This Is Highlife!

One of our favourite purveyors of Neo-African club tunes, aka the notoriously relentless Daniel Haaksman, is back at it and once again laying proof to his undeniable 'goût' as a selectah and able producer: Releasing on March 24th via his very own Man Recordings imprint is a catchy new "trans world Afro house and electro inspired club tune" by Canadian-Moçambican singer Samito. "I Saw You" is a song of lost love that takes a surprisingly harsh turn in the [...]

Just days ahead of their upcoming Germany tour the tireless Jewish Monkeys land extensive coverage in Germany's leading Sunday paper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The full-page article by Jörg Thomann arrives just in time for a string of live performances to take place across seven German cities over the next seven days. You can find a detailed list of all upcoming gigs in our designated 'Shows' section. As for the eloquent write-up, well it's [...]

Although we usually don't cover the big names and rather try to circumvent the at times overpowering Anglo-American grasp on so-called popular culture, we could not deny the latent 'Om' factor underlying this historic, soon-to-be-released compilation by New York-based imprint Luaka Bop (does William Onyeabor ring a bell?), covering ecstatic music by a certain Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. Yes, that is THE Alice Coltrane, who was once married to the late [...]

Sure, there's a lot of hype surrounding this group of contemporary Thai villagers, though there just may be some truth in people claiming this to be one of the greatest musical discoveries...wait for it...ever! But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The short version of their story is this: In 2011 a group of Thai musicians, later to be known as Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band, uploaded a video of them wheeling a seemingly decrepit homebuilt soundsystem through [...]

This March is going to be absolutely mad, as the Jewish Monkeys embark on their annual tour to 'jewnify' Germanistan. On March 11th they land in Berlin for a special night of Purim festivities. Purim is a Jewish holiday to commemorate the saving of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from their nemesis Haman, who, like so many others before and after him, wanted the Jews wiped off the face of this earth.

Today, Purim is celebrated as a sort of [...]

Releasing today on Agogo Records (who rarely disappoint) is new heat by the fabled Onom Agemo and The Disco Jumpers, a contemporary afrofunk five-piece out of Berlin, combining traditional and modern African music with elements akin to their own musical heritage such as psychedelic synth excursions, slices of freejazz and minimalistic grooves to meet any audiophile's needs.

Out now, is their eagerly awaited sophomore album "Liquid Love", a mesmerising, 9-track [...]

BREAKING: Our favourite two-man wrecking crew... Wait a minute. Re-wiiind! Make that a three-man wrecking crew. Yes, you heard right. MALOX, our favourite three-man wrecking crew, has evolved and will be performing as a trio from now on. Joining the musical one-two punch of Eyal Talmudi (sax, clarinet, bag-pipes) and Roy Chen (drums) is Eyal's brother Assaf Talmudi, who will add his keyboard genius and electronic flair to the already potent mix we witnessed on [...]

The concept of time is one of life's greatest enigmas, but equally fundamental, when it comes to the art of rhythm and beatmaking. Which brings us to one of the most prolific and celebrated beat champions of all time, being Detroit's James "J Dilla" Yancey, master sampler and pioneering hiphop producer, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 32. Every February for the past 10 years and counting fans around the world have been coming together to celebrate his [...]

Ever heard of Stephan Remmler and his band Trio? Maybe not. However, you may have crossed paths with his German new wave hit “Da Da Da”, released at the ultra-coolish, icy beginnings of the '80s; a monotonous, semi-callous, numb, yet cynically funny anti-love song with that now iconic, recurring line, quasi spoken by a deep and seemingly indifferent male voice in the same repetitive groove as the Da Da Da bass: “Ich lieb Dich nicht, Du liebst mich [...]

In a recent mailout by Freemuse, an independent international organisation advocating and defending freedom of expression, we were saddened to learn about some concerning statistics. Entitled "Art Under Threat" the report states that Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, China and Russia lead the list of countries "systematically violating and failing to secure artistic freedom in 2016". In fact, these six countries account for 59% of the serious violations recorded [...]

Not to say the Jewish Monkeys' latest outing for Berlin Sessions wasn't highly infectious, but this brand new track off the group's forthcoming sophomore album sure has temperatures running high. On "Fever", the band is anything but bashful, eager to reclaim their rightful spot at the top of the neo-Yiddish palm tree:

We are Jewish Monkeys, we are bandits
We are the Jewish Monkeys, we are shmendriks
We are the Jewish Monkeys, we’re demented
We are the [...]

Here's a little something for all our francophone friends, followers and supporters out there. Recently recorded in Tel Aviv, Jewish Monkeys frontman Gael Zaidner joined television host Valérie Pérez and journalist Arielle Sibony at i24News to speak about the ongoing Klezmer revival, the role of the Jewish Monkeys in all of this and more.

When asked, where the band gets its inspiration from, be it politics, religion or current events, Gael answered: "I think [...]