Reviews
Rough Guide to the Music of the Sahara
The rich river of talent flowing from beneath the sands of West Africa has rather hijacked our perception of music...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
Jaiyede Afro
Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics
Orlando Julius should be much more famous outside his native Nigeria. One of the pioneers of Afrobeat, this is the...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
Trésors de la Musique Judéo-Arabe
Another welcome haul through the treasure trove of Jewish-Arab popular song: in this case, it's 13 tracks, including three released...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
Tzenni
The latest ascending Saharan star comes not from Mali, as you might expect, but from Mauritania. Singer and griot Noura...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
Akal Warled
Mix the hypnotic call-and-response vocals and tinde hand-drums of the Touareg troupe Tartit with the electric guitars, rocking rhythms and...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
Addoh
On this, his debut album, guitarist and singer Oumar Konaté seeks to place himself among the ever-growing pantheon of Mali's...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
African Gems: Recordings by Charles Duvelle, Jos Gansemans, Benoit Quersin & David Fanshawe
SWP Records never fail to surprise, educate and delight with their releases of traditional African field recordings. Their crowning glory...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
Beware the Fetish
The Kinshasa collective's second album is a follow-up to their 2008 debut, uniting the approaches of five ethnic groups. It's...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
Live à L’Étoile
Dexter Johnson & Le Super Star de Dakar
Although born in Nigeria, saxophonist Dexter Johnson was a seminal figure in Senegalese music. He wound up in pre-independence Dakar...
Reviewed in issue June/2026
