Music, World, Stewart Smith

Jupiter & Okwess International: Hotel Univers

Congolose group's international debut reflects urban stmosphere of Kinshasa

From the same Kinshasa street scene which spawned Staff Benda Bilili, Jupiter & Okwess International offer an energetic update of traditional Congolese rhythms and melodies. Founded in 1990 by the charismatic Jupiter Bokondji, this is the group's…

Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument

Hybrid of traditional Ethiopian melodies and blessed-out electro-jazz from the master accordionist

Another gem from the justifiably-named Awesome Tapes from Africa label, Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument is a 1985 solo effort from the leader and arranger of Ethiopian jazz and funk group Walias Band. A master accordionist, Mergia layers his…

Orchestre Poly-rythmo De Cotonou - The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk

(Analog Africa) The third compilation of vintage recordings from Benin's greatest dance band, The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk stands as a fitting tribute to founder Melome Clement, who died of a heart attack in December last year. His 'Ne Rien…

Bombino - Nomad

Young guitar hero from Niger soups up his sound with classic rock flourishes

(Nonesuch) Bombino, the young guitar hero from Niger, has become a breakthrough star of Tuareg desert blues. Here, he’s hooked up with producer Dan Auerbach of garage blues duo The Black Keys, who soups up his sound with classic rock flourishes and a…

Los Chinches - Fongo

London-based update chicha sound with chippy ska rhythms and a festival-friendly energy

(Movimientos Records) Sharing its name with a popular South American corn-based alcoholic drink, chicha is a musical style dating from late 1960s Peru, where hot cumbia rhythms sweat it out alongside pentatonic Andean melodies and groovy psychedelic…

Rokia Traore - Beautiful Africa

Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist works with PJ Harvey producer John Parish

(Nonesuch) Rokia Traore has an extraordinary voice, a deceptively gentle alto to which she brings a vibrato that can be tender or fierce. This, her fifth album, sees Traore working with PJ Harvey producer John Parish, who deftly combines a natural…

Scattered Melodies: Korean Kayagum Sanjo

Remarkable and eerie music salvaged from 78 RPM discs from pre-war Korea

(Sublime Frequencies) How to describe this remarkable music, transmitted from pre-war Korea via the dusty crackle of vintage 78 RPM shellac discs? 'Invented' around 1890 by Kim Chang-jo, sanjo, meaning 'the scattering of melodies', is a major form…

The Creole Choir of Cuba - Santiman

Second album of resistance songs and laments of their Haitian descendants

(Real World) Formed in the mid-90s to celebrate its members’ Haitian roots, The Creole Choir of Cuba came to international prominence with their 2010 album Tande-La. Its follow up, Santiman, sees the Choir, who hail from Cuba’s third city, Camaguey…

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Jama Ko

Malian electric desert blues recorded in the midst of a military coup

(Out Here Records) The jeli ngoni is the traditional stringed-instrument of Mande griot singers. Few play it like Bassekou Kouyate, however, who runs his through a wah pedal and cranked amp, firing off overdriven pentatonic runs which recall the…

Top five world music events at Celtic Connections 2012

Konono No. 1, Tamikrest and Bulgarian State Radio and Television Choir among highlights

This year’s festival offers riches from Africa, Eastern Europe and South America. Let The List’s jazz and world music reviewer Stewart Smith be your guide. Salif Keita. A rare Scottish outing for the great singer, Mali’s Salif Keita. From the colourful…

Robert Soko - Balkan Beats Soundlab

Traditional Balkan folk ruined by cheesy and dated club effects

Balkan folk, with its breakneck tempos and whirlwind instrumental breaks, is some of the wildest, most energetic dance music around. Small wonder that DJs like Bosnian expat Robert Soko have sought to put a modern twist on these traditional styles. The…

Getatchew Mekuria, The Ex & Friends - Y’Anbessaw Tezeta

A fine farewell from the great Ethiopian saxophonist, accompanied by Dutch avant-punks The Ex

Getatchew Mekuria, the great Ethiopian saxophonist, ends his 65-year career with Y’Anbessaw Tezeta (‘In memory of the lion’), an album recorded with Dutch avant-punks The Ex. Perhaps surprisingly, the tempos are moderate and the guitars tightly coiled…

Fanga/Maalem Abdullah Guinea - Fangnawa Experience

Collaborative introduction to North African Gnawa music from Fanga and Abdullah Guinea

A collaboration between French collective Fanga and Moroccan maalem (master musician) Abdallah Guinea, Fangnawa Experience seeks to fuse Gnawa, the sacred music of North Africa, with the more familiar (to Western ears) sound of West Africa. Fanga have…

Diablos Del Ritmo: The Colombian Melting Pot 1960-1985

A testament to the hybrid sounds of the Caribbean, featuring Andres Landero and Cumbia Soledena

Analog Africa cross the Atlantic for this testament to the hybrid sounds of the Caribbean: Puya, Porro, Gaita, Cumbiamba, Mapale, Chande, Terapia, Palenque and Afrobeat. In the Colombian melting pot of the title African, Latin American, European and…

The Toure-Raichel Collective - The Tel Aviv Session

Superb guitar work from Vieux Farka Touré spoiled by insipid piano tinkling from Idan Raichel

A collaboration between Israeli pianist Idan Raichel and Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, The Tel Aviv Session brings together African, European and American traditions. Best known as an electric player, VFT switches to acoustic guitar, using his…

The Souljazz Orchestra - Solidarity

African, Caribbean and pan-American sounds from Canada

Following 2010’s all-acoustic Rising, Canada’s Souljazz Orchestra have rediscovered their electric muse, peppering their African, Caribbean and pan-American sounds with grainy keyboards and guitar. For all its vintage flavours, Solidarity avoids being a…

Staff Benda Bilili - Bouger Le Monde

The story of Staff Benda Bilili is an inspiring one: four disabled musicians from the Democratic Republic of Congo who formed a band with homeless teenagers, rehearsing in Kinshasa zoo and playing on the streets until their discovery by producer Vincent…

Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang - En Yay Sah

Sierra Leone musician hooks up with Brooklyn musicians for Western debut

Famed as the moderniser of bubu music, a traditional style from Sierra Leone, Janka Nabay has hooked up with Brooklyn musicians for this Western debut. Slicker than Nabay’s earlier recordings, En Yay Sah sympathetically upgrades his sound with dubby…

Omar Khorshid - Guitar El Chark

Reissue of intoxicating compilation of Arabic guitar god

(Sublime Frequencies) Arabic guitar god Omar Khorshid was a music and movie superstar in the 60s and 70s, working with the great Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi and backing the queen of Arab music, Oum Khaltoum. In 1973, Khorshid left Cairo to live in…

Las Malas Amistades: Maleza

Matured songs from Columbian art collective with lovely songs by Maria Zimena Laverde

(Honest Jons) An art collective from Colombia, Las Malas Amistades offer an acoustic post-punk take on Tropicalia, which should appeal to fans of Scotland’s own Bill Wells and Muscles of Joy. The wonky DIY pop of Las Malas’ previous releases, all…

Fela Kuti - Live in Detroit 1986

Classic performance of relentless militant funk

Live In Detroit 1986 captures Fela Kuti on his first American tour, delivering a jaw-dropping two-and-a-half-hour set of afrobeat that crackles with energy. Recently freed from a politically motivated sentence in Nigeria, Kuti speaks truth to power via…

Bola - Volume 7

The Ghanaian musician's sound is an inspired meeting of tradition and experiment

A blog and now a label, Awesome Tapes From Africa has been exploring the cassette stalls of Western Africa for raw and unusual sounds since 2006. This is their second commercial release, a reissue of a 2009 tape by Ghanaian musician Bola. His sound…

Ben Zabo - Ben Zabo

Vibrant and inventive Malian Afro-beat, occasionally let down by naff blues guitar

Described as Malian Afro-Beat, Ben Zabo’s music expands its scope well beyond the Fela Kuti-inspired sounds of 1970s Bamako to incorporate the bwa rhythms and melodies of his own Bo region, alongside elements of funk and rock. Slick production has…

Group Inerane / Flower-Corsano Duo - Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow, Fri 2 Dec

Two transcendent groups in a Victorian school turned artists’ studio

This was always going to be special: two of the most transcendent groups on earth in the bohemian environs of a Victorian school building turned artists’ studio. The diverse crowd is not left disappointed. Mick Flower and Chris Corsano mesmerise with a…

Carlos Paredes - Guitarra Portuegesa / Movimento Perpetuo

(Drag City) Fêted by Six Organs of Admittance and the Kronos Quartet, Carlos Paredes was a virtuoso of the Portuguese guitar, a small 12-stringed instrument with a crystalline sound. Paredes was known as ‘the man of a thousand fingers’ and these…