The roses go to Rokia… New on Real World Records and fresh from a coveted Songlines cover, Mali’s Rokia Koné, nicknamed “The Rose of Bamako”, blesses us with BAMANAN, which has been out since February 18th, and is a collaboration realised remotely with Irish super producer Jacknife Lee. Already a...
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Articles
Alabaster DePlume’s warmth shines through on the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2020 album To Cy and Lee but listeners beware: it’s not for the faint-hearted. GOLD is an exploration of being human at a time when love, war, justice, self-care, selfishness and over-sharing compete and collide, showering us with...
Nights don’t come more soulful than this! On Saturday, 7th May, head for Woolwich Works and take a dive into Awale’s funky sound, shaped on afrobeat, highlife, sabar rhythms, Afro-soul, jazz and even Latin influences. The London-based 9-piece band, captained by Senegalese (of Wolof origins) singer/songwriter Biram Seck and French...
The last few years have seen the North East London borough of Walthamstow become a breeding ground for exciting ideas, cultural projects and artistic adventures. One of the most intrepid acts jazzing up the local scene is undoubtedly Addictive TV, an ingenious audio-visual combo of “remixers and electronic artists” who,...
She might have been based in London since she was a teenager and been enriching its music scene since the early 2010s, but Olcay Bayir is still one of the most refined and dedicated interpreters of the Anatolian tradition. Her style is a contemporary take on her Turkish-Kurdish roots. Born...
We’ve had to wait two years, but we will make up for the lost time and fun with interest. After an unexpected and unwanted hiatus, La Linea Festival and its Latin sounds feast is finally back on stage with an intense two-week programme presenting 10 shows around London. From next...
You are always in for a good time with the mighty Parisian electronic music crew! ACID ARAB sets are dynamic and never dull. They’ve brought melismatic vocal samples and instrumentation to heavy bass, deep acid house and all sorts of electronic elements. This being a live set as well, there’ll...
It was over 20 years ago that the sonic video wizards known as Addictive TV started to challenge the music world, hinting at new meanings, suggesting new formats and cultivating new multimedia languages. It was the late 1990s when the London-based audiovisual collective, launched by digital artist and producer Graham...
We are usually a bit sceptical at first when we read about a new African music diva in the making… Many artists have been (willingly or not) conferred that title in recent years, but only a “chosen few” have lived up to the expectations. That’s why whenever we have the...
The end of March saw Juanita Euka release her first self-penned album called Mabanzo with Strut Records. Meaning ‘Thoughts’ in Lingala, it’s a sonic pot of musings. It’s laden with hooks and ever so danceable with a mix of Afro-Latino influence from soukous and son, to rumba and hip-hop. She spells...