For the past eight year Thandiswa has been turning heads with her incredibly well tuned voice in South Africa. Her new solo album to be released on world music label Escondida Records merges pop, R&B, hip-hop, and African genres like the rhythmic Xhosa, a Zulu music style known as Mbaqanga, and the beat-oriented kwaito; “Zabalaza” also promises to finally expose her talent to American audiences who may have not known of this Kora Award win for “Best Female Artist”—the African equivalent of the Grammy. Her hooks are mighty and superbly catchy, promising with effortless glee a sweet undercoating of melody and a truly shiny veneer of poignant percussion. And wait until you lift up the hood on her lyrics that belie her South African roots and its Apartheid past.

- J-Sin