Reviews

'Las Flores Del Sol' immediately evokes memories of the work of the queen of Afro-Colombian music: Toto La Momposina, but thanks to the extensive liner notes by Carlos Blasco Miñana, ethnomusicologist at the University of Bogota, and the anthropologists Denis Laborde and Jaime Andres Salazar (the latter also responsible for the majority of the tracks on the album), one could almost consider 'Las Flores Del Sol' like a mini encyclopedia on everything related to Afro-Colombian culture.

The music addicts among you will undoubtedly already be familiar with John Ayers aka Jstar, as in the recent years the London based DJ collaborated, among others, with Major Lazer, DJ Vadim, Madness and Dub Pistols and with 'Stand To Order' now also finally presents his own solo album.

For 'Honoring The Kings Of Reggae' Suga Roy and Conrad Crystal, joined for the occasion by Zareb, rehash the idea they already came up with in 2009 for 'Suga Roy & Conrad Crystal And The Great Reggae Icons'.

With 'Cats, Dogs And Ghosts' Kottarashky takes us to the imaginary Sofia district in New York, where the soundtrack a mix of Balkan music, rock, blues and jazz.

Yours truly got to know Sudanese-American Sarah Mohamed Abunama-Elgadi aka Alsarah in 2013 thanks to 'Aljawal', a one-off collaborative project with French producer Débruit.

For the successor of 2013's acclaimed 'Mortissa', Çiğdem Aslan slightly shifts the focus from Turkey to Greece, where she took to the legendary Antart studios in Athens where greats like Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hatzidakis also recorded much of their work.

In recent years 'Revolutionary Dream', 'A Song', 'Pave The Way' and 'In The Future', the four albums that still form the foundation of Pablo Moses' discography, were all reissued on CD and vinyl, but for those who do not want to spend the cash to buy them individually, there's now this 'The Revolutionary Years 1975-83'.

For those who in these grey autumn months are still is looking for a ray of sunshine, 'Sonho Real' ("real dream"), Flavia Coelho's third long player, is definitely recommended.

Paul Le Maire aka Volodia made a name for himself as a member of French reggae/hip-hop trio Phases Cachées, but now also presents this solo album.

Six years after 'World Massala' and a serious change in lineup (after the departure of vocalist Romi, the band invited vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Gonçalo Sarmento to join them, and dancer Diana Rego, drummer Márcio Pinto and percussionist Paulo das Cavernas are also new faces) Terrakota returns in style with 'Oxalá'.