Avalanche Kaito - Talitakum

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 198, June 2024.

Avalanche Kaito
Talitakum
Glitterbeat Records (42 mins)

Avalanche Kaito’s 2022 self-titled debut was a triumph of noise punk indelibly informed by Mossi griot music from Burkina Faso. Since then, relentless live shows and a slightly reworked line-up (bass replaced by guitar) have evolved the Franco-Belgo-Burkinabé trio’s sound. This time, their music feels a little more considered. It’s just as foreboding, abrasive and hypnotic, but the anarchic chaos that infused their first album is replaced by something more direct and focussed.

Each of the nine tracks on Talitakum has a unique sound that complements the album as a whole - it can go from glitch trap on one track to Tuareg Beefheart punk on the next. It is the attitude that unites them, the complex creativity of three musicians in simpatico, the delicious contrasts of frontman Kaito Winse’s beautiful voice against the harsh discords of distorted guitar and synth, the declamatory tama (talking drum) against the crashing drum kit.

The world of Avalanche Kaito no longer feels like a rattling, angry machine constantly on the verge of losing control, instead like a purposeful, powerful elemental spirit that creates through destruction. That change is for neither better nor worse, but it shows that this is a group that mutate and adapt and grow with experience, and will always have something new to say.

Kolonel Djafaar - Getaway

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 198, June 2024.

Kolonel Djafaar
Getaway
Batov Records (41 mins)

The simplest and most common description of Kolonel Djafaar’s sound is as a meeting of Ethiojazz and Afrobeat. And that’s true: the Ethiopian side is clear in those distinctive pentatonic scales, the Nigerian in the use of the small but meaty horn section (baritone and tenor saxophones, trumpet, occasional trombone), and the rhythms are a tight mix of Yoruba and Afro-Latin styles beloved of Fela and Mulatu, respectively. There’s a lot more to Getaway than that, though. There’s also a potent strain of Anatolian-Levantine psycho-surf, fluttering in through guitar and synth lines, and delving deeper, there’s nods to reggae, Cuban jazz, Baobab-esque West African dance band, and even an unsettling fairground waltz.

Just reading this list of musical ingredients, you might ho-hum. None of these individual fusions are particularly novel or untested; we’ve heard them before. But here they're polished to a cinematic shine, with no element clashing against the rest. It's very tidy, and it’s all neatly encapsulated in the opener, ‘Urban Dweller’ – a great intro to the album, showing off the breadth of the band’s explorations without feeling overloaded. The album ends on a pretty abrupt fade-out, a small disappointment when it feels like the musicians could jam out for much longer.