Afrobeat 333 Items

Senegalese singer Faada Freddy releases a new album entitled "Golden Cages" after a seven-year hiatus. With an organic approach, he uses mainly his voice, hand-clapping and body percussion. The album features original tracks that reflect his critical yet benevolent thinking, tackling themes such as the standardization of thought, lack of reflection and dehumanization in today's society. Faada Freddy defends the idea of freedom, combining conscience and emotion, reflection and wonder. The album also celebrates the singer's African roots and expresses his attachment to his country and continent. "Golden Cages" is an ode to freedom and harmony, a vibrant love song for overcoming divisions.

No shortage of colorful characters emerged from Cameroon's bikutsi scene in the 1980's and early 90's. Gibraltar Drakus is one of the most enduring and enigmatic of the artists who helped transform bikutsi into a beautifully endless fabric of triplet rhythms that eventually reached ears around the world. Following the advent of Cameroon Radio Television in 1987, bikutsi began to supplant makossa and soukous for domination of the local airwaves and the attention of cosmopolitan, thrill-seeking residents of Cameroon's capitalYaoundé and beyond. Biktusi perfectly fused Beti traditional music and increasingly electronic, highly rhythmic guitar-based bikutsi. Mimicking the sound of village-based xylophone music by rigging a mute to electric guitar strings, bikutsi artists provided a relentlessly energetic dance format for those with a taste for music steeped in their hometown sensibility (countering the popular makossa that many felt sounded less indigenous). By the early 1990's, Les Tetes Brûlées were indisputably the most famous and influential artists in bikutsi, due in part to the innovations of their incendiary guitarist Théodore Zanzibar Epeme. Following their first European tour in 1987, the band b...

Titi Bakorta almost didn't make it. Born in and raised in: Kinshasa, the Congolese multi instrumentalist was on his way to Uganda when he fell of the boat as it traversed the Format: mighty Congo River. Unable to swim, Bakorta was saved by a friend who dragged him to the closest city Kisangani, where he was unexpectedly acquainted with local singer Dancer Papalas. Soon they were performing in bands together, traveling across the continents and settling in Tanzania, South Sudan and Dubai o they even appeared in front of General Defao, the beloved Congolese vocalist who fronted legendary soukous bands Grand Zaiko Wawa, Choc Stars and Big Stars. Now based in Kampala, Bakorta offers his own unique take on Congolese pop and folk sounds, weaving traditional elements through a psychedelic lattice of guitar loops, mangled voices and eccentric beatbox rhythms on his debut full-length. He bends woodblock snaps on 'Kop' into stuttered blurs, wailing emotionally over twanging riffs and bizarre, theatrical xylophone twinkles. It's still pop music on some level, but curved around Bakorta's unwieldy personal narrative - there's a sense that everything could unravel at any time but it all hangs together, strengthened by Bakorta's confident, contemporary production smarts. 'Elles Vais' is more airy, with celestial soukous vocals that float above tight, electronic drums. Tangled guitar echoes overlap each other like dense, weaved tapestries, contrasting perfectly with Bakorta's urgent, driving pulse. Occasionally, he transcends completely, like on 'Molende' where his chants and phrases neatly flutter between praise music and contemporary R8B. "Hustling, hustling, hustling, everyday I'm hustling," an angelic voice coos over phased electric guitar plucks and looped, AutoTuned chorals.It makes perfect sense that Bakorta should team up with 7 Metal Preyers' Jesse Hackett on the album's final track, the aptly-titled 'Titis Haunted House'. The two artists share a similar obsession with moonlit, carnivalesque soundscapes, and...

Another side of modern Malian praise songs: an intimate, stripped down, acoustic session from Namian Sidibé. From arising generation of young Malian divas leveraging socialmedia, Namian has built a following, publishing videos anddedications in song, accompanied by her cousin Jules Diabatéon acoustic guitar. Recorded at her home, with powerful yet restrained vocals that drift over melancholy acoustic guitar, Namian explores epic generational songs and poetry, broughtinto the TikTok age.

Rare Groove CollectionExplore the fusion of world music with soul, funk and disco through the Rare Groove Collection.With this new volume, discover unique groove tracks straight from Jamaica!Fully remastered original versions Oriental RARE GROOVEA trip to the oriental peninsula following the steps of the Lebanese disco of Elias Rahbani, cradled by the Morrocan Soul of Ouiness or trained by the Lybian melodies of Ahmed Fakroun...

Rare Groove CollectionExplore the fusion of world music with soul, funk and disco through the Rare Groove Collection.With this new volume, discover unique groove tracks straight from Jamaica!Fully remastered original versions African RARE GROOVEA journey at the heart of Nigerian afrobeat from Orlando Julius to the ethnojazz of Alemayèhu Eshèté passing by the High-life of the Ghanaian Ebo Taylor...

Rare Groove CollectionExplore the fusion of world music with soul, funk and disco through the Rare Groove Collection.With this new volume, discover unique groove tracks straight from Jamaica!Fully remastered original versionsBrazilian RARE GROOVEDiscover the wonders of Brazilian music from 60s, 70s & 80s. A wave of modernity invades the country and Soul, Funk & Disco influences merge with traditional genres such as Bossa Nova, Samba or Batucada. This union led to a colorful and cheerful groove symbolizing the transformation of Brazil.

Between electronic music and traditional African music, dive into the heart of this subtle mix thanks to the leading artists of the genre!Bonobo - Vaudou Game - Bonga -Guts - Fatoumata Diawara - Philippe Cohen Solal - Manu Dibango -Anschorsong

For fans of: Maya Andina, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Luzmila Carpio, Renata Flores, Nicola Cruz, Illapu, Bolivia Manta, Polibio Mayorga, Mala Fama, EVHA, Cruzloma.The concept of "getting back to your roots" rarely has such a literal meaning, or at the same time such an ancestral meaning, as in the case of the Ecuadorian group Humazapas. Usually in the music industry this concept is used when an artist returns to a past sound, going back to that moment of newness, exploration and ingenuity, perhaps. But not Humazapas. These natives of the Kichwa communities of the Ecuadorian Andes, who have been working on this project for a decade, see "getting back to your roots" as a profound connection with their cultures, language, dance, the rituals that connect them to their deities and, of course, music. Humazapas was formed in 2010, when twelve teenagers from the Kichwa communities of Turuku, San Pedro, Jatun Topo and Anrabí decided to salvage the sounds and ritual dances of the Kichwa communes at the foot of the Tayta Imbabura and Mama Cutakachi volcanoes. The group explores an ancestral exercise translated into the fusion of native musics and contemporary structures, proposing the continuity of the art of the ancestral peoples and nationalities of Ecuador in future generations. Like a sound document, it also ties in dance and the audiovisual arts to translate an experience through the journey of a seed that is born from the earth, sprouts from it and whose fruit has fed, and will continue to feed, generations for centuries. After over a decade of research and interest in returning to ancestral knowledge, the group made up of eight musicians and four dancers, weaving in their discourse the cosmovision of community life with people, nature and the world of the deities, finally release their debut record Sara Mama, which translates as "Mother Corn" in English. Corn is one of the sacred grains that conceals knowledge in its crop and the magic of the rituals of raising, nurturing and celebrating life, from preparing th...

Not long after the release of Two Tribes Vol. 1, we realized that our journey had only just begun and lots of stories still had to be told. Motivated by lots of positive responses, we soon put to work researching and compiling music for what would become "Two Tribes Volume Two". We put our emphasis on expanding to other European regions as well as including different countries than on Vol. 1 and we also wanted to give it a bit of a different musical twist. The result are 14 tracks covering what we consider a broad and diverse spectrum but still clinging to our initial idea of building a musical bridge between the continents of Africa and Europe. The immense cultural diversity of both is represented by newcomers alongside more well known names, both of which have a strong connection to the rich musical traditions of Africa. On board are African artists living in diaspora on equal footing with Europeans that incorporate their high affinity to the African continent into their music. Exciting outernational collaborations round off the selection for Vol. 2! Includes tracks by Onipa (Strut Records), Guts, Wanubalé, David Nesselhauf (Kryptox Records) and many more

First heard by global audiences on Sahel Sounds' Music fromSaharan WhatsApp series, Malian guitar hero Bounaly (thestage name of Ali "Bounaly" Traore) makes his full-length debutwith "Dimanche à Bamako" ("Sunday in Bamako"). Recordedlive on location, the music on "Dimanche à Bamako" is a mix ofregional favorites, traditional standards, and originals. Longsongs with looping rhythms, pounding kick, and electricshredding guitar, punctuated by shout outs to the guests ofhonor. A raw and frenetic take on Northern Mali desert sound,playing for the diaspora at a Bamako wedding.

Ndox Electrique results from the collaboration between François R. Cambuzat, Gianna Greco (also known for their work with Ifriqiyya Electrique), and the n"doëp community in Senegal. The project originated from the duo"s quest to trace the origins of North African rituals, which led them to the Lebu community in Cap-Vert, an isolated region at Africa"s westernmost point.