Afrobeat 494 Items

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Awesome Tapes From Africa)

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-08

ohn Lee Hooker is not an artist who plays by the rules that govern what we generally accept as “traditional” blues music—he very rarely plays in 12-bar format when he performs his songs. On his most popular tune, ‘Boogie Chillen’, his lyrical and musical phrases last anywhere as short as nine or ten, or maybe fifteen or even nineteen measures long, depending on how long he wants to “boogie” on his guitar riffs that roll and tumble between his patented vocal phrases.

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Nahawa Doumbia

Vol. 2

Rail Band Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-12-06

Awesome Tapes From Africa the label began over 10 years ago with the reissue of Nahawa Doumbia's Vol. 3. The recordingkicked off a successful run of classic a...

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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 (Jazzaggression)

Kuja Orchestra

Seasons In Rhythm

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Agogo)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Reggae & Dancehall

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New Library Series, sealed Obi strip, 180g vinyl & insert, digital download. “Helsinki funk legends Kuja Orchestra is back with a new line-up and new set of tight grooves. Latin, soul, blues and disco-funk melt with African and oriental influences.”

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Jembaa Groove

Ye Ankasa / We Ourselves

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Officehome)

Roforofo Jazz

Running The Way

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Sahel Sounds)

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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Mamman Sani

Taaritt

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Glitterbeat)

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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El Khat

Mute

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Piranha)

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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Sabri Brothers

Jami (Remastered)

LP | 2022 | UK | Reissue (Seven Gates)

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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Maya Youssef

Finding Home

Release: 2022 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Appletree)

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Nina Nesbitt

Mountain Music

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-08

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Burning Sounds)

Keith Poppin

Pop Inn

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-08

Erkin Cavus & Reentko Dirks

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

Like Neptune Neon Violet 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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Son Little

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Anti)

Isaac Birituro & The Rail Abandon

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Born Aaron Livingston, Grammy Award winning Son Little unleashes his album Like Neptune never sounding stronger or more confident than now, showcasing his original vision of r&b, informed by his love for hip-hop imbued with tinges of funk, pop, and psychedelia. While Little"s collaborations with The Roots and Rjd2 had already helped him make a name for himself by that point in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, critics on both sides of the pond were quick to recognize the unique power of Little"s solo recordings, which stripped the past for parts that could be reconstituted into something wholly new and original. NPR hailed Little"s "impeccably crafted songs" as "honest and unpretentious," while The Independent proclaimed him "a formidable talent," and Vice declared that he was "dissolving the barrier between R&B and rock "n" roll one tearjerker at a time."

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Small Small

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

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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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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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 (Afrosynth)

Ntombi Ndaba & Survival

Tomorrow

LP | 2018 | EU | Original (No Format)

Release: 2018 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Incl. her in demand tune "Tomorrow" . Six-track anthology of South African singer Ntombi Ndaba, featuring 2 songs from 3 of her solo albums, Mina Ngiljaji (1988), Mama Nature (1989) and Why Me (1991).
Ntombi Ndaba first rose to fame in 1985 with Ntombi & Survival, becoming one of the most popular singers of the bubblegum era. After setting up the independent label Anneko with her producer A.T. ‘Rubber’ Khoza in 1988, she went solo. Following Khoza’s death in the early 1990s, Ndaba never recorded again.

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Toto Bona Lokua

Bondeko

Release: 2018 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | US | Original (New Amsterdam)

Peni Candra Rini

Wulansih

LP | 2024 | US | Original (SMC)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Preorder shipping from 2024-11-08

Peni Candra Rini, the Indonesian composer and performer whose musical practice encompasses a wide range of traditional and experimental Javanese styles, announces her new album Wulansih via New Amsterdam Records.

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Aswad

Live In London

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Fred Locks Meets The Creators

Love And Harmony

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Burning Sounds)

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | Original (Blue Shine)

Arash Sarkechik

Bazaari

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento

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

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Sound Pollution)

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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Bhleg

Faghring

Release: 2024 / EU – 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 (Hyperjazz)

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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Ps5

Echologia

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

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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After two years and a half, Pietro Santangelo (formerly Nu Genea sax player) and his PS5 ensemble are back to Hyperjazz Records with a brand new album: Echologia. 'Echologia' draws inspiration from the idea of natural biodiversity as an expression of contamination, coexistence and balance. In the same way as the biological agents contribute to the life of a certain ecosystem, seemingly distant musical languages act as elements of balance in a fertile and blooming musical system. Multiculturalism becomes coexistence. As in the previous 'Unconscious Collective' (Hyperjazz, 2021), suggestive saxophones textures interwine on a solid rhythmic equilibrium and move naturally along an imaginary line highlighting the ancestral connection between Africa and Mediterranean Sea. On the background, the tribute to the earlier Jamaican dub masters with a strong use of vintage echoes in the mixing phase. Album cover by Sabrina Cirillo is inspired by the myth of the nymph Echo, the Oread condemned by Juno to be able to express herself by repeating only the last words of theinterlocutor, who died of pain due to the impossibility of communicating her love to Narcissus.

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San Lucas Band

Music Of Guatemala

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Chapter 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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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%

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Rebirth On Wax)

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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Kwamé Fényan Ba

Douvan Douvan

26,34 €* 30,99 € -15%

Musique Original De Films Volume Deux

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Music producer, keyboardist and professional dancer based in France.
Coming from a Senegalese bloodline and growing up in Martinique (West indies), Fényan is deeply rooted in Black music. Epitome of a childhood in the West indies. A Caribbean Tale about Kreyol langage, about legacy and resilience, about turning victimhood into proactivity.
Douvan Douvan can be translated by "avant garde" in Kreyol. It is a story about People growing up and facing themselves, and their elders in order to move forward in their enlightenment.
It is your story

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Ahmed Malek

LP | 2024 | Original (Habibi Funk)

LP | 2024 | Original (Nettwerk)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Habibi Funk is thrilled to share a second collection of deep grooves and unreleased songs from Algeria's Ahmed Malek, often compared to Italian heavyweight Ennio Morricone. Malek’s music effortlessly switches between thematic jazz, funk, reggae and Algerian folk – creating indelible soundscapes that intersect the musical innovations made in African jazz by Mulatu Astatke, Bembeya Jazz National along with some of Europe’s finest experimental composers like Piero Piccioni and Janko Nilovic.

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Paper Kites

Evergreen

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Voom Voom)

Unity

Erude Jambo

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Elmir)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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1981. A new South African band is making waves. Produced by the team “Van Blerk/Roos & Greg Cutler", it includes succulent voices and melodies, psychedelic Moog, Fender Rhodes surrounded by some Afro-folky guitars. This album is definitely a winner. Between 1972 and 1973 Poy-Poy Makhubela appeared on 4 singles with The Young Movers produced by David Thekwane. In 1975, as a lead guitarist, he decided to bring together four musicians to form the band Unity. Jeff Radine (Fender Rhodes, Moog), George Legobye (bass), Edward Modiselle (percussion) and Robert Moema (drum). The members were all from the group The Sound Jaws, except Jeff Radine who was with Rugare and played with Harari, Chicco, The Black Five or Prince Nico. In 1978, after hearing Unity playing in a club, Mike Tswai joined the band as a manager. Poy-Poy has gone on to have a long career, touring the world and playing with some of the South African’s greats including Brenda Fassie, Don Laka, Blondie & Pappa, Dorothy Masuka as well as Kwaito bands like Alaska, Boom Shaka or Trompies.

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Raina Rai

Hagda

Trance Gnawa Music From Morocco

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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Nass El Ghiwane

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Elmir)

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Elmir)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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In North Africa, a ziara is a spiritual ceremony where people come to exorcise demons, purify their bodies and loudly reaffirm their attachment to God, the prophet and the deities who claim to embody him. On this occasion, there are uncontrolled outbursts from the audience, but this has nothing to do with Roman orgies, as it lacks ostensible debauchery, aphrodisiacs or saturnalia - it is merely a blurring of the line between the religious and the superstitious. In a shrill parable, cries erupt from chests, twisting through vertical space and setting everything ablaze; a delirious chorus is chanted, ending in syncopation, and the litany, whose leitmotif Ya Chai, Ya Afi (O Healer...), shouted in unison, builds to a crescendo until the body is totally exhausted. An intoxicating ecstasy reminiscent of a voodoo ritual. What mystics call "union in God", a God who would multiply himself.

The most brilliant performers of this type of ceremony are called the Gnawa. Originally from black Africa, mainly Sudan and Senegal, they were forcibly implanted in southern Maghreb by Tuareg raiders seeking to use them as slaves. After several decades of servitude, they managed to emerge from their painful condition, which they evoke in some of their songs, and - as a result of cross-fertilization - to form a mixed race known as the hormis (the reddish). They then grouped together in mystical brotherhoods, the most important of which were based in Morocco, and devoted themselves to rituals through which, while attesting to the greatness and omnipotence of Allah, they pursued their fatal liaisons with the djins or djenoun, genie-like spirits that may be either benevolent or hostile.

But above all, the Gnawa, who never abjured their faith in animist divinities, distinguish themselves by their bewitching music, dance and rhythms, which are believed to hold therapeutic virtues. During the festivities, all movements are orchestrated and staged by the maâlem, or master (one of the most famous is Si Mohamed Chaouki), for he alone knows all the rules. He is a master of the instrument that aids healing, the guembri, a kind of acoustic bass strummed with three gut strings, and knows which melody-remedy matches each patient possessed by a particular spirit. All this is accompanied by dekka (frenzied hand-clapping) and animal sacrifices (chickens, goats and, on rare occasions, bulls).

In recent years in particular, the Gnawa musical and rhythmic tradition, which borrows from both Middle Eastern arabesques and African percussion, has enjoyed a marked revival among Moroccan artists of the new generation. But until now, only the very popular group Nass El Ghiwane has been able, with talent, faithfulness and authenticity, to reconstitute the Gnawa spirit, as witnessed by this album. So join them, and get into the trance.

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Malik Adouane

After Raï Party

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Batov)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Except from Rachid Taha, who allowed himself a few forays into the teeming, vibrant heaths of techno, no raï singer other than Cheb Malik has ever ventured into this terrain known for its abundance of sound. If you know about Malik Adouane's ancestry, this is hardly surprising. Born in Librecourt, near Lens, he comes from a union between an Italo-Celtic mother who instilled Western sounds into his ears and a father, a former miner born in Biskra (north-east Algeria), a palm grove near the desert, musically renowned for its lively diwan that could be called Saharan opera. In addition, the town is renowned for its chakhchouka, a dish called after its rich blend of various ingredients and spices. Just like Malik’s music, as he was a fan of James Brown, Barry White, classical Arabic and raï music. He had been thinking about it from the beginning, but the dream took a long time to materialize.

In January 1986, many raï idols turned up in Bobigny, France, for a historic and seminal festival. In the midst of the audience, the young man, dressed in black leather, provided security for the concerts of many stars before becoming one himself. He would rub his eyes, not because he was dazzled, but because they were clouded by a nostalgia that remained him of itself. So, with his head full of sounds warmly recommended by the best DJs, he set out, a little provocatively, to position himself at the cutting edge of music with a new concept called "After raï". It combined the sweet and precious past with an almost uncontrollable creative audacity. It's a balm made in a test-tube-studio from a mix of Arabic melodies and lyrics - a kind of "Arabeat", and the arrogant modernity produced by samplers, electronic spinning, roaring bass and guitars made for house music. The pinnacle of the record is a masterful cover of Isaac Hayes' Shaft, which set dancefloors on fire in Paris, London, Ibiza and New York, and became internationally known thanks to its presence on a Paris Dernière compilation curated by French musician and DJ Béatrice Ardisson along with Claude Challe's iconic Buddha Bar series. Now, shall we dance?

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Shotnez

Dose A Nova

Borga Revolution! Ghanaian Music (1983-1992)

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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Kalita Records Presents

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Kalita)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Afro7)

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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The Scorpios

Let's Go

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Everyone’s favourite Sudanese collective from London is back with another full album! Traditional meets today and everything in-between - future classic!

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Les Belgicains - Na Tango Ya Covadia 1964-1970

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Covadia)

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Appletree)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The compilation ‘Les Belgicains – Na Tango Ya Covadia 1964-1970’ (‘Les Belgicains’ during the time of Covadia 1964-1970) tells the remarkable story of the first Congolese student orchestras in Belgium. During that time Congolese referred to countrymen living in Belgium as ‘Les Belgicains’. The music presented on this compilation blew a new, fresh wind through the musical landscape of Congolese popular music under the supervision of the legendary editor and producer Nikiforos Cavvadias (Ngoma label)

The largest country in Africa is experiencing its early independence. During that period, Belgium invites many Congolese students to take classes at its universities. They are the future executives and ministers of the new republic. Out of a feeling of homesickness for their beautiful country, these students set up music groups. To dance and get carried away by the music the 45 rpm records they brought with them from Congo were too short. That is why they decide to bring live music to the events of the Congolese diaspora. Their own compositions are strongly influenced by their life in Belgium, resulting in a unique sound.

Nikiforos Cavvadias arrives in Belgium around the same time. At that moment he is one of the best-known editors and producers in Congo and he works for the Ngoma label based in Léopoldville. Niki is at the origin of the success of, among others: Antoine Mundanda, Léon Bukasa, Manuel d'Oliveira, Wendo Kolosoy... Due to the political instability in Congo, he permanently moved to Belgium with his wife and two children (1964). The student orchestras, like Los Nickelos and Yéyé National, are quickly noticed by Niki, who is looking for young, talented musicians to house under his new label Covadia.

You can hear the extraordinary result on this compilation!

This album is available in a deluxe vinyl edition with gatefold sleeve (1lp) + insert or a CD with a 24-page booklet. Both editions contain the story of 'Les Belgicains' and the Covadia label, with unique photos of the original orchestras. Renown sound engineer Roger Verbestel made the recordings between 1964 and 1968 in the recording studio Studio Madeleine in Brussels. All music has been remastered from the original master tapes.

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Nina Nesbitt

Mountain Music

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Altin Village & Mine)

Odd Okoddo

Negore

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Batov)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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"Negore" is the second album by the Kenya-based duo Odd Odokko. After their debut "Auma" saw percussionist Sven Kacirek work with pre-existing recordings of singer and instrument builder Olith Ratego, the two opted for a similar approach for the ten pieces to preserve the expressiveness of the latter"s performance. Further contributions by sound artist KMRU and Angel Bat Dawid on bass clarinet expand the duo"s sonic palette which draws on the dodo music of the Luo people and enriches it with percussive, melodic, and occasionally electronic means. The record"s title translates to "petroleum lamp," signifying the transition from day to night-when the time has come to dance. In this decidedly joyful spirit, "Negore" is dedicated to transitions and venturing into the future. Ratego"s interpretation of the folk tradition is expressly contemporary, while Kacirek uses a rich variety of avant-garde and advanced electronic music techniques to propel it even further.

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Kolonel DJafaar

Getaway

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Burning Sounds)

Freddie McGregor

Freddie

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Nothing To Lose Coloured Vinyl Edition

Hollow Coves

LP | 2024 | Original (Nettwerk)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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

Wardruna

Runaljod-Ragnarok

Release: 2018 / EU – 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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Shabazi - A Tribute To The Poet

Yemen Blues

LP | 2024 | Original (Yemen Blues)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | Original (Easy Star)

Kumar The 18th Parallel

Tales Of Reality

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Elmir)

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

Seven Wisdoms Of Plutonia

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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Alpacas Collective

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Catalpas)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Topic)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Alpacas Collective (BE) takes you on a trip from Lagos to Addis Ababa, from Augusta, Georgia to New Orleans, and from Delhi to sci-fi worlds, bringing it all back home in a unique set of original songs featured on its debut album Seven Wisdoms of Plutonia (coming October 2022).

'Seven Wisdoms of Plutonia' is recorded during the lockdowns, in a process of swapping demos over the internet and one by one recording in the studio. Studio magic is conjured up with the creative contributions of friends performing their signature tricks.

We would like to thank Juha Sarkkola (guitar), Miki Mac (vocals), Katia Verheyen (flute), Micky Peeters (keys), Joël van Roode (sitar), Jasper Vandevorst (vibraphone) and Geert Claes (trumpet) for their creative contributions to the music.

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

Africa Negra

Antologia Volume 1

The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra

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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Naming & Blaming

LP | 2018 | US | Original (Hope Street)

LP | 2024 | Original (Secret)

Release: 2018 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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After a long wait, Melbourne’s Public Opinion Afro Orchestra (The POAO) is set to release their second album, Naming & Blaming, a pulsing, percussive journey into classic afrobeat. Recorded by a 17 piece
ensemble, led by fierce vocals and a howling horn section, it’s a fitting 21st-century response to the world-shaking music of 1970s Nigeria. The result is true to the afrobeat blueprint of hypnotic, extended songs,
improvisation and political comment but adds to the formula a host of pan-African influences and hip-hop elements that reflect the deep ranging roots of the band. As the title suggests, and in true afrobeat tradition, Naming & Blaming pulls no punches. It is an outspokenly political record, a cauldron of strong
opinions where indignation and optimism coexist. Led by the vocals of MC One Sixth and singer Lamine Sonko, the critique of colonialism is applied to both the African and Australian experience, the battles of many cultures informing the group’s ethos as does the importance of community and staying true to one’s convictions. Uplifting visions of a brighter possible
future as laid out in “No Passport,” the album’s rambunctious opening song, are balanced with honest reflections on injustice like guest Robbie Thorpe’s take on Australia’s chequered history in the title track.
For the Naming & Blaming cover, the band was honoured to have the opportunity to work with one of the originators of the Afrobeat movement
Lemi Ghariokwu, the legendary collage artist and illustrator responsible for all of Fela’s most famous album covers of the 1970s. This relationship is what the POAO is all about, paying respects to the culture and keeping it alive and relevant in the 21st century. Over the last decade, The POAO have established themselves as a firm festival favourites with their
contemporary approach to Afrobeat.

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Spear Of Destiny

Live On Tour 1997

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Akuphone)

Badiaa Bouhriz

Kahrumusiqa

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Stereophonk)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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KahruMusiqa is a musical retrospective by Tunisian singer and composer Badiâa Bouhrizi AKA Neysatu. She is known as the author behind the protest songs that became the anthems of the Tunisian revolution.

KahruMusiqa means electronic music, but is never used as such in Arabic to name the genre. The record is a collection of sonic experimentations that started when she first got her hands on music production softwares in the 2000s. The tracks are based around poems in classical Arabic language or Tunisian dialect written by Badiâa herself or female poets she admires, such as Palestinian authors Fadwa Tuqan or Salma Al Jayusi, or the Tunisian poet Noureddine Werghi. Most of the vocal work are improvisations recorded with a computer microphone. A take on the classic Turkish folk song Muhabbat is almost a modern harmonic rewriting, using only classical guitar, vocals and delays.

KahruMusiqa’s themes are in line with Badiâa Bouhrizi ideological trajectory. She is a queer woman in the moving sands of Tunesia in the song Transrimel. She also questions the political contract that led to Balfour and the displacement of millions of Palestinians in 1948, describing a journey between London and Nablus, in Fil Madinatil harima (“In The Old City").

This lo-fi bedroom album also displays several songs that have become classics of the Arab underground milieu like Ila Selma, and is the first ever record Badiâa Bouhrizi was willing to release.

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The Selenites Band

Live From The Moon

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Batov)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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The Selenites Band returns with a Live album ahead of their 3 Studio album, due for release in late 2024. 8 tracks of psychedelic jazz influenced by Ethio-groove, Swinging Addis and pentatonic grooves, recorded in analog on tape recorders during two concerts between 2021 and 2023.

These recordings are an opportunity to discover 5 previously unreleased tracks, as well as live versions from the previous album "Behind The Mask". The Selenites Band are first and foremost a live band, and we've seen them at the New Morning, in Paris, in Belgium, as well as opening for the prestigious group Gong, on their only date in France, and at many other festivals. The Selenites Band's lively style takes us into a world of traditional music, Shamarnic grooves, spicy jazz and bewitching rhythms. A melodic universe, a music of heady modal trance, a cinematic space of energetic jazz punk! . All compositions are by Antoine "Obi Riddim" Laloux, with the exception of two tracks by Seyoum Gèbrèyès and Tlahoun Gèssèssè.

All sleeves are hand-silk-screened and numbered / limited edition.

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Sandman Project

Where Did You Go?

LP | 2018 | Reissue (Chrysalis)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Sandman Project"s long awaited debut album Where Did You Go? is a borderless amalgam of brass heavy sounds, a document of a band whose musical tendencies mimic their open-minded ethic where Ethio- jazz, Afrobeat, American soul music and psychedelic, Mediterranean funk traverse.

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The Specials

More Specials

Release: 2018 / Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Blancmanioc)

Sarera & Blanc Manioc

Walimizi

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Dream Catcher)

Mighty Maytones

Best Of

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Gamlestans Grammofonbolag)

H.B. Nielsen

Fromhome

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Nordvis)

Tervahaat

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Nordvis)

Jododen

Cellskracksmemoarer

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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O.D.O.O. Overtake Don Overtake Overtake Vinyl Edition

Fela Kuti

LP | 2024 | Original (Knitting Factory)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Original Sufferhead Green Vinyl Edition

Fela Kuti

LP | 2024 | Original (Knitting Factory)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Ikoyi Blindness White Vinyl Edition

Fela Kuti

LP | 2024 | Original (Knitting Factory)

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (GLM Music)

Evelyn Huber

Calm Black Vinyl

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Release: 2022 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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LP | 2024 | UK | Reissue (Soundway)

Black Truth Rhythm Band

Ifetayo

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

Release: 2024 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Soundway presents a long-awaited remaster and re-cut of the 1976 album ‘Ifetayo’ by Black Truth Rhythm Band, an important and overlooked chapter in Trinidad’s rich musical history that blends West African influences with jazz, funk and the social commentary of the calypso tradition. Led by the charismatic Oluko Imo, the group drew on the strong connections to Yoruba culture and Orisa traditions in Trinidad, looking to Africa for inspiration and reflecting the burgeoning Black Power movement of the time. Recorded at KH studios in Port of Spain, Ifetayo (Yoruba for ‘Love excels all’) was the group’s sole album release. Imo contributed lead vocals and played bass, kalimba, conga, flute and percussion, channelling music from both sides of the Atlantic into a distinctive and unique slice of Afro Trinidadian expression. Includes bonus track “Imo” not included on the original LP

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Sowulo

Sol

Release: 2022 / 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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Marry Waterson & Adrian Crowley

Cuckoo Storm

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (One Little Independent)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Adedamola Golden Vinyl Edition

Fireboy DML

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Empire)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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"“adedemola,” the self-titled album from Fireboy DML, is a deeply personal statement, representing the culmination of years of artistic growth and self-discovery. More than just a collection of songs, it serves as a mirror reflecting the artist's journey through love, loss, and self-actualization. The creative process behind the album was anything but straightforward; it involved navigating the complexities of life, facing personal challenges, and enduring the pain of losing close friends. Yet, it was through these difficult experiences that Fireboy DML found clarity and purpose.

Inspired by love in its many forms—self-love, familial love, and romantic relationships—”adedemola” delves into the emotional depths that define human connection. Fireboy DML explores the importance of cherishing what truly matters, moving beyond the superficial pursuits that often distract from the blessings of family, health, and genuine relationships. In a world that feels increasingly divided, “adedemola” is a call to return to the basics: to embrace love, positivity, and the simple joys of life.

The album stands as the truest expression of the artist's identity yet, embodying the vulnerability and authenticity that fans have come to cherish. It's an invitation to sing, dance, and love with abandon, reminding us all of the power of love to heal and unite."

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Gumba Fire: Bubblegum Soul & Synth Boogie In 1980s South Africa

3LP | 2018 | EU | Original (Soundway)

LP | 2024 | Original (Legere)

Release: 2018 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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In 1980s black South Africa a local form of pop music evolved as the disco boom died down and slowly mutated. It was often ubiquitously described as Bubblegum - usually stripped-down and lo-fi with a predominance of synths, keyboards and drum-machines and overlaid with the kind of deeply soulful trademark vocals and harmonies that South African music is famous for.
Compilers Miles Cleret (Soundway) and DJ Okapi (Afrosynth Records) present a selection of 18 rare, handpicked 1980s cuts that highlight the period that nestles in between the ‘70s (where American-influenced jazz, funk and soul bumped shoulders with local Mbaqanga) and the ‘90s when Kwaito and eventually house-music ruled the dancefloors of urban South Africa.
Alongside French-Caribbean Zouk this kind of music has slowly been making its way into the DJ sets of many of the most open minded selectors around the world. This compilation is in many ways a sister release to the hugely popular compilation of Nigerian boogie and disco that Soundway released in late 2016 : “Doing it In Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria”.
The album takes its name from the band Ashiko’s track of the same name Gumba Fire that features on the compilation. The term is derived from gumba gumba, the term given to the booming speakers of the old spacegram radios that
broadcast music into South Africa’s townships and villages. The phrase later evolved into Gumba Fire to refer to a hot party. Put this record on and feel the heat!

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Rio 18

Radio Chevere

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin

Ali Black Vinyl Edition

LP | 2022 | CZ | Original (Dead Oceans)

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Outre National)

Release: 2022 / CZ – 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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Cheb Hasni

Volume 3

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Outre National)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Raï is the music of a youth hungover from Algeria's recent independence. It became a space for a liberated, transgressive dialogue that told the social truths of its time -- an up-front yet poetic voice that covers the taboos and frustrations of daily life, expressing emotion without detour. This voice is heard at weddings, cabarets, in the nightclubs of the Oranese coast, and casually on the street... With the boom of the audio cassette, an avalanche of raï tapes were produced in Oran and diffused all over the world. Both women and men sang and listened to the new sound, as raï is intimately tied to parties, alcohol and the night. With the spontaneous improvisation of its singers as the main part of each song, raï keeps reinventing itself. In this style, Cheb Hasni, along with Cheb Nasro, incarnates a second generation of musicians. With the "love raï", or sentimental raï, Hasni sings about love, passion and its setbacks -- moving away from the bittersweet daily chronicles of the first chebs and chebates. Having recorded nearly 150 cassettes, Cheb Hasni remains one of the most prolific and talented raï singers of his generation. Almost thirty years after his death, this three-volume compilation of rare tracks from his cassette releases on the Oriental Music Production label is a tribute to the lasting legacy of Cheb Hasni -- ya raï!

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Cheb Hasni

Volume 1

12" | 2022 | EU | Original (Awesome Soundwave)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Digital Afrika

Heart Of Drums

Trésors De La Chanson Judéo-Arabbe

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Electronic & Dance

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With obvious intent Nui and Simon set out to create an album that encompasses all of their influences and experiences as musicians and journeymen in the world of African inspired rhythm and sound and have arrived at a work that is at once global, innovative and deeply funky. It’s been an incredible journey that has taken them from the wilds of the northern hinterlands of New South Wales in Australia to the dreamy secret gardens of Marrakesh, from the onsite recordings of Afro-Cuban choirs of Havana, to the Gnawa street sounds of Moroccan medinas. Nui and Simon have traversed the globe to create these recordings and have collected diverse and international group of artists to collaborate with in the making of Heart of Drums. Artists such as Cazeaux Oslo, who is an African-American Mc and vocalist hailing from California. Olugbade Okunade , Nigerian trumpeter and vocalist , was formerly a member of the Femi Kuti Positive Force band. Members of Clave y Guaguanco, One of Cuba’s foremost folkloric groups, who have been around since the 60’s. Lalita Yagnik, Portuguese Speaking Indian, vocalist and martial artist. Radouan Naim, Traditional Moroccan vocalist and instrumentalist. And Close Counters, Australian Up and coming Electronic duo. Digital Afrika is made up of two main protagonists: Zhonu ‘Nui” Moon (Future Roots) An African-Australian producer, percussionist and Dj that has performed and recorded all over the world. With a strong focus on African music,He has worked with the likes of Femi Kuti , Mulatu Astake and Tony Allen. And Simon Durrington (Si Fixion ) who is an Australian based producer, keys player and DJ. With extensive experience of working with Melanesian , Indian and world musicians. Drawing on these influences, Si weaves these styles together seamlessly with his unique high quality electronic production. This album ‘Heart of Drums’ is a synergy of lush analog electronica and fiery African percussion, vocals and instrumentation. With occasional reinvented throwbacks to the Disco and Funk era as well as forward thinking Afro-futuristic Record bag essentials, Heart of Drums really brings the party! These are constructed dance floor motivators for any environment. The artwork for this record deserves special mention as the mask was handcrafted by the interesting and talented artist Ju Mu Monster. Based in Berlin, the studied fashion designer creates colourful, wildly dancing image-worlds, in which beings from diverse cultures are combined with shamanism and spiritual worlds. Her enchanting works of art include murals and canvases as well as magical masks. All tracks produced and arranged by Zhonu (Nui) Moon & Simon Durrington

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Lili Boniche

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Elmir)

London Afrobeat Collective

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves, Rock & Indie

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Algerian singer and musician Lili Boniche was born in Algiers on March 14, 1921, and died on March 6, 2008. He was famous for his contribution to Judeo-Arabic music, and particularly associated with chaâbi, a musical genre popular in Algeria that blends Arab, Berber and French influences.

Born Eliaou Élie Boniche, and he grew up in a Sephardic Jewish family and became interested in music at an early age. His musical career really took off in the 1940s and 1950s, when he recorded numerous hits that helped popularize the Judeo-Arabic repertoire. His unique style blended elements of Arabic music, jazz and tango, creating a captivating musical fusion. He is widely recognized for his mastery of the lute and his distinctive voice. His lyrics were often poetic, reflecting the everyday life, love and culture of his time.

Lili Boniche left an indelible mark on the North African music scene. His legacy lives on in his recordings, which continue to be listened to and enjoyed by music lovers the world over.

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Esengo

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Canopy)

LP | 2024 | Original (Not Ok)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Taking inspiration from afrobeat father Fela Kuti as well as artists including Ebo Taylor, Parliament, Funkadelic and Havana d’Primera, London Afrobeat Collective’s music has won them admirers across the UK Europe and beyond. This eight-strong multi-cultural collective from England, Italy, France, Congo, Argentina, and New Zealand, combine traditional afrobeat and hi life with funk, jazz & Latin, to deliver party music born of their truly global DNA. A regular on the touring circuit and celebrated for their raucous energy, heavy dance grooves and conscious lyrics.

On the 14th February, they are set to release their fourth album ‘Esengo’ via Canopy Records.

‘Esengo’, produced by Sonny Johns (Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela, Ali Farka Toure), showcases London Afrobeat Collective’s love and respect for the traditions of afrobeat. With acclaimed Congolese singer Juanita Euka on vocals once more, ‘Esengo’ channels the spirit of Fela Kuti but with a willingness to create original music that crosses genres.

Lead single and album opener ‘Topesa Esengo Na Motema’, finds the band in a lighter yet spirited mood, celebrating the joy of living, reconnecting, and getting back on the road once more, while the groove-heavy ‘My Way’ is a refreshing blast of tight percussion and powerhouse vocals from Euka. Elsewhere, ‘Freedom’ perfectly captures the raw, soulful energy of their raucous live performances, while the blaring horns of ‘El Ritmo De Londres’ and easy, loose rhythms of ‘De Kinshasa À Sona Bata’ showcase London Afrobeat Collective at their rousing finest.

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Jeano Elong

Jabea

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Onom Agemo, Ahmed AG Kaedy

Tartit

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Agogo)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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No Condition Is Permanent

Celestine Ukwu

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Mississippi)

Hypnotic Guitar Of John Ondolo

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Of the many great talents of the classic Nigerian highlife scene, none contained the existential depth, transcendence and grace of Celestine Ukwu. During his brief time in this world, he pursued education, music, and philosophy; first as a school teacher, then ultimately a singer, lyricist and musician, first as a member of Gentleman Mike Ejeagha's Premier Dance Band, and eventually fronting his own groups, The Music Royals and The Philosophers National. Beginning in the early 1970s, The Philosophers National established a radical shift in the possibilities of Nigerian highlife by moving away from the typical mid-century style and cutting a new path with a distinctly hypnotic and cerebral atmosphere. This sense of depth was apparent in the lilting, multi-layered and pulsing music of The Philosophers National, as well as the concise and clear-eyed lyrics sung so beautifully by Celestine Ukwu. The arrangements establish a living, breathing environment for each song; muted trumpet solos, hypnotic guitar runs, driving percussion; every instrument gracefully following a tide of patience, tranquility, wonder, climax, knowing and unknowing. "Celestine ditched the jaunty dance rhythms and relatively facile lyrics typical of the reigning highlife tunes, and ignoring the soul music tropes most of the highlife bandleaders were appropriating in an effort to inject new life to their ailing format. Instead Celestine concocted a new highlife style that was more contemplative and lumbering; with the layering of Afro-Cuban ostinato basslines and repetitive rhythm patterns that interlocked to create an effect that was hypnotic, virtually transcendental. Meanwhile, Celestine himself sang as he stood coolly onstage in a black turtleneck and a sportscoat, looking like a university professor. The message was clear: this was not necessarily music for dancing_even though the rhythms were compelling enough. This was music for the thinkers." - Uchenna IkonneThis LP compiles some of Celestine Ukwu's deepest and most affecting songs fr...

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John Ondolo

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Mississippi)

Afrotronic Orlando Voorn Remixes

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Organic Grooves

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John Ondolo spent his life traveling between Tanzania, where he was born, and Kenya, where he recorded a string of singles for independent labels in the late 1950s and early 60s. Unlike most guitarists from the region, Ondolo used open tuning (a favorite of American blues guitarists), creating a hypnotic drone over which he laid down endless rhythmic variations on his main themes. Inspired by the exploding pop music scene in Nairobi, the newest rock and roll imports from the US, and the Abakuria tribal music of his youth, Ondolo transposed traditional instruments and rhythms to his guitar, playing it more like a traditional harp at times, and inventing a sound totally unique in the recorded history of African guitar. This album brings together John Ondolo's rare early 78rpm recordings in the first-ever overview of this innovative but overlooked artist. The music traces Ondolo's creative output, from the resonant acoustic guitar masterpiece Tumshukuru Mungu to the relentless guitar and flute (!) interplay of Kenya Style to his later electric guitar, bass, and drum recordings with the Jolly Trio, all tied together by Ondolo's unique rhythmic sense and vocal style. The breadth and variety of Ondolo's recordings may be a result of his sporadic recording history. Unlike more famous artists, Ondolo wasn't sucked into the Nairobi nightlife scene of the early 60s, instead traveling from his farm in the foothills of Kilimanjaro on occasion to record. An outsider and devout Catholic whose music was sometimes at odds with the style of the times, he later left music entirely, shifting to film and driving a mobile cinema van for the Tanzanian government, introducing socialist and Pan-African films to the countryside. An accident in his mobile cinema led to the loss of his left arm, though he continued his travels. He died in 2008 in Dar Es Salaam, leaving behind two wives and 11 children. Over a decade in the works, Hypnotic Guitar of_ includes an insert with lyrics and translations, as well as notes by Tanzanian m...

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Eddy De Clercq & Friends

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Egoli)