Reviews
My Vote Dey Count
Yaaba Funk are very much a London band: British and European, black and white, mixed-gender and politically engaged but intent...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
Kenya: The Obokano, Lyre of the Gusii
The area of north-east Africa, between the Nile and the Indian Ocean, is a heartland of lyres - from the...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
Lovely Difficult
Is it world music? Is it pop? It’s hard to be sure. Sung in French, English, Creole and Portuguese, recorded...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
Libation
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
A decade after overseeing the sessions for the band’s debut album and supervising the music for the documentary that first...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
The Rough Guide to the Music of Mali
So, just how does one represent a musical powerhouse of a nation such as Mali in just one CD? Well,...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
Radio Niger
This not the typical Songlines album – for one thing there’s no listing of some of the often brilliant artists...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
Cape Jazz Series Vol 4: Musical Democracy
It would be crass to call the Cape Jazz Band ‘South Africa’s Buena Vista Social Club.’ But somebody’s got to...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
Soô
Perhaps it was recording 2012’s Brothers in Bamako with the American bluesman Eric Bibb that persuaded Habib Koité it was...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
A Long Way to the Beginning
From the moment that the pounding album opener ‘IMF’ kicks in, it is clear that Seun Kuti has not only...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
Toumani & Sidiki
Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté
The kora is an age-old instrument, rich in history, yet its promotion as a solo instrument is relatively recent. This...
Reviewed in issue June/2014
