Reviews
Benin – Yoruba Music
This is a double CD of field recordings made in 1958, 1969 and between 1996 and 1999, lavishly pre¬sented like...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
Stockholm-Dakar
To get the back¬story out of the way first: Sousou and Maher Cissoko grew up on two different continents –...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
Gakondo
This is the fifth album from Canada-based Jacques ‘Popo’ Muri-gande, a singer and guitarist from Rwanda born in a Burundian...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
Skyscrapers & Deities
There have been plenty of well-meaning summit meetings over the years between West African and European musicians, partnerships that have...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
The Koka Koka Sex Battalion – Music from Tanzania 1975-1980
It's gratifying to know that some record labels are still able to recognise the value of compilations of vintage, previously...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
Guitars From Agadez Vol 3
When Tinariwen stormed the citadel of the mainstream music industry, a wave of guitar-toting Touaregs followed in their wake, picking...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
Contreband Mentality
Les Frères are a 14-strong Paris-based Afro-beat collective who, for some bizarre reason, all take the same surname in the...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
The Kankobela of the Batonga Volume 2
The kankobela is a smaller version of the more well-known mbira (thumb piano) of Zimbabwe’s Shona people. The people of...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
Noise & Chill Out – Ethiopian Groove Worldwide
The ‘Ethiopianisation’ of certain bands and their music is a curious, unpredicted scenario. Even sou-kous in its 80s peak didn’t...
Reviewed in issue March/2012
