World music Archives - Backseat Mafia

Album Review: Mi3RAJ – ‘Callings Of The Owed’: Powerful and poetic electronic fusion from Cairo’s rising underground scene.

A new project from their long lasting musical connection, poet/vocalist Mohamed Tarek Moussa and producer/multi-instrumentalist Abdelrahman Shaat (aka Mi3raj) emerge with a new album, the intense ‘Callings Of The Owed’…

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Album Review: Fabiano do Nascimento – ‘Cavejaz’: a stunning collection of guitar and percussion miniatures.

It may be a decade into the consistent series of impactful releases from composer/guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento but here is a musician who continues to build on his reputation as…

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Album Review: Yalla Miku –‘2’: an energetic, ‘post-world’, sonic cocktail direct from the Bongo Joe community.

If ever there was an imprint that was more than just another indie record label it’s Bongo Joe. A musicians’ collective, a community, a shop and watering hole, a barometer…

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Album Review: Madalitso Band-‘Ma Gitala’: More pulsating, street band afrobeat from the unstoppable Malawian duo.

Obviously no-one has told the irrepressible Madalitso Band about the third album wobble. The Malawian roots duo, Yosefe Kalekeni and Yobu Maligwa, are a partnership who take everything in their…

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Album Review : Sami Galbi –‘Ylh Bye Bye’ : fresh and feisty electro-pop from a new voice on the world fusion airwaves.

Genevan label Bongo Joe has been sneaking out singles by Swiss/Moroccan electronic artist Sami Galbi since March last year but now the teasing is over. The full whammy, his debut…

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Album Review: Dowdelin –‘Tchenbé!’: Lyon-based Beats and Creole-soul fusionists groove deeper.

It all started when fusion-centric producer/musician David Kiledjian met Martinican singer Olivya Victorin with the notion of sculpting something different, maybe some creole-voiced, beats-informed nu soul and the result… Dowdelin.…

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Album Review: Jupiter & Okwess –‘Ekoya’: The Irrepressible Congolese band deliver a scorching return.

Formed in 1990 by Jupiter Bokondji from within the buzzing Congolese street music scene, Jupiter & Okwess have always been an irrepressible band. From early success across Africa to serious…

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Album Review: Maalem Houssam Guinia – ‘Dead Of Night’ : An unforgettable, intense offering from the Gnawa master-musician

We should be mighty thankful for the long and strong relationship that’s grown between Brighton’s Hive Mind Records and Guinia family of Gnawa musicians in Morocco. Back in 2017, the…

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Track/Video : MPB new wave mover Dora Morelenbaum previews incoming album with the lush and lyrical ‘Essa Confusão’.

The jet-stream of MPB may stretch right back to the sixties but it keeps powering onwards with singer/songwriter Dora Morelenbaum right there at the epicentre of this latest surge. She’s…

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Album Review: Inês Loubet – ‘Senga’: vibrant samba-fusion sounds from a song-writer to watch.

Portuguese, London-based singer-songwriter Inês Loubet makes Tropicalia toned music of openness and honesty, which reaches out to people while following its own course. She was vocalist and co-writer in the…

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