![Album Review: Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers – Vodou Alé [Les Disques Bongo Joe; May 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/chouk-bwa-vodou-ale-cover-335x335.jpg)
Vodou Alé (Les Disques Bongo Joe) is not simply inspired by the ritualistic archetype that is voodoo, in fact, it is the perfect antidote to this esoteric paradigm of the Haitian tradition. Native to Haiti itself, Chouk Bwa are first-hand practitioners of the vodou faith of west African descent, their music...
Album Review
Articles![Album Review: Mungo’s Hi-Fi x Marina P – Soul Radio [Scotch Bonnet Records; August 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mungo-marina-p-soul-radio-cover-335x335.jpg)
For their latest offering, Mungo’s Hi-Fi have collaborated with Paris-based Italian, Marina P and it’s a match made in heaven. Mungo’s have been working together with Marina P since around 2007. The jazz influenced singer is a big attraction to the Scottish sound system crew, who travelled to the French...
![Album Review: Alhousseini Anivolla & Girum Mezmur – Afropentatonism [Piranha Records; July 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/anivolla-afropentatonism-cover-335x335.jpg)
It was a breath of fresh air to receive this excellent album to review. Set against a background of recent unrest in Ethiopia triggered by the killing of controversial musician Haacaaluu Hundeessa in Addis Ababa on 29th June this year, the album Afropentatonism (out in early July on Piranha Records) by...
![Album Review: Orkesta Mendoza – Curandero [Glitterbeat Records; April 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/orkesta-mendoza-curandero-cover-335x335.jpg)
How best to shake off the dust from down Calexico way? Sergio Mendoza has the answer- give your listeners a good time to rival tequila as Mexico’s best export, as on Curandero. What follows is perhaps best described as a more authentic take on the faux-Tex/Mex border radio sound (at...
![Album Review: Populous – W [Wonderwheel Recordings; May 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/populous-w-cover-335x335.jpg)
It doesn’t need to be International Women’s Day to release an album fully dedicated and committed to women. As shown by its cover, a feminine, voluptuous and “very Populous” interpretation of Raphael’s The School of Athens (or a more contemporary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘s cover) portraying music characters who have populated the...
![Album Review: Lokkhi Terra – Cubangla [Funkiwala Records; June 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/lokkhi-terra-cubangla-cover-335x335.jpg)
Mother Africa’s children do her proud once more in spreading her spirit across what is a rather large diaspora, considering she spent rather a long time beside humanity’s cradle. And just at the moment where it needs some cajoling to get up and stop feeling sorry for itself, in steps...
![Album Review: Lido Pimienta – Miss Colombia [ANTI-; April 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/lido-pimienta-miss-colombia-cover-335x335.jpg)
What if Frida Kahlo did Instagram? Or if Sun Ra gave cumbia the astral treatment? Well it would probably look and sound like Lido Pimienta and her grower of a new album, Miss Colombia. The title is a reference to the super awkward Miss Universe moment of 2015, when the...
![Album Review: Santrofi – Alewa [Outhere Records; April 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/santrofi-alewa-cover-335x335.jpg)
Here to revive the golden era of highlife, box-fresh 8-piece Santrofi bridge the mid-century sound of Ghana with polished afrobeat and an azonto attitude (more on that later.) Assembled around bass player Emmanuel Ofori, whose credentials include playing with elders Ebo Taylor, and Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band, the...
![Album Review: TootArd – Migrant Birds [Glitterbeat Records; May 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/tootard-migrant-birds-335x335.jpg)
Tootard is one of my favourite bands, their combination of Middle Eastern tonalities: the maqqam scales, with Caribbean reggae and western funk and disco – is not only original, but innovative. Migrant Birds is their third studio album, out on the hit churners Glitterbeat Records. The brother duo Hasan and...
![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...