Le Retour De Toto

Fresh off the press at Mr Bongo is this highly recommended reissue of Mexican musical traditions by ways of Luis Pérez. Born in Mexico City in 1951, from 1971 onwards Pérez "dedicated much of his time to the research of the pre-Columbian instrumentation of Mesoamerica. He learned directly from the living sources of the music and collected samples of musical instruments and the songs of different native speakers including Maya, Nahuatl, Mazateco, Yoemem, [...]

About a year ago, in 2017, we issued a newsletter to our subscribers introducing a special musical project, which remains highly relevant and which we believe needs to be included in our online archive of extraordinary finds. Said project is the result of Frankfurt-based DJ, label head and electronic music pioneer Jan Hagenkötter's tireless efforts to put together a selection of tracks representing the so-called "Golden Era" of popular music in South Vietnam, [...]

It's been seven years since the acclaimed Malian chanteuse Fatoumata Diawara put forth her mesmerising debut solo project "Fatou". This Friday, she releases her much anticipated follow-up "Fenfo" (Something To Say), including 11 new tracks, co-produced by Diawara herself alongside singer/songwriter/guitarist Matthieu Chedid, alias –M–, a superstar in his native France, who recently won the "Best World Music Album" award at the French Grammys for his [...]

Barcelona-based imprint Adarce Records has been putting out some great music lately, which definitely warrants a short introduction on Greedy. Specialising in "Spanish grooves, including reissues of funk, disco, rumba, bossa nova and library records from the 60s & 70s", Adarce has been dropping a host of impressive records and compilations to the benefit of diggers and music lovers all across the globe.

Released at the tail-end of 2017, their fantastic [...]

Back in 2012 Tel Aviv's prolific Fortuna Records imprint released its first 7" record. Yemenite jazz legend Tsvia Abarbanel's "Soul Of The East" EP featured two tracks and has been highly sought-after ever since.

After digging up another one of Abarbanel's tracks that was included on their 2017 compilation of obscure Yemenite-Israeli funk, Fortuna Records now released a much anticipated EP entitled "Eastern Soul" with four super rare tracks by Tsvia [...]

It's summertime here in the Western hemisphere and so at times, life slows down as we spend more and more time back in the outdoors, cherishing those moments in the sun, taking in life's treats to the fullest. Call it a perfect fit for the downtempo experimental electronics that rising Argentinian producer Muno has been dropping.

Deemed slowhouse with an ethic, tribal touch, Muno just released his debut EP "Mawu" on São Paulo's Tropical Twista Records and it [...]

"We have our own blues band. It isn't bad; it only sounds that way," reads the opening line in Malian singer and guitarist Samba Touré's brand new music video to "Goy Boyro", the opening track off his forthcoming third longplayer on Glitterbeat Records. And indeed, the first sounds that hit you are not what you might expect:

“It’s contemporary music from Mali,” Touré insists. “Maybe our traditional music has changed. We live all in the same world [...]

Today, we would like to rewind to an album released in 2015 on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood Recordings, being the debut longplayer of then 22-year-old Afro-Cuban singer Daymé Arocena entitled "Nueva Era". Arocena has since released her equally enticing sophomore album "Cubafonía" in 2017, but "Nueva Era" in our humble opinion deserves another look or rather listen.

"Nueva Era" sees the classically trained Daymé Arocena combine "the intertwining musical [...]

About this time a year ago, the Hamburg-based vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Derya Yıldırım and her outernational Grup Şimşek super-quintet released their superb "Nem Kaldı" EP to much acclaim. Now, the group returns with an equally impressive one-off track, to be physically released this month on the forthcoming "Saz Power"* compilation via German vinyl only imprint Ironhand Records (run by Cem Şeftalicioğlu and Ercan Demirel)

"Üç Kız Bir Ana" [...]

Rising South African house music collective Batuk, centered around acclaimed producer/MC Spoek Mathambo and the striking artist/performer/vocalist Manteiga, is one of those acts you need to have on your radar. Their mission is to "connect the African diaspora through rhythm culture and language", which is exactly what they have been doing, ever since they dropped their debut EP "Daniel" at the start of 2016, only to follow-up with their equally vibrant debut [...]

This one has been a long time coming and by that we mean us featuring the amazing Jupiter & Okwess from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now in his mid-50s, frontman Jean-Pierre Bokondji, aka Jupiter, has led his group to international acclaim, but arguably remains somewhat of an unsung hero.

Born in Kinshasa in 1963 (three years after Congo gained its independence from Belgium), Jupiter spent his formative years living in the Tanzanian Dar-es-Salam as well [...]

Working out of Paris, Les Mains Noires are a versatile, multi-faceted collective of like-minded "music and image lovers" that run their own blog, which serves as a treasure trove for far away sounds.

Digging deeper and deeper into early Caribbean recordings and back from a recent trip to the island of Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, My Old Friend Fred Martin put together a mix of 13 amazing finds (tracklist below), combining "the very best of the 'Bel [...]