Reviews

The first thing we noticed about this new album by Habib Koite is that his longtime backing band Bamada seems to have disappeared into thin air.

The list of musicians with whom Senegal-born Thiecko, himself a former member of the Senegalese formation Amandla, collaborated for 'Stand Tall' is nothing short of impressive: Robbie Shakespeare, Dean Fraser, Glen DaCosta, Bongo Herman, Danny 'Axeman' Thompson, Franklyn 'Bubbler' Waul.

Yours truly got to know Aziza Brahim, residing in Spain but born in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, thanks to her 2012 album 'Mabruk'.

After earning a name for himself alongside Da'Ville as a member of dancehall formation ARP (A Raw Perspective), Mitch (Roger Mitchell) is these days trying it solo and with the six track 'Letters From Kingston' EP (recorded in collaboration with Parisian Undisputed Records) above all else he seems to like to show off his skills: for catchy opener 'Return Of The Mack', Mitch gave Mark Morrison's world hit of the same name a reggae treatment, 'I've Got To Go' clearly has all the trades of a Rihanna tune, 'Mr Collie' is a nice combination with Michael Rose and Cali P, for 'Nice And Slow' he takes the lovers approach and closing track 'Promised Land' even has a Latin vibe going.

For the instrumental album 'Devil's Tale' Canadian guitarist Adrian Raso combined his gypsy jazz guitar style (think Django Reinhardt, who gets a tribute with the song 'Django') with the impressive horns of Romanian Fanfare Ciocarlia.

With this double compilation album compiled for Strut Records by Hugo Mendez (Sofrito), we dive into the history of Haitian compas direct, a genre that is based on traditional Haitian meringue (although musically related, not to be confused with Dominican merengue) and was developed in the 1950s by saxophonist/guitarist Nemours Jean-Baptiste.

Onesty abides us to admit we frankly had never heard of this band from Birmingham.

Viennese singjay Deliman's (born as Christian Lahodynsky) 2011 debut album 'Unconquerable' unfortunately didn't reach us, but we want to draw your attention on to his new release, the five track 'Still Blazing' EP, for which he again joined forces with Austrian Union World Music.

One only needs to listen to the aptly titled 'Latin Piece Of Soul' to realize Setenta paid careful attention to the example set by the greats of the Nuyorican salsa and soul scene (if you like this sound definitely check out the back catalog Fania Records label).

For their new album, 'Lapland-Balkan', Finnish band Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha has immersed itself in the musical traditions of the Balkans resulting in a highly festive blend of Finnish and Balkan elements.