Reviews | Songlines

Reviews

Review of Gossip

Gossip

Khaira Arby

Clermont Music

Rating: ★★★

This is veteran Malian singer Khaira Arby's first album in five years, recorded in 2010 and 2012 in various parts...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Review of Highlife on the Move: Selected Nigerian & Ghanaian Recordings from London & Lagos 1954-66

Highlife on the Move: Selected Nigerian & Ghanaian Recordings from London & Lagos 1954-66

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Soundway Records

Rating: ★★★★★

This double-CD set captures the ‘colonial’-influenced dance music of Anglophone West Africa, from shortly before and after Ghanaian and Nigerian...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Review of Zomba Prison Project: I Have No Everything Here

Zomba Prison Project: I Have No Everything Here

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Six Degrees

Rating: ★★★

In 2013, producer Ian Brennan clandestinely documented the music found inside Zomba's maximum security institution in Malawi. Some of the...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Review of Ballads & Blasphemy: The Religious Gospel of Adebola Kuku

Ballads & Blasphemy: The Religious Gospel of Adebola Kuku

Kuku

Buda Musique

Rating: ★★★

Nigerian singer-songwriter Kuku has an interesting heritage. Born Adebola Kuku in the US and raised in Lagos, he now resides...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Review of Ba Power

Ba Power

Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni ba

Top of the World

Glitterbeat

Rating: ★★★★★

Over the last few years, Bassekou Kouyaté has revolutionised the gutbucket sound of the ancient West African banjo known as...

Reviewed in issue June/2015

Review of Joa

Joa

Coco Mbassi

Conserprod

Rating: ★★★

Coco Mbassi is a versatile and highly accomplished Paris-based female singer from Cameroon. She has recorded and performed live as...

Reviewed in issue Apr/May/2015

Review of Agbara Orin

Agbara Orin

No Go Stop

Bristol Afrobeat Records

Rating: ★★★

No Go Stop are a 12-piece Afrobeat ensemble that emerged from a jazz musicians’ collective in Bristol. They perform original...

Reviewed in issue Apr/May/2015

Review of Next Stop Soweto Vol 4: Zulu Rock, Afro-Disco and Mbaqanga 1975-1985

Next Stop Soweto Vol 4: Zulu Rock, Afro-Disco and Mbaqanga 1975-1985

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Strut Records

Rating: ★★★★

The years between 1975 and 1985 marked the violent beginning of the end for the apartheid era. Mandela was still...

Reviewed in issue Apr/May/2015

Review of Feedback Madagascar

Feedback Madagascar

VARIOUS ARTISTS

ARC Music

Rating: ★★

Madagascar's status as a biodiversity hotspot under threat is well known, so this compilation – the proceeds of which will...

Reviewed in issue Apr/May/2015

Review of Africa Express Presents… Terry Riley's in C Mali

Africa Express Presents… Terry Riley's in C Mali

Various Artists

Top of the World

Transgressive Records

Rating: ★★★★

Half a century ago, the American minimalist composer Terry Riley gave the world premiere of his composition In C, an...

Reviewed in issue Apr/May/2015

Subscribe from only £7.50

Start your journey and discover the very best music from around the world.

Subscribe

View the Current
Issue

Take a peek inside the latest issue of Songlines magazine.

Find out more