Hamza El Din’s Sparse, Sublime ‘Al Oud’ Is Reissued
The musical language of Al Oud joins concepts of Nubia and Arabia to express the intersections in which Hamza El Din lived.
world music
Eliades Ochoa Brings Worldly Sophistication to Cuban Country Music
Eliades Ochoa may have grown up in a rustic milieu, but he’s traveled many miles since and picked up some sophisticated sounds on the way.
Dudu Tassa and Jonny Greenwood Bridge Cultural, Musical Gaps on Stunning ‘Jarak Qaribak’
Israeli musician Dudu Tassa and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood join forces with various vocalists for a fresh, inspiring interpretation of Middle Eastern music.
Sheila Chandra’s Breathtaking Vocal Experiments Are Immortalized in Reissues
At her most triumphant, Sheila Chandra pushed her voice into physical and affective spaces, nothing short of wondrous, exceeding the boundaries of pop and art music.
Eliades Ochoa Blends Rural Past, Cosmopolitan Present on ‘Guajiro’
Eliades Ochoa’s Guajiro shows an understanding of musical roots. It feels fresh, endowed with a collaborative spirit that makes for something wonderfully new.
Tinariwen Take an Intriguing Outlaw Country Turn on ‘Amatssou’
Tinariwen link Nashville and North Africa on Amatssou in ways well suited to a definition of outlaw country that includes their rebellious rock.
Liberation Blues: Tinariwen Invoke the Sahel’s Complex History on ‘Amatssou’
Connections with Jack White and Daniel Lanois are great, but West African blues collective Tinariwen had to navigate Covid and political unrest to deliver their surprisingly exuberant new LP.
Fatoumata Diawara Creates African Pop-Soul From the Diaspora
On her strongest album yet, London Ko, Fatoumata Diawara demonstrates how music from today’s African diaspora can be “Everything Everywhere All at Once”.
Kimi Djabaté’s African Pop Moves Hearts and Hips on ‘Dindin’
Kimi Djabaté’s Dindin is an invitation to fellowship for Africans and beyond and a call to take care of unfinished business with kindness and compassion.
Baaba Maal Makes a Refreshing Electropop Return with ‘Being’
Worldbeat master Baaba Maal’s musical homecoming on Being is not myopic or static but embraces motion through space, time, and sound.
New Ali Farka Touré Music Surfaces on Star-Studded ‘Voyageur’
Voyageur is as complete and wondrous an album as anything Ali Farka Touré put out during his lifetime, in no small part due to the work of his son, Vieux.
Puerto Rico’s iLe Transforms From Rappers’ Kid Sister to Bolero Warrior
Formerly the sole female vocalist in rap group Calle 13, iLe has turned into a Latin alternative firebrand, pushing her art and her politics in exciting ways.
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