![Album Review: Ibibio Sound Machine – Uyai [Merge Records, 3 March 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/a2574861825_10-335x335.jpg)
Yes, Ibibio Sound Machine are back, with their hotly anticipated second album and they have returned bigger, better, rougher and tougher! It’s three years since the release of the now classic self-titled debut album and Uyai (Merge Records) doesn’t disappoint, laying down 12 tracks of synth-tinged African vibes sweeping from full...
Album Review
Articles![Album Review: Tamikrest – Kidal [Glitterbeat Records, 17th March 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/a2344764365_10-335x335.jpg)
For Glitterbeat Records, Tamikrest’s Kidal represents the perfect balance between the rock and meditative elements. The importance given to the message in the Tamashek language expresses the concerns of a marginalised people. The Tuareg people have a long history of hardship, oppression and insane control of political, economic and religious...
![Album Review: Boogat – Neo-Reconquista [Maisonette Music, 5th May 2015 / 28th March 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/boogat2-335x335.jpg)
Straight out of Canada is Neo-Reconquista, an album (recently re-released in Europe) of Spanish-language big band hip-hop, all rap to the tune of simplistic but well executed instrument playing. Boogat is the MCs name, and protest (but also orchestra music) mostly the game, produced to feel infinitely liberating, music for...
![Album Review: Inna de Yard – The Soul of Jamaica [Chapter Two Records, 10th March 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/163755-335x335.jpg)
Reggae was born as an attempt at offering a mass of people tired of pretending to be a rational, liberal, colonial society, a new direction for feeling and human relations and it provided the cement for a new socios (partnership.) Inna de Yard (inside of the yard,) made of reggae...
![Album Review: Spoek Mathambo – Mzansi Beat Code [Teka Records, 14th April 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/522605831-335x335.jpg)
The first time I heard Spoek Mathambo I was blown away. The dark energy, the powerful beat, the slightly disturbing, distorted voice – his cover of Joy Division’s ’She’s Lost Control’ truly sounded like something new and unexpected. I knew very little of the South African electronic music scene and...
![Album Review: Residente – s/t [Sony Music Latin, 31st March 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/residente_cover_final_bleed-335x343.jpg)
I am writing this review at the Santa Monica Pier in LA, surrounded by sea, sand, a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., street singers of oldies, families, skaters; plunged in living a visually and sonically loud setting. I’ve chosen to pick a shade and to live it until I leave. Others...
![Album Review: Oumou Sangaré – Mogoya [NØ FØRMAT!, 19th May 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/0.46752100-1486119148-335x335.jpg)
Oumou Sangaré was long ago crowned musical royalty in Mali. Known for her formidable vocals and fearless messages, she is celebrated for both her feminine sovereignty and her integral depth of traditional style. In the late 1980s she garnered popularity with her rendition of Wassoulou music, a regional style based...
![Album Review: Omar Sosa & Seckou Keita – Transparent Water [World Village/Harmonia Mundi, 24th February 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/artworks-000190691518-ioy2nx-t500x500-335x335.jpg)
Transparent Water, a meeting between Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa and versatile Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita, is a delightful sounding album that lures the listener into an enchanted sonorous world. Keita has made his mark in recent years as a sensitive collaborator (with Welsh harpist Katrin Finch, for example),...
![Album Review: La Mambanegra – El Callegüeso Y Su Mala Maña [Movimientos Records, 3rd March 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/a3714027671_16-335x335.jpg)
With his characteristic hat and sunglasses comes El Callegüeso (Jacobo Vélez) and his ‘Colombian Break Salsa’. This new release further advances La Mambanegra’s style, featuring a diverse range of artists, along with Colombian orchestral support. A mixture of elements (Latin jazz, rap, bomba style, choruses, solos, tumbaos and ballad) combine...
![Album Review: Alhousseini Anivolla – Osas, It’s Time [Fidjomusic, 8th April 2017]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/17800385_1230826400367474_3309708329543545359_n-335x346.jpg)
Former Tinariwen & Etran Finatawa guitarist and vocalist Alhousseini Anivolla is a self-proclaimed ambassador for cultural diversity in a changing world; a nomad whose experiences inspire and inform his song writing. This second solo album Osas – It’s Time is simple in both concept and execution. Stripped down production and...