![Album Review: Gentleman’s Dub Club – Down to Earth [Easy Star Records; March 2021]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/gentlamans-dub-club-down-to-heart-cover-335x335.jpg)
Leeds’ king-sized dub ensemble Gentleman’s Dub Club are in partnership with Easy Star Records on their next album Down to Earth. The album’s defining characteristics are traditional reggae with contemporary modifications for a brighter listening experience. ‘Castle in the Sky’ serves as one of the standout performances from the album, featuring...
Album Review
Articles![Album Review: Madlib – Sound Ancestors [Madlib Invazion Records; January 2021]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/madlib-sound-ancestors-cover-335x335.jpg)
Those who tend to think of Madlib as curator will find plenty to like here, and that he’s helped along by Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet just adds to the sense of exploration- with a title like Sound Ancestors, a little sonic archaeology is to be expected. While he may...
Hard to believe that such a dire and dramatic year could inspire such an abundance of remarkable albums. Or maybe, on the contrary, the multitude of emotions sparked by the pandemic and our new life’s circumstances might have been the main reasons why musicians were able to write, record and...
![Album Review: Oumou Sangaré – Acoustic [No Format!; June 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/oumou-sangare-acoustic-cover-335x335.jpg)
Acoustic is a rootsy reimagining of Malian superstar Oumou Sangaré’s 2017 album Mogoya, but where Mogoya used a palette of beats and synths, Acoustic says more with less. Opening with ‘Kamelemba’, a song of counsel warning women away from sweet talkers and playboys, Oumou’s majestic voice converses with the jittery...
![Album Review: Songhoy Blues – Optimisme [Transgressive Records; October 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/songhoy-blues-optimisme-cover-335x335.jpg)
Songhoy Blues stay true to form with bold third LP Optimisme – released via Transgressive Records. If there is one thing the world needs right now – not least the beleaguered music industry – it is hope. Desert Blues luminaries Songhoy Blues seek to deliver just that with their third...
![Album Review: Bab L’Bluz – Nayda! [Real World Records; July 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bab-lbluz-cover-335x335.jpg)
This is a very exciting debut album by French-Moroccan band Bab L’Bluz. Lead singer Yousra Mansour and multi-instrumentalist Brice Bottin recently learned the awashi and guembri (sintir/bass lute) while exploring their love of Gnawa music and ended up in a four-piece psychedelic blues rock band. It really is much more...
![Album Review: Nubya Garcia – SOURCE [Concord Jazz; August 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/nubya-garcia-source-335x335.jpg)
SOURCE is the first long player by tenor saxophonist and one of London’s young jazz luminaries Nubya Garcia. London has been the campus for what has been happening in jazz lately, and the hothouse of Tomorrow’s Warriors and Trinity Laban Conservatoire along with nights like Jazz Re:freshed and Church of...
![Album Review: Ghetto Kumbé – Ghetto Kumbé [ZZK Records; July 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ghetto-kumbe-album-cover-335x335.jpg)
Ghetto Kumbé is an example of an act that dares to lead with striking visuals, and doesn’t disappoint with striking music to match. Formed in Colombia by three seasoned performers – singer El Guajiro and percussionists Chongo and Doctor Keyta – they have cultivated an enticing Afrofuturistic sound and image...
![Album Review: Ammar 808 – Global Control / Invisible Invasion [Glitterbeat Records; September 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ammar-808-invisible-invasion-cover-335x335.jpg)
Electronic music has always been a soft target for the purists. To use an ex-colleague (jazz guitarist, quelle surprise)’s metaphor, the fundamental difference between a handcrafted armchair and a cheap mass-produced imitation is the latter’s lack of the most universal characteristic known as ‘human element’. Or a human error –...
![Album Review: Duma – Duma [Nyege Nyege Tapes; August 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/dum-cover-335x335.jpg)
When Venom’s legendary album Black Metal came out in 1982, ‘black’ meant two things: a vague reference to Old Nick himself and a fashion statement. Not one metalhead could have foreseen that it would be in – of all places – Nairobi where the mosh pits would be heaving with headbangers...