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“There is commendable ambition and skill behind this collaboration between Bokanté, the self-styled “super group” founded by Michael League of the New York jazz-funk outfit Snarky Puppy, and the renowned Dutch big band Metropole Orkest (active since 1945). League was inspired to form Bokanté to showcase the Guadaloupe-born singer Malika Tirolien, with whom he writes, most of their songs being delivered in Creole. Charismatic on stage, her vocals are supple, capable of both delicacy and force, and with hip-hop inflections. For this second album, League has added cinematic heft to Bokanté’s melange of Caribbean, Middle Eastern and jazz influences, helped by the arrangements of the Orkest’s Jules Buckley.” – The Guardian

“Bokanté could have easily been a one-time project and Strange Circles a monolith, with a legacy crystallized. Instead, improbably enough, the group scaled up for sophomore album What Heat. Recorded in tandem with the Netherlands-based Metropole Orkest and its conductor, Jules Buckley, the album shows Bokanté widen its already impressive scope. In many ways, What Heat builds on Strange Circles – in heart, in musicianship, in melody – but in even more, it diverges.

What Heat has an epic quality to it. Half of the tracks break the seven-minute mark; none fall below five. The Orkest's sweeping accompaniments make every song a miniature suite with long, richly textured instrumental breaks. Hefty lyrical themes include the deadly travails of forced migration ("Bòd Lanmè Pa Lwen"), rights and equality for members of the African diaspora ("Réparasyons") and women ("Fanm"), and even a possible future in which a leader simply called "Donny" is thrown out into the streets and the world works to repair the damage he has done ("Don't Do It"). What Heat is an album that could just as easily be a masterpiece of socially relevant modern dance as a sophomore record.” – Pop Matters

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