Nozi Nozi

It has been a while since we last updated you on the current state of affairs concerning our jolly Jewish Monkeys, not since their tour support for Shantel, the Shantel remix of "Fever" and their last tour of Germany at the tail end of 2017 that is.

But the boys have not been monkeying around. Far from it: The band has been back in the studio readying new songs for album number three, the follow-up LP to their well received sophomore effort "High Words" [...]

UK-based Strut Records have gained access to the archives of one of the most prolific French Caribbean labels out of Guadeloupe, aka Henri Debs' Disques Debs. Founded in the late '50s, the imprint went on to release over 300 7" singles and 200 LPs, ranging from "early biguine and bolero to zouk and reggae", while "Debs played a pivotal role in bringing the créole music of Guadeloupe and Martinique to a wider international audience".

Volume 1 of the three-part [...]

"The concept of being a singer is very boring. It’s much more interesting for me to feel that I am a sculptor, I am a painter in sound. The space is my canvas, my voice is the paint. The letters are my buddies." –Victoria Hanna

While she is not new to our journal, we at Greedy for Best Music are more than happy to welcome the one and only Victoria Hanna to our musical family! You may have heard her on the catchy Balkan Beat Box track "Adir Adirim" or seen [...]

It's been a while since we last heard from Berlin-based Italian multi-instrumentalist Andrea Benini. Back in 2016 he released longplayer number five under his Mop Mop moniker. Now he returns with a brand new project on Agogo Records, an infectious rhythmic journey into African and Caribbean percussion, combining traditional instrumentation and analogue electronics "to create a hybrid sound in the tradition of artists like Francis Bebey". 

What's even more [...]

In 2015, Polish-born record collector, DJ, music journalist and curator Kornelia Binicewicz moved to Istanbul to explore the works of Turkish female singers. Digging her way through "dusty crates and blurred memories", gaining access to forgotten music archives and old Turkish music labels and publishing stories on the Turkish female music scene, she decided to place her focus on psychedelic pop and rock, arabesk, tavern and traditional/obscure folk styles; the [...]

Following the breathtaking success of Childish Gambino's (aka Donald Glover) cutting-edge mise-en-scène of the American nations deep-seated, paradoxical and hair-raising ailments in the recently released video to "This is America", which is currently at over 270 million views and counting, Nigerian rapper, singer, songwriter and actor Falz The Bahd Guy (aka Folarin Falana) dropped his very own and equally impressive spin-off. 

"This is Nigeria" is Falz's take [...]

This one definitely caught us off guard because let's just say we weren't expecting Leon Michels to go 'World' on us. Better known under his El Michels Affair moniker, the New York-based artist garnered international acclaim for his 2009 Wu-Tang Clan cover project "Enter the 37th Chamber" and its 2017 follow-up "Return to the 37th Chamber". 

Now, the El Michels Affair returns with a new 45 on Big Crown Records that is quite unlike his previous releases. Joining [...]

Back to the Republic of South Africa, where early last year up-and-coming Tsonga rapper, writer, poet, style icon and actress Sho Madjozi, aka Maya Wegerif, popped (and locked) into the local music scene, collaborating with the likes of fellow rapper Okmalumkoolkat and appearing in the popular youth telenovela Mzansi Magic. 

"Dazzling audiences with her audacious lyrics, confidence and bright style," she is on a mission to blend her own musical heritage with a [...]

Hailing from the port city of Essaouira, the late Maalem Mahmoud Gania ranks among the most prolific and highly respected recording musicians in Morocco. A singer and master guimbri player (a three-stringed lute used mainly in traditional Gnawa music), Gania released several albums on various Moroccan labels and collaborated with international artists the likes of Pharoah Sanders (US), Peter Brötzmann (D), James Holden (UK) and Floating Points (UK).

Last year, [...]

It's barely been a month since the new Marseille-based Afro-Disco imprint Atangana Records issued its very first release, a reissue of Haitian singer Fédia Laguerre's phenomenally reworked 1981 single "Divizion". Now label head Déni Shain serves up another killer cut, being the long-awaited reissue of a classic track by the mythical Guadeloupe group Les Maxel's.

Remastered and fitted with an equally impressive B-side rework, the 1976 track "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, [...]