The Joy ★★★★
The Joy
TRANSGRESSIVE. CD/DL/LP
Mesmeric debut from a young Zulu vocal quintet.
It sounds too good to be true: five members of a South African choir get to a practice early, mess around and realise what they have is the real deal. Ladysmith Black Mambazo will get a lot of comparative name-checks, but The Joy’s sound is their own: if the harmonies highlight their Zulu upbringing, and of lives spent listening to isicathamiya music, there’s much in their arrangements which could come from the street corners of New York, from The Belmonts, Teenagers and Del-Vikings. Primary lead vocalist Duzie has to be one of the finds of the year, soaring above his bandmates’ backing, but it’s easy – and rewarding – to lose him entirely and focus on the bass lines or tenors so tightly locked you could mistake them for Des Voix Bulgares. Start with the single, You Complete Me, and you’ll be smitten.
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Flavia Coelho ★★★
Ginga
PIAS/LE LABEL. CD/DL/LP
In a project oozing with life, the Brazilian star’s fifth album finds her trying to make sense of the myriad music styles she heard on Rio’s Rádio Fluminense in the 1990s, but mixing them all up in a blender that is unmistakably Coelho. There’s timba here, and amapiano, funk and some kitschy telenovela soundtracks. It’ll definitely put a smile on your face.
Alessandro ‘Asso’ Stefana ★★★★
Alessandro ‘Asso’ Stefana
IPECAC. CD/DL/LP
Known for playing with Vinicio Capossela and Guano Padano, the Italian guitarist has also been spotted in P.J. Harvey’s band (she exec produces here). It’s an album of two halves: the first updating
