Reviews

Aado

Kadialy Kouyaté

According to the old Lovin’ Spoonful song, there’s 1,352 guitar pickers in Nashville – a number that is surely dwarfed...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

Shanu

Monoswezi

Fifth album from Monoswezi’s highly adventurous fusion of Scandinavian jazz and African roots, Shanu sees the band introducing a new...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

Reconnect

Sonia Aimy

Sonia Aimy sings, in her silky, melodious tones, ‘salaam alaikum.’ Set to gentle, chugging Afrobeat, the traditional Muslim greeting is...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

A Touma

Ballaké Sissoko

Little more than six months ago, Ballaké Sissoko released Djourou, a kora album of glorious hybridity, rooted in ancient griot...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

Teenage Dreams

Native Soul

Unless you have been living under a rock this summer, the likelihood is you would have heard amapiano booming from...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

Nagtaba

Kandy Guira

Kandy Guira is an Ivory Coast-born singer and dancer from Burkina Faso, an erstwhile member of the supergroup Les Amazones...

Reviewed in issue December/2021

Live in Paris

The Master Musicians of Joujouka

The collective of Sufi trance musicians led by Ahmed El Attar (one of two troupes spawning from the village of...

Reviewed in issue November/2021

Moytou

Batch Gueye

UK-based Senegalese dancer-turned-singer Batch Gueye had a very promising first album, Ndiarigne, back in 2014, and has been a key...

Reviewed in issue November/2021

The Red Stoep

Nomfusi

In South Africa, a stoep is a veranda of a house and any gathering on it creates an instant space...

Reviewed in issue November/2021

Songs of Exile

Abdelli

Albums by the Brussels-based Algerian singer and songwriter Abderrahmane Abdelli are as rare as an oasis in the desert –...

Reviewed in issue November/2021