Dimbambe: Identité

Affable yet determined, velvet-smooth yet troubled. Such colourful, perhaps contradictory epithets could describe the Cameroonian Mario Combo and his fourth album, which marks 20 years of professional music-making. On Dimbambe the crooner embarks on a quest for self-identity following two decades exploring styles as varied as highlife, North American soul, Congolese rumba and salsa. Some might mistake his style as Cape Verdean or Angolan, given the ubiquitous acoustic guitar playing and Combo's lilting intonations. That would be to forget the influence of one of his country's greats, the much-regretted Eboa Lotin, as well as talented successors such as Donny Elwood and Blick Bassy.

It's Bassy who is, in fact, the backbone of this album: artistic director, composer of all 12 songs, and purveyor of the album's slick guitar licks. Combo delivers his texts in Douala and Bassa languages, singing about hope, love, sincerity and betrayal in a pleasant, if homogenous, set. Yet it is the more urgent and textured song ‘Ewande’ (Fiancé) that stands out: the mask drops as the singer is submerged in melancholy in a song dwelling on fruitless pining for a loved one. A path to explore in Combo's future works, perhaps?