![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
Articles![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...
![Album Review: Satori Vs. Dr Echo – Dub Defender Sessions [Anicca Records; May 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/satori_va_dr_echo_-_dub_defender_sessions-2048x2048-335x335.jpg)
Back in 2005 reggae enthusiast and experimental artist Steven Jess Borth II founded Satori. Soon after the band’s debut album, Savor Every Moment came out, Borth began collaborating with sound engineer and fellow Californian, Justin De Hart (aka Dr. Echo). Borth is currently based in Denmark while De Hart resides...
![Album Review: Koichi Sakai feat. Afla Sackey – Wono LP [Olindo Records; March 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/koichi-wono-cover-335x335.jpg)
Moved by the love for both electronic and West-African music, Koichi Sakai joins forces with Ghana-born percussionist Afla Sackey in a synth infused, hip-wriggling psych take on West-African flavours. Wono is a seven track LP spanning from acid inspired slow house, to meditative kora-based tracks. Reminiscent of the psychedelic atmosphere of...
![Album Review: The Colours That Rise – Grey Doubt [Rhythm Section INTL; May 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/thecoulourthatrise-greydoubt-335x335.jpg)
If ever there was one cultural movement that pushed back the frontiers of black identity, it was Afrofuturism. Inspiring generations of musicians to come up with ingenious, edifying narratives, it gave us Drexciya – an advanced underwater civilization built by the offspring of African women thrown off the slave ships...
![Album Review: The Sorcerers – In Search of The Lost City of The Monkey God [ATA Records; January 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/the-sorcerers-335x335.jpg)
Jazz music has a long and fruitful relationship with the world of cinematography. Since the advent of sound-on-film, enterprising directors have recruited from a pantheon of jazz virtuosos to provide fittingly atmospheric scores for iconic feature films. From the timeless works of Duke Ellington and Henri Mancini to John Coltrane...
![Album Review: Tamikrest – Tamotaït [Glitterbeat Records; March 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tamikrest-tamotait-cover-335x335.jpg)
Tamikrest is one of the familiar names to gain international success from the Northern areas of the Sahara desert, spanning Mali to Algeria and more. The centuries old nomadic inhabitants of this unforgiving land are the Tuareg, or (Kel) Tamasheq – such as Tamikrest, and they are a displaced people,...
![Album review: Various – Léve Léve Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds 70s-80s [Les Disques Bongo Joe; January 2020]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/leve-leve-335x335.jpg)
Swiss-based label Les Disques Bongo Joe releases another superbly chosen compilation of African sounds. This time, thanks to the expertise and work of DJ Tom B, they take us to the islands of Sao Tomé and Principe, former Portuguese colonies located off the west coast of Africa. According to the...