Hailing from the tiny sovereign islands of the African state of São Tomé and Príncipe, the long-running band África Negra have a second anthology on Bongo Joe Records deservedly dedicated to their exhilarating blend of Congolese rumba, soukous, highlife and the high speed local puxa style. Whether it’s high-energy dancers or sitting back into a swaying rumba, the emotional power of their sound and playing will make your soul sing. Read / Listen.
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Cover art & design - Fiona Ryan)
Assiko Golden Band De Yoff 'Magg Tekki' (Sing a Song Fighter / Mississippi Records) - a review
If drums are your thing then this sensational debut album from the Senegalese band Assiko Golden Band De Yoff will blow your head off. The massed ranks of the Dakar-based outfit teamed up with Swedish producer and Sing a Song Fighter label boss Karl Jonas Winqvist after meeting in 2018, somehow pulling this record together via recordings in Senegal and Sweden. With the subtle addition of sax, accordion and kora, some of these potent songs signpost the Senegalese connections to Brazil’s bloco de rua traditions, others offer a link to the Caribbean but the source is always Senegal. In alliance with Mississippi Records, we now have this brilliant album to listen to and own and I can’t recommend it enough. If you know about Babatunde Olatunji’s ‘Drums Of Passion’, then you know I’m making a big call saying this offers that same energy. Read / Listen.
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TONN3RR3 X BIKAYE 'It's a Bomb' (Born Bad Records) - a review
It’s been forty years since the great Congolese innovator Bony Bikaye released his collaborative cult masterpiece ‘Noir et Blanc’ on Crammed Discs, an album that merged his wildly unconventional vocals with the edgiest of electronic textures. Now, after decades outside of the industry, he has returned with the Parisian production trio TONN3RR3, once again in search of the musical spaces in between. His voice is stronger and more unhinged than ever, the post-club dynamism of TONN3RR3 a perfect foil for his singular sound. Read / Listen.
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Diepkloof United Voice 'Harmonizing Soweto: Golden City Gospel & Kasi Soul from the new South Africa' (Ostinato Records)
During lockdown you may have been lucky enough to catch the viral phone video of nine young South African men singing a heart-bursting song called ‘Too Late For Mama’ a capella in a darkened room. These wonderful singers are Soweto’s Diepkloof United Voice and thanks to New York’s Ostinato Records (who discovered them via said video), they now have a debut album coming out in November. The word ‘essential’ gets way overused in the hype game of musical releases but this really is. The combined voices of this new generation of Mzansi gospel singers is a gift. Read / Listen..
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Vumbi Dekula 'Congo Guitar' (Hive Mind / Sing A Song Fighter) - a review
There’s something special appearing soon for fans of the irresistible and hypnotic grooves of Congolese soukous and rumba. After 40 plus years of playing with some of the best dance orchestras, we shall have the first solo album from the legendary Congolese guitarist Kahanga Dekula aka ‘Vumbi’! Composed and recorded in just two days, this is the sound of the Congolese guitar traditions at its rawest. Complemented by the occasional use of Karl Jonas Winqvist’s rhythm box drum machine and subtle complementary backing vocals and percussion, Vumbi’s sparkling syncopated playing is front and centre. Bursting with joyful verve and bluesy intent, this co-release between Karl Jonas’ Sing A Song Fighter imprint and the UK’s brilliant Hive Mind Records is a standout of the year for me so far. Read / Listen.
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Synthesized Sudan 'Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Sounds from the Fashaga Underground' (Ostinato Records) - a review
Surely one of the finds of the year, the synth and percussion heavy Jaglara music of the mythic Sudanese musician Jantra is a sparkling, heavenly new addition to the ever-expanding pool of electronic music genres emanating from across the African continent. Both irresistible body music and spiritually ecstatic, Ostinato Records have revealed something really quite special. Read / Listen
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Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid's Dying Years compiled by John Armstrong
The ‘Bubblegum’ sounds of 80’s Black South Africa was a broad church of celebratory dance music fuelled by new technology and an escapist need to party during the last hellish years of the vile Apartheid regime. Somehow some of the happiest sounding music ever was created during the hardest of times and this forthcoming compilation by legendary curator John Armstrong for BBE contains the signposts for what would become SA’s particular brands of House music (Kwaito, SA House, Amapiano, Gqom etc). We asked John a few questions about the background to the record. Read / Listen
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Moreira Chonguiça 'Sounds of Peace' (Morestar Entertainment) - a review
The wonderful Mozambican musician and bandleader Moreira Chonguiça (and collaborator with the late Manu Dibango) released an incredible album of thirteen inspirational songs of sublime funky jazz last November, so we asked global music expert, veteran DJ and compiler extraordinaire John Armstrong to share his perspective with us all. Beautifully produced, packed full of joy and drawing on many strands of Mozambique’s rich musical culture, this is African jazz of the highest order! Read / Listen
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Bantu Spaceship 'Bantu Electro Sungura' (Nyami Nyami Records) - SINGLE PREMIERE!
The brilliantly named Bantu Spaceship have a brand new single out on 20th Jan and we are pleased to offer the PREMIERE of this unique creation that harnesses the guitars and vocal harmonies of the classic ‘Jit’ sound of 1980s Zim bands like the Bhundu Boys and throws it into the future with the addition of speaker-busting electro drum machine rhythms. Read / Listen.
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Photo: Justin Turford
Abdullah Ibrahim at The Barbican (EFG London Jazz Festival 2022) - a review
A remarkable and emotional evening with South Africa’s greatest living jazz musician, Abdullah Ibrahim. A Cape Town legend with the entire story of his life and country at his fingertips, played the piano without amplification to a sold out Barbican Centre for the 30th edition of the EFG London Jazz Festival and it was a singular experience that will live with me forever. Read / Listen
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Gyedu-Blay Ambolley 'Hi-life Jazz' (Agogo Records) - a review
On his 35th album, the great Ghanaian bandleader Gyedu-Blay Ambolley has masterfully carved out a record half full of original highlife gems, the other half containing superb interpretations of standards from the modern jazz playbook. Coltrane, Shorter, Monk and Miles get the treatment and the results are something else. Vibey, funky and a masterclass in rearranging a song into your own vision. Read / Listen here
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DJ Firmeza live in London (photo credit Marta Pina)
Jamaica Mnanda 'Kama Ipo Ipo (What's Yours is Yours)' (DJ Firmeza Remix) - a review
The informal settlements of Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam keeps pouring out some of the most interesting contemporary genres and sounds and Mchiriku is one such genre. Jamaica Mnanda are one of Mchiriku’s finest proponents and on this brand new release they have enlisted the remix skills of Lisbon artist and alumnus of the brilliant Príncipe label. DJ Firmeza, to rework their Casio keyboard fuelled street mayhem into a tough Luso-Afro dancefloor burner. Read / Listen
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“Pierre Barouh and the Saravah Sound” (WEWANTSOUNDS) - a review
Saravah was one of the most influential French labels of the 60s and 70s, and Pierre Barouh, singer, composer and producer extraordinaire, was a master at harnessing disparate talents, creating one of the best musical catalogues anywhere. Out there jazz and French underground pop collide with Brazilian and African flavours that sound as exciting now as when they were created. In partnership with Barouh’s son, Benjamin, WEWANTSOUNDS have given us the first ever retrospective of the revolutionary Saravah sound on vinyl and it is immaculate. Read / Listen
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Noori (Photo by Janto Djassi)
Noori & his Dorpa Band 'BEJA POWER! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan’s Red Sea Coast' (Ostinato Records) - a review
Through a chance viewing of a video on Sudanese Tik Tok, the people at Ostinato Records came across the ancient and well-hidden music of the Beja culture. Oppressed by successive regimes, the Beja go back to Ancient Egyptian times but until now, very few have heard their beautiful, evocative melodies until Noori, his one-of-a-kind tambo-guitar and his Dorpa Band recorded these six tracks of serious blues power. Not just the blues though, scattered amongst these ancient melodies lie the sounds of the world. Read / Listen here
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Atakora Manu 'AFRO HIGHLIFE' / 'OMINTIMINIM' (BBE) - a review
In celebration of 100 years of recorded Ghanaian Highlife, BBE release this gorgeous double pack of mid-80s albums by the underappreciated but wonderful Atakora Manu. A brilliant melding of ‘palmwine’ blues and eccentric synth work that stands it out from most Highlife that we are usually exposed to. Read / Listen
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Ballaké Sissoko 'A Touma' (NØ FØRMAT!) - a review
For his second album of 2021, the master kora player Ballaké Sissoko recorded eight solo compositions in one day inside a chapel in Belgium. It is a stunning journey of emotion, virtuosity and West African folk-blues and as good as any kora recordings that I have been lucky enough to discover. Read / Listen
Read MoreBallaké Sissoko feat Sona Jobarteh 'Djourou' (No Format) - video review
Watch the hypnotic performance of the first single from master kora player Ballaké Sissoko’s forthcoming album ‘Djourou’. A duet of electrifying gentleness with Gambian kora player, singer and activist Sona Jobarteh, this is special. Watch here….
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Roots 'Roots' (Frederiksberg Records) - a review
Frederiksberg Records do it again! The reissue of this 1975 album of joyous South African soul-jazz is a must for lovers of unhurried and happy Soweto grooves that manage to seamlessly reference township musical styles and the new Afrocentric atmosphere of mid 70’s urban USA…. Read / Listen here
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Photo: Justice Mukheli
Urban Village 'Udondolo' (Nø Førmat!) - a review
The debut album ‘Udondolo’ by the Soweto four-piece Urban Village is a wonderful multilingual journey of positivity through a diverse palette of South African folk traditions and modern musical forms. Maskandi, Zulu Rock and Marabi to funk and jazz, an identity shaped by the melting pot of the metropolitan squeeze of Johannesburg’s most famous Township. This is a peach of a record and will be released next week on the brilliant French label Nø Førmat!. Read / Listen here……….
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Victor Chukwu / Uncle Victor Chuks & The Black Irokos 'Akalaka / The Power' (BBE) - Album Premiere
BBE return with two albums by the mysterious Victor Chukwu for their brilliant Tabansi Gold Series and they are gorgeous examples of late 70’s Igbo highlife…joy, pride and wonder throughout. Truth & Lies Music are pleased to host the album premiere for your pleasure! Listen / read….
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