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Reviews

Review of Sawa Sawa

Sawa Sawa

Sawa Sawa

Jinn Records

Rating: ★★

Sawa Sawa (‘all together’ in Sudanese Arabic) is a project that unites artists from across Sudan to make a statement...

Reviewed by Jim Hickson in issue: November/2023

Review of Kora World

Kora World

Maher Cissoko

Ajabu!

Rating: ★★★★

Best-known for a series of fine albums as a duo with his kora-playing Swedish wife Sousou, on this fine solo...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: November/2023

Review of Mapendo

Mapendo

The Mighty Cavaliers

Want Some Records

Rating: ★★★★

50 years ago, the Starlight Club in Nairobi was one of the hottest nightspots in East Africa, a venue that...

Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: November/2023

Review of Baiana

Baiana

Baiana

Absolute Label Services

Rating: ★★

Liverpudlian Laura Doyle certainly fooled this particular Anglophone. Hearing the opening ‘Samba Mortal’, upbeat carnival music sung convincingly in Portuguese,...

Reviewed by Mark Sampson in issue: November/2023

Review of Inventor Vol 1

Inventor Vol 1

DJ Znobia

Nyege Nyege Tapes

Rating: ★★★

Born in Luanda’s Barrio do Rangel, DJ Znobia began experimenting with audio production tool FruityLoops in the early 90s, mixing...

Reviewed by Olivia Cheves in issue: November/2023

Review of Leon Keïta

Leon Keïta

Leon Keïta

Analog Africa

Rating: ★★★★

Born in Conakry, Guinea, guitarist Leon Keïta eventually became a significant figure on the Malian scene, helping to form the...

Reviewed by Martin Longley in issue: November/2023

Review of Off the Grid

Off the Grid

Onipa

Top of the World

Real World Records

Rating: ★★★★

‘The word [Onipa] means ‘human’ in Akan, the ancient language of the Ashanti people of Ghana,’ frontman Kweku Sackey (aka...

Reviewed by Max Reinhardt in issue: November/2023

Review of Viral Wreckage

Viral Wreckage

Aunty Rayzor

Hakuna Kulala

Rating: ★★★

Bisola Olungbenga has all the makings of a new Nigerian star. Trading under the memorable name of Aunty Rayzor, she...

Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: November/2023

Review of Traverse

Traverse

Laura Risk, Nicholas Williams & Rachel Aucoin

Laura Risk

Rating: ★★★★

Californian Laura Risk now resides in Montreal and has been playing Québécois fiddle for decades. Traverse is her first solo...

Reviewed by Glenn Kimpton in issue: October/2023

Review of Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid's Dying Years

Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid's Dying Years

VARIOUS ARTISTS

BBE Africa

Rating: ★★★

Mzansi is a Xhosa word meaning south and in the 1980s became shorthand slang in the townships for South Africa...

Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: October/2023

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