Afrobeat 714 Items

2LP | 2019 | EU | Original (Jazz Village)

Release: 2019 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Orchestrated by legendary producer Alan Lorber, this talented cast of musicians weave their way through Eastern-influenced and psychedelic interpretations of pop gems and some way-out-there originals, in an album touted as the first in the fusion of raga and jazz.\n \nBrimming with the sounds of sitar, tabla, and Gamelan percussion, this eccentric blend of Eastern and Western music includes four\noriginally unissued bonus tracks!\n \nPackaged in a gorgeous replica of the original gatefold jacket, featuring the original notes and a fresh set of notes from Alan Lorber himself! Exquisitely mastered from the original stereo masters, cut by Kevin Gray for a stunning and enveloping classic stereo sound with delightful stereo separation. Pressed on gold vinyl at Third Man in Detroit!

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Ahmad Jamal

Ballades

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Kings Left Behind Black Vinyl Edition

Ikebe Shakedown

LP | 2019 | US | Original (Colemine)

Ondigui & Bota Tabansi International

Release: 2019 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ten years ago, Ikebe Shakedown began pushing the boundaries of instrumental music. Each new track and live set has sent them deeper into combining the primal elements of ’70s soul, raw psychedelic style, and cinematic Western soundtracks with powerful grooves and soaring melodies. Now, with their new release, Kings Left Behind (Colemine Records), the band is giving listeners more mystery and majesty than ever before. The album features the entire group collaborating to produce tracks that deliver punches right to the gut, even as dreamy guitars and lush horn melodies and string arrangements capture the imagination.

The album was recorded by Ikebe's bassist, Vince Chiarito, at Hive Mind Recording. Opened with Ikebe's saxophonist, Mike Buckley, and another collaborator in 2017, Hive Mind has become a home base for the band, leading to more experimentation with the textures and sounds of a genre they define as Instrumental Soul.

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Ewondo Rythm

LP | 2019 | EU | Original (BBE Music)

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Afrotunes: Best Of Juju Volume 2 - Oba Mimo Olorun Ayo

Ojo Balingo

2LP | 2019 | EU | Original (BBE Africa)

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings From The 1970s & '80s

3LP+7" | 2013 | UK | Original (Soundway)

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Ajabu!)

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Soundway Records present Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ‘80s - a treasure-trove of rare and unusual recordings from East Africa. Spread out over two CDs and one triple LP, Kenya Special is accompanied by detailed liner notes, original artwork and photographs.

It follows on from Soundway’s much acclaimed African ‘Special’ series that to date has focused on the highlife and afrobeat output from 1970s Nigeria and Ghana. Kenya Special is a collection of 32 recordings (most of which were only ever released on small-run 45rpm 7" singles) that stand out as being different or unique as well as some classic genre standards. From Kikuyu language ‘liquid soul’, Luo benga and Swahili afrobeat to genre-bending Congolese and Tanzanian tracks recorded in Nairobi, Kenya Special sees Soundway yet again taking the less trodden path. Many of the tracks featured here are peppered with innovation and experimentation highlighting how diverse the music scene in Kenya was at the time.

In 1970s Kenya the two threads of rumba and benga loosely dominated the music scene. Benga quickly became Kenya’s unique contribution to afro-pop; spreading like wildfire through the interior countryside with it’s fast, 4/4 machine-gun beat and intricate electric guitar layers. The Congolese take on Afro-Cuban rumba was introduced by touring bands many of whom settled in East Africa - influencing bands from Kenya and Tanzania to come up with their own take on this popular style. Alongside these styles were small ensembles and hotel-sponsored bands, playing a blend of music that often included rock ‘n’ roll riffs, elements of ‘afro’ music (influenced by West African musicians like Fela Kuti), and multiple other combinations from South African and Zambian guitar styles to disco, funk and Swahili coastal rhythms like chakacha.

Painstakingly compiled, assembled and researched over two years by a team of five people from five countries (Kenya included), Kenya Special is a collection that looks beyond the mainstream and brings new life and recognition to some little known gems and forgotten classics of Kenya’s past.

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Tigana Santana

Cacada Noturna

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-09-13

Chameleon Crystal Blue Sky Vinyl Edizion

Jana Milla

LP | 2024 | US | Original (New West)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-08-30

Orile To Berlin Orange Vinyl Edition

Rah & The Ruffcats

LP | 2024 | Original (Sonar Kollektiv)

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Blue Pearls)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Berlin based Ruffcats are something of an institution. This eight-piece outfit made up of some of the country"s most revered session musicians, pool all of their diverse influences and come together as "The Ruffcats" to create a unique take on the music they love. Rapturous Apollo Helios, better known as RAH, has been making a name for himself as one of Berlins" most outstanding rappers, songwriters and vocalists. Originally hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, RAH"s music has always been influenced by his environment as well as a rich history of black music from hip hop to soul and, of course, Afrobeat.

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Feven Yoseph

Gize Blue Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Azerbaijani Gitara, Volume 2

Rahman Mammadli

LP | 2024 | CH | Original (Les Disques Bongo Joe)

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Sahel Sounds)

Release: 2024 / CH – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Introducing "Azerbaijani Gitara vol. 2" by Rahman Mammadli, the eagerly awaited sequel to Bongo Joe"s acclaimed debut featuring Rüstam Quliyev. Born from the vibrant streets of Baku, Azerbaijani gitara culture has evolved into a mesmerizing fusion of indigenous traditions and global influences. From the oil boom era to Soviet rule, musicians have embraced the electric guitar as a symbol of cultural expression.Rahman Mammadli, a legend in his own right, revolutionized the sound with his innovative techniques and impassioned performances. Drawing inspiration from mugham music, Mammadli"s compositions resonate with soul-stirring melodies and electrifying solos.

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Tidiane Thiam

Africa Yontii

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | Original (One World)

Raphael Gimenes

Dinamarca

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-08-16

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Nordvis)

Tervahaat

Patria

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Glitterbeat)

Aziza Brahim

Mawja

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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When We Were Looking Seaglass Blue With Emerald Green Splatter Vinyl Editin

Louisa Stancioff

LP | 2024 | Original (Yep Roc)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | US | Original (New West)

Secret Sisters

Mind, Man, Medicine

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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All My Friends Black Vinyl Edition

Aoife O'Donovan

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Yep Roc)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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All My Friends Opaque Violet Vinyl Edition

Aoife O'Donovan

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Yep Roc)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Wheel)

Jason Wilson

Ashara

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Nordvis)

Iterum Nata

From The Infinite Light

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Yankovic, Frank & Friends

Songs Of The Polka King-The Ultimate Collection

2LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Cleveland International)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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2LP | 2018 | EU | Original (Lambent Light)

Mary Chapin Carpenter

Sometimes Just The Sky

Release: 2018 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Michael Franti & Spearhead

Work Hard And Be Nice

2LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Boo Boo Wax)

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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2LP | 2019 | EU | Original (PGM)

Patty Griffin

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Searching For The Answers

Hudson Taylor

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Rubyworks)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Yep Roc)

Chatham County Line

Hiyo

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2013 | EU | Reissue (Outside Music)

Justin Rutledge

Valleyheart

Release: 2013 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Dytomite Starlite Band Of Ghana

LP | 2019 | UK | Original (BBE)

Release: 2019 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Officehome)

Roforofo Jazz

Running The Way

Erkin Cavus & Reentko Dirks

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The unbreathable air saturated with moisture, the soggy soil that swallows every step like a starving death, the hostile nature and, finally, the remote swamp. The one they invested in composing Fire Eater. The one they left a few traces in. Tracks that can talk. Six men heavily armed with instruments, a seventh fastest, only weighted by a microphone. They left the inhospitable vegetation, leaving behind a succession of footprints. As we try to follow them, the afrobeat that made it easy to spot them now dissipates into a floating mist. So, we have to connect the radars and try to capture the vintage waves of equipment that emit more than one point but several. Be attentive to jazz solos and funk scarifications, as much as to what could chant and tap on the times of these tight rhythms. Because their blending has become a personal style as much as hybrid, and it is to avoid being watched by asphyxiation that they left the stagnant waters. Escaped from the car sound systems or plastered on the walls announcing their many concerts, it is in the city that they are now detected. Infiltrating them is a daunting task. A track where you have to avoid the vigilance of the electric and venomous keyboards, escape the copper flames and the guitar shears. Enter the choking groove to finally enjoy a purely instrumental passage, sneak in and dance. Progress outside the Afro mangrove, Running The Way nevertheless retains many cables still connected. The bottom of the jeans still ‘Roforofo’. ‘Muddy’ in Yoruba. Just 2 years after the first EP Fire Eater released in 2021, Radio Nova’s crush (title Helelyos enthroned 3 months in playlist), the Roforofo Jazz returns with the LP Running The Way, 8 tracks even more ambitious, with careful production, marking a clear progression in its quest for an increasingly more personal sound and writing. Putting the listener immediately in the tone of his atypical afro jazz rap fury, Love In Time and its sharp rhythmic appeal to the power of the music, in an ultra-energetic piece yet smelling with jazz via well-felt keyboard surges. Side To Side is a rearrangement of a piece by Togolese artist Bella Bello and Manu Dibango, yet glancing towards Motown and resonating like a anthem to life and directions to take to counter the negativity of our modern societies. Then on Stand Up in a more deepfunk US style like Breakestra or The Greyboy Allstars, MC Days (aka RacecaR) switches between fast flows and downtempo in an injunction to all fight for what we believe in. An epic piece concluded with a nod to Master Hendrix… Gas punctuates the A side with a light but saving rhythmic lull, coming closer to a nu-soul atmosphere and punctuated with an explosive refrain in which rap, rock and jazz clash, tending to prove as Days chants that by being more realistic our differences can only fade…Title Shawarma has nothing to do with a Kebab sandwich, although…! Life unfolds like a menu, in which everything is not always to our liking but which teaches us to accept judicious and juicy mixes, and combinations. The result is a joint with an oriental touch, almost ethio, a rhythm that perfectly matches the hip-hop flow and the Roforofo Jazz style.The Big Hustle is a UFO. Articulated around a 20 bars loop that gives it a communicative energy, punctuated by a bass line reminiscent of Fela Kuti’s Colonial Mentality, this title sounds like a highway for frantic breakbeat dancers; epic! From Here To Benin brings us back to the group’s Afro-inspired origins, while injecting a slight dose of well-felt pop music. A piece that encourages travel to learn to share, universally. And finally, Mode For DD, a cover of the instrumental title of the obscure jazz funk of The Awakening, with added voice of Days telling the meaning of life and its mysteries, our beliefs and certainties, as human beings as well as artists.

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Istanbul 1900

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Traumton)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Sublime Frequencies)

Baba Commandant

Sonbonbela

Antibalas Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Sublime Frequencies is honored to release the third LP from Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band. Sonbonbela was recorded in the beginning of 2022 in the Republic of Burkina Faso. The group continue to hone their trademark fusion of Mandingue and afro-beat styles. The Mandingo Band are a hit machine, sculpting seven new tracks of near Beefheart/Magic Band dynamics, Fela inspired groovers dusted out in the Sahel zone, rather than the humidity and sweat of Lagos, creating one of the most original and propulsive musical statements to come from the contemporary West African cultural juggernaut. As with previous releases, the band features the legendary guitar pyrotechnics of Issouf Diabate, truly one of the greatest West African (or Earth for that matter) guitarists of the last forty years. The band is completed by a near bottomless barrel of artistry from the Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso musical talent pool. On bass guitar, Wendeyida Ouedraogo, on drums Abbas Kabore, and on percussion and balafon, Nickie Dembele. Leading the charge again is the captain himself, Mamadou Sanou on the Doso Ngoni featuring one of the most distinctive voices of the modern era. The opposite of the banal trends of auto-tune that have pervaded most of West African popular music, Baba’s voice still impresses with its gravel and grit, showcasing a range that is ancient and defiant in equal measure. This LP is a non-stop hit parade of afro-beat bangers destined to light dance floors and living rooms ablaze!!! This album is dedicated to the memory of Massimbo Taragna, the bass player extraordinaire who was an integral part of the Mandingo Band’s trance stun musical power. He passed away in early 2022. RIP

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Antibalas

LP | 2012 | US | Reissue (Daptone)

Antibalas Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2012 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The unstoppable, irresistible rhythms and melodies of Antibalas have influenced scores of artists across rock, hip hop, afrobeat and beyond. Born in a Brooklyn warehouse in 1997, 12 piece ensemble Antibalas is credited with introducing Afrobeat to a wider global audience, influencing countless musicians and developing a live show that is the stuff of legend. Members of Antibalas served as musical directors and the house band in the Broadway hit Fela! and penned original music for the show. Members have also recently collaborated/performed with Iron and Wine, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Mark Ronson, TV on the Radio and The Roots. On the heels of the hit musical Fela!, Antibalas ended up reuniting with former member and producer Gabriel Roth, who was at the helm for their first three albums. This self-titled album was their first on Daptone Records.

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Antibalas

LP | 2012 | US | Reissue (Daptone)

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Sahel Sounds)

Release: 2012 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Mamman Sani

Taaritt

Isaac Birituro & The Rail Abandon

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Cosmic synth. Polyphonic analog synthesizers and drum machines interpret ancient Saharan folk ballads in an imagined science fiction future. A proposed relaxation guide, sonically lying somewhere between ambient library music and minimal wave. Recorded in Niger and France in the late 1980s.All Recordings by Mamman Sani Abdoulaye.Recorded 1985 - 1988 at Studio Samira in Niamey, Niger and Studio Kham Mai in Paris, France.Instruments include Crumar Bit 99, RCA Victor 70, Yamaha RX5, and Roland TR-505.Painting by Maria Joan Dixon.Layout and design by Christopher Kirkley.

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Small Small

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Wah Wah 45s)

Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This summer sees the return of the unique cross-continental collaboration between Ghanain xylophonist Isaac Birituro and his band of live international musicians, The Rail Abandon. Having created something of a buzz back in 2019 with their debut albumKalba- gaining support along the way fromGilles Peterson,Cerys MatthewsandTom Ravenscroftto name but a few - and after something of a hiatus, the duo teased us earlier this spring with theLapaz EPin preparation for their new LP,Small Small.

Small Smallis a very Ghanaian saying, a direct translation to English, which is used in a wide variety of contexts to mean 'bit by bit,' 'one step at a time' or 'slow and steady'. Vocalist and musician Sonny Johns, from The Rail Abandon, was first introduced to the phrase on his initial trip to Ghana in 2016, when he met Isaac in Kalba, and the phrase has popped up over and over ever since.

"Any second album is a difficult process –how do you make something that follows on from the first but is different enough? It's particularly difficult when your first album was made under the unique conditions of having never played together, in unusual surroundings. It is also difficult when you live on different continents from each other. To add to those difficulties, we had to make a record in the middle of a pandemic. Fortunately, just before the world was locked down, we'd written and recorded the basis of the album over 3 days while on tour in Germany, October 2019. Then Isaac and the Rail Abandon went about adding their own musicians to the recordings in Ghana and the UK respectively, bringing everyone together via the internet instead of physically. Everyone involved had been hit dramatically during this period, some physically, some financially, all emotionally.

The rise of the BLM movement during this period also made a big impact on a project designed to unite people, bring equality and encourage mutual respect. The death of Tony Allen also hit us hard early in this period too -Tony (also of maternal Ghanaian heritage) was a person who united West African and European musics and cultures seamlessly and was instrumental in bringing together (indirectly) the music of Isaac Birituro & The Rail Abandon. So, we finished this albumSmall Smallover the intense year of 2020 influenced by the difficulties that we, and the world, have been through. The album is about loss, frustration and struggle, but it's also about the light at the end of the tunnel; about overcoming difficulties to find a brighter future and no matter what separates us, whether that be language, culture, continents or borders, when we listen to each other and learn from each other, there's really not much that can keep us apart. So from everyone involved, here's to a brighter future." Sonny Johns from The Rail Abandon.

The Rail Abandon is a play on the name Rail band - the short title ofThe Super Rail Band of the Buffet Hotel de la Gare, Bamako -a band from Bamako, Mali including such greats as Salif Keita and the more importantly the guitarist Dejimady Tounkara. Inspired by his playing the group were given the moniker The Rail Abandon as a way to release music without a face, specific name or singer. The line up is different depending on the music. Due to a joint love of African musics from across the continent, the core at the moment is Sonny Johns on vocals and guitar, Raph Clarkson on trombone and keyboards, and Israeli musician Yuval Wetlzer on drums and percussion, but it can incorporate any, all, none or more than these people.

As well as the core group, the album also features a number of special guests, including Ghanaian powerhouse vocalist Wiyaala; UK based Afrobeat Ambassador Dele Sosimi; the incredible Queen Ayesha and South African singer Nosihe.

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Ali Jade Vinyl Edition

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Dead Oceans)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ali Farka Touré trekked the world, bringing his beloved Malian music to the masses. Dubbed "the African John Lee Hooker," one could hear strong connections between the two; both employed a bluesy style of play with gritty textures that elicit calm and fury in equal measure. While the influence of Black blues music prevailed, Touré created a West African blend of 'desert blues' that garnered Grammy Awards and widespread reverence. Though he transcended in 2006, Ali's musical legacy lives on through his son, Vieux aka "the Hendrix of the Sahara," an accomplished guitarist and champion of Malian music in his own right. On Ali, his collaborative album with Khruangbin, Vieux pays homage to his father by recreating some of his most resonant work, putting new twists on it while maintaining the original's integrity. The result is a rightful ode to a legend. Ali isn't just a greatest hits compilation. It's a lullaby, a remembrance of Ali's life through known highlights and B-sides from his catalog. It is a testament to what happens when creativity is approached through open arms and open hearts. "To me, music is magic, it is spontaneous, it is the energy between people," Vieux says. "I think Khruangbin understands this very well." The genesis of the album dates back to 2019, when Khruangbin, coming off their breakthrough album Con Todo El Mundo, was beginning to play to bigger crowds. The record was finished in 2021, as a global pandemic shuttered businesses and forced us to take stock of what Earth was becoming. Indirectly, Ali captures this as a moment of peace within a raging storm, a conversation between past and present without allegiance to suffering. Now, given Khruangbin's reach as a unit with legions of fans (including the likes of Jay-Z and Paul McCartney), they're poised to bring Malian music to broader groups of listeners.

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Music From Saharan Whatsapp

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Sahel Sounds)

North Mississippi Allstars

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In 2020, Sahel Sounds hosted a project called Music from Saharan WhatsApp. This series consisted of ephemeral digital EPs, documenting live performances by some of the most exciting acts in the Sahel playing music, including Nigerién techno, wedding rock, Woodabe guitar, WZN, traditional music, Mandingue music, and more. Responding to an open call from our network of artists, musicians recorded a handful of tracks on their cellphone and sent them over the popular mobile app WhatsApp. Each session was hosted for a month on Bandcamp and sold on a sliding scale, with all profits wired directly to the musicians. After a month, the EP would disappear, replaced by another one. Now, some of the label's favorite tracks from this series are collected for the first time outside of Bandcamp as the Music from Saharan WhatsApp compilation LP. This LP features tracks by established Sahel Sounds artists such as Etran de L'Aïr, Hama, Alkibar Jr, Amaria Hamadaler (of Les Filles de Illighadad), and artists new to the label like Bounaly and Andal Sukabe.

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Set Sail Black Vinyl Edition

LP | 2022 | US | Original (New West)

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Hot Casa)

Vaudou Game

Noussin

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (No Format)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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African, funky, sarcastic, bewitching, green, ecstatic: these words collide to describe Vaudou Game and all of them are true. Noussin is the fourth album of the french Afro Funk band. Forced into lockdown, like much of the planet, Peter Solo and his Vaudou Game had no choice but to retreat into the studio. A reunion to once again invoke the spiritual forces of the Voodoo Deities. A reunion that was Initially imagined for an EP…yet these spiritual forces behind that imagination yearned for something more, and as we all know, these forces are impossible to push away once they have decided to stay. Under the strain enforced by the current socioeconomic climate, as much as by the environmental peril that faces us all today - they diverted the course of the groove towards daring new vibrations. Without extinguishing or diminishing its highly communicative power, they released Vaudou Game from its origins of pure Afro-Funk to gradually engage into compositions which crystallized themselves into tones resembling more rock than funk. On this fourth album, with an entirely revisited line-up, Peter Solo separates for the first time in his career from his brassy guard, leaving saxophone, trumpet and trombone outside to invite an arsenal of keyboards to define, with him, this new voodoo sound. A sound, as usual, built on vintage and precise analogical material - grime even on the white side of the tape, a blunt instrument used to blanket anything that strived to shine too much in the mix. Graced with tapered guitars stringing out rhythmic bumps or withdrawing a few beats to indulge in infectious solos, this album is boisterously alive with vintage 70's Funk, infused with a few digressions into other ethers of the funk timeline, nicking different sounds and frequencies to render the black and white keys of an inspired keyboard to reach new euphoric levels of melodic acidity. Tearing off the enigmatic mask to reveal his true face: on a few titles, Peter Solo ventures outside of his sacred voodoo range to reconnect with his London years, these titles feature small nods to the time he spent in “The Smoke” where the incantations of British music culture were written within him. Noussin which means “Stay strong” in Mina, a dialect spoken in the south-west of Togo. Noussin, a message of hope as much as a call to come together to weather the turmoil and to come out better on the other side. Don’t let them grind you down…Noussin!

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Ballake Sissoko

DJourou

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2021 | EU | Original (No Format)

Urban Village

Udondolo

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The latest signing to Parisian label No Format! (home to Oumou Sangaré, Blick Bassy and Mélissa Laveaux), Soweto-based 4 piece band Urban Village will release their debut album "Udondolo". Marrying the day-to-day experiences of black South Africans with ebullient elements from traditional Zulu music, Urban Village is the alias of four experimental musicians all born & raised in the township of Soweto at the tail end of apartheid; Urban Village release music under a name which specifically references the blend of cultures, music & rites which were assimilated into the now 1 million strong population of Soweto, when black South Africans from multiple provinces were brought to the area during the establishment of apartheid, under strict segregation from Johannesburg's white suburbs.Born for the most part in the last years of apartheid, whilst growing up the band plunged happily into house and dance music that turned the page of a heavy past. Guitarist Lerato came across older Zulu musicians and their style of maskandi playing. Lerato has since mixed styles from homelands and rural areas, sharpened in club jam sessions (where he went on to meet Tubatsi and form Urban Village) during which spoken word, hip-hop and jazz rub shoulders freely."Udondolo" - partially recorded at legendary Downtown Studios in the heart of Johannesburg and at Figure of 8 studios in the leafy suburbs of Randburg - is a journey through all the colours of Soweto. This is where it draws its consistency, strength & identity. That of Soweto itself - a dormitory town designed to monitor those who were sent there, it has become a laboratory of music where the hopes of an entire people resonate, even today.

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Black Fire - Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story 1975-1993

2LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Strut)

Idris Ackamoor And The Pyramids

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Strut present the first ever compilation bringing together classics and rarities from the seminal spiritual jazz and conscious soul label Black Fire, covering 1975 to 1993. Formed by DJ and record producer Jimmy Gray in Richmond, Virginia, and following in the footsteps of other influential black-owned independent labels like Strata-East and Tribe, the foundation of Black Fire coincided with saxophonist James "Plunky" Branch returning to the city from New York to form Oneness Of Juju. The band's 'African Rhythms' album in 1975 was the perfect fusion of jazz, deep African polyrhythms and empowering lyrics and bassist Muzi Branch, a trained artist, created the first of many Black Fire hand-illustrated sleeves for the label's debut release.

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Shaman!

2LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Strut)

Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Influential jazz collective Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids retu rn with an epic new opus, 'Shaman!', released on 7th August featuring a fresh line-up including original 1970s Pyramids member Dr. Margaux Simmons on flute, Bobby Cobb on guitar, longterm associate Sandra Poindexter on violin, Ruben Ramos on bass, Gioele Pagliaccia on drums and Jack Yglesias on percussion. The band transitions from the political and social commentaries of 2018's acclaimed 'An Angel Fell' into more introspective themes. "I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience," explains Ackamoor. "The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mort ality, the afterlife, family and salvation."

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Obiaa!

2LP | 2019 | EU | Original (Strut)

Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh & Thomas Bartlett

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Strut is proud to announce Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band’s sophomore release ‘Obiaa!’, released on 4th October 2019. The album, produced again by Kwame Yeboah and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff at Lovelite Studio’s analogue HQ in Berlin, is a deep and soulful journey into the heart of Ghana’s indigenous highlife music celebrating the timeless and iconic voice of Pat Thomas, the 72 year-old “Golden Voice of Africa”. After producing Ebo Taylor’s seminal albums ‘Love and Death’ and ‘Appia Kwa Bridge’ for Strut Records, in 2014 Ben Abarbanel-Wolff approached Kwame Yeboah, Ghana’s top contemporary instrumentalist and bandleader, to work on a new project: “We initially wanted to invite Pat back into the studio with Ebo Taylor and Tony Allen to recreate and expand on some of the vibes they had recorded together during a lost session in 1977,” Ben explains. Recorded in Accra, the result was the critically acclaimed self-titled debut album ‘Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band’ in 2015.
Pat and the Kwashibu Area Band (named after Kwame’s neighbourhood in Accra) hit the road in October 2015. After a memorable performance at WOMEX in Budapest, they never looked back. The next two years took them around the world to play at major venues and festivals including Glastonbury, Roskilde, WOMAD, Sakifo, WOMADelaide, Sines and many more. “We could see there was something for everyone in our music. People of all ages, colours and trends were dancing together!’ explains Kwame, the mastermind behind the band’s unbelievable precision and killer live show.
The new album is called ‘Obiaa!’ which means ‘Everybody!’. Tracks include the modern parables ‘Onfa Nkosi Hwee’ warning against arrogance and ‘Odo Ankasa’ about the value of real love and trust as well as a great new cover of Thomas’ Afro-disco favourite ‘Yamona’. “Playing highlife around the world taught us what we had to do to move our sound forward,” continues Ben. While simultaneously looking back towards the classic days of highlife and forward to a fresh revival of the guitar band sound, this album cements Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band’s position at the pinnacle of modern African music.
‘Obiaa!’ is released on all formats on 4th October The album features exclusive cover artwork by Lewis Heriz with photos by Marie Weikopf and Michelle Chiu and is mastered by Édouard Bonan at Ed-Room Studio in Paris.

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2LP | 2019 | EU | Original (Real World)

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Tout L'Afrique Danse Volume 10

Soul Kids,The

LP | 2018 | EU | Original (Hot Casa)

Release: 2018 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2018 | EU | Original (No Format)

Toto Bona Lokua

Bondeko

Release: 2018 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Inye Deluxe Vinyl Edition

Itadi

LP | 2017 | EU | Original (Hot Casa)

Sound Species & Ache Meyi

Release: 2017 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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This deluxe LP contains also two unreleased tracks, interview, and photos and was fully licensed with his family. Afro funk and Political Soul from Togo. Recorded in the beginning of the 80's and self-produced by Itadi in 1983 , this obscure album contained deep soul and controversial rare grooves backed by the 5 band members called the “Afro Funk Band de Lomé”. Itadi's music is unique, in his second album, he kept the same recipe: a mixture of soul, reggae, hi-life and Funk, with heavy lyrics which sounds like slogans and caused him big trouble after its release. He was obliged to escape the country to USA. A real definition of a revolutionary musician. Remastered by Frank Merritt at Carvery Studio.

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2LP | 2017 | EU | Original (Manana)

Release: 2017 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2017 | EU | Original (Hot Casa)

King Bucknor Jr

African Woman

Mogoya White Vinyl Edition

Release: 2017 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A fantastic afro-beat album from a Fela Anikulapo Kuti disciple and Kalakuta Republic member. A sublime spiritual and political session recorded in 1979 at the Emi studio in Lagos (Nigeria). Arranged and self-produced, this second Kingsley Bucknor‘s album, hopelessly obscure and impossible to find ranks alongside the best afro-beat album in history!
At the age of 19, King Bucknor Jr, also known as the Black Isaiah of Africa, released his second album backed by a 16 band members called “The Afrodisk” and 10 background singers .
Two long and hypnotic grooves with all the afro -beat ingredients, fluid and complex drums patterns, strong horns, female voices on chorus, strong lyrics, beautiful keys and horns solos .
Essential for all the afro collectors and music lovers.

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Oumou Sangare

LP | 2017 | EU | Original (No Format)

Release: 2017 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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2LP+7" | 2017 | EU | Original (Cree)

Lancelot Layne

Blow Way

Volume 3: Sweet Times - Afro, Funk, Highlife & Juju From 1970s Lagos

Release: 2017 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In 1971 two songs were released in Trinidad & Tobago that represented completely new directions in the musical and lyrical expression of Trinidad's place in the diaspora, Indian on one hand and African on the other. Nanny & Nana by Sundar Popo and “Blow 'Way” by Lancelot Layne were revolutionary and ground breaking and spawned two distinctly new genres in Trinidad & Tobago music – Chutney music in the case of Sundar Popo and Rapso, in Lance's case. Brother Resistance calls Lancelot Layne the father of Rapso music.
During the early 1970s Lance recorded at least a dozen startlingly original songs including “Blow 'Wa”y, “Afro'Dadian”, “Bringing' Off”, “Dat Is Horros” and “Kaiso For Mout' Band”. Each one expanding his talent for musical arrangements and dramatic counterpoint with chorus responses and vocal variation. He enlisted musicians, each exciting and pioneering in their own right, breaking ground in the post 1970 cultural revolution: calypso/jazz pianist, Clive Zanda; composer, guitarist, singer and flautist, Andre Tanker; Mau Mau Drummers including the young Jah Jah Onilu, Mansa Musa Drummers; vocalists, including Ann Marie Innis and Ella Andall.
The result is exciting, confident and musically ground-breaking. Until his death in 1990 he kept commenting and educating T&T'ssociety with songs like Get Off The Radio, Kamboulay, Jambalasie Dance and Strike Squad.
This release is pressed on 180-gram virgin vinyl and contains an additional 45RPM single. Everything is housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with 20-page booklet (8.2” x 8.2”) with extensive liner notes by Lancelot's daughter, Niasha Layne-Forde, and Christopher Laird. Cover and booklet artwork were created by famous Scottish painter, Peter Doig, one of the most renowned living figurative painters who settled in Trinidad since 2002.

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Nigeria 70

2LP+CD | 2011 | EU | Reissue (Strut)

LP | 2015 | EU | Original (Naive)

Release: 2011 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The third instalment in Strut’s essential trip through the rich archives of Nigerian music brings together ‘70s Afrobeat and highlife from Victor Olaiya, Rex Williams, Zeal Onyia and more.

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Blick Bassy

Akö

Release: 2015 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Psychedelic Sanza 1982-1984

Francis Bebey

2LP | 2014 | EU | Original (Born Bad)

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Glitterbeat)

Release: 2014 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Special compilation from Parisian re-issue kings, Born Bad, of the late Cameroonian master musician, Francis Bebey. This is the material we were hoping would follow the excellent comp from last year. Amazing 'universal' music currently only available on expensive originals. Double album with printed innersleeve.

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El Khat

Mute

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Appletree)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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El Khat"s 3rd album mute belies its title as it careens out of the speakers with a raucous intensity. Formed in the garages and warehouses of Jaffa and now based in Berlin, the group"s ever-expanding vision makes a defiant stand against complacency, conflict and division. Skittering drums and brass, a jagged organ, hypnotic Yemeni melodies and one-of-a-kind DIYpercussion and string instruments, all meld together in an infectious, heady soundscape.Sometimes wildly raw, sometimes lush and enveloping.Always uncompromised and adventurous.

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Nina Nesbitt

Mountain Music

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Piranha)

Sabri Brothers

Jami (Remastered)

LP | 2024 | EU | Reissue (Miss You)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Devoting an album entirely to the Persian poetry of Jami, aluminary of the Sufi tradition, was one of Haji Ghulam Farid Sabri"s cherished ambitions for a long time. This dream came true for the Qawwali icon when he visited Berlin in July 1991 at the invitation of the Heimatklänge ("Home Soundsfrom Home Planet Earth") festival, accompanied by his 14-year-old son Amjad. After Ghulam Sabri"s untimely death on the 5th of April 1994, Amjad Sabri became his musical successor, thereby passing on the Sufi Qawwali mastership of the Sabri family to the next generation. This all came to an end when Amjad was murdered for his Sufi beliefs in the streets of Karachi on the 22nd of June 2016. Thus, Jami is not only a memorial to the Sufi Muslim tradition and the Persian poet but also to Ghulam Farid Sabri and Amjad Sabri. It remains their only record in Farsi.

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Nilton Castro

Mes Mains

Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento

Release: 2024 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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A mysterious release, not only for its unique expressive style but also because it isn't even known when it was initially recorded let alone its release date. According to non profit Studio Piccolo owner Vincent Bruley, it could have been recorded during the 70s and eventually released in the early 90s, sometime throughout Nilton Castro's time in Paris making music for contemporary dance classes (often led by his wife). This album was originally intended for accompanying dancers in classes with an emphasis on rhythm and coordination. Given Nilton's background and expertise in percussion, the focal point of this album is to present an array of Afro Brasilian rhythms performed by himself with additional moments of choir, flute and keys/metallophone. Effortless due to Nilton's prowess and unburdened by typical financial pressures (often behind the release of a record), the result feels like charmingly unadulterated and pure expression throughout the entire album. But what really takes the listener to places of unheard-of bliss is “Ondes (Les Vagues)” a track that has plagued the curiosity of diggers and collectors for a while now. With its harmony crescendos elegantly coming and going as per the title, overlayed on Nilton's subtle percussive patterns, an aural landscape of illusory beauty - listening is believing. Remastered and officially re-issued with its original artwork.

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Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento Colored Vinyl Edition

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Ansonia)

12" | 2024 | JP | Original (Takara Disc)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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[ENG]NEW VINYL EDITION IN A BEAUTIFUL TRANSPARENT GREEN COLOR!"Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento" is an effort from Meridian Brothers to excavate the forgotten sounds of fantastical 1970s salsa dura group El Grupo Renacimiento. The group identifies as "B-class" salsa whose music touches on themes of human suffering in the urban city landscape, such as police brutality, social marginalization, and addiction. Meridian Brothers has worked together with El Grupo Renacimiento at the classic Isaac Newton studios in Bogotá, Colombia to capture this "Fantasy Salsa Dura" music. Although the group came out of myth, its members have been created in spirit. Embodied by Meridian Brothers and depicted in the graphic creations of illustrators Glenda Torrado and Mateo Rivano, the members of El Grupo Renacimiento have now come to life.

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Bunvestoro

No Point

Rail Band Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / JP – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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From Osaka! The legendary Japanese Afrobeat band strongly influenced by Fela Kuti is finally available on vinyl!! The origin of the band was inspired by the Afrobeat movement that was emerging in Brooklyn at the time, a music of African origin in the vein of jazz, soul, funk, and other genres. The band initially had about five members, but grew to a maximum of 14. Bunvestoro's only two songs were recorded for BunBun the MC's "Tribe Called West Vol. 2" in 2007 and a 12" single cut from that album, but in 2024, the unreleased material that was recorded at the time will finally be released after more than a decade!!

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Rail Band

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Mississippi)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Agogo)

Jembaa Groove

Ye Ankasawe Ourselves

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Sound Pollution)

Bhleg

Faghring

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Beauty Of Winter-Ice Music Live

Terje Isungset

LP | 2019 | Original (All Ice Music)

Release: 2019 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (No Format)

Natascha Rogers

Onaida

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Merengue Típico: Nueva Generación!

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Les Disques Bongo Joe)

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Les Disques Bongo Joe)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Merengue Típico: Nueva Generación! delves into the heart of Dominican merengue, a genre whose significance often eludes the spotlight. Bongo Joe"s venture into unexplored terrain takes us to the Caribbean, specifically the Dominican Republic, shedding light on its musical tapestry. Curated by Xavier Daive, aka Funky Bompa, the compilation unveils rare "60s and "70s gems, providing a glimpse into a transformative period following the fall of the Trujillo regime.

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San Lucas Band

Music Of Guatemala

2LP | 2018 | EU | Original (By Norse Music)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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First reissue of these cult 1974 recordings of a Mayan brass band playing funeral dirges and popular songs in its distinctive extended harmonic and rhythmic style. The members of the San Lucas Band lived in the mountain village of San Lucas TolimaIün, Guatemala, playing local events of both religious and social nature. Their unique sound derived from an unusual combination of instruments, a repertoire including pieces dating from more than fifty years before the recordings were made to more recent ones, and above all from the highland Maya style of their playing, which is characterized by a preference for freer rhythmic structures and a wider variety of pitches than Western scales allow. One of Jon Hassell and Charlie Haden"s favorite records, it was nominated for a Grammy Award upon first release and has remained much beloved by a small community of enthusiasts for decades.

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Wardruna

Runaljod-Ragnarok

Release: 2018 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2019 | EU | Original (Slc)

Shawn Colvin

Steady On

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2021 | UK | Original (Counter)

Skatune Network

Burn The Billboard

Release: 2021 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Dark Enough To See The Stars

Mary Gauthier

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (In The Black)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (By Norse Music)

Sowulo

Sol

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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2LP | 2021 | EU | Original (By Norse Music)

Wardruna

Runaljod-Ragnarok

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Dance To The Radio)

Jake Whiskin

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Chapter Music)

Yirinda

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Sharp Flat)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Australian duo Yirinda combine ancient Aboriginal language with sublime modern production. Fred Leone and Samuel Pankhurst's music invokes thousands of generations of story and culture, while emerging as something entirely new.Fred is one of three Butchulla songmen - a song and language custodian for the Butchulla people from the Fraser Coast region of Queensland, including K'gari (formerly known as Fraser Island). He sings the songs onthis album in the endangered Butchulla language, now spoken by only a handful of people.Samuel is an internationally acclaimed contrabassist / producer known for his kaleidoscopic harmonies and polyrhythmic mastery. He has scored extensively for contemporary dance, recently for notable choreographerThomas Kelly's celebrated work SILENCE.Their self-titled debut album was recorded in Brisbane by Samuel, then mixed in London by Jake Miller (Björk, Arca, Yves Tumor) and mastered at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton (The Beatles, My Bloody Valentine).The album sets Fred's powerful vocals against striking experimental soundscapes, rich with strings, horns, double bass, synthesizer, piano and percussion. The result is otherworldly, a timeless art music outsideWestern convention.Yirinda have performed at the Australian Art Music Awards, Vivid Festival, Golden Plains, Dark Mofo, Supersense and been covered by ABC Radio and NME Australia.Fred has toured Europe as a member of The Black Arm Band, and as a solo artist supporting and guesting with Xavier Rudd. He founded Queensland's first Aboriginal hip hop label Impossible Odds in 2009.Samuel has performed with the Brodsky String Quartet and is a member of the Australian Art Orchestra. His studio work covers everything from the Bluey TV show to Hiatus Kaiyote.

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Movement In The City

26,59 €* 27,99 € -5%

In Search Of The Lost City Of The Monkey God

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In the wake of a 2020 edition of Movement in the City's second album Black Teardrops (1981), Sharp-Flat Records returns with a prequel by way of a reissue of the band's self-titled debut from 1979.

As the 1970s were drawing to a close, the epic Black Disco studio project with its signature pairing of drum machine and organ had run it course. After delivering a killer trilogy of cosmic lounge outings dating back to 1975, the group yearned for funkier grooves and the core trio of composer Pops Mohamed on organ with Basil Coetzee on tenor sax and Sipho Gumede on bass decided to hire a drummer and rebrand as Movement in the City. In contrast with the New Age detachment of Black Disco, Movement in the City was conceptually grounded in the bleak social realism depicted on its photographic album covers and leaned into the vivid sensibilities of library music from the era. Blending Cape jazz with funk and soul, the group's output evokes a soundtrack for South African city life at the outset of the 1980s while nodding allegorically to the subterranean movements that were in the course of shaking the cage for political change.

With its cast of jazz fusion all-stars, Movement in the City is the manifesto of a band in transition - a bold and slick first offering that delivers a modern South African sound capable of both the funky exuberances of "Mister Lucky" as well as the down-home pathos of "Blue Sunday." Restored from its original tape masters and released in partnership with As-Shams Archive and Pops Mohamed, this rare artefact of South African jazz history is back in print for the very first time since its original 1979 release.

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The Sorcerers

LP | 2020 | UK | Reissue (ATA)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Elmir)

Release: 2020 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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ATA Records are proud to announce the follow up to the critically acclaimed debut album fromThe Sorcerers. Conceived as a soundtrack to an imagined lost European exploitation film,'In Searchof The Lost City ofThe Monkey God'covers a wide range of influences: Ethiopiques Ethio-Jazz rubs up against European library music of the 60s and 70s. The Sorcerers seamlessly blend these disparate elements into one cohesive sound.

Based in ATA Records' home of Leeds, The Sorcerers form the backbone of the ATA Records house band including drummer Joost Hendrickx (Kefaya, Shatner's Bassoon, Abstract Orchestra) and ATA label heads Neil Innes (Bass & Guitar) and Pete Williams (Woodwinds & Percussion). Bass clarinets, flutes, and esoteric percussion that sit alongside bass, guitar and drums are essential to The Sorcerers sound providing cinematic textures on top of a solid rhythmic foundation.

The Sorcerers began working on the new album during the winter of 2018 and it was during the writing sessions for this album that the concept for the LP began to take shape. The name for the album was taken from the title of a National Geographic article read by Bassist Neil Innes and was used as the starting point for the entire concept. The library music scene of the 60s and 70s has always been an intrinsic part of the sound of ATA Records and so it made perfect sense to envisage the album as a soundtrack, given the cinematic quality of The Sorcerers music.

Each track was written with a particular scene in mind and the music was then shaped in the studio to best reflect the essence of that scene. Drums, Bass and Percussion provide the solid foundation onto which Flutes, Bass Clarinets, Xylophones and Vibraphones add the atmospheric and melodic counterpoint, deftly weaving between one another to conjure up images of the unforgiving environment of the dense jungle, unknown eyes watching the protagonists of the imagined film as they make their way towards their ultimate goal, their pursuit by unseen assailants, the arcane mysticism of undiscovered cargo cultists and the ancient ruins of long passed civilisations.

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Raina Rai

Hagda

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Elmir)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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As the first item in its catalog and on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the release of the album Hagda by Raïna Raï, the legendary band from Sidi Bel Abbès (Algeria), Elmir Records is happy to present the vinyl reissue of this multi-faceted pop-raï masterpiece. This mythical album recorded and self-produced in 1982, which cover of Ya Zina became an international hit, still sounds very modern thanks to the avant-garde guitar of Lotfi Attar. These eight electrified and electrifying raï tracks are ready to be (re)discovered! This new edition was remastered by Josh Stevenson in Canada and enriched with notes in French and English by the specialist Rabah Mezouane.

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Cheb Kader

El Awama

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Elmir)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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For its second release, Elmir once again puts 1980s pop-raï in the spotlight with the identical reissue of Cheb Kader's masterpiece: El Awama. Originally self-produced on cassette in 1986, this album was then released on vinyl by Michel Lévy, who was then Cheb Mami's manager and producer. Back then, the album was not the hit it was expected to be, because a little too avant-garde for the time. But more than 35 years later, fans and collectors consider the few remaining copies as priceless. The raï of Cheb Kader is a subtle compromise between the melodies of Oranese suburbs, the electricity of Casablancan guitars and the roaring layers of reggae. The listener can only be fascinated by this Awama (witch) who burns in his heart and to whom he declares his love; they can only be carried away by his hypnotic Reggae-Raï. This record is a rejuvenating find that makes you fall in love with the raï of the beginnings all over again. This new edition was remastered by Josh Stevenson in Canada and enriched with notes in French and English by the specialist Rabah Mezouane.

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Asmahan

Ya Habibi Taala Elhaani

LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Music In Exile)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Born on November 25, 1912, Asmahan, whose real name was Amal al-Atrash, was a Syrian singer and actress of the first half of the 20th century. Modern and free, she was the sister of Farid al-Atrash; and perhaps the only singer able to compete with the famous Oum Kalsoum. Her private and public life is worthy of a Hollywood movie and was particularly eventful during the Second World War, where she played spy for Germany, France and Great Britain. She died in 1944, at the age of 32, in a mysterious car accident, leaving only a few recordings. This record features her most popular titles, to be rediscovered by the music enthusiasts of today.

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Gordon Koang

Community

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Batov)

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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First, we had Unity. Now, South Sudan’s undisputed ‘King of Music’, the Juba-via-Melbourne eccentric outsider Gordon Koang, returns with his second full-length of original material since emigrating to Australia, the masterly titled follow-up, Community.

Eight tracks recorded in Melbourne with a cast of the city’s finest musical minds, including Zak Olsen, Jesse Williams, David “Daff” Gravolin and Jack Kong, the record draws upon Gordon’s pitch-perfect pop sensibility and compulsion for composing irresistibly catchy melodies. Add to this brew the extensive creditienals of his collaborators, who are known for their work with Trafik Island, ORB, Leah Senior and more, and you have yourself a perfect blend of East African pop and vintage psychedelia that is surely one of the most interesting records of the year, outstripping it’s Australian counterparts both in songwriting, production value and downright good energy.

After seeking asylum in Australia in 2012, Gordon Koang, along with his cousin, collaborator and bandmate Paul Biel, has gone on to become something of a darling in the Melbourne music community, delighting audiences year round with high energy shows and an irresistible enthusiasm. The pair have settled in the city’s outer suburb of Frankston, where Koang sits in isolation at home while Biel goes out to work each day; he was born blind, and has never seen neither his homeland in the Upper Nile Valley of South Sudan nor his new home on the streets of Melbourne.

This has done little to stop Koang channeling his creativity energy into music; he writes incessantly, and Community marks the twelfth full-length album of his career and his second since arriving in Australia (the previous ten currently lost to the streets of Juba in CD and cassette form - sure to be unearthed one day by Western tastemakers!)

His years of waiting for permanent residency in Australia, and prior to that of Civil War and unrest at home, have done little to dull the bright point of Koang’s positivity. He is without a doubt the man with the biggest smile in the room. A few short minutes with Koang will leave the listener walking away in a daze, his trademark phrases and bouncing laughter echoing for weeks. Community does for listeners what Koang can’t do himself - it reaches out to thousands around the world, providing him with a platform to personally greet and smile at each individual, to share a few words of encouragement and a quick observation about the warmth of the sun, or pleasure in simply being in company. If there is a silver lining to be found, chances are Gordon has already written an album about it.

The record is warm, fuzzy, catchy, lighthearted, and it packs a punch. It rocks hard with the best of them, Olsen’s beautiful production value drawing out the best in Koang’s eccentric and spiralling melodies, the band grinding themselves into an endless groove before bursting into some new impossible melody. Somewhere between William Onyeabor and King Gizzard, this is surely the soundtrack to round out what has been an incredible year of music post-pandemic.

Community is out everywhere Friday, November 11 via Music in Exile / Above Board (uk/eu) / Polyvinyl/Dispatch Dept. (North America).

Music in Exile is a not-for-profit record label and artist services company based in Melbourne, Australia, championing stories of culturally and linguistically diverse musicians and striving for a music industry that fairly represents all in our society.

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Shotnez

Dose A Nova

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Topic)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Two decades since they formed in New York City and over ten years since their last album, Tel Aviv based quartet Shotnez are back with Dose a Nova, an album of 10 exhilarating jazz filtered jams, with vibrations indebted to tuareg desert blues, Ethiopian-jazz, 1950's Afro Cuban recordings, surf- rock and folk from across the East Mediterranean basin.

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Watersons

Forst & Fire

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Three Lobed)

Eli Winter

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Borga Revolution! Ghanaian Music (1983-1992)

Kalita Records Presents

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Kalita)

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Les Disques Bongo Joe)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Kalita are proud to unveil the first ever compilationvfocussing on the phenomenon of 'Burger Highlife', avcrossover of West African melodies with synthesizers, discovand boogie that took over Ghanaian airwaves during the 1980's and beyond. Highlighting key recordings fromvgenre-defining artists including Thomas Frempong andvGeorge Darko, as well as more obscure sought-after tracksvby elusive bands such as Aban and Uncle Joe's Afri-Beat,vKalita come to the rescue of audiophiles, DJs andvmusic-lovers alike with 'Borga Revolution!' Spread over avdouble-LP housed in a gatefold sleeve. Accompanied by av16-page booklet featuring extensive interview-based liner notes on each artist and never-before-seen archival photos.

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Africa Negra

Antologia Volume 1

Waka Juju Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Continuing our work on Sao Tomé and Principe with curator DJ Tom B., we are pleased to announce the release of an anthology of the group África Negra.

This first volume includes 12 of their key tracks, remastered for the occasion and selected only from those officially released on different media. The album is accompanied by a booklet with the original covers and interviews with the band members still with us. A second volume containing only unreleased material, digitized from the studio tapes by their tour manager, and filled with period photos, is expected soon.

Formed in the early 1970s by Horacio, a butcher by trade, and his guitarist friend Emidio Pontes, África Negra is the best known of the great São Tomé and Principe bands. The catchy melodies in the local Forro language, provided by lead singer João Seria, and subtly harmonized by the enchanting backing vocals of the rest of the band, quickly ensured their influence outside the archipelago. Their incomparable blend of Puxa and Rumba rhythms and subtle melodies made them the most regular touring band from Sao Tome.

Their first album (Aninha) was released in 1981, followed by three more in 1983. They contain an incredible collection of timeless hits and have achieved high ratings on the second-hand market. Then came the excellent San Lena in 1986, which was unfortunately only released on cassette, but for which we were able to digitize the original tape. In 1990 their last album in vinyl format (Paga me uma cerveja) was released, the rarest. Three CDs and five cassettes followed in the 1990s. Like most São Tomean bands, they recorded their compositions at Radio Nacional STP, the only studio on the island at the time, whose cramped premises forced the big bands to do sessions outside in the courtyard, at night, facing the ocean and in front of their fans.

Reformed around João Seria, the band has recorded three albums since 2012, and has been touring again for a few years, offering, always with the same energy, their frenzied rhythms, their graceful harmonies, their poetry full of social metaphors, and their typical dance steps.

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Manu Dibango

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Diggers Factory/Soul Makossa)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Sounds Of Subterrania)

Faratuben

Sira Kura

LP | 2020 | Original (Now-Again)

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Between Aarhus and Bamako lie 6,593 kilometers – and a deep socio-economic divide. This is why people have long been drawn from Africa to Europe. Unfortunately, the opposite is rarely the case. “Sira Kura”, the debut album from the Danish-Malian band Faratuben, shows what is possible when musicians move out of their comfort zones and meet at eye level. The music from this Bamako-based band is not just another variation of Afrobeat, nor a retrospective reminiscence of Fela Kuti. It is an electrified version of the centuries-old Bwa and Bobo music, and differs from the traditional Kora sounds of a Toumani Diabaté and Salif Keïta with its increased pressure and tempo.
The three Danes, Mikas Bøgh Olesen, Jakob de Place and Mads Voxen, came to Mali as part of an exchange program of the Conservatoire de Arts et Metiers Multimédia (CAMM), where they heard traditional Bobo music for the first time. Bobo is what the French colonizers called the Bwa people, an oppressed minority living in Burkina Faso and northern Mali. The percussive music of the Bwa is driven by various percussion instruments and the sound of the balofon, a type of xylophone with calabashes suspended below. The three Danish music students were completely enthralled with this dynamic sound that accompanies religious ceremonies as well as weddings and parties in Mali.
Guitarist and studio owner Dieudonne Koita, vocalist Sory Dao and balofon virtuoso Kassim Koita, formed a band that was originally intended to perform only once: at the Bamako Jazz Festival. The name Bobo Jazz Experience was used on the posters at the time. But the performance was too grandiose not to continue. At the Bogolan Studio in downtown Bamako, the musicians recorded the songs “Terete” and “Pari” a short time later, which rapidly went into heavy rotation at the TV station ORTM and on various Malian radio stations. In the meantime the band had decided on the name Faratuben, a combination of the words “farafin” (black) and “toubabou” (white).
The musicians often live and rehearse together in the mountains outside Bamako, in a village called Kati, which the Koita family calls home. The Koita family is a large clan that has produced many important musicians. “Electrification is quite new in our tradition, and the first person to play Bwa music on an electric guitar was our father, Pakuene Koita”, says Dieudonne. His brother Kassim has been voted best balofon player in Mali four times. Faratuben are also becoming more and more successful in Mali, playing at weddings, parties and increasingly at big festivals like “Spot on Mali Music”.
In short, it was high time for a debut album! “Sira Kura” is extremely varied fusion, in which the pulsating polyrhythms of Bwa music are organically combined with elements of jazz and art pop – played at a dreamlike higher level. “A modern mix of 10CC and Osibisa”, as keyboarder Mikas calls it. And indeed, such overwhelming melodiousness and such complex songwriting is rarely found in Afrobeat. In Bambara, one of the many languages spoken in Mali, “Sira Kura” means “new direction”.
But Faratuben is about more than parties and good moods. The rousingly combative “Mi Njan Mure Mure” tells of days when Mali was a French colony: “You took our land, you took our space, you torture us, you treated us with barbarity.” The musicians see their band as living anti-racism. As Dieudonne says: “I never thought before that I could meet white people on an equal footing and on one level. That white people live, eat and sleep in my house and live together with my family, just like I do. Such a thing is very rare in Mali. We are happy and proud that through Faratuben we can show that it is possible to create a community beyond race and skin color.”
Meanwhile, the band has also gained a loyal fan base in Scandinavia. In Denmark, where the album was released last year, “Sira Kura” was awarded the Danish Music Award for the best “globalpop” album. And in August, the musicians also received a nomination for the DMA Roots Award.
Faratuben are now back again after being stuck in Aarhus from March to August due to Corona, and could only return to Mali at the end of the month. In their luggage, they carry the songs for their second album, which were written during their quarantine. But, until then, “Sira Kura” will ensure that autumn in Germany sizzles. Bwa music rules!

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Witch

Introduction

Release: 2020 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Marcy Luarks & Classic Touch

Electric Murder Record Store Day 2020 Edition

LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Kalita)

Fu Chronicles Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Record Store Day 2020 Release.
Limitation: 750 copies.

It's grail time. Kalita Records officially releases Marcy Luarks & Classic Touch's mythical American-Nigerian Afro boogie masterpiece Electric Murder for the first time since 1983, accompanied by extensive liner notes based on interviews with Marcy's family and producer Daniel Irabor. The product of the then-husband-and-wife team of Marcy and Dan, Electric Murder brought together both the former's American and the latter's Nigerian roots; recorded in London with UK-based session musicians, this mix of heritage and styles resulted in an Afro disco album unlike any other. With original copies turning up for sale roughly once every few years, with an eye-watering four-figure price tag, Kalita Records save you the never-ending search for this true holy grail. Accompanied by a poster insert with extensive interview-based detailing Marcy's life and musical career.

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Antibalas

LP | 2020 | US | Original (Daptone)

LP | 2019 | EU | Original (Mar & Sol)

Release: 2020 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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With a globetrotting 20-year career renowned for being a voice for the people across four decades of political and societal upheaval from the late ‘90s to today, Antibalas celebrates its 20th Anniversary with a stark return to their Williamsburg roots on its latest Daptone Records studio album, Fu Chronicles. Pre-gentrified Williamsburg serves as the backdrop for Fu Chronicles–voyaging back to the early days of when Antibalas and Daptone Records spawned out of lead singer Duke Amayo’s kung fu dojo. A senior master of the Jow Ga Kung FuSchool of martial arts, Duke Amayo along with Antibalas founder/baritone saxophonist Martín Perna guide listeners through an epic journey of where kung fu ingeniously intersects with Afrobeat on Fu Chronicles.

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Africa Negra

Alia Cu Omali

Heavenly Sweetness presents

Release: 2019 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Mar & Sol presents the new album of the legendary band África Negra,"Alia cu Omali". New songs and some popular classics recorded between Lisbon and S.Tomé.
This album Its a reflection of the old rumba and soukous music that this epic band of São Tomé e Príncipe got us used to. They are an icon and one of the main bands of this island, representing in their music the authenticity and culture of the former Portuguese colony on the equatorial meridian.
It is our mission to expand this culture and here it is the testimony in our series of Luso Afro music which could best represent São Tomé.

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2007-2017 – 10 Years Of Transcendent Music

2LP | 2017 | EU | Original (Heavenly Sweetness)

Africa Is The Future Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2017 / EU – Original

Genre: Hip Hop, Organic Grooves

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Limited edition vinyl!

Transcendent : “Surpassing the ordinary; exceptional”
2007 - 2017 : Heavenly Sweetness is turning 10 years old!
They are celebrating with 3 birthday parties, and 2 compilations! One is a best of the label’s production, and the 2nd one is made of exclusive tracks, composed for this occasion.
This compilation is a very subjective best of the label’s production, from each album or single we had the chance to produce, with great artists.
A journey through 10 years of music, a great introduction to the label’s universe, but even the experts will discover unknown tracks.
Including well known artists such as Guts, Blundetto, Sly Johnson, Anthony Joseph, but also more confidential artists: Robert Aaron, Jacaranda Muse, Patchworks (and his tribute to Gil Scott-Heron) and many others!

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Kologbo

LP | 2017 | EU | Original (Paris DJs)