Megson
con-tra-dic-shun
(edj records)
5*

THIS offering from husband-and-wife duo Debs and Stu Hanna is irresistible, with impressive vocal harmonies and intriguing, intelligent lyrics accompanied by inventive, restrained instrumentation.

The gently flowing The New Girl is a movingly poetic and edifying story about the Irish immigration to Teeside in 1829 — a clear reference to the migrations of today — and their setting to music of John Bell’s 1810 insurrectionary words  about “rotten boroughs, the source of our sorrows” on Voice of the Nation is a rousing hymn to participatory democracy.

Away from politics, Debs’s voice mesmerises in the enchanting traditional I Drew my Ship into the Harbour love story while, back at the barricades, austerity is tackled in the deliciously ingenious modern parable of Barrington Judo Club.

John Parker (double bass), Patrick Duffin (percussion) and Paul Youdan (B Vox) anchor the sound excellently. Touring now, miss not.

Alan Prosser
5/4AP
(Rafting Dog Records)
5*

GUITARIST Alan Prosser is a founding member of the legendary Oysterband and this solo project is an equally in-your-face challenge to convention.

Partially inspired by Dave Brubeck and Alexis Korner, all the songs and instrumentals have been set in five-time — a signature that is well under Prosser’s musical skin and it works a treat in every single one of the 10 compositions.

Suicide Bomber is a reflection on the mind of one such individual who’s a “heartbeat away from paradise” but with no-one to grieve over him.

There are thoughtful melodies about his home county of Kent on Stour Water and Out of Kent but his exquisite guitar work reaches its zenith in Five for You which thrills with its progression.

The mournful Tommy Atkins — slang for the common soldier — March slowly evolves into a memorable anthem. A major achievement.

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni ba
Miri
(Outhere Records)
5*

A NGONI is a west-African string instrument employed in the Malian griot (oral) storytelling tradition since the 13th century and it is to Bassekou Kouyate what a Fender Strat is to Jeff Beck.

Miri in Bamana means “contemplation,” which is what Kouyate does on the condition of present-day Mali. The personal and political intertwine seamlessly in a reflective musical flow with an impressive symbiosis between the voices and instruments.

The album is something of a family affair, with his wife Amy Sacko on vocals, son Madou Kouyate on bass ngoni and niece Kankou Kouyate a back-up singer.

The allegorical, mournful Wele ni castigates a king who disrespects his people, while the more assertive and energetic Konya singles out jealousy as a major problem in African societies, while Tabital Pulaaku lays into the bloody conflict between nomads and farmers and Yakare honours Kouyate’s recently departed mother.

Touring now, do not miss.