![Album Review: Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela – Rejoice [World Circuit Records; March 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/allen-masekela-rejoice-335x335.jpg)
With the very recent passing of Tony Allen, this set of recordings has special significance. He and South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela had been planning on making a record together for years and in 2010 this finally was about to become a reality. Producer Nick Gold got the two titans...
Album Review
Articles![Album Review: Satori Vs. Dr Echo – Dub Defender Sessions [Anicca Records; May 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/satori_va_dr_echo_-_dub_defender_sessions-2048x2048-335x335.jpg)
Back in 2005 reggae enthusiast and experimental artist Steven Jess Borth II founded Satori. Soon after the band’s debut album, Savor Every Moment came out, Borth began collaborating with sound engineer and fellow Californian, Justin De Hart (aka Dr. Echo). Borth is currently based in Denmark while De Hart resides...
![Album Review: Koichi Sakai feat. Afla Sackey – Wono LP [Olindo Records; March 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/koichi-wono-cover-335x335.jpg)
Moved by the love for both electronic and West-African music, Koichi Sakai joins forces with Ghana-born percussionist Afla Sackey in a synth infused, hip-wriggling psych take on West-African flavours. Wono is a seven track LP spanning from acid inspired slow house, to meditative kora-based tracks. Reminiscent of the psychedelic atmosphere of...
![Album Review: The Colours That Rise – Grey Doubt [Rhythm Section INTL; May 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/thecoulourthatrise-greydoubt-335x335.jpg)
If ever there was one cultural movement that pushed back the frontiers of black identity, it was Afrofuturism. Inspiring generations of musicians to come up with ingenious, edifying narratives, it gave us Drexciya – an advanced underwater civilization built by the offspring of African women thrown off the slave ships...
![Album Review: The Sorcerers – In Search of The Lost City of The Monkey God [ATA Records; January 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/the-sorcerers-335x335.jpg)
Jazz music has a long and fruitful relationship with the world of cinematography. Since the advent of sound-on-film, enterprising directors have recruited from a pantheon of jazz virtuosos to provide fittingly atmospheric scores for iconic feature films. From the timeless works of Duke Ellington and Henri Mancini to John Coltrane...
![Album Review: Tamikrest – Tamotaït [Glitterbeat Records; March 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tamikrest-tamotait-cover-335x335.jpg)
Tamikrest is one of the familiar names to gain international success from the Northern areas of the Sahara desert, spanning Mali to Algeria and more. The centuries old nomadic inhabitants of this unforgiving land are the Tuareg, or (Kel) Tamasheq – such as Tamikrest, and they are a displaced people,...
![Album review: Various – Léve Léve Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds 70s-80s [Les Disques Bongo Joe; January 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/leve-leve-335x335.jpg)
Swiss-based label Les Disques Bongo Joe releases another superbly chosen compilation of African sounds. This time, thanks to the expertise and work of DJ Tom B, they take us to the islands of Sao Tomé and Principe, former Portuguese colonies located off the west coast of Africa. According to the...
![Album Review: Simo Lagnawi & Gnawa London – Africa Soyo [February 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/simolagnawi-soyo-cover-1-335x335.jpg)
In recent decades, the music of the Gnawa has transitioned from a repertoire of ritualistic trance-inducing songs – performed exclusively for the adherents of its night-long healing ceremonies – to a more profane yet equally transfixing professional type of music, played on festival stages and in venues the world over. Due not...
![Album Review: The Leonard Simpson Duo – LSD [Jakarta Records; January 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/leonard-simpson-lsd-cover-335x335.jpg)
Take one long-time, respected Detroit hip hop rapper (Guilty Simpson) and mix with one awarding-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist from New Zealand (Leonard Charles), and what do you get? The Leonard Simpson Duo who, with a convenient acronym, have synthesised LSD (released on 31st January 2020 on Jakarta Records). The pair...
![Album Review: Derek Gripper – A Year of Swimming [New Cape Records; April 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/derek-gripper-a-year-of-swimming-cover-335x335.jpg)
In keeping with the traditional, classical style guitar techniques, Derek Gripper, once again, respectfully represents the quintessence of a traditional West African kora. Derek utilises his classically trained handiwork in favour of this tradition, of which the album delivers generously. The rhythmical complexities and soulful embellishments akin to the West...
