Walimizi

Mayotte is a little island and French overseas department situated in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar where the local music, mahoraise, is played on instruments that include the guitar-like gabussi, zither-like dzendze and the m’kayamba shaker. Sarera, a band which includes traditional instrument-maker Foundi Colo Assani, are specialists in the style, and at a festival on the island last year they played alongside Dom Peter, a French enthusiast for African electronica who heads up the Blanc Manioc label.

I would like to have heard them live, but the resulting album is a disappointment, because the acoustic mahoraise is largely swamped out. It can be heard for a full 80 seconds at the start of the opening track, ‘Tseki’, before the dub effects, synth and basslines take over. The second track, ‘Tsindzaka’, starts with thumping bass, though some traditional Mayotte chanting can eventually be heard, while the third track, ‘Laisse Moi Danser’, allows some stirring singing, zither and guitar playing before the inevitable arrival of the throbbing effects and dub. The rest of the album is taken up with remixes. Blanc Manioc may love electronic music, but should at least release some original recordings alongside all the fusion.