Album: Sotho Sounds, Junk Funk (World Music Network)

Atmosphere is everything, and yet we hear so little of it in contemporary digital recordings. But that's not the case here with this band from the kingdom of Lesotho in South Africa.

Approximately tuned tin guitars and one-string fiddles accompany raw, powerful vocals while oil drums thunder along in the background. Staff Benda Bilili and Konono No 1 have set the homemade instrumentalist's bar high, but this lot leap it with easy grace.