Reviews
Songs of Happiness, Poison & Ululation
Over the last decade, as ageing baby boomers took stock of their past and waxed nostalgic about the pop, soul,...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2011
High Life Time II
For a highlife aficionado, putting on the first disc of this compilation is like being greeted by old friends: Prince...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2011
Nigeria 70: Sweet Times: Afro-Funk, Highlife and Juju From 1970s Lagos
The third edition of Strut's Nigeria 70 series contains another 13 crate-raiding tracks never previously issued outside of Nigeria –...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Debademba
Abdoulaye Traoré & Mohamed Diaby
The collaborative spirit is alive and well on Debademba, an album ostensibly created by two 20-something Paris-based West Africans: guitarist...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Beginners Guide To African Blues
This isn't the place to debate the African origins of the blues. All we really need note is that modern...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Stambeli: The Legacy of the Black Tunisians
The heavy clacking of the qaraqab (iron castanets) and the hypnotising melodies of the gimbri (three-stringed lute) make it easy...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
In the Mood for the Nouba
For serious students of North African music and aficionados of the rarified and demanding canon of Arab– Andalus poetic tradition,...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Alabaraka Mussolu
Jali Fily is a griot (praise-singer) from the Casamance region of southern Senegal: one in a long line of prominent...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
Black Voices Revisited
Released in 1999, two years after the death of Fela Kuti, whose band was fired for so long by Allen's...
Reviewed in issue July/2011
