The far-flung corners of the music world continue to reveal treasures and surprises. This time, it was American producer Ian Brennan, Grammy Award winner for Tinariwen's Tassili, who unearthed this astonishing group of eight kids in Malawi, previously unknown on the music circuit. The Malawi Mouse Boys are street kids whose main occupation is not singing, but selling grilled mouse kebabs, a common dish in one of the world's poorest countries. Their naive, faith-filled music is played on cobbled-together instruments, but it's above all their voices that make He Is # 1, released in October 2012, such a joy.
