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KOKOKO!: BUTU
New album: The brilliant band from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo return with an LP inspired by the vibrant nightlife of that city, the titled translated as ‘the night’ in Lingala language, featuring rawer, more electronic sounds and the commanding lead of vocalist Makara Bianko
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Bab L'Bluz: Swaken
New album: Out last month, a fabulous second LP by the French-Moroccan quartet who fuse traditional with psychedelia, blues and heavy rock with Africa's Maghreb: Gnawa, Amazigh, Hassani and Houara music
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Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull The Rope
New album: Another cracking release by the London collective fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, a catchy, infectious concoction of Afrobeat, funk, disco, pysch and electronica, with punchy, enticing beats and grooves
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Mdou Moctar: Funeral For Justice
New album: After 2021’s acclaimed Afrique Victime album, the brilliant Tuareg guitarist and band band from Agadez, Niger, return with explosive, powerful, emotive numbers, impassioned songs about his culture and social wrongs, wrapped in a frenzy of drums, guitars, bass and vocals
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Leyla McCalla: Sun Without The Heat
New album: A deliciously uplifting fifth solo LP by the American singer-songwriter and mult-instrumentalist, fusing folk, country, Americana, Afrobeat to Brazilian tropicalismo
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Half a century: Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, a Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit
New album: Celebrating 50 years of recording, the veteran Chicago jazz percussionist and vocalist returns in his trio of sax and trumpet, and here also with strings, brings his rich vocal tones and infectious with a selection of classics and originals
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Africatown, AL: Ancestor Sounds
New album: A beautifully evocative, documentary compilation of anonymous spontaneous performances and field recordings from descendants of slaves in a northern section of the city of Mobile, Alabama, one of the last places in the US to receive slave ships
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Les Amazones d'Afrique: Musow Danse
New album: A joyous, vibrant, powerful, life-affirming third LP by the West African Mali collective female artists, mixing traditional, rich African vocal harmonies with electronica, dance, funk and folk of course no shortage of feminist fervour
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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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Part 1 selection of 2023 favourite albums
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
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Bex Burch: There Is Only Love and Fear
New album: Charming eccentric, experimental debut by the Leeds-raised Berlin-based composer, percussionist, producer and instrument maker whose LP conjures up delicate, rhythmic African-inflected jazz-folk-traditional magic with variety of acoustic-instrument collaborators alongside her very own handmade xylophone
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Flamingods: Head of Pomegranate
New album: The eclectic London band of abundant upbringings and influences from Bahrain to Dubai, Albania, Italy and Saudi Arabia return with a heady, upbeat mix of Afro-electro synth pop, krautrock, funk, disco and alt-rock psychedelia
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WaqWaq Kingdom: Hot Pot Totto
New album: Quirky, itchily inventive and eccentric, a wondrous fusion of electronica, African tribal rhythms, Jamaican dancehall, other genres and traditional instruments by the Japanese “minyo footwork” duo of Shigeru Ishihara (DJ Scotch Egg / Seefeel) and Kiki Hitomi in an LP of frenetic fun and ecological anxiety
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Yussef Dayes: Black Classical Music
New album: Taking a title cue from Miles Davis, a brilliant, landmark 19-track debut LP by the supremely gifted British jazz drummer variously exploring and re-interpreting many sides of 70s funk, reggae and afrobeat, joined by a stellar group of musicians and vocalists
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The posthumous Jamie Branch album and the third in the Fly or Die series
New album: A posthumous release for the brilliantly innovative New York Chicago-raised jazz trumpeter with punk ethic or died last year aged just 39, with wonderful experimental sounds following 2017’s Fly Or Die and 2019’s Fly Or Die II – Bird Dogs of Paradise albums
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Mokoomba: Tusona - Tracings In The Sand
New album: A gloriously uplifting new release by the collective from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, joined by the horns of Ghanaian highlife band Santrofi in celebratory songs inspired by Makisi dance gatherings and sung in various languages - Tonga, Luvale, Shona, Nyanja and even Lingala
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Meshell Ndegeocello: The Omnichord Real Book, out on Blue Note
New album: Classy, supercool and stylish, the revered German-born American bassist and vocalist returns with an album of distinctive and varied fusion of funk, jazz, Afrobeat, electronica and hip hop with a variety of distinctive guests
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WITCH are back with Zango, their first album since 1984
New album: After a whopping 38 years’ absence, Zambia’s pioneers of zamrock (their name an acronym We Intend To Cause Havoc) return with their heady and wonderful mix of psychedelic rock, reggae, Afrobeat and funk
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Desert meets country: Tinariwen’s Amatssou
New album: A fabulous new release by the north Mali nomadic group whose distinctive Tuareg Saharan desert blues is beautifully combined with a country style, with added pedal steel and violin, and a title that is is Tamashek for ‘Beyond The Fear’
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Fatoumata Diawara: London KO
New album: The Mali star returns with an third LP, mixing Afro-futurism and feminism wassoulou traditions and western, but also celebrating her links the UK and and collaborations, notably with co-producer Damon Albarn, and other guest including Angie Stone and Roberto Fonseco
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