Label: Piranha Musik
Country: Senegal
Release Date: 2009.05.29

Sister Fa is Senegal’s Queen of hip-hop. But getting to the top wasn’t an easy road – for a woman to break through in an almost exclusively male field within a male-dominated society, it was a long, hard journey. Struggle breeds compassion, and Sister Fa uses her international album debut “Sarabah – Tales from the Flipside of Paradise” to speak out against the injustices rampant in her native country. Warm, groovy and unmistakably African, her raps, in Wolof, Manding, Jola and French, roll elegantly over beats as well as traditional sounds (kora and djembe), delivering tracks far removed from rap clichés, and more influenced by 80s Old Skool hip-hop than current Western forms of hip-hop.

From the very beginning of her career, Sister Fa has dedicated herself to fight the wide-spread practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in her country: “It’s an operation that can kill – I’ve seen dead babies with my own eyes. We need to fight against this practice at all costs and get rid of it forever. But it is quite a complex problem. It’s a practice that has been around for some 3000 years – I myself am a victim.” It is a major taboo for a Senegalese woman to raise her voice against this tradition, one which usually only foreign celebrities openly condemn, but during her “Education without Mutilation” tour in 2008, funded by Germany’s cultural institution, the Goethe Institute, Sister Fa took her fight to the front lines: the Senegalese cities and villages where FGM is most firmly established, hoping to sensitize the population of her homeland.

For Sister Fa hip-hop is about raising awareness and denouncing the wrongs of life: “When you’re a musician, you’re an ambassador – you are here to defend and help people, not just to make music for money.” FGM isn’t the only issue she addresses on “Sarabah”: there is the real story of a young girl in an arranged marriage (“Bou Souba Si Ngone”), AIDS messages aimed at women (“Life Am”), songs dealing with the plight of Senegalese soldiers (“Soldat”) and the hard-working lives of women in Senegal’s countryside (“Milyamba”). “Hip Hop Yaw La Fal” is about the power of hip-hop, while in “Selebou Yoon” Sister Fa argues that hip-hop is in harmony with Islam. The latter was featured on the “Many Lessons – Hip Hop Islam West Africa” compilation (Piranha Musik, 2008).

Born in 1982 as Fatou Mandiang Diatta in Senegal’s vibrating capital Dakar, Sister Fa recorded her first demo in 2000. Senegal’s hip-hop community is huge (apparently there are about 2,000 rap crews in Dakar alone), so it wasn’t easy for Sister Fa to make a name for herself, even more so as a female. But her commitment, drive and talent meant she performed at many events, took part in documentaries and released tracks on compilations. Sister Fa’s music feeds on Dakar’s energy but also has roots in Casamance in Senegal’s south, her family’s ancestral home. These rich musical and cultural traditions have significantly influenced her artistic output, lending it a uniquely personal note. After the sudden death of her mother, she dropped out of school to dedicate herself fully to music against her father’s wishes. Her first solo album was released in Senegal in 2005; that year she also won the prize for Best Newcomer of the Year at the Senegalese Hip-Hop Awards. Since then Sister Fa has become a pillar of the Senegalese hip-hop scene. She has overcome hardships to become the best-known female rapper in Senegal and a role model for many young women.

Scene Release: Sister_Fa-Sarabah-SN-2009-ETHNiC
Release Info: 50Mb / VBRKbps

Label: YBrazil
Country: Brazil
Release Date: 2009.03.14

Comadre Fulozinha started in 1997 in Recife, Brazil and plays mainly a mix of rhythms and traditional poetry and music from northeast of Brazil. The bombo, zabumba, congas, djembê, ilú (Brazilian percussion instruments), saxophone, cavaquinho, guitar and rabeca (Brazilian cord intrument, similar to the violin) are used so that the group can creat its language full of presonality. Althought the band formation has changed many times, the music they play did not suffer from those changes. The group took part in recordings from another bands of the manguebeat movement like Dj Dolores, Mundo Livre S/A, Eddie, Bonsucesso Samba Clube e Erasto Vasconcelos. The group also produced music for theater plays and soundtracks.

Label: Six Degrees
Country: India
Release Date: 2009.03.30

On their newest release, Hello Hello, the Midival Punditz marry Indian raga, Bollywood pop, and regional folk dance rhythms to several decades of Western dance music, with echoes of everything from Bhangra to rock music to Daft Punk. This is global electronica on shuffle: Led Zeppelin’s “Four Sticks” gets an authentically South Asian treatment that builds on the faux-Indian sounds in the original; a few minutes later we’re in the 19th century with a setting of the poet Ghalib’s beautiful “Har Ek Baat” over a decidedly 21st century beat. All in all, Hello Hello is the duo’s most adventurous and mature release to date and one that promises to excite old fans while attracting new listeners.

Label: Lusafrica
Country: Cape Verde
Release Date: 2005.05.17

Fans of Cesaria Evora have been kept in short commons for some years by a relative dearth of new material and emerging talent. But Lura, who was born in Portugal of Cape Verdean parents, is clearly a contender for latter’s throne. The beautiful young singer describes herself as a country girl and as such, is more interested in rural styles like the funana, bataku and the European, colonial-based mazurka than in the more urban morna, a barroom blues associated with the elder diva. Her songs, many of them self-composed, deal with small-town realities like a mother’s advice to her son in hard times, an unplanned pregnancy, uninhibited holiday celebrations and other tales that might well be discussed on a neighbor’s door-step. This is not to say that she is a narrow-minded provincial or hide-bound traditionalist; her arrangements are paragons of acoustic elegance, owing as much to R&B, Argentinean tango, post-Tropicalia Brazilian pop and French chanson as hometown firesides. Her voice, a clear mezzo-soprano-to-alto, ranges from girlish to smoky but as her material tends toward upbeat rhythms, it is her sun-drenched, precisely calibrated melodic sense and crackerjack phrasing that anchors each tune. The title track, a frenetic hip-swinger sung as a duet with Zeco di Nha Reinalda, could make a stone dance. (by christina roden)

Label: Six Degrees
Country: Algeria
Release Date: 2008.02.11

Algerian born electronic adventurer Cheb i Sabbah has returned to India for his seventh album on Six Degrees. His last album, 2005’s La Kahena was the result of a visit to Algeria and Morocco, gathering some of the most unique vocalists and musicians from throughout the Magreb and uniting their traditions with his more electronic dance orientated concerns. What was incredible about La Kahena was the subtlety of his integration. Make no mistake this was world music fusion, of which there are numerous manipulative, at times positively colonial train-wrecks, yet this was not an addition to the pile. Sabbah’s electronics seemed entirely consistent with the spirit and the traditions of his sources and the music was positively joyful. Devotion unites Hindu, Sufi and Sikh traditions under one umbrella. His approach is consistent with its predecessor, gathering incredible vocalists and instrumentalists from across the subcontinent. His focus is on the vocalists who he often allows to begin a piece, gorgeously recorded wails, often in isolation before the instrumentation begins. When it does Sabbah’s focus is on percussion, often building upon the percussion and integrating electronic percussive elements as a means to take the piece into a more beat/ dance orientated realm. The pieces invariably begin untreated and move into a more electronic realm, though discovering just where and how this occurs takes some investigation. Unlike La Kahena there’s a certain sheen to the music, the kind of impossibly lush production that is entirely too prevalent in world music, where everything is heavily reverbed like it’s occurring in a large hall. This kind of perfect production really impacts on your ability to connect emotionally with the music which is a real shame because Sabbah is an incredibly interesting producer and there’s no doubting his own spiritual and emotional connection, it’s just a shame that his techniques have distanced it somewhat for the rest of us. (by bob baker fish)

Label: Because Music
Country: Mali
Release Date: 2008.11.17

African superstars Amadou & Mariam release their new album, ‘Welcome to Mali’ through Because Music on 17th November. The new album features Damon Albarn as guest producer on the opening track, plus special guest appearances by Keziah Jones, ‘M’, Tiken Jah Fakoli, Toumani Diabate and Juan Rozoff. The album was recorded over the past twelve months in Bamako, Dakar, Paris and London and was produced by their long-time manager and artistic director Marc-Antoine Moreau and Lauren Jais who, together with Manu Chao, were co-producers of ‘Dimanche à Bamako’.
‘Welcome to Mali’ expands their horizons and yet remains true to their core sound, putting the spotlight firmly back on their unique mix of sweet melodies and funky rhythms, driven by Amadou’s bluesy guitar and the duo’s compelling voices. The album’s opening track, and first single, ‘Sabali’, will be released digitally on the 27th October, is the couple as you’ve never heard them before, an extraordinary mix of Albarn’s ethereal keyboards, Mariam’s haunting voice and a timeless Africa-goes-global vibe. (in myspace)

Label: Six Degrees
Country: Mali
Release Date: 2008.10.27

Issa Bagayogo is one of the true innovators of West African music, mixing the traditional sounds of his native Mali with elements of electronica and dancehall. On his latest release, Mali Koura, Issa continues to mature, adding jazz inflected horns to his organic blend of roots music and Western dance technology.
Mali Koura is an essential album that stands head-and-shoulders above most of the new world electronica outings that are being released at such an astonishing rate these days. Throw away your musical preconceptions. Leave your prejudices at the door. Mali Koura is a heady and exhilarating ride. It will rock and shake you to the core.

(“Dambalou” clip from “Timbuktu” album 2001)