bollywood-bhangra combination. But as the album progresses, Malik's poetry is compelling enough to make you stop and listen, not least because her highly original hard-hitting words are carried by Giuliano Modarelli's spellbinding guitar, Sukhdeep Dhanjal's mesmerisingly fluid tabla and Al MacSween's distinctive piano style. All three musicians reach a highpoint on ‘Khailti Hoon – I Play’, intensifying Malik's poetic expression with every note and beat leaving one with the impression of having partaken of some heartfelt social activism that strikes the right chord.