Reviews

Xamle

Batch Gueye

Growing up as a dancer in Senegal and reinventing himself as a singer in the UK, Batch Gueye is starting...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2018

Sanikoya

Debademba

This is the third studio album from Malian griot singer Mohamed Diaby (son of Ivorian griotte Coumba Kouyaté) and acoustic...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2018

Banjul-London

Jally Kebba Susso

Originally from the Gambia, but resident in London since 2002, Jally Kebba Susso is a kora player but he's not...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2018

Bone Reader

Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band

Washington DC isn't an obvious place to look for Afrobeat. Yet in the land of suits and carpeted corridors, Chopteeth...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2018

Dounia Tabolo

Boubacar Traoré

Now in his mid-70s, Traoré was allegedly playing African blues guitar even before the late, great Ali Farka Touré. His...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2018

Sixty/Black to the Future/Notes of Life

Hugh Masekela

With Masekela's live dates cancelled while he recovers from prostate cancer, this budget-price reissue of a trio of classic albums...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2018

Mali Foli Coura

BKO

This appears to be a studio session, cut live without overdubs or technical tampering. It's a fierce modern take on...

Reviewed in issue Jan/Feb/2018

Kebrada

Elida Almeida

Elida Almeida is a 24-year-old Cape Verdean singer, who made a strong impression with her 2015 debut album, Ora Doci,...

Reviewed in issue December/2017

Mwinda

Lulendo

A former backing singer for his late compatriot Papa Wemba, Lulendo grew up in the Angolan capital Luanda with the...

Reviewed in issue December/2017

The Original Sound of Burkina Faso

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Bordered by Mali, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Niger, and with a population that spans some 60 different...

Reviewed in issue December/2017