Reviews
Amghar: The Godfather of Tuareg Music – Vol One
The style of Touareg guitar music known to the world as ‘desert blues’ and to the musicians themselves as assouf...
Reviewed in issue May/2024
New Ancient Strings
Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko
Reissued to mark the 25th anniversary of its 1999 release on Joe Boyd’s Hannibal label, New Ancient Strings remains a...
Reviewed in issue May/2024
Acoustic
Along with Alpha Blondy and the late Lucky Dube, Ivory Coast’s Tiken Jah Fakoly is part of a righteous trinity...
Reviewed in issue May/2024
Live
A veteran of Mali’s oldest dance orchestra Super Biton de Ségou, Mama Sissoko became the band’s guitarist in 1972. When...
Reviewed in issue April/2024
Tanou
There are few more ancient instruments than Mali’s six-stringed, individually bowed n’dan, or ‘traveller’s harp’. Fewer still whose existence is...
Reviewed in issue April/2024
Souvenirs
The world lost a unique composer with the passing of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru at the age of 99 last year....
Reviewed in issue April/2024
Joola Jazz
Eight years since the release of his previous record Alien Cartoon, Senegalese electro-jazz artist IBAAKU has returned with a stunning...
Reviewed in issue April/2024
Esengo
Given that Afrobeat was born out of a creative culture clash – funk meeting highlife for a riotous party –...
Reviewed in issue April/2024
Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès
After an early run of success, Senegalese eight-piece Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès (Give-Receive) split in 1983, four years into their story....
Reviewed in issue April/2024
Migration
There is something evangelical about the Okavango African Orchestra. Comprising African-born musicians living in Toronto and Montréal, their persuasive fusing...
Reviewed in issue April/2024
