Bustin’ Out is set in a time went the punks limelight was dimming but in its place, the independent DIY label ethic took hold and a whole new generation of musicians started to experiment a little deeper than 3-chord wonders.
Continue reading V/A – Bustin’ Out (New Wave To New Beat: The Post Punk Era 1979-1981)
With so many West African traditional-modern ensembles making a name on the world music scene, is there more room for many more? The Cumbancha label obviously thinks so as the first release of its new ‘Discovery’ series is by young singer and balafón player Kimi Djabaté. Listening to Karam, it seems like a great catch
For such a highly polished musician with a legendary talent, Salif Keita’s gigs are surprisingly varied. On a bad night everything is muted, distant, by the numbers, but this was not a bad night, oh no, a bad night this was not…
Continue reading Salif Keita – Roundhouse, London (Live Review)
Catching Ba Cissoko’s band on stage is like watching African lightning bottled in front of you. The aching beauty of the acoustic kora, the thrill of an electrified kora and the cross currents of tradition and modernity in west African music meeting in one band. The whole — as dazzling as it is — feels unstable, powerful, beguiling.
Continue reading Ba Cissoko – Visitors from Electric Griot Land
This album has a new take on a very ancient tradition. The kora and the griot culture presides over this musical meeting in the masterful hands of Seckou Keita from Senegal, but it’s teased and challenged by other instruments and musical traditions, represented by the Egyptian violinist Samy Bishai, Italian double bassist Davide Mantovani and Gambian percussionist Surahata Susso.
Continue reading The Seckou Keita Quartet – Afro-Mandinka Soul
We have given away three copies of this elegantly seductive introduction to the work of Daby Balde (a rising star in Dakar, a soon-to-be star everywhere else).
Continue reading Introducing Daby Balde – Competition Closed
