• 
  KG Omulo: Ayah Ye!: Moving Train
  
  A synergy of funk, rock, reggae and traditional African sounds from this inventive, young singer/songwriter.
• 
  Various Artists: Chief Boima Presents: Lone Stars - Hipco and Gbema
  
  
• 
  Mamadou Diabaté: Courage
  
  Mamadou Diabate, the kora master, takes a fresh look at Mali instrumental music with his new CD Courage.
• 
  Various Artists: The Kankobela of the Batonga, Vol. 2
  
  Mysterious melodies from a disappearing thumb piano tradition of Southern Africa.
• 
  Kiran Ahluwalia: Aam Zameen: Common Ground
  
  Indo-Canadian Songwriter Combines Folk Poetry with African Rock, Jazz and more
• 
  M.anifest: Immigrant Chronicles: Coming to America
  
  
• 
  Sona Jobarteh: FASIYA
  
  West African female kora virtuoso releases an album full of grace, warmth, and passion.
• 
  Sia Tolno: My Life
  
  Kissi singer releases a strong second album full of pop-infused star power over songs of strife and triumph.
• 
  Zieti: Zemelewa
  
  Eclectic blend of Afro-infused pop out of Cote d'Ivoire.
• 
  Guelewar: Halleli N Dakarou
  
  Re-released and remastered live CD from this 80's experimental Senegambian outfit.
• 
  Tinariwen: Tassili
  
  Touareg desert legends return with an offering that is meandering, sorrowful and proud.
• 
  Los Rakas: Chancletas y Camisetas Bordada
  
  Oakland/Panamanian rappers -call it "Panabay"-- return with good results.
• 
  Cheikh Lo: Jamm
  
  The unique Senegalese singer and multi-instrumentalist crafts an eclectically excellent record.
• 
  David Rudder: Random Notes
  
  Calypsonian David Rudder returns with an album that covers various styles with excellent results.

All Reviews >>

Algeria's Cheb Mami has emerged as the reigning master of pop rai. Even if he can never match the burly, gravitational forcefulness of Khaled, the style's best known singer, Mami shows with this album that he has the strongest and most varied stylistic vocabulary in contemporary rai. Mami's forays into hip-hop and rap, reggae, new flamenco, and even Afro-Celtic music, are not gratuitous. His arrangements skillfully feature his lithe voice as it flutters and soars, never losing focus and clarity. In "Parisien du Nord" he uses dark melodies and rap aesthetics to address his core audience, young second generation North Africans living in France. Rai's overriding theme--the pain of "unfortunate love"--is prevalent here. But in "Bledi" ("My Country"), Mami adapts a Mexican folk melody and the propulsive flamenco rhythms music to comment tenderly on the ravaging effects of civil war in his homeland. Rai's signature sound is a kind Arab world funk, and the title track is as catchy an example of that as you'll find. But it's the surprises--like Mami mixing it up with a Scottish bagpipe on "Azwaw 2"--that make this release so memorable.
Contributed by Banning Eyre
Originally published in: Boston Phoenix