MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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African and Cuban music head in new directions
Reviews of Fatoumata Diawara, London Ko and Eliades Ochoas, Guajiro
UNCLASSIFIABLE: Fatoumata Diawara
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
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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