Grammy-nominated Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara has never lacked conviction, and Massa is her most openly devotional record yet. Working again with Matthieu Chedid (better known as -M-, and the album’s artistic director), it dresses Wassoulou-rooted guitar lines and Bambara melodies in sleek pop colours, albeit sometimes too sleekly.
The opening run feels oddly cautious, and the language of gratitude can tip into a sermon. Yet Diawara’s sincerity is hard to resist. When the machinery loosens, as on ‘Sigui’, where she drops into a darker register, or ‘Fala’, whose Bambara-English plea, ‘Don’t cry’, carries real ache, the album finds a more compelling balance between polish and pulse. ‘Tati Bakary’,…
Category: world
Private Recordings 1968 is a Carnatic Indian classical music archival album featuring the mridangam (double-headed drum) master P.S. Devarajan alongside a young K. Shivakumar on violin. Originally captured as intimate home tapes in Chembur, Bombay, on January 3, 1968, by Swedish musician Bengt Berger, the album was officially mixed and released by the Country & Eastern record label.
…Perhaps a disc for the true enthusiast, but one that is extremely rewarding and provides great insights into the fundamentals underpinning Carnatic music. From the very first track, we are brought into the heart of the process, where the recitation of syllables and singing show how the music emerges from a deep…
Maria is the debut long-player by London-based Brazilian bassist and composer Moyses Dos Santos. Originally from Sao Paolo, he emigrated to the U.K. in the late 2000s, where he’s made a name as a first-call session and concert musician who has worked with many artists, including Omar, Nile Rodgers, and Janelle Monáe. The album’s flavor is rooted in the styles and rhythms of northeastern Brazil filtered through 21st century British jazz, funk, and soul. Among the set’s many contributors are Azymuth’s keyboard ace Kiko Continentino, arranger Arthur Verocai, trumpeter Theo Croker, vocalist Lynda Dawn, Incognito drummer Francesco Mendolia, pianist Chris Eldred, and many others. The album is titled after Dos Santos’ mother, and given that root connection,…
Chrysalis Records has launched its Chrysalis Global imprint with an instrumental debut, Guitari Baro (Guitar Conversations), led by a Mande griot trio. The trio pairs master balafonist Lassana Diabaté, with guitarists Gaoussou Kouyaté and Kerfala Diabaté. It is a rare dialogue between balafon and guitar by hereditary West African jali musicians. Notably, this is a pan-African exchange linking Malian tradition and Guinean guitar work. The material draws on Mande idioms while nodding to jazz, Congolese rumba, rock, Guinean dance bands, and Cuban music.
… Co-produced by Dudu Sarr, Lucy Durán and Pape Armand Boye, and recorded in a single session in Dakar, guitarists Kouyaté and Diabaté are brilliantly underpinned by the subtle…
A superstar of Tzadik’s Radical Jewish Culture and the mastermind of the popular band Pharaoh’s Daughter, Basya Schechter returns with her greatest work yet, a gorgeous and sensual musical setting of the Biblical “Song of Songs.” Sung in Hebrew, English, Yiddish, Arabic, Spanish, and French, Basya has put her heart and soul into this project and it is evident in every song, solo, and arrangement. Eighteen years in the making, this is a towering achievement by one of the most passionate, sincere, and creative musicians in Jewish music today. Songs of Desire is an utter delight!“
Pharaoh’s Daughter is a genre-bending “world folk-rock” 8 piece ensemble led by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Basya Schechter. Formed in 1995, the band merges Hasidic chants…
It’s been more than 8 years since Maryam Saleh’s last album. A stalwart of the Egyptian alternative scene, many believed the Cairo native had quit the industry entirely after the 2017 release of Lekhfa with Maurice Louca and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh, until a sudden collaboration with Syrian producer Hello Psychaleppo dropped in 2023.
The synth-led single ‘Baghanny’ deviated from the artist’s more traditional-leaning electro-shaabi but signalled the return of one of Egypt’s most compelling voices. Syrr, written and recorded under the mentorship of Palestinian musician Kamilya Jubran, finds Saleh back in more familiar territory. With Louca returning on production, the album draws on traditional modes while carrying a heavier emotional weight.
Known for his involvement in the long-running Chemirani Ensemble – a Persian classical group founded alongside his father and siblings – acclaimed French-Iranian percussionist Keyvan Chemirani here leads his own quartet, exploring Persian and Indian traditions through the lens of jazz and contemporary classical music. With his brother Bijan on percussion, saz and laoúto, Keyvan is joined by Benjamin Moussay on piano and modular synthesiser and violinist Yvlin.
The result is a rich and eclectic set of compositions, from the plaintive opening chords of ‘Royaumont’ and the intense trance-like groove of ‘Dar-é Marmouz’ (featuring Keyvan on fiery santur) to the Parisian romanticism of ‘La Cena Grande’, on which the violin takes centre stage…
Unexpected encounters often yield unexpected results. It is easy to get lost in Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s extensive discography. Especially if your eye (and ear!) is drawn to the albums recorded under the name Jerusalem in My Heart, which take Arabic music as their starting point, falling somewhere in the vicinity of bands such as Land of Kush, Praed or Sanam. These unexpected collaborations sometimes result in overlooked releases, such as the exceptional The Sentimental Moves – a project that brings together musicians from different worlds, recorded with Canadian guitarist Eric Chenaux – essentially, before Moumneh fully established his distinctive style straddling those worlds.
In Montreal, Moumneh runs a recording studio,…
Anenoa is Chilean-German artist Matias Aguayo‘s first album since relocating to Mexico City, and one of his most collaborative efforts to date. Sung mainly in Spanish, the record embraces a wide variety of Latin American dance styles, and returns to the playful absurdity of his earlier albums, rather than the stark, skeletal rhythms of 2019’s Support Alien Invasion. One thing that remains from that album, however, is Aguayo’s embrace of different cultures, and here he works with producers, musicians, and vocalists from multiple continents while changing styles with seemingly every track. “Sentimientos Encontraos” is a perky, cumbia-inspired shuffle that Aguayo wrote with the intention of it becoming a future wedding staple. “Asuca, Rock, Roll” starts out as…
Returning with Ayô Dele, meaning “joy comes to me” in the Yoruba language, Afro-French collective Ireke serve up a suitably joyous blend of Afrobeat, soul, funk and more. At the centre of the sonic storm is Julien Gervaix, who plays sax, keyboards, bass and programs beats. His musical accomplice Damien Tesson offers up further percussion, guitars, keys and dub effects, while vocal duties are shared by a number of featured singers. The most notable of these, Beninese-Nigerian vocalist Nayel Hóxò, raps and sings in Yoruba and English with joyful abandon on slinky Afro-funk number ‘Ta Logbe Jongo’. She adds similar punch and verve to the smooth yet funky ‘Soulshine’. Elsewhere, regular vocal collaborator Agnès Hélène brings beautifully languid vocals…
Unspoken, the ACT debut album from Mahan Mirarab, opens up a whole world of personal, deeply felt stories.
The Iranian-born, Vienna-based guitarist draws on his experience of East and West, darkness and beauty, sorrow and joy. His music reveals perspectives which are profoundly human, intimate and sensitive, in album which is emerging at a time full of tensions and contradictions. He performs solo on the double-neck guitar and on some tracks is also joined by Kian Soltani (cello), Lars Danielsson (double bass) and Golnar Shahyar (vocals). His is a unique and personal musical journey: jazz blends with influences from classical and folk music from Iran, with European chamber music, imbued profoundly with the spirit of song.
Fela Kuti has been rediscovered all around the globe in the last 20 years in ever changing inspirational ways. Probably there is no major city in Europe or the US today without an ensemble that heavily references Fela Kuti.
…Fela Kuti in Dub takes us to one of Germanys hubs of Fela Kuti admiration: a small studio in the bluecollar district Untergiesing in Munich. This is the workspace of drummer, producer, dub fanatic, and DJ: Captain Yossarian. The studio complex is home to an illustrious group of musicians: Krautrock pioneers Embryo, Poets of Rhythm mastermind Jan Weissenfeldt, Franz Ferdinands guitar player Nick Mc Carthy or local (also Fela Kuti loving) Express Brassband who all work here. Occasionally bands visiting Munich…
Since releasing 1994’s Ofrenda, singer/songwriter Lila Downs has been making records. That said, Cambias mi Mundo, her first since 2023’s La Sanchez, is also her very first consisting of all-original compositions. Her last offering was made during difficult times as husband and musical partner Paul Cohen’s long illness ended in death. This album, however, reflects new possibilities including romance. She co-wrote and recorded with a number of close companions and enlisted Alex Cuba as co-producer. The stunning album cover was created by Zapotec artist Alex José, who used the tarot card “the world” as an inspiration.
The set’s title track is also its opener and first single with bilingual rapper and guest collaborator Snow Tha Product. “Cambias mi Mundo”…
Cocanha transmit an energy more befitting a choir than two singers. Such is their energy that vocalists Caroline Dufau and Lila Fraysse dot Flame Folclòre with a multitude of harmonic jumps and counter-melodies, mostly through articulated energy alone. “Diurê Tremblar” is one hugely impressive collage, an audio sample making way for bustles of chorale singing. Could it be a hymn or a prayer? Performed in Occitan, the message may not be entirely clear to the listener, although there’s no denying the impact every syllable makes on the ear.
As a rule, Flame Folclòre seems to defy genres: only time will tell, but Cocanha’s third record could be a harbinger of other minority-language rock albums to come. The record arrives following the news of Moya Brennan’s death. While it…
Mexican Institute of Sound’s Camilo Lara and Meridian Brothers’ Eblis Alvarez are two musicians who know how to take traditions and twist them up in modern ways, ending up with music that joyfully lives in a time and place of its own. A collaboration between the two looks on paper to be something of a dream and on record – 2026’s Ruido Tovar – it comes true in thrilling fashion.
The record is a tribute to – and deconstruction – of the Mexican cumbia stylings of legendary singer and band leader Rigo Tovar. In the 1970’s, he was the first to bring modern touches like Moog synths and electric guitars to the style and he became an outsized figure on the Mexican music scene. Lara and Alvarez pay homage to him the only way they know how, by turning…
It’s fitting that this terrific compilation opens with the sound of people happily hanging out (on ‘Boustan El Achaar’) because Yassine Nana grew up in one of Mauritania’s most prestigious music families and was almost always surrounded by his siblings, taking them with him as he travelled to Paris and Rabat, this new formation of the family orchestra heading to studios beyond their home in Nouakchott.
With Yassine on lead vocals, and his brothers Mouftah and Ali and sisters Mouna and Djamila playing alongside, the eight tracks on Modern Pop from Mauritania (1984–1989) unfurl like a flag that stakes a claim for the legacy of this northwest African artist, including his role in shaping what would be the start of desert blues.
Tuareg guitarist and vocalist Moussa T was born in Chirozerine (Tchirozérine), about 45 kilometers from Agadez, Niger, a major center for Tuareg guitar music. He began learning electric guitar at 11, initially in secret, before developing his style within a musical family. Early on, Moussa also drew inspiration from musicians close to home, including Gountou Taflawiste and Bombino, whom he watched perform at weddings in Agadez.
With Tartite, Moussa delivers familiar desert blues closely associated with Tuareg music. The album was recorded in summer 2024 at ROP Studio in Agadez. Later, it was mixed in the United States after fellow Tuareg musician Bombino connected Moussa with Mixto Records founder Oz McGuire.
…His music fits neatly within the template…
Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band return with their first new album in a decade III – and their first ever recorded inside a professional studio. Produced by Tommy Brenneck (known for his work with Amy Winehouse, Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones, Beyoncé, Mark Ronson, and The Budos Band) at Diamond West, the album captures the band with a depth and clarity never heard before – without sacrificing the ecstatic propulsion that defines them. The group does not simply perform songs; they create momentum.
Khun Narin’s Electric Phin Band are a multi-generational psychedelic powerhouse from rural Thailand whose ecstatic, amplifier-blown folk music has quietly become one of the most unlikely global cult phenomena of the last decade.
Paradise Metal is a sleight of hand. The music within has very little to do with metal in the conventional sense, and everything to do with the genre’s outer limits-the kind of undulating drone movements practiced by Earth and SUNN O))). The folks at Heat Crimes and their partner label Elhellel will have you know that this music is created by one Father Dionysios Tabakis, an Orthodox priest who serves at the Church of the Panagitsa in Nafplio, Greece. His instruments include the ney, oud, and lyra, among others. The idea is that Paradise Metal is a kind of ancient trance music that addresses age-old maladies: depression, alienation, and isolation.
Opener “Relaxation Music with Tanbur” recalls choice moments from…
For two decades, Tamikrest’s music has illuminated the sound, culture and conscience of the Kel Tamasheq (Touareg) people of the Sahara. Tamikrest means ‘connection’ or ‘union’ in Tamasheq, and the band have become one of the Kel Tamasheq’s most vital voices, raising awareness of their plight while channelling experiences of exile, loss and resistance. Their sixth studio album, Assikel, which means ‘voyage’ or ‘journey’, shows just how far the band have come.
…Tamikrest have always struck a balance between the calm and contemplative on one hand and the heavier, proggier sound on the other. Here, it’s all brought together under a particular atmosphere: analogue tape hiss, wide-open reverb and the inclusion of Paul Salvagnac’s…