Songlines Magazine (May 2016, #117) by Songlines Magazine

WELCOME

Mark Allen Group St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Rd, London, SE24 0PB, UK +44 (0)20 7738 5454 info@songlines.co.uk www.songlines.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS

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+44 (0)20 7501 6683 Editor-in-chief Simon Broughton Publisher Paul Geoghegan Editor Jo Frost Deputy Editor Alexandra Petropoulos Art Director Calvin McKenzie Content & Marketing Executive, News Editor Edward Craggs Advertisement Manager James Anderson-Hanney Online Content Editor James McCarthy Reviews Editor Matthew Milton Listings Editor Tatiana Rucinska World Cinema Editor Yoram Allon Cover image Vittorio Catti Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham & Nigel Williamson Assisted in this issue by Emma Baker

Vive la différence!

he threat to indigenous cultures and languages was recently brought home to me by a trio of unrelated events. First was a comment in the sleeve notes of one of this issue’s Top of the

World albums (Breabach’s Astar) about the struggle facing indigenous cultures, in this case Gaelic, Maori and Aboriginal. Then an article in The Observer about an organisation called Bilingualism Matters who are working to preserve minority languages across Europe. And most recently at Marseille’s Babel Med expo, a showcase of Sirventés by the troubadour Manu Théron, singing in Occitan and bringing some rare prominence to one of southern France’s endangered languages. This issue’s cover star Bombino knows a thing or two about threatened cultures and languages – he’s from Niger and sings in Tamasheq. You can read about his fascinating nomadic life on p26. Our list of awards nominations once again highlights a hugely diverse range of artists coming from Chile, India, Armenia, Iran and plenty more besides. All the nominees are revealed on p22. Finally, just as eclectic is the cracking bonus CD we have this issue, courtesy of the Yorkshire Festival (see p9). This biennial cultural festival was launched in 2014 and it returns in June with an

Cover star Bombino knows a thing or two about threatened cultures and languages

impressively varied line-up. The CD features some familiar Songlines favourites such as Rokia Traoré and Yorkshire-born Eliza Carthy. But there are plenty of new names too, including the terrific opening track from the UK-based Kefaya. Please do write/tweet and let us know what you think about it – and everything else in the magazine. Jo Frost, editor

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE INCLUDE

Intern Jamie Kyei Manteaw Subscriptions Director Sally Boettcher Editorial Director Martin Cullingford Publishing Director Paul Geoghegan CEO Ben Allen Chairman Mark Allen

© MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd 2016 All rights reserved. ISSN 1464-8113. MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd is part of the Mark Allen Group. Printing Pensord Press Ltd Record trade distribution WWMD Ltd 0121 788 3112 Newstrade distribution COMAG 01895 433600 The paper used within this publication has been sourced from Chain-of-Custody certified manufacturers, operating within international environmental standards, to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint.

John Potter John is a music journalist living in Okinawa where he teaches a university course on roots music. He is the author of the book The Power of Okinawa. This issue he reports from the Trans Asia Music Meeting (p83).

Franki Black Franki is a musician and the assistant editor of Travel Ideas, a top South African travel magazine. She’s written for a range of international publications and in this issue, she discovers the joys of maloya (p77).

Howard Male Howard’s music-centred thriller, Etc Etc Amen was cited by Tony Visconti as one of the best novels he has ever read. This issue he reviews several discs including the Top of the World album by Full Attack Band (p64).

Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all parts of the globe, from Mali to Mexico, India to Iraq. Whether this music is defined as traditional, contemporary, folk or fusion, Songlines is the only magazine to truly represent and embrace it. However, Songlines is not just about music, but about how the music fits into the landscape: it’s about politics, history and identity. Delivered in both print and digital formats, Songlines, through its extensive articles and reviews, is your essential and independent guide to a world of music and culture, whether you are starting on your journey of discovery or are already a seasoned fan.

@SonglinesMag

facebook.com/songlines

google.com/+songlines ISSUE 117

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CONTENTS

16 Mohammed Assaf

UPFRONT

FEATURES

REVIEWS

06 09

46 50 54 61 63 64 69 70 72

11 16 18 19 20 21

Top of the World CD Bonus CD – Yorkshire Festival What’s New & Obituaries Introducing... Mohammed Assaf & Full Attack Band Simon Says... Letters Songlines Music Travel Spotlight: Reem Kelani

32 36 38

Songlines Music Awards 2016

This year’s nominees

Bombino

The Nigerien guitarist talks about his amazing musical journey

Voice of the People

Recording London’s Irish

Christopher King

Diving into the ancient music of northern Greece

Derek Gripper

The guitarist who’s reinventing kora music

“The pomposity and ceremoniousness of classical music are a tired legacy of an age-old divisive class system that downplays the secular and sensual” Chris Moss gets annoyed about classical music, p97

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Africa Americas Europe Asia Middle East Fusion DVDs World Cinema Live Reviews

REGULARS 74 77 78 80 83 85 87 94 97 98

My World: Yann Tiersen Postcard from La Réunion Beginner’s Guide: The Rustavi Choir Festival Pass: Les Suds à Arles Dispatch from Okinawa Quickfire Gig Guide Overseas Festivals Soapbox Essential Ten: Touareg Albums

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TOP OF THE WORLD

01 Konono No 1 & Batida ‘Nlele Kalusimbiko’ 02 Snowboy & The Latin Section ‘Olé Mambo’ 03 Breabach ‘Muriwai’ 04 La Yegros feat Gustavo Santaolalla ‘Chicha Roja’ 05 Michael Messer’s Mitra ‘Bhupali Blues’ 06 Kris Drever ‘If Wishes Were Horses’ 07 Veretski Pass & Joel Rubin ‘Gedankn’ 08 Group Ekanzam ‘Le Souvenir’ 09 Lakou Mizik ‘Peze Kafe’ 10 Full Attack Band ‘Nadir’

Free tracks

THE BEST NEW RELEASES

YANN TIERSEN’S PLAYLIST

TOP

OF THE WORLD

TOP

OF THE WORLD

ISSUE 117 117 PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Yann Tiersen

On your free CD – the editor’s selection of the top ten new releases reviewed in this issue

11 Denez Prigent ‘An Tri Seblant’ 12 Anne Auffret & Yann-Fañch Kemener ‘Diougan Gwenc’hlan’ 13 Planxty ‘The West Coast of Clare’ 14 The Goadeg Sisters ‘Konskried Sant Nikolaz’ 15 Hjálmar ‘Hljóðlega af Stað’ Exclusively with the May 2016 issue of Songlines. STWCD93. This compilation & © 2016 MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd

Featuring Konono No 1 & Batida, Kris Drever, Lakou Mizik, Breabach, Planxty, La Yegros, Denez Prigent, Full Attack Band and more... SLTOTWCD-117-onbody.indd 1

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STWCD93 This compilation & © 2016 MA Music, Leisure & Travel Ltd info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Jo Frost & Alexandra Petropoulos. Design by Calvin McKenzie. Mastering by Good Imprint. CD pressing by Software Logistics Ltd. The producers of this CD have paid the composers and publishers for the use of their music.

05 Michael Messer’s Mitra ‘Bhupali Blues’ (5:36)

04 La Yegros featuring Gustavo Santaolalla ‘Chicha Roja’ (3:09)

10 Full Attack Band ‘Nadir’ (4:48)

09 Lakou Mizik ‘Peze Kafe’ (4:17)

15 Hjálmar ‘Hljóðlega af Stað’ (5:50)

14 The Goadeg Sisters ‘Konskried Sant Nikolaz’ (2:48)

12 Anne Auffret & Yann-Fañch Kemener ‘Diougan Gwenc’hlan’ (4:43)

TOP OF THE WORLD SELECTION

06 Kris Drever ‘If Wishes Were Horses’ (3:59)

11 Denez Prigent ‘An Tri Seblant’ (10:31) YANN TIERSEN’S PLAYLIST

10 tracks from this issue’s best new albums + 5 bonus tracks exclusively with the May 2016 issue of Songlines

117

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06 Kris Drever ‘If Wishes Were Horses’ 01 Konono No 1 & Batida ‘Nlele Kalusimbiko’ (edit, 4:19)

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07 Veretski Pass with Joel Rubin ‘Gedankn’ (2:31)

13 Planxty ‘The West Coast of Clare’ (5:37)

02 Snowboy & The Latin Section ‘Olé Mambo’ (5:16)

08 Group Ekanzam ‘Le Souvenir’ (4:03)

From Konono No 1 Meets Batida on Crammed Discs

From If Wishes Were Horses on Reveal Records

Five years since their last album, the

A solo album from Lau’s Kris Drever,

innovative Grammy-winning group

this showcases what may be Drever’s

Konono No 1 are back and are joined by

best work yet, with insightful lyrics

Portuguese-Angolan DJ Batida on this

penned against a backdrop of warm

hypnotising collaborative effort. See p46

instrumentation. See p57

02 Snowboy & The Latin Section ‘Olé Mambo’

07 Veretski Pass with Joel Rubin

With an illustrious discography going back

Traditional Polish and Jewish music

to the late 80s, conguero Mark ‘Snowboy’

are brought together and masterfully

Cotgrove and his group release their first

executed on a memorable album by

album on his eponymous label. See p51

Veretski Pass and Joel Rubin. See p58

03 Breabach ‘Muriwai’

08 Group Ekanzam

Scottish group Breabach return with a

Traditional Mali on Glitterbeat

new album packed full of global musical

The diverse nature of Malian traditional

influences from their travels. A mix of

music is showcased across 12 tracks

original compositions and covers, Astar

gathered by Bamako-based producer Paul

exhibits a new, exciting direction. See p54

Richard Chandler. See p49

04 La Yegros feat Gustavo Santaolalla ‘Chicha Roja’

09 Lakou Mizik

From New York Afternoon on Snowboy Records

01 Konono No 1 & Batida ‘Nlele Kalusimbiko’

03 Breabach ‘Muriwai’ (6:00)

From Astar on Breabach Records

‘Gedankn’

From Poyln: A Gilgul on Golden Horn Records

‘Le Souvenir’

From Every Song Has its End: Sonic Dispatches from

‘Peze Kafe’ From Wa Di Yo on Cumbancha

From Magnetismo on Soundway Records

Lakou Mizik’s debut is a passionate

Argentinian nu cumbia singer La Yegros

tribute to the people and culture of Haiti.

is accompanied by some noteworthy

Formed in the aftermath of the country’s

guests on her commanding and

2010 earthquake, the collective deliver

rhythmical sophomore album. See p52

a project of celebration and hope. See p50

05 Michael Messer’s Mitra ‘Bhupali Blues’

10 Full Attack Band

‘Nadir’

From 1001 on Full Attack Band

From Call of the Blues on Knife Edge Records

Argentinian saxophonist Alejandro

Michael Messer’s Mitra transform

Toledo leads a new life in a new band, one

Mississippi blues songs with Hindustani

that showcases a firm strength, fervour

sensitivities for a delightful project that

and clear experience in their musical

was mostly recorded live. See p65

arrangements. See p64

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+ YANN TIERSEN’S PLAYLIST 11

11 Denez Prigent ‘An Tri Seblant’ From An Enchanting Garden on Coop Breizh During the course of the ten-minute song, the subject of the story encounters three messengers who tell him his love has died of a fever. “It’s really beautiful… a sad song. It’s about death and life.”

12 Anne Auffret & Yann-Fañch Kemener ‘Diougan Gwenc’hlan’

From Roue Gralon Ni Ho Salud!: Profane & Sacred Songs of Brittany on Keltia Musique This song is one of many in the important Katherine Rose

Breton folk ballad anthology Barzhaz Breizh, published in 1839.

13 Planxty ‘The West Coast of Clare’ From Planxty on Shanachie Entertainment Corp

“There is a connection between Celtic countries,” Tiersen explains. “I grew up with [Irish] music along with traditional Breton music, and so it’s part of my youth. It’s part of a common culture.”

14 The Goadeg Sisters ‘Konskried Sant Nikolaz’

“We have a really beautiful vocal tradition [in Brittany]. It’s quite unusual, for instance, kan ha diskan, which is an a capella way of singing; they respond to each other to tell stories. It’s a treasure.”

Turn to p74 for the full interview with Yann Tiersen

From The Legendary Voices of Brittany on Keltia Musique

The a capella singing style of kan ha diskan was important in the Breton folk revival and the Goadeg Sisters were the

NEXT ISSUE: TOM ROBINSON’S PLAYLIST

genre’s main champions. “They are part of our glory,” Tiersen says.

15 Hjálmar ‘Hljóðlega af Stað’ From Hljóðlega af Stað’ on Brogin

Tiersen discovered this Icelandic reggae band while on tour last year with the

Jill Furmanovsky

The British singer-songwriter and radio presenter chooses his favourite tracks to be featured on the covermount CD of the June 2016 issue (#118).

classical guitarist Ólavur Jakobsen from the Faroe Islands. “I love this song and it’s quite unusual.”

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PRESENTS

“This one-man Middle East peace accord makes music that is an ambitious celebration of multicultural diversity... thrillingly bridges the traditional and the modern.” - The Times

“Lakou Mizik, formed after the devastating Haitian earthquakes of 2010, is a genial cross-generational coalition along the lines of the Buena Vista Social Club. Its songs, some of which are topical, draw on the rhythms and incantations of voodoo, the trumpeting of rara carnival music and hearty call-and-response vocal harmonies on their way to galloping, exultant dance grooves.” The New York Times

‫היד החמה‬

IDAN RAICHEL

At the Edge of the Beginning Idan Raichel comes full circle and goes back to basics on his intimate new album. With At the Edge of the Beginning, the international icon reflects on the cycles of life, human connections and starting anew.

DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW ON CUMBANCHA DISCOVERY STORE.CUMBANCHA.COM

W.LAKOUMIZIK.COM

www.idanraichelproject.com

www.cumbancha.com

PRESENTS

“African, funk and rap influences combine in an energetic performance. They have developed into a tight, attacking unit, in which the virtuoso kora work is integrated into sturdy playing from the band. Exuberant virtuosic fusion.” - The Guardian Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate’s electrifying second album, Monistic Theory, brings together two musicians from vastly different backgrounds in search of the commonalities that are uniquely revealed by artistic expression.

“Singer-songwriter Francesca Blanchard sounds like a throwback to the old days of folk singers that came from Laurel Canyon in the 70s. This album has her singing in English and French, with acoustic and electric guitar, with a voice that has a hint of early Joni Mitchell and a feel of Neil Young.” - Jazz Weekly “Deux visions shines on the strength of Blanchard’s accomplished compositions, tasteful guitar work and gorgeous vocals. A seamless mix of folk, jazz and roots-rock with some French chanson thrown in for good measure.” - The Times Argus

Out May 13th

www.joeandsekou.com www.cumbancha.com

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OUT MAY 20TH AVAILABLE ON CD AND VINYL

22/03/2016 15:35 3/21/16 11:20 AM

BONUS CD – ADVERTORIAL

YORKSHIRE FESTIVAL CD

YOUR BONUS FREE CD

Yorkshire Festival is the UK’s newest international music, theatre, dance, visual arts and outdoor performance programme. Taking place between June 16 and July 3, the whole county will be packed with thrilling artistic experiences and thought-provoking encounters. The festival’s ambition is to present Yorkshire’s brilliant artists alongside world-class performers and musicians from across the globe, and to showcase the county’s rich culture, epic landscape and stunning venues. The festival promises to be playful and signiﬁcant, distinctive and game-changing.

1 Kefaya ‘Indignados’ Kefaya (Arabic for ‘Enough’) is an international music collective formed and led by UK-based musicians and producers Giuliano Modarelli and Al MacSween. ‘Indignados’ is the cracking, bouncy opening track from their soon-to-be released debut album Radio International. www.kefaya.co.uk 2 Jon Gomm ‘Dance of the Last Rhino’ No instruments were harmed in the making of this crisp slice of ﬁngerstyle groove from Yorkshire guitarist and songwriter Jon Gomm. Taken from his 2013 album Secrets Nobody Keeps, ‘Dance of the Last Rhino’ shows off his spectacular technique and musicality. www.jongomm.com 3 Juice Vocal Ensemble ‘Io Amai Sempre’ The Yorkshire Festival has commissioned a new work from Gavin Bryars that will be innovatively presented in June (watch this space). This gem written by Bryars for Juice Vocal Ensemble’s album Laid Bare: Love Songs takes Petrarch’s ‘Canzoniere 85’ as its starting point. ‘I’ve always loved, and I love deeply still / and love that sweet place more, from day to day.’ www.gavinbryars.com www.juicevocalensemble.net

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4 Mr McFall’s Chamber ‘Yo Soy Maria’ Genre-crossing Scottish ensemble Mr McFall’s Chamber perform the eponymous song from Astor Piazzolla’s tango operita María de Buenos Aires. ‘Yo Soy María’ captures the essence of this evocative, surreal and passionate piece written in 1968 and presented at Yorkshire Festival on June 16-17. www.mcfalls.co.uk 5 Sam Airey ‘Stars’ This beautiful track from Leeds’ own Sam Airey was originally released as a single in 2014 and will be on his forthcoming album In Darkened Rooms. Like a bittersweet waltz for a relationship that’s gone wrong, Airey takes us on a musical journey to his home town, via some Lynchian mid-west nightmare and a smoky European cabaret, perhaps. www.samaireymusic.bandcamp.com 6 A Hawk and A Hacksaw ‘Ivan and Marichka/The Sorcerer’ Inspired by Soviet ﬁlmmaker Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, American duo A Hawk and A Hacksaw shift musical gear as the ﬁlm changes from black and white to technicolour. The band will play three gigs in June, in a minitour stopping off in Leeds, Hebden Bridge and York. www.ahawkandahacksaw.net

7 Rokia Traoré ‘Obikè’ Rokia needs no introduction. This track (meaning ‘Thus it Is’) from the Malian legend is taken from her new album Né So (Home) released earlier this year. ‘Thus it is / that nothing pleasurable hurts / everything loved is charming.’ Rokia performs at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds in June as part of the Yorkshire Festival Songlines series. www.rokiatraore.net 8 Hauschka ‘Hashima Island’ German composer and musician Hauschka released A NDO C Y in 2015 as a continuation of his Abandoned City project. These pieces are inspired by forgotten places nature has taken back. Hashima Island is one such place; it is a UNESCO World Heritage site 15km from Nagasaki. Hauschka performs at Howard Assembly Room, Leeds in June as part the Yorkshire Festival Songlines series. www.hauschka-net.de 9 Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band ‘You Know Me’ Scarborough-born Eliza Carthy will be no stranger to Songlines readers. ‘You Know Me’ was released in September 2015 and will be included on the band’s new album The Big Machine to be released in November 2016. Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band perform at Howard Assembly Room, Leeds in June as part of the Yorkshire Festival Songlines series. www.eliza-carthy.com 10 Mbongwana Star feat Konono No1 ‘Malukayi’ Led by two of the founding members of the much-loved Staff Benda Bilili, Mbongwana Star continue to rock the legendary

magic of Kinshasa. From their ﬁrst album From Kinshasa, released on World Circuit and produced by Liam Farrell, ‘Malukayi’ drips with Congolese energy and post-punk funk. Mbongwana Star perform at Howard Assembly Room, Leeds as part of the Yorkshire Festival Songlines series. www.mbongwanastar.com 11 The Nile Project ‘Tenseo’ A mesmerising, euphoric collaboration between 15 musicians from the 11 countries of the Nile Delta, The Nile Project will give their European premiere at the Alhambra in Bradford on Saturday June 18. Following the huge success of their last album, Aswan, and a critically acclaimed US tour, Yorkshire Festival is delighted to be presenting such an incredible concert. ‘Tenseo’ comes from the group’s new album Jinja (to be released June 2016). www.nileproject.org 12 Tantz ‘Voytek (The Bear)’ This is Balkan klezmer party music straight out of Leeds! They are brilliant on disc, but even better live. Catch Tantz at festivals across the UK this summer. www.tantz.co.uk

+ DATES This year’s Yorkshire

Festival runs from June 16-July 3

+ ONLINE

www.yorkshirefestival.co.uk

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INTRODUCING...

Mohammed Assaf

Garth Cartwright looks at the young Palestinian singer’s incredible story and rise to fame after winning the reality competition Arab Idol

ags to riches stories are popular nowadays when it comes to how we venerate our favourite entertainers – biopics from Ray to Straight Outta Compton have all focused on the hardscrabble beginnings of the artists involved and the opposition they had to overcome so to achieve musical fame. Yet I can think of no one else who in recent times has experienced a journey akin to that of Palestinian Mohammed Assaf. Assaf is a 26-year-old singer who has enjoyed remarkable success across the Arab world after winning the reality TV competition Arab Idol in 2013. Yes, Arab Idol is part of the British Pop Idol franchise and deals in the same format of good-looking youths with decent voices dreaming of musical stardom. So far, I can hear you mutter, so what? Well, Assaf not only is good looking and possessor of a magnificent voice but his story is the stuff of biopics. Born to Palestinian parents in Libya, his family settled in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza when he was two years old. Assaf began singing aged five and by his late teens he was a popular local singer, performing regularly at weddings and local gatherings. Gaza is an extremely difficult place to achieve any kind of career – the Israeli blockade and Hamas’ authoritarian rule ensuring life is often a struggle – so Assaf was determined that he would make it to Cairo to enter Arab Idol. Not that this proved easy: the Egyptian military had closed the crossing and he was forced to spend two days at the border pleading with soldiers to let him through. Finally, Assaf made it to Cairo, only to find the hotel where auditions were under way had locked its doors. No more contestants welcome, thank you! Refusing to quit, Assaf simply climbed

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the hotel’s wall and found his way to the auditions. Yet, once there, he was too late to get an entry for the competition. So he simply sat in the corridor and sang. Another contestant heard him and said, “I know I won’t reach the final but you will,” and gave Assaf his contest number. Assaf then sang his way to the finals and the story of this raggedy refugee boy with the golden voice who had risked all to sing on TV won wide attention across the Arab world. When he appeared at Arab Idol’s final, singing a rousing version of a Palestinian anthem, voters in their millions chose him as the new ‘Arab Idol’.

Since then Assaf has, both in concert and with a series of albums that demonstrate his mastery of Arabic traditional ballads and more contemporary pop formats, won huge popularity across the Arab world. A feature film (yes, a biopic already!) about his rise from refugee camp to penthouse, The Idol, recently screened at London’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival. And the really exciting news for British music lovers is that Mohammed Assaf is to perform in the UK in April.

+ DATE Mohammed Assaf plays at the Barbican on April 10, see Gig Guide

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Full Attack Band

Alex de Lacey catches up with Full Attack Band’s bandleader, Alejandro Toledo, who is not afraid to push the boundaries

andleader and saxophonist Alejandro Toledo is a certified globetrotter. Born in Argentina and now residing in London, his musical journey has so far taken him to the ornate climes of McGill University in Montréal – for a degree in classical saxophone – via the inner villages of east Moldova where he learned the ins and outs of its unique Balkan tradition for a subsequent PhD thesis. Each experience is of equal value, with every venture informing and guiding the work of his latest group Full Attack Band: a riotous six-piece whose resultant mix of Latin American folk, hip-hop, electronic wizardry and Balkan sensibilities is enthralling. This mix of styles isn’t taken for granted, however, as attested to by Full Attack’s singer and rapper Fedzilla. “It’s a big stew, but we’re not mindlessly putting these ingredients in. We understand where the music came from, the meaning it has, and the power it possesses.” There is an awareness of heritage, and these influences can be seen as a homage

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to their predecessors: much like the practice of hip-hop producers who sample their favourite jazz records to express a shared lineage that carries cultural significance. For Toledo, too, it’s about learning through discovery, with every new pursuit imbuing a fresh sense of purpose. “I adopted new ways of thinking,” he explains. “I was experiencing these worlds of music, but changing myself through these experiences in the process.” Indeed, this notion of a continually evolving creative endeavour underpins Full Attack Band’s album 1001, inspired by the functionality and aesthetics of the binary system, its connections to computer technologies, outer space and thinking outside oneself. Fedzilla and Toledo come from very different worlds – Fedzilla is half-German, half-Chilean and grew up in the US – but what they share is an enthusiasm for pooling together different aspects of their make-up to form something fundamentally hybrid, yet true to their understanding of the world as ‘third culture kids.’ It’s in a

way much more reflective than a music that is archaically bound by the rules. “There’s a sense of anarchy in what we do,” continues Toledo. “It’s kind of do what you enjoy, be what you are. We don’t play Latin music where you have to do two steps to the side and one step forward. It’s also dance music.” It’s this riveting and forward-thinking approach that has cemented Full Attack Band as one of the most exhilarating acts on the scene. Voraciously feeding off the atmosphere in the room, and then some, the band time and again escalate in intensity to a point of elation, that Toledo likens to an orgasm. Performing live is what they live for, breaking down norms and building the house anew with each frenetic exposition. “There’s no restriction, aside from the stage,” claims Fedzilla, “and even then we can jump off of it.”

+ ALBUM Their album, 1001, is a Top +

of the world this issue, see p64 DATE Full Attack Band perform at Brixton’s Hootananny on April 2 and Gate to Southwell Festival this June

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2016 The Nominations Now in their eighth year, the Songlines Music Awards are a celebration of the wealth of talented musicians from around the world that we cover in Songlines. This year we have five new geographical categories (see overleaf ), based on our reviews sections, with all albums having been reviewed during the last year (from #106 to #114). These nominees were chosen by our crack team of esteemed international reviewers and the Best Artist and Best Group nominees were voted by Songlines readers. The winners of all nine awards, including the Newcomer and World Pioneer Awards, will be announced in the June issue (#118), out May 6. WO R D S N I G E L W I L L I A M S O N

THE AWARDS ALBUM Featuring 19 tracks from the nominees in the five geographical categories (see overleaf), the Songlines Music Awards 2016 compilation album is now available on CD exclusively from

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BEST ARTIST

BEST GROUP

Pascuala Ilabaca y Fauna

Africa Express

for Busco Paraíso on Petit Indie

The accordionist and singersongwriter Ilabaca represents a new generation of Chilean musicians, moving beyond Andean folk stereotypes to forge a more global style. This album finds her mixing jazz and rock with traditional South American forms, sung in a voice that is by turns deliciously sweet and fragile, sensuous and languid. A Top of the World in #106.

Seckou Keita for 22 Strings on ARC Music

Having won the Cross-Cultural Collaboration gong in the 2014 Songlines Music Awards for his album with Welsh harpist Catrin Finch – Clychau Dibon – the Senegalese-born but UK-based kora player makes the lists again with a mostly instrumental set of exquisite solo kora playing, full of meditative grace, sublime poise and consummate elegance. A Top of the World in #109.

for Terry Riley’s In C Mali on Transgressive Records

Perhaps only Damon Albarn could have come up with the extraordinary idea of unleashing a bunch of West African musicians playing traditional instruments on the music of the minimalist composer Terry Riley. The results were revelatory, centuries of African trance ritual adding layers of ancient wisdom to Riley’s post-modernist composition. A Top of the World in #107.

Kapela Maliszów

for Inconceivable Mazurkas on Karrot Kommando

From the edge of the Carpathians, the remarkable Polish family trio of accordion player Jan Malisz and his two teenage children, Kacper (violin) and Zuzanna (cello), perform a rich and varied set of wildly kinetic mazurkas, pungent polkas and haunted, lurching waltzes that improbably evoke a Polish Tom Waits. A Top of the World in #112.

Lura

Khiyo

Since the death of the mighty Cesaria Evora, the huskyvoiced Lura has emerged as her most potent successor as a global champion of traditional Cape Verdean styles. Herança, her sixth album, offers an enchanting mix of melancholy and spring-heeled dance tunes, delivered with a diva-like assurance and enhanced by a precise, well-oiled production. A Top of the World in #113.

The debut from this young, Londonbased band celebrates every facet of Bengali music – from folk tunes to mystical Baul poetry via film themes, protest songs and even Bangladesh’s national anthem. But although it’s essentially an album of covers, they’re delivered with a refreshing originality and a dynamic rock-influenced energy. A Top of the World in #111.

Mariza

Monsieur Doumani

for Herança on Lusafrica

for Mundo on Warner Music Portugal

Combining fado roots with pop ballads and subtle washes of electronica, Mariza’s return after a five-year hiatus was an unalloyed and expansive triumph, produced by Javier Limón. Motherhood seems to have conferred a new-found maturity that lends her voice greater nuance than ever, her artistry hitting dramatic new heights. A Top of the World in #113.

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for Khiyo on ARC Music

for Sikoses on Monsieur Doumani

An ambitious combination of traditional Cypriot folk songs and new compositions, the second album from the Nicosia-based acoustic trio covers a vast amount of ground. Lilting brass, lute and flute create exquisitely meshing textures that range from wistful to serene. But the songs are filled with astute social criticism. A Top of the World in #108.

22/03/2016 12:39

AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST

AMERICAS

ASIA & SOUTH PACIFIC

Blick Bassy

Lila Downs

Born in Cameroon but now resident in Paris, Blick Bassy spent a decade in the jazz fusion group Macase. His third solo album, Akö, spans the African diaspora, his guitar and haunting, distinctive voice backed by the unusual combination of cello, trombone and harmonica. It’s a singular collection that combines Afro-blues, jazz syncopation, ballads and jug band and folk influences. Reviewed in #109.

A sizzling, gutsy, joy-giving album from Mexico’s finest crossover export, as martial beats, rousing choruses, mariachi moods and agit-pop raps lend Downs’ eighth album a festive brio. Her expressive, multi-octave voice is supported by superlative sax, accordion and brass and cameos from guest vocalists including Colombian superstar Juanes and Mexican crooner Juan Gabriel. A Top of the World in #112.

Debashish Bhattacharya

The Gurdjieff Ensemble & Levon Eskenian

Tom Paley & Ben Paley

for Akö on No Format!

for Komitas on ECM

Levon Eskenian and his ten-piece ensemble explore the heritage of Armenian music and the compositions of its most revered composer. Komitas collected Armenian folk tunes and arranged them for piano. Eskenian has reinstated their folk origins with traditional instruments to create a thrillingly evocative glimpse of a vanished music. A Top of the World in #114.

for Balas y Chocolate on Sony Music

for Paley & Son on Hornbeam Recordings

Now in his late 80s, American multiinstrumentalist and folk legend Tom Paley began his career performing alongside the likes of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly. Joined here by his fiddle-playing son Ben on a set of blues and folk standards, he sings croakily but with great warmth, conjuring up some old-time magic that delights from start to finish. A Top of the World in #110.

for Slide Guitar Ragas from Dusk Till Dawn on Riverboat Records

The pioneering Kolkata-born Indian slide guitarist deftly traces a raga-like journey from dawn to dusk on his self-invented 14-stringed ghandarvi. As emotionally compelling as it is technically impressive, Bhattacharya’s creative virtuosity makes it easy to forget that he’s playing a guitar rather than a more traditional Hindustani instrument. Reviewed in #109.

Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band for 21st Century Molam on Studio Lam

Record collector Chris Menist and DJ Maft Sai formed the Paradise Bangkok ensemble to revive the raw country blues of the golden age of molam – the music of Thailand’s north-east region. Traditional Oriental instruments combine with Western bass and drums to create a formidable 21st-century fusion. A Top of the World in #106.

Seckou Keita

Punch Brothers

for 22 Strings ARC Music

Nonesuch Records

The Senegalese kora player has hit a purple patch – not only is Seckou a previous Songlines Music Awards winner, but he’s also shortlisted in the Best Artist category (see p23). This solo album is predominently instrumental, a perfect showcase of Seckou’s elegant kora playing. But he also demonstrates a charming singing ability on a number of tracks too. A Top of the World in #109.

The fourth album from the audacious prog-bluegrass string quintet may just be their most visionary yet. The virtuoso mandolin playing and singing of Chris Thile and company is matched by such bold inventions as a ten-minute epic that sounds like the Beach Boys on an Appalachian holiday and a spirited rearrangement of Debussy. A Top of the World in #106.

After her 2013 fusion album Traces of You, Anoushka Shankar returned to the classical sitar repertoire on this album recorded in London and on which she pays a loving tribute to her late father, Ravi. Her sublime playing is infused with a warm intimacy, sometimes delicate, sometimes shimmering, virtuosic but heartfelt and without ostentation. A Top of the World in #110.

Songhoy Blues

Le Vent du Nord

Frank Yamma

First heard via various Africa Express projects, and more recently featured in the documentary They Will Have to Kill Us First, this debut represents the new rocking sound of Mali. Traditional African desert blues transplanted into a decidedly urban and 21st-century setting, it’s as funky as hell with tribal rhythms buttressed by a dynamic rock’n’roll heft. A Top of the World in #106.

The Québécois quartet combine guitar, fiddle, bouzouki and mandolin, plus Jew’s harp, accordion and whirring hurdy-gurdy with soaring call-and-response vocals on a set of cracking tunes that celebrate Canada’s vibrant Francophone culture, ranging in mood from raw and fierce reels to soft and mournful ballads. A Top of the World in #108.

Singing in both English and Pitjantjatjara, the indigenous Australian singersongwriter and guitarist made a felicitous return with his first album since 2010’s acoustic masterpiece Countryman. This time the sound is a little rockier, but the earthy power and honesty of his voice and bitter-sweet songs are as compelling as ever. Reviewed in #106.

for Music in Exile on Transgressive Records

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for The Phosphorescent Blues on

for Têtu on Borealis Records

Anoushka Shankar

for Home on Deutsche Grammophon

for Uncle on Wantok Musik

22/03/2016 12:39

EUROPE

FUSION

Sam Lee & Friends

Faris

for The Fade in Time on Nest Collective Records

Lee learned his songs and distinctive lilting singing style from Traveller and Gypsy communities all over Britain and Ireland. On his second album in three years he gives their stories and melodies an ambitious and imaginatively modern platform, backed by a band that comprises violin, cello, piano, percussion and Japanese koto (zither). A Top of the World in #107.

Tcha Limberger’s Budapest Gypsy Orchestra for Fekete Éjszaka Borulj a Világra on Lejazzetal

Born in Belgium to a Flemish mother and a Gypsy father, Limberger moved to Hungary to pursue his interest in Gypsy music. His orchestra brilliantly support his spontaneous and rough-edged violin playing with clarinet, cimbalom and cello on an album brimming with character. Reviewed in #111.

Monsieur Doumani

for Sikoses on Monsieur Doumani

The young Cypriot trio are becoming a regular feature in the Songlines Music Awards. They’ve also made it into this year’s Best Group shortlist and were previously nominated in 2014 for their debut album. Following this nomination, the talented musicians put on an impressive and entertaining performance at last year’s Songlines Encounters Festival. Reviewed in #108.

for Mississippi to Sahara on Wrasse

Born to a Touareg mother and an Italian father, the singer-songwriter and guitarist Faris Amine offers a unique twist on the current African desert blues phenomenon, taking ten classic American blues songs and repatriating them to West Africa with their lyrics translated into Tamasheq, stitching the dual traditions of the Mississippi and the Sahara into a seamless hybrid. A Top of the World in #111.

Ibeyi for Ibeyi on XL

Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Díaz, the twin daughters of Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club’s percussionist Anga Díaz, were only 11 years old when their father died. Now in their 20s, the sister’s debut album is a fitting homage to his memory, fusing various Cuban influences with electronic and global pop elements, sung with power and intensity in English and Yoruba. Reviewed in #109.

Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal for Musique de Nuit on No Format!

Stringed magic from the French cellist Segal and Malian kora maestro Sissoko, their subtle arrangements and inventive improvisations characterised by a rare generosity of spirit. Mostly recorded under the stars on Sissoko’s rooftop in Bamako, the setting lends a rich ambience on an album that feels as fresh as it is timeless. A Top of the World in #111.

Spiro

Mahsa Vahdat

on Real World

After several fascinating collaborations, the first solo album from the Iranian singer finds her setting the classical poetry of Rumi and Omar Khayyam to a simple but thrilling accompaniment of Western keyboards, traditional percussion and kamancheh (spike fiddle), sung in a voice that ranges from brooding suspense to rapturous ecstasy. A Top of the World in #107.

for Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow

Taking its title from a Keats’ poem, the fifth album from Bristol-based folk quartet also references TS Eliot and Ted Hughes. But it’s their arrangements that make the album so special as English dance tunes are stripped down and reassembled to create ecstatic but subtle interlocking musical patterns. A Top of the World in #108.

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for Traces of an Old Vineyard on KKV

22/03/2016 12:40

BOMBINO

A Touareg Life Daniel Brown chats to the Nigerien guitarist Bombino about his musical journey that led to developing his very own ‘Tuareggae’ style

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› ISSUE

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legend Inteyeden, co-founder of Tinariwen, mixed local tinde and takamba styles with the blues of an electrified guitar. But the path for young Moctar was a long and slightly tortuous one before he followed, then expanded, the footsteps drawn in the sand by his idol. The Touareg insurgency of the 90s led his grandmother to seek refuge with him in Tamanrasset in 1991. It was in the Algerian town where Moctar saw his first guitar, wielded by two older cousins. At every opportunity, he followed them, foregoing his education in nocturnal exercises that absorbed him. When peace was restored in 1993 Moctar returned to Agadez but his life had changed. “I had only one aim, getting my own guitar,” he explains to the pitter-patter of Parisian rain. “I heard of another uncle, in Niamey, Rissa Ixa, who’d done well with his paintings. He was invited to exhibit his works in Europe and always brought back instruments. So I set off west on my own and, six months later, I returned with an acoustic guitar he offered me.” Moctar’s musical ambitions continued to supersede his formal education, supported by his grandmother who openly defied the wishes of his father. But this is a matrilineal society where women have the final say. In lieu of school, she transmitted Touareg moral codes, their mythology and rituals as expressed in their music. He also travelled further afield to sojourn with distant uncles and cousins. He worked as a shepherd in the Libyan Touareg encampments of Ubari, Sabha and Rhat where he absorbed his traditional musical heritage, the takamba Afro percussion, the tisiway poems and asak songs that draw from 14 centuries of nomadism. In some ways this was a return to his people’s sources: Touaregs are descendants of North African Berbers from Libya’s Fezzan region. Moctar also encountered the meeting between this patrimony and the electric guitar that had become a potent symbol of resistance for his community. His bandmate Koutana described to current producer Dave Longstreth how from 1982 onwards a revolutionary recording by Tinariwen founders brought guitar sounds from Algerian refugee camps into Mali and Niger – to devastating effect: “That cassette sent

Marije Kuiper

hen Omara Moctar enters ghostlike into the chic Paris hotel room wearing a flowing purple robe and a crookedly shy smile it is something of a shock. Where is the electrifying Bombino, the Touareg guitarist of boundless energy, incandescent stage aura, trenchantly engaged lyrics and abrasive desert resistance? Is this the self-taught artist his latest producer Dave Longstreth tells me is a latter-day John Coltrane, Robert Johnson or Chet Baker because “his playing sounds like the truth, he finds an emotion and hones in on it”? The contents of his Niger passport deepen the enigma. Four 31-page documents – awash with stamps, stapled together like a modern-day bible to nomadism – are made out to his official name, Goumour Almoctar, born on New Year’s Day in a Touareg encampment called Tidine, 80km from Agadez. Then there’s this line describing the Nigerien: ‘Type: ordinaire,’ it says. Yet Bombino’s life story is anything but ordinary. The affable Moctar almost apologises for the dichotomy. He often talks of Bombino in the third person, distancing himself from an alter ego that is sweeping music aficionados away with his inventivity and iconoclastic crossover releases. His complex persona echoes in the multiplicity of definitions for Azel, the name he’s given to his fourth and latest album. Just one word in Tamasheq to describe at least three things: the roots of a tree; ‘that’s my jam!’; and, most tellingly, a small village ten kilometres from Agadez and an 18-hour drive from Niger’s capital Niamey that is central to Bombino’s life. “My wife is from there but especially it’s where my best friends and I used to hang out, working in tourism between 1997 and 2006,” he explains, baring sharp canines and a boyish smile belying his 36 years. “Even today, I often take my guitar to Azel and bring everyone together in the central square to commune. It’s a very mixed place, not just Touareg and there’s an active cultural committee that’s helped me a lot,” he says wistfully. The father-of-two constantly harks back to this Agadez region straddling the Sahel and the Sahara where he first saw day in 1980. That was more or less the same time guitar

W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

22/03/2016 15:00

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22/03/2016 15:00

“I really love Songlines, it’s so wonderful that there’s a magazine out there that promotes and supports world cultures through music in such a lovely way” Anoushka Shankar

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22/03/2016 15:34

Africa REVIEWS Bombino Azel

Partisan Records (46 mins)

★★★★★

A Dirty Projector gives that desert blues some extra sun

NIGEL WILLIAMSON

TRACK TO TRY Inar

Daniel Haaksman African Fabrics Man Recordings (37 mins)

★★★★★

Former baile funk bastion dives into Afro electronica Daniel Haaksman isn’t a novice when it comes to adding a dancehall sensibility to traditional styles. He has previously worked with Diplo and MIA on Brazil’s bass-heavy baile funk styles. The Berlin-based DJ’s newest project takes its inspiration from British-Nigerian visual artist Yinka Shonibare, whose works using textiles and cloth suggested this album’s name. Conceptually,

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Vera Marmelo

The music of the Niger-born Touareg guitarist Omara ‘Bombino’ Moctar seems to have captured the imagination of the American indie-rock fraternity. His last album, 2013’s Nomad, was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys and this time Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors takes the helm. Recorded in a converted barn on a farm in Woodstock, New York, the result is a highly accessible album but one which seems to have tamed some of the ineffable desert mystery. Longstreth has added Western harmonies to ‘give the songs new depth and colour’ but the hues seem muted rather than more vivid. Certainly it’s a sunnier, bouncier take on the traditional Touareg blues-rock sound. Bombino dubs it ‘Tuareggae’ but it’s arguably a contrivance too far. Rockers such as ‘Timtar (Memories)’ and the crunching Clapton/Hendrix pyrotechnics of ‘Iyat Ninhay/Jaguar (A Great Desert I Saw)’ should help Bombino to reach a new audience, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s no coincidence that to these ears, the most satisfying moments come on ‘Inar (If You Know the Degree of My Love for You)’ and ‘Naqqim Dagh Timshar (We are Left in This Abandoned Place)’, two acoustic numbers that also happen to be the least Westernised.

TOP

OFTHE WORLD TRACK 1

Konono No 1 & Batdia Konono No 1 Meets Batida Crammed Discs (62 mins)

★★★★★

The junkyard Afro-gamelan trance beasts return It’s 12 years now since Congotronics, the debut album of Konono No 1, but their manic roots energy continues to hurtle along its unstoppable and seductive trajectory. They remain a game changer for Congolese and African music, a supercharged, overdriven, distortionpowered form of future contemporary garage trance, forged out of stomping Congolese rhythms, customised traditional instruments, used car parts and redundant old electronics. Their gigs and their albums are a joy and their riotous collective minimalism never fails to intrigue and lock you into their zone. And now here comes their encounter with Batida (aka Pedro Coquenão), a Portuguese-Angolan producer-DJ. They sweep us up on

an ecstatically rough ride to the far horizon, where rhythmic trance meets kuduro-rinsed electronica. Batida’s records, up to now, have been filled with thrilling gear changes of rhythm and texture and my fear was that he might interrupt the Konono flow. Far from it. Batida has been absorbed into their funky trance template and he adds to the minimalist tension, so you hear all the micro-rhythmic changes even more clearly. There’s Portuguese rapping and a variety of sampled textures that he brings into the mix too. It’s all grist to Konono’s ever-turning mill. This album is a sonic continuum to get lost in, and it’s already approaching the summit of my albums of the year list. MAX REINHARDT

TRACK TO TRY Tokolanda

GET THIS ALBUM FREE Readers can get this album when subscribing or renewing with Direct Debit. See CD Haaksman’s music doesn’t quite match up to Shonibare’s incisive critique of colonialism; it’s more of an appreciation of anything electronic emanating from the African continent. Nonetheless, it’s an enjoyable listen. Opener ‘Akabongi’ has a propulsive beat and a welcome feature from South African rapper Spoek Mathambo. ‘Rename the Streets’ is a great piece of work, which delicately builds texture from a simple mbira (thumb piano) loop culminating in an expansive,

marauding groove akin to Bonobo’s earlier output on Days to Come. A few throwaway tracks aside, there is a lot to commend here. The blistering pace of ‘Black Coffee’ folds into the equally energetic ‘Xinguila’, which features Portuguese-Angolan band Throes + The Shine. Haaksman even tries his hand at Chicagoan footwork on ‘Aho’. African Fabrics is ambitious, all-encompassing and ultimately great fun. ALEX DE LACEY

TRACK TO TRY Xinguila

Aly Keïta, Jan Galega Brönnimann, Lucas Niggli Kalo-Yele Intakt Records (53 mins)

★★★★★

The world’s first ever balafonbass clarinet-percussion trio? A trio built around the sound of the balafon (West African xylophone), bass clarinet and

W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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Africa REVIEWS

MARK SAMPSON

TRACK TO TRY Mamabamako

Oumar Konaté Maya Maya Clermont Music (49 mins)

★★★★★

Fiery Malian guitarist, with more than a hint of Hendrix Hailing from Gao and living in Bamako, Oumar Konaté is part of a new generation of young Malian artists making music with an international gaze, while never leaving their traditions out of reach. Since his first album, 2014’s Addoh, with its large band and numerous guest musicians, Konaté has concentrated his group down to a trio: himself on guitars and vocals, Cheick Siriman Sissoko on bass and Makan Camara on drums. The album’s liner notes state that the group is a power trio on the level of Cream or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It’s a claim that’s basically impossible to live up to, despite the group’s proficiency – although Hendrix’s legacy can be heard very clearly in Konaté’s solos. Over the entire album, the Malianness seems to decrease: for the first five

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or so tracks the sound is very rooted in Mande styles, but by the end the tracks are straight-up rock. The two aren’t blended as well as they could be, though a low-level reggae does permeate throughout to good effect.

Guinean guitarist Moh! Kouyaté

JIM HICKSON

TRACK TO TRY Dangai

Moh! Kouyaté Loundo (Un Jour) Foli Son (69 mins)

★★★★★

Engaging debut from Guinean exclamation-mark lover Moh! (sic) Kouyaté was given his first guitar by his grandmother in the Guinean capital Conakry, where he grew up, while his father guided his first instrumental steps. But the gangly and elegant musician is a driven, self-taught artist who struck his own path between traditional chords and the funk, soul and blues he picked up in the melting pots of Conakry and Paris. For years, his guitar licks backed the vocals of Fatoumata Diawara and the ngoni (lute) magic of Ba Cissoko. Loundo is Moh!’s first solo foray and the accomplished guitar solos make these 16 tracks an easy listening experience. Yet the result remains somewhat vacuous, with a sense of déjà entendu. The 38-year-old’s messages in halfa-dozen languages are engaged and upbeat, describing life in exile, Guineans struggling for a better society, hoping that one day (Loundo) life will improve. Laudable as the messages are, the music brings little that is new or original. The album could have been released at the same time as Mory Kanté’s historic 1987 track, ‘Yéké Yéké’. It leaves this listener frustrated. Songs such as ‘Iya Ti Ara’ and ‘Yarré’ manage to gel the variety of influences together but too little to leave any real mark. DANIEL BROWN

TRACK TO TRY Yarré

Malawi Mouse Boys Forever is 4 You IRL (35 mins)

★★★★★

Frustratingly small cheese crumbs from the rodent lads This could just as well be by a Malawi Mouse Boy, rather than Boys, as the music is so minimalist on

Hugues Anhès

percussion sounds like a promising combination – one with shades, perhaps, of France’s noble Hadouk Trio or the beautiful AfroScandinavian band, Monoswezi. The Ivorian Aly Keïta is certainly a master of his own creation, a chromatic balafon, and he has played with the likes of Joe Zawinul and Omar Sosa. Percussionist Lucas Niggli and clarinettist Jan Galega Brönnimann are two Swiss childhood friends who were both born in Cameroon, and who both have impressive jazz credentials. A marriage made in heaven then? Alas, not altogether. There are moments of meditative beauty, on ‘Mamabamako’ for example, but too often, as in ‘Makuku’ or ‘Bean Bag’, a promising intro seems to quicken into an improvisational riff devoid of direction and melodic interest. To untutored Western ears, it sounds as strenuous as an accompaniment to a piece of Japanese Noh theatre. Without the focus and the inspiration of the Hadouk Trio or the World Kora Trio, the overall effect can become as wearisome as certain free jazz. It’s a shame, because tracks like ‘Abidjan Serenade’ suggest what this particular trio are capable of concocting for future delectation.

these very brief tracks. The presence of a chunky, organic bass sound was a crucial ingredient of their last album Dirt is Good (reviewed in #99), but it’s now sadly absent on these very lo-fi sessions. In fact, there’s barely more than a single thin-sounding guitar present on most of this third album’s songs, the majority of group activities largely being restricted to vocals and percussion. There’s nothing necessarily amiss with this, except that the general delivery is rickety in the extreme, with scraps of songs curtailed not for dynamic punch, but just simply because they’ve run out of energy and ideas. The performances on some of the songs are reasonable, but there are frequent diversions into pieces that feature shrieks, rattling, chanting and rodent impersonations, or amplified interior guitar bangs, with distorted vocal waspimpersonations. These oddball strategies are certainly brave, only they end up sounding like messing around rather than inspired invention. Towards the end, there are returns to the Malawi Mouse Boys’ familiar gospel a capella and mento-influenced styles. The best songs are ‘Ndiyenda Nkuunika’, with a scratchy guitar sound pushed up to the edge of quietened distortion, and ‘Ndili Ndi Nyumba’. But there’s also ‘Ndatopa Nawe’, sounding as if its vocal melody and chord shapes are being worked out on the hoof, and ‘Kuthoza’, with irritating vocal wind-effects.

Mbaraka Mwinshehe & Orchestra Super Volcano Zanzibara 9: Masika, Un Souffle Frais de Tanzanie (1972-74) Buda Musique (2 CDs, 110 mins)

★★★★★

Super Volcano? Lava-ly! Following up the very different, and rather sinuous taarab music showcased on volume 8 of Buda’s excellent Zanzibara series devoted to the popular musics of coastal East Africa, this volume again focuses on Tanzania, which also got good coverage on volume 7. However, while Zanzibara 7 profiled two great Tanzanian rumba bands active in the late 1980s, this offers just one from the early 70s, so you don’t get such a diversity of grooves and tunes. Surprisingly, considering the difficulty such bands had in getting enough proper instruments at the time, Orchestra Super Volcano had a fine brass section, whose players often break free for solos, sparring with each other or the chorus singers. The orchestra had plenty of memorable songs under the helm of bandleader Mbaraka Mwinshehe, whose story is told in the decent liner notes, which include an interview with Kulwa Salum, with whom Mwinshehe cut his musical teeth.

MARTIN LONGLEY

JON LUSK

TRACK TO TRY Ndiyenda Nkuunika

TRACK TO TRY Masika Mtindo Mpya

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ESSENTIAL

TOUAREG ALBUMS

With Bombino, one of the Sahara’s latest bright young Touareg stars adorning this issue’s cover (featured on p26), Nigel Williamson selects ten albums that best showcase the inimitable Touareg desert groove sound

01 Alhousseini Anivolla Anewal (Riverboat Records, 2012)

The Etran Finatawa guitarist and singer’s first solo album told of a personal journey from the desert to the city and the world stage – and back again as he returned to Niger to herd animals in the desert. Deeply evocative and imbued with a subtle dignity, the set’s effectiveness lies in the simplicity of its adherence to the core elements of the timeless desert blues sound. Reviewed in #87.

02 Bombino Nomad (Nonesuch, 2013)

Touareg desert blues goes psychedelic on Bombino’s third album. Produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys in Nashville, Nomad finds the singer-guitarist transcending the familiar Tinariwen palette with the addition of keyboards, vibes and even lap steel, although it’s Bombino’s rock heft and vaguely Hendrixlike guitar playing that holds centre stage. A Top of the World in #92. Read more on p26.

03 Etran Finatawa Desert Crossroads (World Music Network, 2008)

The Niger-based Etran Finatawa comprises members of two tribes – Touareg and Wodaabe – the latter adding rich variation to the familiar nomadic desert blues template. The guitars and rhythms are mostly classic Touareg, but the Wodaabe influence is heard in the warmth of the contrapuntal vocals and gentle pulses of percussion. A Top of the World in #52.

04 Faris Mississippi to Sahara (Wrasse, 2015)

Born to a Touareg mother and European father, Faris creates 98 S O N G L I N E S

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intriguing versions of classic American blues songs, by translating the lyrics into Tamasheq and introducing slide guitar into the desert blues, he takes them back to their spiritual home in West Africa. A Top of the World album in #111, it has also been nominated in the Songlines Music Awards 2016 (see p25).

05 Kel Assouf Tin Hinane (Igloo, 2010)

Formed in Brussels in 2006 by musicians from Niger, Kel Asouf represent the sound of a new Touareg generation, as familiar with the hyper-modern tumult of the urban jungle as the eternal peace of the desert. Rock drums and slashing guitar riffs combine with traditional Tamasheq chants and cosmopolitan touches of reggae, Afrobeat and even salsa. Reviewed in #97.

06 Tamikrest Chatma (Glitterbeat, 2013)

Driven out of Mali and into exile in Algeria by Islamist extremists, Tamikrest’s third album was heavily influenced by the conflict but took as its uplifting theme the courage of Touareg women in the face of suffering and adversity (Chatma translates as ‘Sisters’). Built around jagged guitar lines and inspirational vocals, the approach ranges thrillingly from the traditional to the experimental. A Top of the World in #96.

07 Tartit Ichichila

(Network Medien, 2000) This is one of the first recordings of a Touareg band to reach the West; a beguilingly minimalist collection by the all-female vocal group Tartit. Led by Fadimata Walett Oumar (known as ‘Disco’ and who recently featured in the documentary They Will Have to Kill Us First), their trance-like call-and-response vocals are

accompanied by tinde drums and handclaps with splashes of guitar from Mohamed Issa Ag Oumar, who went on to form Imarhan.

08 Terakaft Kel Tamasheq (World Village, 2012)

An offshoot from the mighty Tinariwen tap-root, Terakaft recorded this album in Bamako with producer Justin Adams bringing his experience to the table and friends from Lo’Jo adding female vocals and violin. Recorded in Bamako shortly before Islamist extremists overran northern Mali, their desert blues is supplemented by an upbeat ‘Say it Loud, We’re Tamasheq and Proud’ spirit. Reviewed in #87.

09 Tinariwen Aman Iman (Independiente, 2007)

The daddy of all the Touareg guitar bands, by the time of their third album, Tinariwen had toured the world and were rocking righteously. Producer Justin Adams put the emphasis firmly on the guitars and the funkiness of the rhythms, bringing them to the attention of a new indie rock audience that thought it didn’t even like ‘world music.’ A Top of the World in #42.

10 Toumast Ishumar (Real World, 2007) Led by former Tinariwen member Moussa Ag Keyna and featuring the haunting vocals of his niece Aminatou Goumar, Toumast’s debut hardly broke new ground; but with the assistance of French producer Dan Levy, the élan with which they essay the trademark hypnotic grooves of Touareg guitar music makes Ishumar a classic of the genre. Reviewed in #44.

+ LET US KNOW Have any other suggestions? Write and let us know letters@songlines.co.uk

W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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