Album: Les Amazones de Guinée

Wamato, Sterns Africa

Perhaps it's time to stop being surprised when a group of African militia produce a record as joyous as this, but when those soldiers also happen to be women it does add a further dimension. This Guinean band have been around in one form or another since the early Sixties but, putting aside all the African women's emancipation rhetoric – and judging this on a level playing field – the arrangements are sublime, the playing endearingly ragged and the overall effect beguiling. They may not have put out an album for 25 years but what a comeback!

Download this: The gentle, loping 'Reine Nyepou'