With the tragic passing of musician and leader of the Garifuna Collective Andy Palacio, this collection of songs recorded by Garifuna women in his home town of Hopkins, acts as something of a eulogy to the man who did so much to promote and protect his people’s music and culture. While it was Andy who received most attention during last year’s media flirtation with this little known music out of the Caribbean Coast of Central America, it was the depth of the folkloric traditions that made the story so interesting. And as label owner Ivan Duran explains in the notes it is the women who are the caretakers of the Garifuna traditions while the men go off to sea or increasingly to work abroad. So in 2002, following years of research, Duran set off to bring together some of those voices until then only heard around the homes and villages or at the Garifuna ceremonies. Travelling the region he found incredible singers like 54-year-old Guatemalan mother of four Sofia Blanco whose raw soulful voice opens this wonderful collection, and the Honduran Marcela ‘Chela’ Torres one of the singers who will hopefully be bringing her deep bluesy vocals to London later in the year as a tribute to Andy Palacio. With subtle contemporary production and ambience from Ivan Duran helping this music to translate onto CD, this is another example of the power and the glory of this little known music. (Andy Thomas)