Our “end-of-the-year” lists are not a way to rule what has been good or bad in the previous 365 music days. In fact, since we are music lovers at heart, we love to share and support the albums we like, that hold particular meanings to us or have been more...
Album Review
Articles![Album Review: Aziza Brahim – Sahari [Glitterbeat Records; November 2019]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/aziza-brahim-sahari-cover-335x335.jpg)
Sahari is an exciting new step for Aziza Brahim featuring more electronic elements than her previous two Glitterbeat albums Soutak and Abbar El Hamada. The different soundscapes and instrument arrangements of each track give a coherent arc to the music and storytelling. Unlike her previous albums which were recorded as...
Macumbadaboa, the collaborative release from the afoxe collective Grupo Bongar and music producer DJ Maga Bo is a rootsy and catchy take on African and Brazilian rhythms, steeped in Afro-Brazilian heritage and fused with electronic music. Grupo Bongar are from the Xambá community in the coastal city of Olinda, north-east...
![Album Review: Yelfris Valdés – For the Ones… [Música Macondo Records; October 2019]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/yelfris-valdes-for-the-ones-cover-335x332.jpg)
In the world of music, there is one rags-to-riches story yet to be matched – the most universal rhythmic pattern, today associated with Latin American music, that went by the name of son clave in mid-19th century Cuba, al-thaqil al-awwal in 13th-century Persia, and Konkonkolo in 600 BCE in West-Africa....
![Album Review: Kefaya + Elaha Soroor – Songs of Our Mothers [Bella Union; September 2019]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/kefaya-richmix-335x335.jpg)
This rare treat transitions between Middle Eastern jazz and folk, blending modern dub sounds with traditional sounds from tablas, dolaks and damburas. Each song being led by the powerful vocals of Elaha Soroor, the album is a journey through Afghanistan and beyond. Kefaya got much praise after their first album,...
Garifuna Collective are, as the name neatly explains, a multigenerational musical ‘family’, flying the flag for the Garifuna people, culture and language originating in the West Indies but planted in Belize. New album Aban (Stonetree Music), translating from the indigenous Garifuna language as ‘One’, sums up the call of the record...
![Album Review: Sarathy Korwar – More Arriving [The Leaf Label; July 2019]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/sarathy-korward-more-arriving-cover-335x335.jpg)
On the list of the worst conversation starters, “Where are you from?” would be right up there. Reducing the person to a Lonely Planet cardboard cut-out is one thing, but when the question is prompted by your accent, complexion or general foreignness, it becomes a euphemism for, “You stick out...
![Album Review: Kiki and the Tiger – Wake Me Up / Have You Ever Fell Apart [October 2019]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/kikitiger-cover-335x335.jpg)
The rare decision to release a double single, as opposed to a single or an EP, is perhaps our first hint that Kiki and the Tiger do things a little differently. Heavily influenced by satirical poetic greats, such as Ian Dury, the group formed in Hackney, with the youngest member...
![Album Review: Compro Oro – Suburban Exotica [Sdban Ultra; October 2019]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/compro-ora-suburban-cover-335x335.jpg)
Self-described as “a twang-American psychedelic underground road trip to Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas”, Compro Oro’s Suburban Exotica (out on Belgian label Sdban Ultra) delivers ten tracks of groove music that draw on a multitude of genres. The instrumental album dishes out credible elements of Ethiopian modes and Cuban rumba...
![Album Review: Mateo Kingman – Astro [AYA Records; July 2019]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/kingman-astro-cover-335x335.jpg)
‘Negative capability’ was a concept English Romantic poet John Keats used to describe a writer’s capacity to abandon certainty and – in pursuit of an artistic vision – venture off into the unknown. Taking a journey to Ixtlan rather than returning to Ithaka is what Mateo Kingman’s Astro is all...