The Very Best: Warm Heart of Africa

Artist: The Very Best
Album: Warm Heart of Africa
Date Released: October 6, 2009
Genre: international, world music, African traditions, Afro-beat
Rating: 8.4

Esau Mwamwaya is a singer from Lilongwe, Malawi who is best known for his collaboration, The Very Best, with the British DJ/production duo Radioclit. Together, the music of The Very Best is an Afro-Western mix of dance, hiphop, pop and the traditional music of Malawi.

Warm Heart of Africa is the follow-up to their excellent 2008 debut, Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are the Very Best. And the album is aptly titled: the music is upbeat, fun and extremely catchy. But most of all it sounds extremely fresh. There's no one right now mixing African, dance and pop traditions to the same effect as these guys. And when you add guest appearances from M.I.A. and Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend it's instant win.