The Predatory Wasp
Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara releases her new album London Ko today, exploring Malian blues, folk and r&b and blending traditional West African sounds with contemporary production. The album includes a number of collaborations, including Damon Albarn, Roberto Fonseca, Yemi Alade, M.anifest and this gem from US soul legend Angie Stone.
https://www.normanrecords.com/records/197161-fatoumata-diawara-london-ko
I’m not sure why, but I had dismissed Khruangbin as bascially uninteresting until I saw them at Glastonbury and they proved to be one of the highlights of the entire festival. Thankfully now I’ve seen the error of my ways! Here they team up with Malian singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Touré for the extremely chill Savanne, which is beautifully dreamy and definitely not uninteresting in any way, and is also the lead single from their forthcoming collaborative LP, Ali, due out in September.
Mali’s Songhoy Blues are reliably relentless in both the quality and positivity of their music, and Barre is no exception, even though it deals with some fairly serious subject matter. Taken from their forthcoming album due out in October, ‘barre’ roughly translates to ‘change’, and the song was written to inspire the youth of their Mali homeland to get involved and help change their corrupt and oppressive political system.
The Predatory Wasp 