Fatau Keita & the Naawuni Bie Band - Selina

First published in fRoots issue 388, October 2015

Fatau Keita & the Naawuni Bie Band
Selina
Goete Institut Ghana (49 mins)

Dagbamba singer Fatau Keita hails from the northern region of Ghana, and together with his eight-strong band Naawuni Bie (meaning ‘God’s Children’ in Dagbani), he creates a music that could best be described as updated highlife with a palmwine edge.

Although the musical basis of this album lies firmly within Ghana, Keita’s Dagbamba culture means his vocal style leans more to the Islamic West – it’s often reminiscent of Baaba Maal and he places highly within his influences singers such as Youssou N’dour, Kante Manfila and Salif Keita.

The best pieces here come about when these two spheres of influence blend most seamlessly. 'Tie Kumm' is your track for this – it’s a stripped-back, dark and hypnotic groove that could probably carry on all day if it weren’t for the fade-out. The last piece, 'Won Boraa' (labelled on the album as a bonus track), is another highlight and a bit of a contrast from the rest of the album: a lovely acoustic palmwine with just guitar, shaker and vocals.

It’s not a perfect album by any means. Most of the tracks are of a rather average quality, and in a few places it sounds as if rather heavy autotuning is used on Keita’s vocals: it’s strange, as his qualities as a singer are obvious, and the use of the autotuner serves no musical purpose.

However, for this reviewer, the album as a whole is ruined by its third track, 'Act as a Woman', which is (as its title would suggest) a rather misogynistic song imploring a woman to know her place. It’s unsavoury and, while it may be more acceptable for the local market, is rather misjudged for an international release. That’s a shame, as it puts a dampener on a mostly enjoyable album which contains a couple of stand-out tracks.

Anouar Brahem - Souvenance

First published in fRoots issue 388, October 2015

Anouar Brahem
Souvenance
ECM Records (2CD, 89 mins)

Look here for a lesson in subtlety and restraint. Souvenance is one of those now-rare specimens: a double album of original material; over the two CDs, the album clocks in at about an hour and a half.

Although the Tunisian Anouar Brahem is classically-trained in the oud, this album doesn’t immediately stand out as Arabic; instead, it feels like Western contemporary classical music, written and performed by jazz musicians. Or perhaps vice versa – or more accurately, both at the same time. It seems to owe some influence to Glass, and Miles Davis during his smooth period, but Brahem’s compositions are all his own. The Tunisian core of his writing becomes apparent slowly, but is indeed all-encompassing, heard in an unexpected semitone, an unfamiliar glissando or the unmistakable swoop of an Arabic melody.

Although the Souvenance is made up of eleven tracks, each piece seems to be part of one whole, both CDs of the album halves of a single work. Musical themes recur throughout – if not directly, they are hinted, similar patterns of rhythm or melody stirring some uncanny recognition. It all works together. Each composed note feels to have been meditated over, and whether the texture is focussing on sparse, singular notes or massed, arpeggiated runs, there never seems to be more or less than is needed, musically or instrumentally.

The arrangements here are for quartet (Brahem’s oud, plus piano, bass clarinet and bass) and string orchestra (the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, conducted by Pietro Mianiti). With the string orchestra at hand, it would have been all too easy for Brahem to overuse their voices and the power they can bring. Subtlety comes through yet again, however. Sound comes in well-weighted bursts and swelling waves, the orchestra often providing the soundscape for the quartet to explore and make its own, with the strings offering breezes of their own sympathetic story.

Souvenance is an impressive and intelligent work, a credit to Anouar Brahem as a composer and both the quartet and orchestra as musicians. A perfect combination of the classical styles of North Africa, Europe and African-America.

Modou Touré & Ramon Goose - The West African Blues Project

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 110, August/September 2015.

Modou Touré & Ramon Goose
The West African Blues Project
ARC Music (48 mins)

The easiest way to describe The West African Blues Project is that it does exactly what it says on the cover. The connections between West African music and the blues have been explored on record many times, although it still manages to produce delicious fruit.

British blues guitarist Ramon Goose has certainly put in his time collaborating with West African musicians, having recently worked in projects alongside Diabel Cissokho, Daby Touré, Noumoucounda Cissoko and Atongo Zimba, as well as many names from the worlds of blues and beyond. Here, Goose is joined by Senegalese rising star Modou Touré, whose capable voice works equally well in the soulful Wolof styles as it does on bluesier pieces such as ‘Casamance River Blues’. The musicians clearly gel very well, and their mutual enjoyment is easy to hear.

Some of the tracks on this album feel a little too slick and produced for this reviewer, with the highlights coming in the form of the rootsier, earthier pieces, where the blues takes centre stage and Modou’s voice is allowed to flow along with it.

This probably isn’t the most effortless of African blues albums, but nevertheless, it’s hard to deny that the blues is rarely this upbeat or uplifting.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble - Fire, Sweat and Pastis

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 110, August/September 2015.

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
Fire, Sweat and Pastis
No Problem! Music (47 mins)

In a world where collaborations bring together performers from all over the world, a project between Finnish and Beninese musicians still seems an unlikely one. In their second album, though, Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble have created a sound that feels, for the most part, unforced and free-flowing.

There’s not much in the music that screams ‘Finnish’, but the Nordic musicians do a great job in mixing the styles and rhythms brought by Beninese drummer and singer Noël Saïzonou with funk, soul and jazz.

The album is at its strongest when its sound is most African. The second track, ‘Djigbo’, is a driving Afro-funk featuring a West African horn section, and is probably the best of the set. There are a couple of pieces (including the opener) where the group go oddly indie-rock, creating a blandness that is at odds with the rest of the album. There are also a few places where the music takes a turn into full-on spacy jazz-rock, which is less bland, but still seems to lack the creative energy that is achieved in some of the best tracks here.

In general, Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble have made a fun record that contains some deep and danceable grooves.

Electro Bamako - Now

First published in fRoots issue 385, July 2015

Electro Bamako
Now
CSB Productions (50 mins)

Phwoar! Now this is an album.

In the sphere of world electronica, collaborations with South Asian and Middle Eastern artists and musics seem to far outweigh those with West Africans, but when it is done (and done right), it can lead to some stonking tracks. Now is from a trio of a Malian (Paul Sidibe) and two Frenchmen (Damien Traini and Marc Minelli), and their collective name is pretty much apt. Electro Bamako create music that crosses through electronica, funk and underground rock, but always present are the urban Malian grooves that make the project as exciting as it is.

Bringing to the table guitars and production, Minelli has been experimenting with electroMalian music and collaborations for more than a decade now, but with the Electro Bamako trio and this album, he seems to have found the correct combination, and it’s his best yet.

As well as his unmistakably Malian vocals, Sidibe joins the party by adding his kamele ngoni (literally, the ‘young man’s harp’) to the sound. The kamele ngoni’s rattling staccato riffs, together with the karignan (iron scraper), bring the western elements together, uniting them with Wassoulou music – the non-griot style made famous in Europe by Oumou Sangaré.

The real highlight of the album comes at the end: Fentiki Ni Fentan is the last of the album tracks proper (the disc also contains three radio edits), and is really superb – it has a backing worthy of old-school hip-hop and the whole thing rolls around hypnotically, it’s a shame when it comes to a close and signals the end of a brilliant album.

Prince Buju - We Are In The War

First published in fRoots issue 385, July 2015

Prince Buju
We Are In The War
Makkum Records/Red Wig (48 mins)

Prince Buju hails from the North East Region of Ghana and plays the kologo, a two-stringed lute related to the ngoni, and sharing common ancestry with the banjo. This album is entirely solo – and it’s not one of those fancy multi-track one-man-band things, every track is a single-take affair with only Prince Buju and his kologo.

Almost all of this release is taken from Buju’s debut Ghanaian cassette, which was released in 2011 under the title Roots And Culture Music. The only newly-recorded piece here is the title track. This version of the album retains the feeling of a local-market cassette, and not only because of the soft hiss that remains behind most of the tracks: the recent trend for cassettes has brought a refreshing slew of international music that hasn’t been ‘world musicked’ and Buju’s sound is no exception.

Much of the album’s associated literature talks up Buju’s links to King Ayisoba, a fellow Ghanaian kologo player, but Buju’s music feels even more rootsy. It’s great to hear the no-nonsense, bluesy riffs with Buju’s high-pitched yet gritty voice sing about personal and local matters, which all give the record a sense of that allusive, ill-defined but most important ‘authenticity’.

The manner in which the kologo is played means that all the tracks included here from the original cassette remain in one key – it’s a rather insignificant thing, but for someone who is used to albums using a variety of keys (which, when you think about it, is kind of arbitrary) this can grate slightly, with the ear becoming tired. But this is a very small issue. Don’t expect overly much from the production values and this could be an album that you really dig.

LaBrassBanda - Europa

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 109, July 2015.

LaBrassBanda
Europa
Sony Music (56 mins)

This is a re-release of the Bavarian brass-band-cum-techno-outfit’s second album, although why a record that has only been out for two years needs a re-release, I’m not quite sure.

The brass side of the group takes the most influence from Bavarian and Balkan styles, with a few hints of New Orleans brass, and although in other albums and live the band explore ska punk, reggae and other genres, here they focus more on the poppy side of techno.

Occasionally, their blend of Europop synths and drum machines with brass can produce good individual tracks, such as the stand-out ‘Frankreich’, but throughout most of the album, the fusion seems pretty unimaginative and not particularly enjoyable, either. At times the music can be literally painful too: don’t listen to the track ’Schweden’ with headphones – the heavily-panned kick drum would make anyone queasy. Frankly, this is a bit of a bizarre re-release of a recent album that isn’t the group’s best. Catch them live instead.