'What Heat', a collaboration between Bokanté, an eight-piece company around Canadian-Guadeloupian vocalist Malika Tirolien and founder of New York fusion band Snarky Puppy, Michael League (who for this project exchanged his bass for a baritone guitar), and the Dutch Metropole Orkest immediately reminded yours truly of the somewhat similar experiment in which World Circuit Records linked Malian Trio Da Kali with American string quartet Kronos Quartet. Bokanté means "exchange" in the Guadeloupian Creole, and it's therefore only fitting the collective is composed of musicians from 5 different countries and 4 continents. Founder Michael League describes the music of Bokanté as: "...a weird combination of West African music, Delta blues, Led Zeppelin and Caribbean kaladja" (the latter, one of the seven rhythms of the Guadeloupian gwoka music). The initiative to collaborate with the Metropole Orkest for this album also came from League, who already collaborated with the Dutch for Snarky Puppy's 'Sylva' album, their added presence giving the songs on 'What Heat' a somewhat cinematic quality (parts of 'Réparasyons', in which singer Malika Tirolien talks about reparations for the suffering the black population of the Americas and the Caribbean was inflicted during slavery, are reminiscent of a soundtrack for a James Bond film from the nineteen sixties or seventies). Unusual, but fascinating musical experiment!