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SLRA were formed in West African refugee camps during the country’s brutal civil war at the turn of the century, in an attempt to distract people from the trials of their situation. The band received international attention by way of an American documentary (SLRA are thus better known across the Atlantic than in Europe) and they toured internationally with debut album, Living Like a Refugee.

SLRA here return to prove their music is not merely an accompaniment to their story - a danger when western observers document African tragedy, whatever the intention - but has the potential to go above and beyond its origins. A tune-filled, joyous record, Rise & Shine’s redemptive themes, those of the importance of love and the futility of war, are bound together with the band’s mixture of West African styles and roots reggae. If this group of artists came together in chaotic, despair-filled circumstances, this recording doesn’t show a bit of it. Recorded in Freetown and New Orleans, Rise & Shine is slickly produced (with Steve Berlin at the helm) and the funky arrangements feature session musicians from The Big Easy.

Despite the cutting edge presentation, the personalities of the All Stars themselves shine through the polish: Mohamed Kamara’s brittle vocals, Ashade Pearce’s delicate guitar work and Reuben M. Koroma’s (probably the group’s main man, despite its collective approach) song writing. Tunes centred on Highlife-style guitar licks, like ‘Muloma’, ‘Living Stone’ and the unbelievably groovy ‘Tamagbondorsu’ provide the anthems on Rise & Shine even if the album’s main sound is bass-heavy reggae. The ghost of Bob Marley hangs over ‘Jah Mercy’, while the ska madness of ‘Jah come down’ finds Koroma on his most swaggering form (he penned both these tracks).

For all it’s confident, dance floor filling antics though, there is a vulnerability that comes through a times on Rise & Shine, a brittle quality to the ingenious melodies and rhythms these musicians have stitched together that shows how hard they’ve had to work to get to where they have. The simplest, sweetest number on the album, the gentle, yearning reggae number, ‘Bend down the corner’, has the ability to bring a lump to the throat, a reminder of the power of music to transcend human folly.

Rise & Shine is released in North America on 23 March 2010 and in Europe and the rest of the world on 26 April 2010. The band tours America in the spring, but have no European dates as of yet…

Get an idea of what Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are about: