It’s been a good year for African desert rock. In April, young Tuareg bruisers Tamikrest released their second (and best) album, Toumastin, and now the heavyweight champs Tinariwen are back to deliver a TKO in the form of Tissali, their fifth long-player. The band formed from members...

Produced by Eric Krasno of Soulive, Vieux Farka Touré’s third solo album is both an attempt to join the mainstream and a melancholy search for meaning. The Middle Eastern rhythm of “Ali,” combined with Malian chants and Touré’s sitar-like droning, creates a sad, ambulatory space. Appearances by Derek Trucks, Dave...

The Marley sons know a thing or two about stepping out of the shadow of a famous fatherâ€"so does Femi Kuti. Sometimes it starts with putting together your own band (in this case, The Positive Force), but it’s all rendered pointless if you don’t have a clear vision about where...

Former Transglobal Underground and Temple of Sound main-man Nick Page, aka Count Dubulah, formed Dub Colossus as an outlet for hybrid interaction with Ethiopian musicians he encountered in Addis Ababa in 2006. The resultant debut album, A Town Called Addis, was widely praised for its border-stretching capacities and...

Though he’s been an integral fixture on the music scene in his homeland for years, South African vocalist Vusi Mahlasela first received attention in the United States of America after he sang on fellow countryman Dave Matthews’ smash album Everyday in 1998. A few years later, he met Taj Mahal...

WEEKEND WAYBACK MACHINE"Khala My Friend"from the album Africa1975In recent years, reissues of obscure African LPs have been sprouting from the shelves of in-the-know record shops around the globe. Turned on by the blend of acid-soaked guitar pyrotechnics and traditional grooves, collectors have giddily forked over...

South Africa’s best known iscathamiya (Zulu a cappella) group have worked hard over nearly five decades to keep an ostensibly rather narrow musical palette fresh and appealing, with mixed results. While their contribution to Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland was a commercial and artistic triumph, subsequent pop collaborations at...

Ebo Taylor may be 74-years-old, but he’s one of the great under-acknowledged heroes of West African music, and has at last secured his first solo international album release. 

Ebo’s early work was featured on the excellent Soundway compilation Ghana Special, which included his sturdy, brass-backed Twer Nyame, from back in 1977. He certainly...

An acclaimed musical based on the life of Fela Kuti is set to hit Britain for a one off show.

Fela Kuti is an almost unrivalled musical figure. Already a well known musician in his native Nigeria, the singer had his life changed by the music of James Brown...

At first glance there’s something unassuming and, in some respects, unremarkable about the eighth studio album by this Canadian singer-songwriter. Like many albums from the country and western stable, these neatly manicured songs deal with the usual time-honoured themes and dreams familiar to both lovers and detractors of the genre...