Duniya Kya Hai

Batida, Batida, the name definitely rang a bell. A quick search of the archives revealed that we had indeed covered the Angola-born and Lisbon-raised producer Pedro Coquenão, alias Batida, a few years back, during his involvement with legendary Congolese 'thumb piano' outfit Konono No.1 for Belgian label Crammed Discs. We breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Batida "ranks among the leading exponents of the new wave of African electronic music."

With another [...]

Time to ring in 2021 with a release that arrived late last year on Lyon-based "audioactivist" imprint Jarring Effects, but no doubt deserves all the attention it can get. "Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin" is a collaborative and emancipatory effort to empower African women, that combines age-old Bantu lullabies with state-of-the-art electronic instrumentation rooted in hiphop. Led by renowned Congolese chanteuse and percussionist Gladys Samba, Les Mamans du Congo [...]

On this last day of Hanukkah, we thought it befitting to share the latest digital release of Chris Silver's Montreal-based Gharamophone (gharam (غرام) meaning  "love," "passion," and "infatuation") imprint, "dedicated to preserving North Africa's Jewish musical past, one record at a time." And that is quite literally what the compilation achieves in astounding fashion, complete with bagpipes (mizwid), birdsong and that charming yet unrelenting crackle of [...]

Hanukkah is here and the Jewish Monkeys are back. After having the second leg of their "Catastrophic Life" tour obliterated by a certain global pandemic, the band locked down in its native Tel Aviv, keeping a low profile and waiting for the dust to settle. Restless by nature, however, this hiatus did not last and the group soon returned to the proverbial drawing board to get those creative juices flowing again.

Premiering today, is the spanking new companion [...]

What have we here? Our Greedy senses instantly went wild upon hearing the first single "Watjoro" off the Omniversal Earkestra's newest collaborative album "Le Mali 70". The Berlin-based big band flew to Mali to record a spectacular album with iconic Malian musicians from the '70s the likes of Cheick Tidiane Seck, Sory Bamba, Abdoulaye Diabaté and, of course, Salif Keita. The resulting ten-track longplayer recently released on Munich imprint Trikont and is most [...]

"Oh woman, African woman / Oh woman, Beninese woman / Black woman, get up, don't sleep / Oh black woman, get up, don't sleep / You can become president of the republic / You can become the country’s Prime Minister / Get up, something has to be done / African woman, be independent / The country needs us, let's go to school / Africa needs you, you have to work / The world needs us, stand up, let's stand up / African woman, be independent" – Star Feminine Band [...]

"It's the year 2020. The world has been in lockdown. The system has failed and the future is unknown. Only imagination will be the path to everywhere. It's time to set the system free!" There, now we've set the tone to DANDANA's latest album "Free The System!" that released on Rebel Up Records back in September. The album was preceded by an eponymous EP single in June, accompanied by an eye-opening music video. We made sure to add the single to our "Greedy for [...]

Call it a first world problem, but let's be honest: Who wouldn't much rather be boarding a plane right now, than resorting to a hermetic lifestyle, confined to one's own humble abode, self-isolating as the only means to make it through these trying times? And yes, we really miss traveling. So basically that leaves music as one of the few remaining pleasures in life, a teleportation device of sorts, helping us escape the daily drudge and travel to different [...]

Samy Ben Redjeb's Analog Africa imprint has done it again. After sweltering projects such as Jambú, Mogadisco and a recent tribute to the late and great Ranil, last Friday marked the highly anticipated release of the new "La Locura de Machuca" compilation. Shedding a light on "one man's bizarre odyssey into Colombia's coastal music underground" and the wildly experimental output of his Discos Machuca label from 1975-1980: 

"One night in 1975, a successful tax [...]

Time is relative, when travelling the ocean, torn from Africa and resettling to Guadeloupe. Hundreds of thousands made this crossing, a Black diaspora, caught up in the violent slave trade, yet ultimately giving birth to a rich Antillean culture of its own. Many of its "descendants have since become famous writers, poets, leaders, athletes and of course, musicians." Such is also the story of cult Guadeloupean percussionist, singer, author, composer and [...]

Late last year, the highly touted and multi-talented Israeli-Persian singer Liraz brought forth her empowering, stunningly choreographed anthem "Zan Bezan" (transl. 'Women, Sing'), a resounding and danceable invitation to women all over the world to regain their freedom. The colourful track also delivered a promising first taste of things to come, being the first release since her acclaimed 2018 debut album "Naz" on Tel Aviv's Dead Sea Recordings. 

Now, after [...]

Ornate electric currents course through our veins, touched by the incredible sounds of Rüstəm Quliyev's recently-released posthumous full-length. "Azerbaijani Gitara" marks the first international release of Quliyev's music, a long overdue tribute to one insanely gifted individual, who took electric guitar playing to a whole new level, yet whose career was suddenly cut short in 2005, after a bout with lung cancer.

His legacy, however, lives on through [...]