Reviews

Cape Verde: An Archipelago of Music

VARIOUS ARTISTS

The Ocora label specialises in field recordings of music from around the world. This release is a double CD of...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Live in Lesotho

Hugh Masekela & Company

In December 1980 the African businessman Victor Maloi arranged a concert for Masekela and Miriam Makeba in Lesotho, a country...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Nemo

Kadialy Kouyate

Kadialy Kouyate is a Longtime London-based kora player. A maestro of the West African 21-string harp-Lute, he is also a...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Tombouctou

Al Bilali Soudan

If you Like your desert blues raw and unmediated and think Tinariwen are over-produced, then AL Bilali Soudan is for...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Kwetu

Fadhilee Itulya

This is the debut from an extremely versatile singer and guitarist from Kenya. Fadhilee Itulya's music is a modern fusion...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Kaloli

Nihiloxica

Kampala has an insatiable sense of groove. While neighbouring capital Kinshasa is better known for its industrial mix of percussion...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Jola: Hidden Gnawa Music in Brussels

Jola

A label, venue, and performing arts foundation, Muziekpublique's latest release focuses on Brussels’ population of Gnawa musicians, which numbers some...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Africa Today

Etuk Ubong

Hailed by Seun Kuti as ‘one of the best things to come out of Lagos,’ the trumpeter and composer Etuk...

Reviewed in issue July/2020

Funeral Songs

Fra Fra

There's a bitter aftertaste to this album. The latest in Glitterbeat's acclaimed Hidden Musics series, it should be an absorbing...

Reviewed in issue June/2020

Alewa

Santrofi

Ahead of the release of this debut, Accra eight-piece Santrofi tore through the European festival scene with livewire sets. They...

Reviewed in issue June/2020