![Album Review: Throes + The Shine – Wanga [Discotexas, 19 May 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/dt064_-_throes___the_shine_-_wanga_2016_cover-335x335.jpg)
Is Throes + The Shine’s new release for Discotexas actually a wanga, as proposed by the album’s title? A wanga is a spell in kimbundo language. One would imagine that an album that is a wanga would have to obsess the listener to the point where both the listener’s conscious...
Album Review
Articles![Album Review: Various Artists – Space Echo, The Mystery Behind The Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde Finally Revealed [Analog Africa, 27th May 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/a0834826493_10-335x335.jpg)
“The cosmic sound of Cabo Verde” arises when the Western African archipelago’s lush musical culture meets the instruments of electronic music. Legend has it that this all began one early morning at the end of the ‘60s, when the villagers of the São Nicolau island found a ship stranded in...
![Album Review: M.A.K.U. Soundsystem – Mezcla [Glitterbeat Records, 27th May 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/maku-sound-system-mezcla-2400-335x335.jpg)
When we think of music from the heart, of unified voices that sing from the spirit, of souls in search of their roots and identity, we think of M.A.K.U. Soundsystem. “We’re that mixture, inescapable mixture” the group rightfully claims. With vibrating grooves and frantic afro-beats, the indigenous life experiences of...
![Album Review: Giuliano Gabriele – Madre (The Hypnotic Dance’s Time) [iCompany, 2015]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/giulianogabriele1-335x302.jpg)
Madre (“mother” in Italian) is the second album by Italo-French artist Giuliano Gabriele, one of the leading figures of today’s Italian folk music renaissance. Madre is much more than a folk album though. It is rock, progressive, jazz; it is an experimental and contemporary take on old, long-standing musical traditions. The album...
![Album Review: Derek Gripper – Libraries on Fire [New Cape Records, 27th May 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/a3820611101_10-335x335.jpg)
With Libraries on Fire South African musician Derek Gripper brings us a new album of kora music transcribed for solo classical guitar, as he treads along the tricky line between homage and re-interpretation, showcasing a great deal of virtuosity and creative flair along the way. Gripper manages the distinctive bass lines...
![Album Review: Family Atlantica – Cosmic Unity [Soundway, 13th May 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20160301102836-35e07520-3b01-4cb6-8bfd-f5309380c774-335x332.jpg)
Family Atlantica is ‘London’s musical melting pot at it’s very best’ according to reviews from The Guardian. The band, which consists of London-born multi-instrumentalist Jack Yglesias, Venezuelan vocalist Luzmira Zerpa, and half-Nigerian, half-Ghanian percussionist Kwame Crentsil, started out in an abandoned vicarage in Hackney, East London, before winning fans over with...
![Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate – Monistic Theory [Cumbancha, 13th May 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/a1477222035_10-335x335.jpg)
Joe Driscoll is a rapper originating from Syracuse, New York. He is well versed in a number of instruments and produces songs that are a blend of funk, folk and hip-hop. Sekou Kouyate is a master kora player from Guinea who plays Mandingue music, the traditional music of ethnically Mandingue Africans....
![Album Review: La Mambanegra – La Galeria [Afropicks, 21st January 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/12548885_728731533924299_3410603655503218173_n-335x335.jpg)
La Mambanegra, the excellent Colombian dance orchestra is on a mission to, “bring a new concept of salsa and Latin music to the world.” Colombia is the birthplace of the now infamous cumbia that made its way up the Magdalena River to receive an almost mythical status as a musical...
![Album Review: Konono No.1 meets Batida [Crammed Discs, March 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/cram261_cover_lores-335x335.jpg)
The group Konono No.1 and Angola-born, Lisbon-raised, artist Batida, have teamed up and released Konono No.1 meets Batida, an album that is both thought-provoking and also an enjoyable listen. The songs are engaging medleys of electronic instrumentation, along with sounds such as the thumb piano, that we assume that the Congolese listeners would already...
![Album Review: Sk Kakraba – Songs of Paapieye [Awesome Tapes from Africa, 2nd October 2015]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/atfa018lp_coverlowres-335x335.jpg)
Instantly, a mysterious and fascinating percussive sound appears, full of intricate rhythms, low and dense drones, overlapping melodies and bass patterns, all of which signal originality, improvisation, tradition, virtuosity, coherence and expressivity. These are the immediate components that can be heard from Sk Kakraba through his masterful performance of the Gyil xylophone. Gyil performer, builder,...