The beauty of Les Amazones d’Afrique is that, like any good military outfit – the band take their inspiration from the female warriors of old Dahomey – they’re able to shift and regroup, to respond and refocus. First coming together at the end of 2014, Les Amazones started as a truly African supergroup, one founded and spearheaded by Benin’s Angélique Kidjo and, from Mali, Mariam Doumbia, Mamani Keita and Oumou Sangaré.
Now, with this second album, Keita is joined by a younger generation of Amazons. They’re still African, but from a wider territory than before, and still with mighty voices fighting for social justice. Amazones Power picks up that baton: ‘Together we must stand!’ is the refrain that rings through ‘Heavy’, the opener. It’s an emphatic start to an album that, musically, taps into a much more underground sound than its predecessor, even though its sound palette is resolutely West African. Partly, this is due to the change in personnel – the marvellous Algerian singer, Nacera Ouali Mesbah, young Guinean singer Niariu and Malian rapper Ami Yerewolo among them. But it’s also down to the presence of Paris-based producer Dr L, who brings a grungy, Congotronics-style grit to proceedings. Thematically, Les Amazones are fired up by themes that include FGM, gender-based violence and forced marriage. Songs such as ‘Rebels’ – the voice of Mesbah powering through – and Mamani Keita and Amadou Dembélé’s ‘Timbuktu’ pinpoint the way forward: a combination of downlow beat and high ethics.
