Reviews

Libraries on Fire

Derek Gripper

Since Songlines first championed the South African guitarist Derek Gripper following his 2012 album One Night on Earth, his transpositions...

Reviewed in issue July/2016

Tikounen

Kel Assouf

Can you have too many Touareg guitar records? Not when they’re as potent as this second album from Kel Assouf,...

Reviewed in issue July/2016

Trotro

DJ Katapila

When Brian Shimkovitz, owner of the Awesome Tapes from Africa label, asked Ghanaian DJ Katapila if he could re-release his...

Reviewed in issue June/2016

Punk Islands

M’Toro Chamou

For Indian Ocean music aficionados, M’Toro Chamou of Mayotte is no new kid on the block. Since 1998, we have...

Reviewed in issue June/2016

Highlife-Jazz and Afro-Soul (1963-1969)

Fela Ransome Kuti and His Koola Lobitos

No other African musician has garnered as much global interest as Fela Kuti – Nigeria's creator of Afrobeat. His appeal...

Reviewed in issue June/2016

Imarhan

Imarhan

Another offshoot from the mighty Tinariwen tree, the five-piece known as Imarhan (Tamashek for ‘The Ones I Care About’) represent...

Reviewed in issue June/2016

Ere Gobez

Debo Band

America's Debo Band revisits and transforms with uncanny authenticity the kind of classic Ethiopian music popularised by the epic Éthiopiques...

Reviewed in issue June/2016

Ala Ta

Awa Sangho

If you’ve seen Salif Keita, Oumou Sangaré or Amadou & Mariam live, you may well have seen Awa Sangho, for...

Reviewed in issue June/2016

Bes

The Dwarfs of East Agouza

Formed in 2012, the trio who make up the Dwarfs found themselves living in the same apartment building in Cairo's...

Reviewed in issue June/2016

The Rough Guide to South African Jazz

VARIOUS ARTISTS

The title might suggest another nostalgic ‘golden era’ compilation of township jive, kwela and marabi, built around the old favourites...

Reviewed in issue June/2016