Naath

To say that Emmanuel Jal has had a chequered career would be an understatement. A child solider in Sudan, he was adopted by a white British female aid worker and smuggled out to Kenya. There he fell in love with hip-hop and went on to record the 2005 album Ceasefire with Abdel Gadir Salim. The partnership ended in bitter acrimony but Jal went on to become a political activist, speaking at numerous international conferences and symposiums. He was the subject of an award-winning documentary film titled War Child, starred in the movie The Good Lie and moved to Canada, where he has released several further albums on his own Gatwitch Records label.

Now 40, he teams up on his latest release with his sister Nyaruach, with whom he promoted the record with live dates in London last November. It's a rather splendid offering, blending traditional Sudanese rhythms with a banging, contemporary Western rock production that puts Nyaruach's keening vocals to the fore and mostly sidelines Jal's previous hip-hop leanings in favour of a bouncing, bass-heavy Afro-pop exuberance, reminiscent of the 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem ‘Wavin' Flag’ by Somalia's K'naan.