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Reviews

Review of The Pace Setters

The Pace Setters

Edikanfo

Top of the World

Glitterbeat Records

Rating: ★★★★

In 1981 Brian Eno travelled to Ghana to produce an album by the eight-piece Afro-funk band Edikanfo. Shortly after its...

Reviewed in issue June/2020

Review of Nsie Nsie

Nsie Nsie

Y-Bayani & Baby Naa & The Band of Enlightenment, Reason & Love

Philophon

Rating: ★★★

Ghanaian singers Y-Bayani and Baby Naa give their spin on African roots reggae on Nsie Nsie. Fusing reggae grooves with...

Reviewed in issue June/2020

Review of Vangasay

Vangasay

Gwendoline Absalon

Ting Bang

Rating: ★★★

A vangasay is a Type of mandarin orange from Madagascar and Vietnam, popular in the islands across the Indian Ocean...

Reviewed in issue June/2020

Review of Music from Barotseland: Recordings in Zambia's Western Province

Music from Barotseland: Recordings in Zambia's Western Province

VARIOUS ARTISTS

SWP Records

Rating: ★★★

This is a companion piece to the four-CD Luangwa to Livingstone, reviewed in #157. Zambia's Western Province is traditionally known...

Reviewed in issue June/2020

Review of Yene Mircha

Yene Mircha

Hailu Mergia

Awesome Tapes from Africa

Rating: ★

After Awesome Tapes from Africa reissued three of his old tapes to wide acclaim, Ethiopian keys player Hailu Mergia –...

Reviewed in issue June/2020

Review of Early Years: Madagascar Cassette Archives

Early Years: Madagascar Cassette Archives

Damily

Bongo Joe

Rating: ★★★

Jazz had Miles Davis, rock had Jimi Hendrix, and tsapiky – the frantic, guitar-driven music from Toliara, Madagascar – has...

Reviewed in issue June/2020

Review of Ngiwu Shwabada

Ngiwu Shwabada

Sibusile Xaba

Komos Jazz

Rating: ★★★★

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

Review of Kalan Teban

Kalan Teban

Aly Keïta, Jan Galega Brönnimann, Lucas Niggli

Intakt Records

Rating: ★★★

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

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

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

VARIOUS ARTISTS

SWP Records

Rating: ★★★

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

Review of Apala: Apala Groups in Nigeria 1967-70

Apala: Apala Groups in Nigeria 1967-70

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Soul Jazz Records

Rating: ★★★★

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

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