Reviews

Tsapiky! Modern Music from Southwest Madagascar

VARIOUS ARTISTS

You only need listen to a couple of seconds of tsapiky to hear that it’s a party. The style (which...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

New African Orleans

Alune Wade

On his sixth album, this bass-playing son of a 60s Senegalese brass-band star sets out “westward [to] begin a musical...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

Ma Gitala

Madalitso Band

It’s been a while since we last had a record from our favourite Malawian busking duo, but Madalitso Band are...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

Chule Chule Iwe

Gasper Nali

Gasper Nali’s third album arrives six years after the previous Zoona Malawi and continues his singular musical journey from the...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

Balabeatz

Kanazoé Orkestra

It’s the fourth album in almost ten years for this band created in Toulouse when balafon virtuoso Seydou Diabaté and...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

Sogolo

WITCH

WITCH – the beating heart of Zambia’s Zamrock sound – are back. The 2023 release of Zango (reviewed in Songlines...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

Tiya

Queen Lilas

Singer, pianist and composer Lilas Lafleur cut her musical teeth as a backing singer for her uncle, Congolese soukous guitar...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

December/Sedimonthole

Thaba

Founded by the late South African singer-songwriter Khusi Seremane and US producer and musician Gabriel Cyr, Thaba includes musicians from...

Reviewed in issue July/2025

Independance

Mário Lúcio

Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) is one of the world’s youngest nations, coming into being in 1975 upon gaining independence from...

Reviewed in issue June/2025

Live in Basel

Baba Sissoko & Mediterranean Blues

Baba Sissoko’s sound is unashamedly grounded in the classic sounds of Chicago blues pioneered by the likes of Muddy Waters...

Reviewed in issue June/2025