Reviews

Ngiwu Shwabada

Sibusile Xaba

The 2017 debut by the young, dreadlocked South African jazz guitarist and singer Sibusile Xaba, Unlearning/Open Letter to Adoniah, received...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Kalan Teban

Aly Keïta, Jan Galega Brönnimann, Lucas Niggli

When this trio's first release, Kalo-Yele (reviewed in #117), came out in 2016 it promised much but delivered rather less....

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Luangwa to Livingstone: Music from Zambia – Chikunda, Nsenga, Soli, Cewa, Tonga, Ila, Leya

VARIOUS ARTISTS

This is a lavish four-CD set of fi eld recordings made by Michael Baird between 1996 and 2016. Baird has...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Apala: Apala Groups in Nigeria 1967-70

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Apala is a style of call-and-response music popular in the Islamic culture of the Yoruba population of south-west Nigeria. It...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Play Disco Specials

The Star Beams

This is a reissue of the 1976 album originally released by the JAS Pride label in South Africa. The set-up...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Siti of Unguja: Romance Revolution on Zanzibar

Siti Muharam

Siti Muharam is the greatgranddaughter of Siti Binti Saad, the woman who turned taarab from the inaccessible music of the...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Modiehi

Marumo

A track by the South African quartet Marumo featured on the 2018 compilation album Mr Bongo Record Club Volume Three...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

buffering juju

dumama + kechou

Self-described as ‘nomadic future folk,’ the sound conjured up by dumama + kechou on their debut manages the delicate feat...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Tinn Tout

Danyèl Waro

Danyèl Waro has spent the past 45 years becoming the international ambassador of maloya, the revolutionary roots music of the...

Reviewed in issue May/2020

Tamotaït

Tamikrest

If the mighty Tinariwen are the gate-opening Beatles of Touareg guitar music and Songhoy Blues are the genre's answer to...

Reviewed in issue May/2020