Reviews
Nigeria Freedom Sounds!
Subtitled ‘Popular Music and the Birth of Independent Nigeria,’ these 23 tracks were all recorded more than half a century...
Reviewed in issue October/2016
It's Time
In 2002 the Red Hot + Riotcompilation album, which was an AIDS awareness release and tribute to the music of...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2016
West to West
If you had to sum up Nii Okai Tagoe in the reductionist shorthand pigeonholing that the modern world demands, ‘Ghanaian...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2016
This is Kologo Power!
Music from Bolgatanga, the capital of Ghana's Sahelian north-east region, is hugely different from the more accessible highlife generally made...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2016
Musical Anthology of the Aka Pygmies
In #114 we reviewed an Ocora CD of Aka Pygmy music that focused on their instrumental accompaniment. This latest album...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2016
Space Echo: The Mystery Behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed
The titular mystery in this mouthful of a title refers to a Baltimore cargo ship that was en route to...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2016
Le Bal de l’Afrique Enchantée
All the ingredients are there to make this album a joyous romp through African classics that have shaped generations of...
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2016
Kanamalu
Welcome to a new music label, bravely launching with a brace of albums by Portuguese-based artists, including this fine outing....
Reviewed in issue Aug/Sep/2016
We be All Africans
Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids
African-American jazz musicians were undoubtedly the pioneers of what's become known as world music. In the 1950s, Dizzy Gillespie's music...
Reviewed in issue July/2016
