Peruvian multi-instrumentalist Ale Hop has a knack for unsettling reinventions of musical traditions. On her last album, 2023’s Agua Dulce, she and percussionist Laura Robles reimagined the cajón, electronically processing the instrument’s rhythms with skittering synths and rumbling sub-bass to produce eerie, unpredictable percussion. She returns with Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta, the pair’s lively debut record delivering a new take on the folk-pop sounds of Congolese soukous.
Characterised by its high-register, dextrous electric guitar rhythms and bright arpeggiated melodies, soukous is generally an uptempo, joyous genre sitting somewhere between Ghanaian highlife and Latin cumbia. Across six tracks, Bakorta captures this effervescence, his spirited guitar-playing ringing with trilling harmony on opening track Bonne Année, lilting through a fast-paced refrain on Así Baila El Sintetizador and twitching through syncopated percussive rhythms on La Danza del Pajarito.
Hop’s sound design propels the record into a different setting entirely. Bonne Année begins with distracting, twinkling electronics and laser-like synth stabs before Hop produces sweeping digital horn fanfares that elevate the song’s sprightly melodies into a thumping dancefloor-filler. Nitaangaza slows soukous into a woozy tempo, processing Bakorta’s guitar lines through psychedelic, washed-out reverb; highlight Así Baila El Sintetizador artfully injects harsh bass rumbles and thunderous synth chords that lend form and aggression to Bakorta’s hypnotic, spiralling guitar refrain.
Certain electronic additions – take the squeaks and squeals of the Buchla synth on the title track – work less well and feel jarring, but it’s more often the case that when Hop gives free rein to her maximalist production ideas she creates a fascinating partnership with Bakorta. On Mapambazuko, the pair supplants the exuberance of soukous with a sound that teeters on the edge of overwhelm, drawing the listener into its thrilling chaos.
Also out this month
Malian guitarist Samba Touré releases his latest album, Baarakelaw (Glitterbeat Records), combining his signature desert blues style with traditional songhoy melodies. Touré’s deep vibrato rings out beautifully on slower numbers like Paasekaw and Boulanga, producing an emotive balladry. Highlife pioneer Ebo Taylor returns with JID022 (Jazz Is Dead), a remarkably energetic showcase of the 89-year-old’s West African style and undiminished voice, still soaring over group harmonies on tracks Obra Akyedzi and Kusi Na Sibo. A reissue of Egyptian producer Ammar El Sherei’s 1976 album Music From the East (Wewantsounds) provides a welcome spotlight for an eccentric but deeply atmospheric blend of Arabic folk compositions with early synth keyboard experimentations, peaking on the 11-minute odyssey Enta Enta.
