Music of Angola

Manuel Diogo mixes traditional and contemporary Angolan gospel music: he blends recognisable gospel sounds – from the harmonies of African choirs to modern R&B-inspired crooning – with Angolan dance music such as semba and rebita, as well as with folk styles and a liberal dose of reggae here and there. The overall feel of the album is happy and light-hearted. It is very cheesy, but often endearingly so, with Casio synthesizer sounds and drum machines aplenty. As you’d expect of a gospel album, matters of God are at the forefront of most tracks.

The album has a bit of a wobble just before the end – a couple of unoriginal and uninspired international-gospel tracks with some dubious tunings – before the last track of the set gets back on form and back to Angola with a bright and soukous-like jive. The liner notes are a little vague on whether Diogo is leading a group here or whether it's more of a one-man-band operation, but the music he creates is as unpretentious as you can get. This is unashamedly sunny music from a man who knows what he likes singing about.