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Album Details

• Artist: Dobet Gnahore
• Album: Na Afriki
• Label: Cumbancha
• Year of Release: 2007
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2007-06-27

Dobet Gnahore comes our way from the Ivory Coast. Brought up by a master drumming father she decided to stick around the Village Ki-Yi M'Block, one of Africa's most unique artist enclaves. As you can hear on her new album Na Afriki there is just reason for this. She has such a great voice that transcends and with her French guitarist husband, Colin Laroche de Feline they are really on an international path. On Na Afriki Dobet sings in an impressive 7 languages. This alone is a feat but when the songs are as good as this and as instantly charming you know you have found a great voice in world music.

The music here is mostly acoustic with some of the arrangements standing out in their minimal nature. On "Issa" there is her voice and then a gentle guitar mixed with a very simple African percussion. The voices backing her up are impressive the way they turn the song into a round. With "Inyembezi Zam" you think she is going to mess with some electronic fusion but it's only a loop of her voice that she toys with. It becomes quite hypnotic.

If you are looking for something new in the world-beat vein then don't overlook Dobet Gnahore. She is a strong songwriter and she has surrounded herself with great musicians. Watch for this new label too. I've only heard two releases on the Cumbancha label and they've both impressed me.

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