afrobeat
Track/Video: Direct from Benin, Star Feminine Band beam out more authentic teen pop with new single ‘Le Mariage Forcé’ and soon come album ‘In Paris’.
If you didn’t catch onto the joyous West African pop of Star Feminine Band when their self-titled debut burst onto the scene a couple of years ago, then you really missed something. The all-girl, teenage group from Natitingou village Benin, make music forged in friendship, sparkling with youthful energy and powered by commitment. Delivering upbeat …
Live Review: The Black Seeds – Ngaio Marsh Theatre, Christchurch, 08.07.22
In the depths of a long, cold, Christchurch winter (and even longer pandemic), The Black Seeds arrived at the University of Canterbury’s Ngaio Marsh Theatre for a long-awaited album release and the opportunity for fans to connect, warm up and get their groove on. The challenges of making this show happen were significant, with three …
Album Review: Aotearoa outfit The Black Seeds deliver depth and sunshine with their long-awaited lockdown album, Love & Fire.
There’s something special about growing up with a band. It seems like only yesterday, we were stumbling across muddy festival fields towards the infectious beats of Keep On Pushing and now here we are, listening to the latest Black Seeds release in between mopping up our children’s vomit and wondering whether we’re ever going to …
Album Review: TC & The Groove Family – ‘First Home’: global beat today-jazz with a collective spirit.
Well Worm Discs may have started out as an outpost for Bristol-centric nu- jazz expressionism (Snazzback Run Logan Run, Dun Dun Dun, the luscious ‘New Horizons’ compilation album etc.) but the signs are that this very particular underground is working its way beyond the wild west. There’s been excursions to Glasgow with Corto Alto’s soul …
New Track: Global beat collective TC & The Groove Family preview ‘Bossfight’ from their energised debut ‘First Home’.
Listen up, if you want more proof that the world jazz and dancefloor connection is still generating some mighty powerful sounds look no further than the exuberant ten piece collective that is TC & The Groove Family. Pulled together by drummer/percussionist Tim Cook and nurtured on eclectic and electric Leeds scene, this bunch of jazzers, …
News: Blue Lab Beats will release their debut album for Blue Note in February: hear the sunbright Afro grooves of ‘Motherland Journey’ feat. Fela Kuti and KillBeatz
IT’S A meeting of musical values as well being a perfect colour match: the none-more-esteemed Blue Note Records, 82 years in the game, has announced that the latest addition to its proud roster, the bright Afrojazz textures of London’s Blue Lab Beats, will release their first album for the label, Motherland Journey, on February 25th. …
See: Global beat fusionists Black Flower preview ‘O Fogo’ from incoming album ‘Magma’.
The pronunciation might be tricky but you can’t question the discerning taste of Belgian label Sdban Ultra in the nu-jazz, funk and grooves department. More proof comes with the label’s first taster from Black Flower’s soon-to-come ‘Magma’LP (due 28th January), ‘O Fogo’. Four albums in and Black Flower have been steadily sharpening their kaleidoscopic blend …
News: Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp are set for an album in July; hear ‘Beginning’
IS IT a band, is it a group, is it a collective or an ensemble? No it’s the one and only Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, the makers of the most essential music that may have passed you by. Revolving around the mercurial bassist/composer Vincent Bertholet and emerging from the Geneva avant music scene in …
News: Rey Sapienz & The Congo Techno Ensemble announce a July album; hear a new track, ‘Eza Makambo’
IN CASE you hadn’t noticed, the sound of afrobeat is taking on a new dimension: riding on a surge of youthful energy; absorbing rap’s bite and electro’s drive; committed to the cutting edge but respectful of sources. Rey Sapienz and his new collective The Congo Techno Ensemble look set to add their dynamic to this …
Album review: Kasai Allstars – ‘Black Ants Always Fly Together, One Bangle Makes No Sound’: maybe more restrained, but still surprises
SOMETIMES a record comes along that disrupts your expectations. Since their debut album in 2008, Kasai Allstars have been one of the cornerstones of Congotronics, that vibrant assemblage of polyrhythms and scrapyard instrumentation which bolted a whole new wing to the afrobeat star-liner. Buzz drums, wired-up thumb pianos, hubcap percussion and salvaged guitars mixed with …