Reviews

'Jaam Dong' ("only peace", but of course also a reference to "Jamdown" or Jamaica) is Senegalese rapper/singjay Lëk Sèn's third long player in just over a year's time, but if you think that means he's opted for quantity rather than quality, you would be sadly mistaking.

Dona Onete's 'Feitiço Caboclo' ("the spell of the Caboclo", "caboclo" being a Brazilian term used to describe people of mixed native and European descent) is a bit of a strange duck in the Mais Um Discos catalogue.

Söndörgő is the story of a Hungarian family orchestra consisting of the three brothers Áron, Benjamin and Salamon Eredics and their cousin Dávid Eredics (bassist Attila Buzás is the only non-family member in the band's line-up) specializing in playing the tambura (a stringed instrument related to the Greek bouzouki, found in Bulgaria and Macedonia and occasionally used by Gypsies in Southeast Hungary).

For this album, with the straightforward title 'Toumani & Sidiki', kora grandmaster Toumani Diabate joined forces with his son Sidiki (though the two already worked together previously for 'A Curva Da Cintura', a cooperative project with Brazilian musicians Arnaldo Antunes and Edgard Scandurra).

The 'Demi-Lune' EP is the first fruit of a collaboration between Long Joha' Pellaz, a Swiss singer who already earned his spurs with Genevan band Herbalist Crew, and Yannis 'RockRadioHermes' Sauty, a musician and producer from Annecy in France, intended as taster for 'O'Lune ', a full album to follow later this year.

Aziza Brahim's 'Soutak', the previous release on the Glitterbeat Records label, already took us to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and for Noura Mint Seymali's 'Tzenni' we remain in the Sahara region.

In 2006 Dušan Milić already presented 'Guča' (aka 'Gucha - Distant Trumpet') a romantic comedy with Marko Markovic in the lead role and featuring the Guča Trumpet Festival, but with 'Brasslands' there is now finally a full-fledged documentary about the Serbian brass band festival.

Reggae superhero Major Lazer gets the company of a colleague in the form of Dubcatcher, a creation of DJ Vadim (born in Saint Petersburg, Russia but these days active in London, Berlin and New York) and the title of a reggae-inspired album that is the first part of a diptych (the second album, 'Soulcatcher', will focus on soul music).

Even though Dubheart hail from Bournemouth in the south of England, oddly enough they sound as if they were a French band, something that is mostly down to their Parisian lead-vocalist Tenja (born Steven Regis), who belatedly joined the band in 2008.

When listening to this double, twenty-six track debut effort by Hezron, we were taken by the question: "How is it possible that we have never heard of this talented singer from Saint James before?" The fact Hezron resided in the United States for several years and, in the beginning of his career, focused mainly on r&b, will probably have something to do with that, but in any case, with 'The Life I Live(d)' he presents us with one of the surprises of 2014.