Album: Tcheka

Lonji (Lusafrica)

Everything but the kitchen sink ("pan, pasta drainer, tableware...") is used to create the busy, ever-changing percussive backdrop for this Cape Verde guitarist's second album, and the result is ear-tinglingly different. You get the usual gentle balladry characteristic of this wind-swept archipelago but it's juxtaposed to an entirely original mix of African, Brazilian and Caribbean rhythms knocked out, it would seem, on whatever came to hand to keep the sound fresh. Maybe not the cure for the January blues but it could certainly help to ease you through them.

Download this: 'Ana Maria' is a wonderfully pensive epic