Reviews

Amandla

Shelter Matshelela

Zimbabwean singer Shelter Matshelela presents us here with an archetypal bubblegum (township pop) album brim-full of happy, head-nodding tunes. Matshelela...

Reviewed in issue November/2018

Simigwa

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

On the opening track of this album, which was originally released in 1975, the Ghanaian bandleader Gyedu-Blay Ambolley recites a...

Reviewed in issue November/2018

Dur-Dur of Somalia: Volume 1 & Volume 2

Dur-Dur Band

They were the biggest band in 1980s Somalia, huge across the whole Horn of Africa, and they're not completely unknown...

Reviewed in issue November/2018

Ann O'aro

Ann O'aro

A new discovery from the label that boasts some of La Réunion's greatest musicians on its roster (see Danyèl Waro...

Reviewed in issue November/2018

Nsimbi

Nsimbi

This is a collection of songs based on Swahili proverbs and performed by Ugandan-American duo Nsimbi. GNL Zamba is a...

Reviewed in issue October/2018

Tebourba

Fanfara Station

Fanfara Station may sound like the name of one of the Balkan brass bands they so clearly admire, but in...

Reviewed in issue October/2018

Our Garden Needs its Flowers

Jess Sah Bi & Peter One

A very welcome reissue of an oddity from the Ivory Coast that was a huge regional hit when issued in...

Reviewed in issue October/2018

Gleimim

Chalaban

This sixth album from Hungarian-Moroccan band Chalaban takes its title from the nickname of bandleader Saïd Tichiti's childhood home of...

Reviewed in issue October/2018

Kongo

Les Tambours de Brazza

Since 1991 this group from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo has been developing its folkloric drum and dance act...

Reviewed in issue October/2018

Kasahwa: Early Singles

Stella Chiweshe

An integral part of the chimurenga revolution spearheaded by Thomas Mapfumo during Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, Stella Chiweshe recorded these eight...

Reviewed in issue October/2018