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.
Read MoreOmar Sosa and Seckou Keita live at Lakeside Arts (24 Nov 2021) - a review
Omar Sosa is a Grammy nominated Cuban pianist, Seckou Keita, a Senegalese kora master and recent BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year and Gustavo Ovalles, a Venezuelan percussionist and the world class trio have been stunning audiences everywhere on their recent ‘Suba’ tour. Tim Hills caught them at their date at Lakeside Arts in Nottingham and wrote us a review. Read / Listen here
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