WORLD

Chiwoniso and Sami Moukaddem reviewed by Siobhán Long.

SAMI MOUKADDEM

The Facts of Life for the Palestinian

No label

Deeply visceral and challenging at every chord change, Lebanese writer and multi-instrumentalist Sami Moukaddem's highly politicised pro-Palestinian treatise pulls no punches.

His brutish language and uncompromisingly dissonant arrangements echo the terror of the last six decades of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, but he doesn't shield the listener from the wider anti-Arab implications of the so-called war on terror either.

Stabat Mater( Every Palestinian Mother) is a crushing evocation of the horrors of war, with Riona Hartman's vocals countering the jagged edges of Moukaddem's throughout this challenging collection.

Cello and percussion underscore the desolation of loss: their naked shapes suggesting a void that may never be filled. A dark, unsettling collection that will challenge the most stubborn fence- sitter into a response of some hue.

www.samimoukaddem.com

SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Hearing My Other, The Earth Responds

CHIWONISO

Rebel Woman

Cumbancha

Such descriptions as "Afrosoul diva" fail to do justice to the sheer vivacity of Chiwoniso Maraire's first solo album in eight years. The Zimbabwean's success at home might be attributed to her infectious and spirited vocals, or to the mesmerising primal rhythms of her music, but Rebel Womanreeks of the renewed energies of an artist who's returned from the well, laden with gifts, ripe for the giving.

The lightness of touch on Matsotsi, the child-like syllabic word play of Gomo, and the funked-up brass and percussion threaded throughout the collection suggest a world of sunshine and blue skies, rather than spiralling inflation and political tyranny.

It's here that Chiwoniso passes the ultimate  test: creating transcendent music infused with a timeless celebration of life in all its muddied imperfection.

www.chiwoniso.com

SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks: Wakashinga, Nerudo