Three months ago, we had the pleasure and thrill to host them on the Epic Dalston stage. Having known them and enjoyed their music, it’s almost inevitable to recommend anyone to attend their gigs. So, don’t make any plans for the 4th of August, you should even postpone your holidays...
Tag Archives: Afro-Funk
Originally formed in 1966 in the coastal town of Cotonou, Orchestre Poly Rythmo became one of Benin’s finest exports and, consequently, a flagbearer for African music. With their exuberant brand of afro-funk and party fuelled soukous, their sound and their on-stage energy defy their advancing years. Thanks in no small...
![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...
Awesome Tapes from Africa’s Brian Shimkovitz has done a brilliant job over the past seven years or so of bringing new life to legendary artists whose genre-shifting music has often been lost in the sea of modern sounds. One of these prolific musicians is Ethiopian Hailu Mergia, the keyboard and accordion...
For over 40 years, Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou have been producing their own indomitable brand of voodoo-infused Afro-beat, heavily tinged with highlife and soukous accents. Having disbanded sometime in the mid-eighties, like many other long lost doyens of tribal African dance music, they were rediscovered in the early part...
Mokoomba are the biggest band in Zimbabwe, achieving global recognition, with their breakthrough album Rising Tide. Five years on, with an established global fan base after playing in over 40 countries, they’ve released their self-produced third album, Luyando (Out Here Records). Attracting glowing reviews, the album blends their pan-African sound with traditional...
K.O.G & the Zongo Brigade is Afro-fusion in the truest sense of the word: “you can call us Afrofusionists! Think about African music and fuse it with every other genre you know in the world” said Kweku, founder member of the band, in our recent interview. He originally comes from...
It’s Friday, so…roll out the red carpet for the weekend and get up-close and personal with the dance floor at the best music party in town! You’ll be dancing the night away to the uplifting West African vibes performed by London-based 5-piece band Afriquoi, entrancing Afro-electro grooves chosen and mixed...
You might think a 9-piece band is overwhelming by definition. So try to imagine a 9-piece band playing Ghanaian highlife, Nigerian afrobeat, West African rhythms and mixing them all with a UK multicultural urban approach. It goes without saying that Friday’s K.O.G. & the Zongo Brigade show at Jazz Café will...
![Album Review: Arat Kilo – Nouvelle Fleur [Eklektik, 27th May 2016]](http://www.rhythmpassport.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/003d9262-335x335.jpeg)
If you’ve never listened to ethio-jazz, a genre very popular in the bars and hotels of Addis Ababa during the 1960s and ’70s, Arat Kilo’s new album Nouvelle Fleur could be the perfect introduction. The Parisian band, whose name comes from a famous monument in the Ethiopian capital, brought into...
