Now 13 years in the tooth, Damon Albarn’s Africa Express is a nice idea, an attempt to create a level collaborative playing field between western and African artists, devoid of the patronisation and cultural appropriation that has plagued their relationship in the past. It has had some notable successes, particularly live. Their marathon gigs, featuring everyone from Paul McCartney to Rizzle Kicks, have been widely acclaimed. And there has been clear, lasting benefit to at least some of the African artists involved: Malian desert blues quartet Songhoy Blues obviously owe their success to their talent rather than anyone’s patronage, but they first came to notice outside of the Bamako club circuit after working with Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner under the Africa Express banner.

The artwork for EGOLI.

But the organisation’s albums have thus far been uneven – perhaps inevitably, given the circumstances of their creation. Throwing an eclectic selection of artists together, getting them to jam and trusting that the results will be magical expositions of the universal language of music is a great plan in theory, but the results have usually worked more as an intriguing document of what happened rather than thrilling listening. There have been highlights scattered around tracks that were perhaps more exciting to make than listen to, and a faint but pervasive sense that you really had to be there.

The collective’s latest venture involves Albarn, along with Zinner and a suitably diverse cast – grime rapper Ghetts and Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys among them – relocating to Johannesburg. It has proved controversial: UK-based artists Nabihah Iqbal and Yannick Ilunga (AKA Petite Noir) both publicly protested about contracts that signed their rights to the music they made away for a nominal £1 fee, the former accusing them of “21st-century colonisation”. Africa Express, a non-profit organisation, responded by saying that while western artists were expected to give their time for free, African musicians working on their projects were paid, and any profits “go to artists and the promotion of African music”. The musical contents of EGOLI – which don’t seem to feature either Ilunga or Iqbal – should prove less divisive.

Talent ... (from left) Africa Express participants Muzi, Poté, Otim Alpha, Boiz1, Ghetts, Dominowe and Boiz2. Photograph: Denholm Hewlett

South African pop has enjoyed a fertile and exciting run in recent years. Its own variants on house music, from kwaito to gqom, and on hip-hop, have attracted considerable attention, as has the dense warp-speed electronics of the entirely homegrown shangaan. And there’s a distinct crackle of energy about the collaborations on EGOLI. You hear it on City Lights, where the Mahotella Queens, a veteran mbaqanga trio, team up with Zinner, British producer Georgia and Otim Alpha, pioneer of an electro take on traditional Achioli music. The result is rich, beautiful electronic pop music, a weirdly affecting hint of melancholy audible amid the pacy rhythm track and ravey synth stabs; it sounds really commercial without resembling anything you’d hear on Radio 1. No Games, on which Ghetts spars with Port Elizabeth rapper and self-styled “president of female orgasm” Moonchild Sanelly, among a host of others, is equally great: sparse, funky, lightly dressed with marimba.

For anyone not familiar with her career (which from afar looks pretty mind-blowing, involving ownership not merely of a clothing line but something referred to in her Wikipedia entry as a “naked club”), Sanelly is very much EGOLI’s breakout star. Your heart leaps a little every time she appears, not least on the remarkable Sizi Freaks, a tense, minimal gqom track over which she offers some forthright bedroom tips – “don’t stop, grab the nuts, don’t crush them, just brush them” – in a blithe sing-song.

Africa Express: Johannesburg ft Gruff Rhys, Morena Leraba, Radio 123, Sibot – video

The album hangs together more coherently than its predecessor Maison des Jeunes, switching from pop-facing to something more subdued and traditional – Gruff Rhys and Zolani Mahola’s acoustic duet Absolutely Everything Is Pointing Towards the Light; Muzi, Zola 7 and the Mahotella Queens’ The River – without jolting you. Albarn’s voice is so distinctive it means any track he appears on automatically sounds like Gorillaz, but for the most part you’re struck by how the western artists retreat into the background, as if urging the listener to take more notice of the local talent. It doesn’t feel like an act of grand munificence, more something they’re doing in service to the music. Johannesburg’s hazy R&B doesn’t feel like Gruff Rhys performing with some African backing musicians, but something genuinely holistic.

Listening to it, or another one of Sanelly’s star turns on Where Will This Lead Us To? (or indeed The Return of Bacardi, a fabulous, warped update on old Chicago house courtesy of DJ Spoko and FAKA) it’s hard not to find yourself thinking that if western pop currently seems a little homogenous and static, there’s a whole world of far fresher ideas out there – and opening one’s eyes to them might be a way forward. That’s presumably the whole point.

This week Alexis listened to

unperfect – Looking for a Hug

The latest girl group project from Xenomania sounds a world away from the brashness of Girls Aloud. Looking for a Hug is subtle, hypnotically insistent house, decorated with muted guitar.

• This review was amended on Friday 5 July to correct two errors – Africa Express is a non-profit organisation, not a charity, and the album is released by Africa Express, not Rough Trade.