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Afla Sackey taking it easy …
Song of the Day: A fantastically vibrant, uplifting new single from the Ghanaian vocalist and djembe drummer and his band Afrik Bawantu, blending traditional music, Afrobeat grooves and funk in a song about dealing with life’s daily trials and tribulations
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Yannis & The Yaw: the Foals’ frontman’s upcoming EP project
Song of the Day: Fabulous drumming from a past session by the departed legend Tony Allen, and passionate blues-rock vocals from Foals’ frontman Yannis Philippakis in this opening track from his new project and upcoming EP, Lagos Paris London – out on 30 August via Transgressive Records
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Mdou Moctar
Song of the Day: Building to a powerful guitar crescendo, a stirring new desert blues and rock single about cultural identity by the Nigerian Tuareg musician and band return with a title meaning “brother or comrade”
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Les Amazones d'Afrique
Song of the Day: Wonderfully, vibrant uplifting new single by the all-queens group featuring Malian singer Mamani Keïta, taken from their forthcoming third album, Musow Danse, out on 16 February on Real World Records
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Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (EHE) - Kahil El'Zabar (middle), Corey Wilkes (left) and Alex Harding (right)
Song of the Day: The veteran singer-percussionist and friends release a fabulous 8-minute, jazz-blues interpretation of the Eugene McDaniel protest song, taken from the forthcoming album Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit, out on 8 March on Spiritmuse Records
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Genesis Owusu
Song of the Day: This striking new track by the Ghanaian-Australian rapper from Canberra, Australia (Kofi Owusu-Ansah) is a punchy potent mix of hip-hop, punk, funk, gospel and electro-pop, now an extension to this year’s August-released sophomore album, Struggler
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The brilliant and incomparable Fulu Miziki collective
Song of the Day: The collective from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, return with a vibrant, upbeat, infectious, rhythmic punk-Afro-futuristic track with a title that translates as “pain and pleasure”
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Pigeon’s new EP, Backslider
Song of the Day: Fabulous electro-pop and afro-rock by the Margate-based band, fronted by the Guinean singer Falle Nioke, and taken from the new EP, Backslider, out on Soundway Records
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N'Deko: Falle Nioke and Joe Goddard. Photo by Louise Mason
Song of the Day: A mightily catchy and soulful fusion of West Africa folk and London electronica as Guinea singer Falle Nioke joins up with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard in their debut single, one about Falle’s melancholy in missing his homeland
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Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Song of the Day: A stirring, profound, African- and gospel-influenced new number by the veteran distinctively soulful voiced American singer-songwriter from Philadelphia from his forthcoming new album The Ones Ahead out on 28 July on Transgressive Records
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WITCH’s forthcoming album, Zango
Song of the Day: The pioneering zamrock band originally formed in the 1970s are joined by the charismatic Zambian singer and rapper in this fabulously funky new track, potent mix of African, psychedelic rock, garage rock, jazz, hip hop and blues
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Petite Noir’s forthcoming album MotherFather
Song of the Day: After yesterday’s Basquiat-inspired number by ACR, more art, with a powerful, sensual soulful, indie-hip-hop fusion by the Belgian born, Congolese singer Yannick Ilunga, joined here by the charismatic Zambian rapper
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Dele Sosumi’s forthcoming album, The Confluence
Songs of the Day: Beautiful, smooth fusion of afrobeat, jazz and pop by the Hackney-born Nigerian artist Dele Sosimi who was raised in Fela Kuti's commune, with two songs about about fortitude, and also acceptance and acknowledgement of individual creativity
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Yannick Ilunga, aka Petite Noir
Song of the Day: The Congolese musician joins forces with Florida trumpeter Theo Croker on this beautiful jazz-infused number about taking back your power from those who manipulate it, “a song to embrace harmony, reject division, and recognise that freedom comes from within."
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Nakhane Mahlakahlaka
Song of the Day: A raunchy disco banger by the Nakhane Mahlakahlaka, the South African singer, songwriter, actor, and novelist, and non-binary LBGTQ+ activist, here collaborating with the American musician
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Imarhan collaborate again with Gruff Rhys on a short EP
Song of the Day: After the Algerian Tuareg quintet’s gorgeous album Aboogi released in January this year included a collaboration on the song Adar Newlon, Welsh artist Rhys teams up again with another beautiful, delicate track of subtle guitar licks and gentle vocals
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Stromae’s third album, Multitude
Song of the Day: An extraordinary song of harpsichord, chanson, and hip hop, as well as its video, from the recent third album, Multitude, by the innovative Belgian artist of Rwandan Tutsi descent, Paul Van Haver, about a fictional tribute to a sex worker and maternal heroic figure who has passed away, here playing the part of a leader delivering a speech from a podium
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Oumou Sangaré
Song of the Day: From her forthcoming album Timbuktu, a fabulously stirring and upbeat number by the Malian superstar singer and rights campaigner celebrating independent women in her hometown area of Wassulu, released last week to coincide with International Women's Day
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Fantastic Negrito
Song of the Day: Fabulous mix of funk, blues and African influences in this ironic song by the flamboyant musician from Oakland, California about greed, excess, commodities and racial prejudice inspired in style by Taj Mahal’s idea of the “gods of Africa meeting the ghosts of Mississippi”
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Fulu Miziki
Song of the Day: Infectiously rhythmical and eccentric new track from the forthcoming new EP Ngbaka by the collective formed in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, whose original musical instruments are self-made from, as in in their name, ‘music from the garbage’
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