Hello Africa!

In case you didn't know, this amazing find was the first cassette tape that got Brian Shimkovitz's infamous Awesome Tapes From Africa imprint rolling as well as the blog's inaugural post back in 2011. Originally released in Ghana in 1994, Ata Kak's "Obaa Sima" and its unique Afrodisco aesthetic went more or less unheard of for a rough 21 years. Of the 50 tapes produced at the time, only three actually sold, which in no way does this infectious, funkified [...]

Please excuse a short excourse, but this seems to be just the right place and time: We recently stumbled upon a stunning trailer, shared by the Instruments for Africa organisation for "cultural preservation, education and reconciliation in Mali". The clip features several glimpses of different Malian cultural rites and festivities, all accompanied by bold colours, chants and rhythms and is introduced with a quote by Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, [...]

Berlin-based Man Recordings founder Daniel Haaksman is truly a man of many hats: The prolific DJ, producer, radio show host and aforementioned label founder has spent the last decade exploring the diverse soundscapes of the Southern hemisphere and is rightly considered a pioneer of global or tropical bass, ever since his now iconic "Rio Baile Funk Favela Booty Beats" compilation for Essay Recordings dropped in 2004. Skilfully blending Brazilian and Afro styles [...]

A mountain is a mountain is a mountain, one would think. And so a few years ago, acclaimed musicians / emigrant music producers Christoph H. Müller (Gotan Project) and Moses Iten (Cumbia Cosmonauts) came together to translate their shared Swiss origin and mutual passion for Latin American rhythms, from tango to cumbia, into a musical project dubbed The Swiss Conspiracy. The result being a unique brand of "Alpine Cumbiero" or as Müller describes: "A kind of [...]

Specialising in Brazilian music, renowned UK-based imprint Far Out Recordings is making its 200th release (November 3, 2017) a big one, as it readies a previously unreleased album by the one and only Hermeto Pascoal and his Grupo Vice Versa. "Once described by Miles Davis as 'the most impressive musician in the world', there is good reason (beyond his Gandalf-like appearance) why he is known as 'O Bruxo' (the wizard)." As a matter of fact, "few musicians have [...]

"That's Zouk," my friend exclaimed, when I played the first track off of "Digital Zandoli Vol. 1", a stunning, dancefloor-oriented compilation of 13 disco, boogie and [yes] Zouk tracks recorded in the French West Indies of the 1980s and released by Parisian imprint Heavenly Sweetness in 2016.

Curated by Julien Achard of Digger's Digest and Nico Skliris (formerly Superfly Records), the release "reveals a broader spectrum to the otherwise poorly defined genre" ([...]

A little more than a week to go before Le Guess Who? festival raises the curtain on an awe-inspiring line up of top tier international acts in Utrecht (NL). That being said, school is already in session as Danish Grammy award winners, Roskilde Orange Stage legends and flat-our sample wizards Den Sorte Skole serve up a mind-melting one-hour mixtape just ahead of their very own festival appearance. And here's what they had to say:

"Le Guess Who is like this [...]

Blame it on the picture perfect weather, but in our honest opinion, pretty much everything about the long-standing Orchestre Les Mangelepa's live appearance at this year's Wassermusik X festival was on point, from the glorious open air location on the spacious terrace of Berlin's iconic Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW, or 'pregnant oyster' as the locals call the structure) to the leisurely performance by one of the oldest, all-time great East African big bands. [...]

Broadcasting "from a lonely rusted tower in the forest" the enigmatic OMFO (Our Man From Odessa), aka German Popov, is on a self-proclaimed mission to introduce Western audiences to what he calls "the intrinsic modernism of the Orient". A sound artist, musician, electronic music producer and researcher, he transcends musical boundaries, delivering a siren's call to new listening horizons.

Named after German Titov, the second human being to travel space after [...]

It's been a while since we last reported on the 'Swiss Tom Waits' and his band of 'Dead Brothers' and yes, they are still very much alive. As a matter of fact, Alain Croubalian and his band are currently readying a new album and just started a crowdfunding campaign in an attempt to make the dead dance once again.

If you were wondering, why death, here's an excerpt from an interview with Alain Croubalian: "I first studied political science, economy and [...]

Just because you've never heard of them, doesn't mean they're not out there doing their musical thing. Though it has been 11 years since one of Brazil's most influential and commercially succesfull hiphop combos last performed live in Berlin, we'll give you that. In any case, Marcelo D2 & Samba Drive (Mauro Berman, Lourenço Monteiro and Pablo Lapidusas) have not only brought samba back into the lives of an entire generation of young Brazilians, they also [...]

It's back to the Middle East, where Tel Aviv-based imprint Fortuna Records has not so silently been making a name for itself with a host of mind-blowing reissues. Latest in their repertoire of musical excavations is "Da'asa", a compilation of rare Yemenite Israeli Funk tracks 1974-1982.

"Ranging from extremely rare to previously unreleased, these tracks are a result of a unique scene [of Yemenite immigrants to Israel] which blended funk, soul, jazz & disco [...]