WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
African and Cuban music head in new directions
Reviews of Fatoumata Diawara, London Ko and Eliades Ochoas, Guajiro
UNCLASSIFIABLE: Fatoumata Diawara
[Shelby Duncan] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
HAILED as one of the standard-bearers of new African music, Malian singer, guitarist and actor Fatoumata Diawara’s radical new set London K (Wagram Records) is co-produced by Diawara, Daniel Florestano and Blur/Gorillaz frontman and global music champion Damon Albarn, who also performs on six of the 14 tracks here.
Fatoumata says Albarn is “her protector.” She appeared on Albarn’s cross-cultural Africa Express collective in London’s King Cross in 2012 after Albarn and other musicians were angered by the 2005 London Live 8 charity concert’s inclusion of just one African artist in its line-up.
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