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Salif Keita: So Kono
New album: A first album in seven years by the veteran Malian singer, now 75, with a pared-back, acoustic release, but one in which his distinctive, wonderfully ‘golden’ voice still shines, accompanied by guitar, ngoni, calabash, tama and cello
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Songhoy Blues: Héritage
New album: The Malian band return with a vibrant fourth LP exploring their desert musical roots with more of an acoustic and intricately rhythmic sound than their previous more electrified, distinctive African blues-rock, and includes an appearance on vocals by Rokia Koné and other more traditional instrument guest musicians
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Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon
New album: Always infectiously fun and effervescently charismatic, the blue-haired South African star’s third LP bursts with witty, sex-positive braggadocio, sung in Xhosa and English, and spanning the rhythms and sounds of Johannesburg and Durban with electro-pop and cross-genre dance
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The second part of our favourite albums of 2024
Favourite albums of 2024: Welcome to The Song Bar’s favourite albums of 2024 Part 2. Part 1 can be found here. There’s no such thing as ‘best of’ and everything is subjective, but please dig into this rich seam of originality and quality, and even suggest more of your own
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Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp: Ventre Unique
New album: Wonderfully energetic, rhythmic stylish, inventive and witty sixth album by the 12-piece experimental Geneva collective who sing politically in French and English, their music decorated with oodles of of clever brass, violins, double-bass, marimbas, percussion and more
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Seun Kuti: Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head)
New album: The youngest son of the great Fela Kuti, and of eldest brother of Femi, returns with his father’s band Egypt 80, which he inherited and his fifth, and first album in six years, keeping the fabulous bright flame of afrobeat alight, and including the son of another great in the form of Bob’s son Damian Marley
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Ezra Collective
New album: The 2022 Mercury Prize-winning London Afrobeat-jazz ensemble fronted by Femi Koleoso return with a wonderfully infectious, warm and engaging LP inspired the idea of unself-conscious movement and a themed around narrative set across a night in the city
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Yannis & The Yaw: Lagos Paris London
New album: An EP rather than LP, this project by the Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis is still a high five of top-quality Afrobeat, crossover funk and rock rhythms and riffs, drawing from sessions with the late great drummer Tony Allen
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Liam Bailey: Zero Grace
New albums: A two-for-one by the talented Nottingham singer-songwriter and guitarist with releases in February and and also this month, the former a fabulous zamrock-influenced psychedelic-reggae fusion LP, the latter with Parisian dub musician Blundetto aka Max Guiget
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KOKOKO!: BUTU
New album: The brilliant band from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo return with an LP inspired by the vibrant nightlife of that city, the titled translated as ‘the night’ in Lingala language, featuring rawer, more electronic sounds and the commanding lead of vocalist Makara Bianko
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Bab L'Bluz: Swaken
New album: Out last month, a fabulous second LP by the French-Moroccan quartet who fuse traditional with psychedelia, blues and heavy rock with Africa's Maghreb: Gnawa, Amazigh, Hassani and Houara music
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Ibibio Sound Machine: Pull The Rope
New album: Another cracking release by the London collective fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, a catchy, infectious concoction of Afrobeat, funk, disco, pysch and electronica, with punchy, enticing beats and grooves
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Mdou Moctar: Funeral For Justice
New album: After 2021’s acclaimed Afrique Victime album, the brilliant Tuareg guitarist and band band from Agadez, Niger, return with explosive, powerful, emotive numbers, impassioned songs about his culture and social wrongs, wrapped in a frenzy of drums, guitars, bass and vocals
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Leyla McCalla: Sun Without The Heat
New album: A deliciously uplifting fifth solo LP by the American singer-songwriter and mult-instrumentalist, fusing folk, country, Americana, Afrobeat to Brazilian tropicalismo
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Half a century: Kahil El’Zabar’s Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, a Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit
New album: Celebrating 50 years of recording, the veteran Chicago jazz percussionist and vocalist returns in his trio of sax and trumpet, and here also with strings, brings his rich vocal tones and infectious with a selection of classics and originals
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Africatown, AL: Ancestor Sounds
New album: A beautifully evocative, documentary compilation of anonymous spontaneous performances and field recordings from descendants of slaves in a northern section of the city of Mobile, Alabama, one of the last places in the US to receive slave ships
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Les Amazones d'Afrique: Musow Danse
New album: A joyous, vibrant, powerful, life-affirming third LP by the West African Mali collective female artists, mixing traditional, rich African vocal harmonies with electronica, dance, funk and folk of course no shortage of feminist fervour
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Favourite LPs of 2023, Part 2.
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 2, and Part 1 was yesterday. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order …
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Part 1 selection of 2023 favourite albums
Welcome once again to the annual tradition of Song Bar’s favourite album releases of 2023. This is Part 1, and Part 2 is also out here. There’s no such thing as a chart rundown or ‘best of’ here, and these come in no particular order. This is all about quality and innovation …
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Bex Burch: There Is Only Love and Fear
New album: Charming eccentric, experimental debut by the Leeds-raised Berlin-based composer, percussionist, producer and instrument maker whose LP conjures up delicate, rhythmic African-inflected jazz-folk-traditional magic with variety of acoustic-instrument collaborators alongside her very own handmade xylophone
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