Qobuzissime

Les Amazones d’Afrique is a pan-African supergroup created by singers Mamani Keïta, Oumou Sangaré and Mariam Doumbia in 2014: their agenda on this second album is both to fight for women’s rights and overturn the patriarchy. Amazones Power brings together divas from Mali (Mamani Keïta, Rokia Koné, Ami Yerewolo), Benin (Fafa Ruffino), Guinea (Niariu), Burkina Faso (Kandy Guira) and Algeria (Nacera Ouali Mesbah), and puts their vocal expertise together with modern arrangements concocted by Liam Farrell, better known under his alias Doctor L (Mbongwana Star, Bantou Mentale…). Hip-hop, afrobeat, dub and electro rhythms host ancestral and synthetic percussion, with both vintage and electric keyboards, frenzied guitars and powerful bass. Recorded between Bamako and Paris, mixed in Dakar, this bouncing and soul-filled manifesto also sees a few male sympathisers take to the mic, such as the rappers from the Parisian trio Nyoko Bokbae (Douranne “Boy” Fall and Magueye “Jon Grace” Diouk) on Heavy or the Malian reggaeman Koko Dembelé who features alongside Mamani Keita on Timbuktu and Dogon. A 5-star cast which produces a variety of ambiances, further reinforcing the militant purpose of Amazones Power. ©️ Benjamin MiNiMuM/Qobuz

Malik Djoudi’s second album (after Un in 2017) forms a perfect summary of French electronic music, with beautifully bare arrangements (Essentiel) often combined with an up-tempo rhythm (Aussi Jolie, Belles Sueurs), as well as intimate and poetic lyrics revealing the various sides of the singer’s temperament, while also addressing the anxieties and hopes of a generation. With his androgynous voice, Djoudi sings about the night (Épouser la nuit), an imaginary journey (Train de nuit) and madness (Folie douce), all on captivating melodies only he has the secret to. While neurasthenic guitars and synthetic, icy and hypnotic layers are the singer's favorite sounds, he sometimes invites other instruments into his little world, often in the form of familiar and comforting samples (the brass of Dis-moi que t'y pense).

An escapee from the collective Bargou 08, Tunisian electro musician Sofyannn Ben Youssef took on the pseudonym Ammar 808 to release his hair-raising first album. As with 808 State, English pioneers of the Manchester acid movement, the name is a reference to the legendary TR 808 drum machine, which was the pride of any electro or hip-hop producer's arsenal in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And while this machine teams up with traditional North African instruments (guembri lute, gasba flute, zukra pipes), it doesn't impose a dominant retro feel on the album. The crafty producer has also brought along a few of the most remarkable voices of the North African scene: his compatriot Cheb Hassen Tej (Ichki lel Bey, El Bidha Wessamra), the Moroccan Mehdi Nassouli (Boganga & Sandia, Layli), found here alongside Titi Robin, and the Algerian Sofiane Saïdi (Zine Ezzine), with whom Ammar 808 pursues a fruitful dialogue, which was begun in the company of Mazalda on the very winning album El Ndjoum. Ammar 808 lines up covers of traditional pieces, but dresses them in futurist combinations. Already excited by the good surprises thrown up by the electro chaabi movement, and by the Acid Arab collective, this Maghreb United shows that in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, clubbers will still be filling the dancefloors. © Benjamin MiNiMuM/Qobuz