Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

"My aim is high, close to the sky, i can not fly but i've got to try..." D'Hardest, one of Shadows most sought after tunes, reissued!
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D'Hardest' was recorded at K.H. studios in Trinidad in 1980 and another version/mix was released on the Wake Up album. This song is everything, thanks to Winston Bailey aka Shadow and all his team.

Kwaito 12-inch featuring two forgotten bass-heavy cuts from South Africa in the early 90s. Volcano is a sought after tune right now (so difficult to get an original copy!) while the Beat Gangsters are a new introduction (to us) from Okapi's vaults..TIP!

First official reissue of Nigerian Boogie Disco Grail LP produced by Grotto for EMI Nigeria and originally released in 1978. Contains dance classic'Bad city Girl'. Liner notes by Nigerian Music expert Uchenna Ikkone, include previously unpublished photos and extensive interviews by Temitope Kogbe.
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Odion Iruoje was the A&R manager at EMI at the time,' Benson says, and he auditioned us, liked he material and signed us.' Odion Iruoje of course had groomed and produced Ofege. Now he was looking to repeat the formula with other high school groups such as Tirogo, Apples and Question Mark. Grotto's deep rock would be a welcome addition to this schoolboy rock' series.
Work on their album started immediately, with Iruoje in the producer's chair. Adapting to the tastes of the times—as well as their own maturing musical sensibilities—Grotto started transitioning from acid rock towards sleeker, more dance floor-friendly grooves. As I grew older I think I got a bit jazzier,' Benson says. I also listened to Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Isley Brothers, Prince and a lot of funk groups from that era.'
Hard rock was the content of the first album,' Amenechi agrees, and funk/jazz/R&B the focus of album number two. Especially with the late Toma Mason Jr. joining as bassist.' The group's second album, Grotto II: Wait... No Hurry (released in 1979) reflected the growing sophistication of its members' musical outlook. Fat, funky bass grooves rubbed shoulders with jazzy flute lines, space-age synthesizer tones punctuated good, old-fashioned crunchy rock riffs.

ONE OF THE RAREST RECORDS IN THE WORLD, BY 'OS MUTANTES' BEFORE THEY WERE 'OS MUTANTES'. HEAVYWEIGHT BRAZILIAN PSYCHEDELIC ROCK AND FOLK.
'O'Seis' are the core members of the mighty and legendary 'Os Mutantes', namely Rita Lee and brothers Arnaldo and Sergio Baptista, accompanied here by Raphael Vilardi, Maria 'Mogguy' Malheiros and Luiz Pastura.

Mid last century. Commercial Music is a machine that generates dances that run each other over in the urge to reach the audiences and mark their place in time and history.

A never-ending list of choreographies co-habit: hully gully, madison, rock, limbo, twist and a long etcetera, until a new dance, bossa nova takes over the dance floors. Joao Gilberto, Tom Jobim or Vinicius de Moraes reach stardom in Brazil with this mix of samba and jazz, but the genre doesn't explode internationally until a few American jazzmen decide to import it. From there it reaches Europe, via France, thanks to Sacha Distel, the first on the continent to record an EP completely dedicated to this phenomenon.

It is 1962.

Shortly after in Spain, the number of artists including original or adapted tracks in their albums, escalate: Tony Vilaplana, Mina, Duo Dinámico, Latin Combo, Los 4 Brujos, Gina Baró, Grau Carol, Salomé or Marisol, who popularizes the new trend by recording 'Marisol rumbo a Río', a blockbuster film partially filmed in Brazil. The maestro Augusto Algueró writes the films soundtrack.

For this compilation we have consciously dug into the archives of three Barcelona based labels like Belter, Discophon and Olympo to serve Spanish sung bossa nova songs that have never, inexplicably, been released on vinyl, all songs are recorded during those two (musically speaking) prodigious decades: the twentieth centuries sixties and seventies.

Sought-after Brazilian LP from 1974 that touches on MPB, soul, jazz, disco and boogie. Official Mr Bongo reissue. Replica original artwork.
Extremely expensive theses days, this one has been on our list for a while. As sampled by Andres on his 'Sing About It' collaboration with Kenny Dixon Junior aka Moodymann and on Kaytranada's Janet Jackson flip, 'Alright'. Championed by the likes of Jazzanova, Floating Points, Hunnee and co.
The record features Arthur Verocai and Luis Bonfa (composer Octavio Burnier's uncle) on production/arrangement.

Unique Soul Jazz Records' Record Store Day seven-inch box set which brings together a stunning five-single/ ten track selection of mind-blowingly groovy selection of African, Latin, Jazz and Funk music from the Congo. Absolutely killer and essential tracks (mostly unknown) from the masters of the vibrant Congo scene in the 1960s - featuring the groups Franco & OK Jazz, Rock-A-Mambo, African Jazz, African Fiesta and more. Roots African meets Dizzy Gillespie, James Brown, Ray Barretto & more. The bomb!

This unique box-set edition is only available as a one-off pressing especially for Record Store Day 2018.
 

Yemenite-Jazz legend Tsvia Abarbanel, celebrated on this much anticipated 12" by Fortuna Records. Including two previously unreleased tracks! Throbbing spiritual jazz touched by ancient Yemenite tradition, these 1970 recordings are amongst the rarest of the rare. Until now! Privately pressed by Tsvia in 1970, this was the first ever attempt at combining traditional Yemenite compositions with Funk and Jazz. Two tracks were previously reissued on a long out-of-stock 7" by Fortuna, now gloriously re-released with two other never-before-heard tracks! Essential.

Wonderful 70s work from Tom Zé! The record's a bit more straightforward than some of his other records from the decade, and has a number of tracks with a samba sound at the base - but there's more than enough fantastic material to keep the record fresh, and Tom's writing is as great as ever. There's a vocal group that sings with Ze on many of the tracks on the record - but they also seem to sometimes act as a Greek chorus, in response to breakaway vocal passages that are dominated by Zé. Includes the excellent baroque funky number "Dor E Dor", plus the tracks "Sonho Colorido De Um Pintor", "A Baba", "O Sandalo", "A Briga Do Edificio Italia Com O Hilton Hotel", and "Happy End".

Repress

Peter Zummo (born 1948) is an American composer and musician. He plays the trombone, valve trombone, euphonium, synthesizer, other electronic instruments, and also sings. He is associated with the postminimalist and Downtown aesthetics, and he describes his music as "minimalism plus a whole lot more." He's well-known for his work with Arthur Russell.
"In this project for Optimo, the listener can hear that my musical food pyramid has musicians at top, or maybe they are at the bottom. In any case, they are important. That is why, from track to track, I selected
segments in which one player or another is featured in the take. Some may think that we musicians do multiple takes to get the perfect performance, but I like to find the special interactions lurking in each excursion. Different players came forward in each of the takes, which were recorded in the studios Seaside Lounge and Headroom, in Brooklyn, and live in performances at Cube Cinema, in Bristol, U.K., as well as in Long Island City and on Staten Island, New York.
In order to escape the tyranny of the lyric, I am exploring in this release the possibilities of nonsensical and non-emotional lyrics. These kinds of lyrics bring the singing voices into the mix without an overweening message. The tracks include open-form compositions in which the duration was not specified."

Raga Abhogi
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala

Raga Vardhani
4) Alap
5) Jod
6) Jhala

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Annie Penta : tanpura

Concert recorded at the home of Shantha and Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle, Washington 9 March 1986.
Recorded by Niranjan Benegal. Files obtained from Jeff Lewis.
Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, edited by Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by unknown.
Interior photography by Niranjan B. Benegal, Dan Neuman & unknown, Seattle 1978-1980. .

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani were recorded in a private house concert in Seattle at the home of the Benegals in March 1986 (the week before the accompanying release SOMA029 Raga Yaman was recorded). The Benegals were friends (& Shantha Benegal was also a student) of Dagarsahib who sometimes hosted Hindustani music concerts in their home. It's a rare glimpse of a more intimate, personal and perhaps different kind of performance considering the form of dhrupad.

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

Stephen O'Malley would like to especially thank Bahauddin Dagar, Jeff Lewis & Jody Stecher for their enthusiasm, cooperation, patience, insight & advice toward developing these editions. Thank you also to Laurel Sercombe & John Vallier from the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives, Shantha Benegal, Philippe Bruguière, Dan Neuman, Ira Landgarten, Renaud Brizard, Ian Christe, Peter Rehberg, Rashad Becker, Daniel O'Sullivan & Kristoffer Rygg, all for their direct or indirect cooperation, assistance & patience.

Raga Yaman
1) Alap
2) Jod
3) Jhala
4) Gat (Composition in Chautal)

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar : rudra veena
Manik Munde : pakhawaj
Gayathri Rajapur & Annie Penta : tanpuras

Recorded by unknown at the University of Washington, HUB Auditorium, Seattle, Washington 15 March 1986 , concert co-sponsored by the UW Ethnomusicology Division and Ragamala.
Original digitally processed audio recording made with Panasonic PV-9000 VCR, Sony PCM-F1, PZM mics. Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering 1117 & 0318.

Liner notes by Renaud Brizard, Stephen O'Malley & Ian Christe.
Front and back cover photos by Niranjan B. Benegal, Seattle Center Folklife Festival 1979. Elizabeth Reeke & Annie Penta on tanpuras.
Inner gatefold photography by Niranjan B. Benegal & Ira Landgarten.

Around ten years ago, deep into a cozy and hazy night following a concert with my sound brothers Daniel O'Sullivan and Kristoffer Rygg in London (as Æthenor), they graciously introduced me to a recording of rudra veena (a kind of noble deeper bass relative to the sitar, in a way) as performed by dhrupad master Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Dhrupad, for those who do not know, is a branch of Hindustani classical music said to "show the raga in its clearest and purest form". It's pacing concentrates heavily on the slow, contemplative alap section and works with specific microtonal gestures and deep characteristics of resonance ... in short I was hooked on this new (to me) and ancient form of music from the first listen, and feel that a more or less continual listening & reviewing of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's recordings in the years that followed have influenced my own approach to music quite heavily (if, albeit, indirectly).

In early 2015 I was able to make contact with Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's son Bahauddin and some of his American students/disciples, primarily Jeff Lewis. Over time we developed a friendly and educational exchange, access a massive archive of recordings and developed these two paired titles for my label. It's been a long path to arrive at actually releasing them but also probably in many ways one of the most significant releases I've worked on. And I'm proud to be able to reveal these to date unreleased archival recordings of one of the masters of dhrupad, Z. M. Dagar, to the public for the first time.

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was the nineteenth generation in a family tradition known as Dagar gharana, a rich lineage which continued and performed the musical form of dhrupad (Bahauddin Dagar continues the lineage as a master rudra veena dhrupad player of note today). Initially, dhrupad was a rigorous, austere, devotional genre that was sung in Hindu temples. But between the 16th and the 18th centuries, it became the preeminent genre in royal courts in North and Central India, and the Dagar gharana developed and continued publicly following the eventual loss of court patronage for dhrupad in the 19th century. The French ethnomusicologist Renaud Brizard covers the story of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar's life and teaching (a long story also in Seattle, my hometown!), the Dagar family and gharana, the rudra veena and more topics in an extensive set of liner notes in this release.

Raga Yaman was recorded at a public concert in Seattle at the HUB Ballroom at the University of Washington in March 1986 (the week after the accompanying release SOMA028 Ragas Abhogi & Vardhani was recorded) at the end of his last tour of the United States. Yaman was a special raga for Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, one of his signature raags. For centuries, Yaman has been considered as one of the most fundamental ragas in Hindustani music and is one of the first ragas which is taught to students. A deep knowledge of Yaman gives a key for understanding many other ragas. It's filled with tranquility, contemplation, pathos and spiritual yearning. .

-Stephen O'Malley, March 2018, Paris, France

Compilation of Aboriginal Australian country music. When we say country, it is a broader category than you might imagine. This LP contains all kinds of sounds. The cosmic organ driven dream song of Black Allan Barker, the droney intensely political Glararrwuy Yunupingu, the straight up rocking Warumpi Band, the ballad singing of Maisie Kelly, the down-home pop of Bobby McLeod and much much more.

None of this material has been reissued on vinyl before. Political and powerful songs from communities throughout Australia. A truly unique LP. Comes with extensive liner notes and photos. A co-release with Flipping Yeah Records.

Turkish Ladies. Female Singers from Turkey 1974 - 1988 is a first ever compilation of female music from Turkey from 70s and 80s.

Sony Music Turkey and Ladies on Records deliver a compilation emerged from deep and profound listening to the message of Turkish female singers. Created from music archives of old Turkish labels (Elenor, Türküola, Sah Plak) under licensing umbrella of Sony Music Turkey, the compilation captures the broad diversity of music performed by Turkish women. Sweet melodies and heartbreaking dramas are captured in edgy arrangements and compositions with eccentric synthesizers, mesmerizing arabesque string orchestras, wakawaka funky guitars and narcotizing rhythm sections of darbukas and drum sets. Get surprised by a variety of influences and fusions - from classical Türk Sanat, Argentinian tango, Spanish flamenco, Egyptian classical orchestras, traditional folk songs to worldwide popular disco, psychedelia, funk in unique local setups from late 70s and 80s.

The album is a selection of the Turkish female music scene and less-known singers - Huri Sapan, Handan Kara, Gönül Yazar, Esmeray, Nese Alkan, Gülden Karaböcek, Gül Sorgun, Ferda Gül, Dilber Dogan yet to be discovered by international audience. All the singers performed in Turkey in 70s and 80s, never got recognition outside the country.

Glorious 3 wingsgatefold LP and CD bookletwith profound liner notes telling the fascinating story of women in Turkish music in 70s and 80s, inner sleeve withlyrics in both Turkish and English. The artwork of the whole compilation combines the aesthetics of the 70s and 80s with respect to picturesque Ottoman tradition.

Curated and compiled by Ladies on Records AKA Kornelia Binicewicz, Polish curator and DJ, based in Istanbul exploring female music from 60s, 70s and 80s.

Sneaker is going deep with his interpretation of Rai music on RAT 6. ''Rai is a type of Algerian popular music that arose in the 1920s in the Algerian city of Oran, back then known as ''little Paris'', it was a melting pot of various cultures, full of nightclubs and cabarets, it was the place to go for a bawdy good time. Out of this milieu arose a group of Male and Female Muslim singers, who rejected the refined, classical poetry of traditional Algerian music. Instead, to the accompaniment of pottery drums and end-blown flutes , they sang about the adversity of urban life in a raw, gritty, sometimes vulgar, and inevitably controversial language that appealed especially to the socially and economically disadvantaged.'' sounds like the definition of Rat Life! Put some drum machine patterns on top of it and here we go: long overdue Sneaker solo EP on Rat Life Records!

15 dead, 15 funerals, 16 funeral processions, 1 procession with no dead, 5 churches, 1 cemetery, 1 wake. 15 hours of recorded sounds are condensed into a vivid sound portrait depicting the way funerals and burials are lived in the Caribbean island of Haiti.

Recorded in Port au Prince by sound artist Félix Blume in early December 2016, Death in Haiti plunges the listener into a world of pain, loss and solemn celebration as each funeral comprises of its own live jazz band as well as a plethora of characters like the joker (le blaguer) who cracks jokes and tales about the recently deceased.

A beautiful document of a thriving tradition, a counterpart or updated version of those famous Dirge Jazz records such as the New Orleans' Eureka Brass Band on Folkways.

A native of the Caribbean coast of Colombia, Abelardo Carbono achieved legendary status in his country's storied ranks of musical icons by combining the homegrown sounds of cumbia with the chiming guitars of West African soukous, enormously popular with the local tropical sound systems, and drenching the whole thing in his off-kilter, surreal and slightly psychedelic sensibility.

With the exception of a well-received compilation of songs from his 1980s heyday, Carbono has been rarely heard from outside the sweaty dancehalls he still commands in his hometown of Barranquilla. Now, Names You Can Trust has welcomed the reclusive guitarist and singer back to the vinyl format with a simmering Afro-Carib beast of a cut, recorded with the assistance of Will "Quantic" Holland on rhythm guitar and Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero, Ondatropica) on keys and in conjunction with Lucas SIlva of Palenque Records & Polen Records. It's a true cross-generational and international collaboration that is uniquely possible via Colombia. The first release of this expansive & power packed studio session is a cover of vallenato pioneer Guillermo Buitrago's La Piña Madura. This updated take veers heavily towards Africa on a rock solid foundation of bass and drums, with Abelardo's trademark guitar and quirky vocals leading the way.

In the past decade, there has been an explosion of ethnically Tuareg rock bands on the world music stage. Built around the electric guitar, the genre ranges from stripped down minimalist nostalgia filled ballads to distortion heavy tracks for dancing. Known collectively in the West as desert blues' for it's pentatonic scales and finger styles that recall Americana, in the Sahara it's simply known as guitar.' The style has emerged as contemporary pop music back home and today there are hundreds of bands, playing locally in weddings and public celebrations. The effect of the world music industry is not lost on the Sahara however, and the Western music market still maintains dominance over the Tuareg guitar scene. For the majority of Tuareg guitar' bands, success still comes via the West. Artists travel abroad to record albums, and there are no shortage of indie-rock heavyweights anxious to jump into the role of producer.

An exception to the rule is Kader Tarhanine's group Afous D'Afous.' This six person rock outfit from Tamanrasset in southern Algeria is by all accounts unknown in world music circles. However, at home in the Tuareg community, they are without a doubt the most celebrated, famous, and in demand group, second only to Tinariwen. Kader Tarhanine rose to popularity in 2010, with his recording of a song Tarhanine Tegla' (My Love is Gone). The track, a low-fi love ballad, recorded with a crunchy electric guitar over a pacing drum machine, went on to become an anthem throughout the diaspora (earning Kader the nickname Kader Tarhanine'). In 2015, Kader formed his group Afous D'Afous' and traveled to Algiers to record the full length debut Tenere.' The 9 track album was released on CD in a limited run in-country, accompanied by a huge press rollout. The band appeared on Algerian national television, quickly becoming a country favorite and representative of the Tuareg ethnic minority. The album quickly disseminated throughout the diaspora, traded on cellphones in the conflicted Azawad, beamed through private WhatsApp pirate networks, and soundtracking smuggler's routes, blasting from Land Cruisers at high speeds through the border zones of the open desert.

Tenere' is a departure from the rest of the contemporary Tuareg rock albums. Of the myriad of Tuareg releases that have caught the ear of the West, only a tiny few are produced at home, sans Western producers. Tenere' offers some of the most complex compositions in the genre to date, tightly arranged and polished. There is something sonically throwback, though Afous D'Afous crawled out of 70s rock studio album. It is long cited that Tuareg rock styles are largely inspired from heavyweights Dire Straits. This may be the most true to form rock album to date, and there is certainly a few riffs that recall Mark Knopfler. The electric guitar, front and center, drives the tracks with uptempo rhythms, all led by the soulful voice of Kader, measured and balanced with the chorus call and response. In addition to this classic rock aesthetic, the production adds some unlikely elements, reflective of contemporary globalism - layering pitch bending North African synthesizer, reverb saturated dub, and even Indian tabla and sitar!

While Tuareg guitar has become a commodity in the world music industry, Afous D'Afous has continued to in relative obscurity, all while remaining one of the most popular guitar outfits amongst Tuareg fans. They tour constantly throughout the Sahara to sold out crowds in Bamako, Niamey, and Agadez. They have yet to tour abroad. The irony is not lost on the band, and we're excited for the opportunity to partner with them to correct this glaring oversight.'

The late 70s found Turkey in an economic slump, and there was a huge rise in political violence. Baris, who so often put out collections of singles, rose to the occasion by spending 6 months holed up with his longtime backing band the Kurtalan Ekspres. The result was this studio album of Anatolian bummer psychedelia, often unfairly overlooked because it came out in the rather un-cosmic year of 1979, but also considered his best work by many. Yep, there are still electrified versions of Turkish folk songs, and the spaceshot ARPs & Korgs of 2023' are here too, but don't expect a happy swing around the ceiling of a planetarium.

The real star of the album is the keyboard player, whose name translates to 'Sword Agent'. Yeni Bir Gun' is viciously funky & brilliantly arranged, with tidbits stolen out of the latest disco hits, & lean, mean synthesizers that emerge from the beats like carbonated bubbles. Melancholy maqams & catastrophic Korgs collide when the Turkish psych master glides unflinchingly into the grim late 70s!!

First time ever reissue, this release comes in gorgeous gatefold cover as the original, has a repro of the original poster as well, and brings an extra insert with extensive linernotes.

Fresh from touring with Hugh Masekela ( The Boy's Doin' It'), Gboyega Adelaja goes into the lab to drop heavy keyboard science on his Moog and Fender Rhodes. Its Joe Sample meets the Afro Funk of BLO. With names like Jake Sollo on guitars, Mike Odumusu (BLO, Osibisa) on bass guitar and Gasper Lawal on percussion. This is a top quality, Afro-Funk, all-stars affair that shines from the inspired interventions, masterly arrangements to the sublime production.
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Additional Notes:

I was already following Hugh Masekela when I met him, he was an outstanding musician and I knew of his collaboration with
Hedzoleh, that band brought him nearer to many of us, because he was playing authentic African melodies with the Hedzoleh
sound which was mostly percussion oriented. Yes I knew about Hugh's music before I met him. Infact when we started playing
together, he insisted that I stay with him in our three bedroom apartment, other members of the band had their own apartments,
but Hugh and myself shared the same 3 bedroom apartment'.

We were touring, under Casablanca owned by Neil Boggart, we toured as professional musicians, flying to our gigs. There was
a time when we were touring with George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic we had two luxury buses deployed for our use.
We made many friends where ever we went to play, we met many big and popular musicians who came to watch our shows, the
Spinners came to see us in Detroit, we met Wayne Shorter of Weather Report, Freddie Hubbard, we played a gig with Herbie
Hancock at the Carnegie Hall New York City, we toured almost all the 50 States of the US.'

Limited to 100 hand-stamped / stuffed / numbered copies in picture sleeve.

The B-side features two cuts from his debut album, Maximal Electronics, on Moontown Records. 50 cassettes disappeared in the blink of an eye and this is the first time any of it has been pressed to vinyl.

The A-side (featuring the vocals of P. P. Rebel.) is, well, inexplicable...but with a gun to our heads we'd say it feels a little like Heavy Metal colliding with a shroomed-out Radiophonic Workshop on the bleary downward dip of a trip that wasn't BAD but wasn't exactly GOOD either. Par for the course in TIS' stomping ground of Geelong, really.

Sterns Edits is a new collaboration between legendary African & Brazilian label and distributor Sterns Music and London producer and label owner Ben Gomori.

Sterns Music began life as pop-up style record shop housed in the back room of an electrical shop near Warren Street and grew to become the second biggest distributor of music from Africa outside of the continent itself. Over the years they released and distributed hundreds of artists, including household names like Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Oumou Dioubate and Orchestre Baobab, building a comprehensive catalogue of music from across the region that spans some six decades. Now located inside a former bank vault underneath Warren Street station, they continue to work with a plethora of African labels, in some cases transferring master tapes to make them available digitally for the first time.

Gomori stumbled across this treasure trove of material when he discovered contemporary Gambian-born, Danish-residing singer and kora player Dawd Jobarteh's propulsive 'Sama Kebbalu' and decided he wanted to create an edit of it for his sets. He decided to see if he could license the track to make for an official release on his label Monologues Records, but soon recognised the bigger opportunity: "I was blown away when I met Robert from Sterns for the first time and he took me down into his vault. Original master reels stuffed into banana boxes, decades of vinyl, cassette tape and CD releases... history everywhere you looked. After exploring their vast catalogue and talking to Robert more, I felt like something could be done to bring some of their music and history into a new context and introduce it to new generations in the process."

Each Sterns Edits release will see Gomori - who has created dozens of much-loved edits of the likes of Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Sampha and DJ Shadow over the years - rework two tracks from the vast Sterns catalogue, melding these various styles of African music with his own house grooves to make for dancefloor ready weapons.

The intricate kora playing of Dawda Jobarteh makes for a mesmeric trip on this debut release, with 'Sama Kebbalu' ('tomorrow's elders') given a peak-time workout that makes fine use of the rousing, chanted chorus and rolling rhythm, and 'Bright Sky Over Monrovia' cut into a dub that focuses on the stunning finger-picking and passes it through heady delays.(A) A1. Sama Kebbalu (Ben Gomori's Lead By Example Edit)

Especial Specials and DEEK Recordings return with the second vinyl sampler of the Covered In Gloria album. As before, DEEK's Bullion pulls together the label's alumni and homies, a gamut of talent and styles feature, from Suzanne Kraft, Minor Science, Sultan Shakes, Eyedress and Geller & Kaya.

Diego Herrera's Suzanne Kraft alter ego has become a cause celebre of the ambient revival of the last few years. However, his early releases and remixes show a talent for beats as well as atmospherics. His cover of Andreas Dorau's Nordsee is all that, taking the Die Doraus Und Die Marinas original's whimsy production to embrace Krautrock motorik rhythms and warm vocal tones.

Accompanying this is a heartfelt version of Blue Niles' classic Heatwave. Appearing on their beautiful debut Walk Across The Rooftops, doing the song justice is a challenge. However, Minor Science rework the Japanese fused original with a respectful retake, with plink-plonk percussion and delicate vocals giving a perfect restraint alongside a touch of modern minimalism.

Starting the final side is the most club friendly cover from the tassle-haired newcomer, Sultan Shakes. After turning heads with his debut Interstellar Love, he returns by paying respect to A Guy Called Gerald's anthem via a twisted, electro-psychedelic reversion for the dance.

A left turn follows from Manilla's Eyedress with his exploratory acoustic love ode, Girls. The perfect counter song taking the Beastie Boys' original to surf's up, obscure lo-fi wanderings, fitting exactly what Covered In Gloria is all about. Respect, with a smile.

To finale is Geller & Kaya. Having appeared on DEEK's previous covers opus, Extraordinary Renditions, their pop-reggae homage to Wham's ubiquitous Rap is put through the echo chamber by respective label heads & cohorts (Bullion and Chuggy) for a cod'n'chips tinged Dub rewiring, where mixing desk becomes instrument and points to possible collaborations to come. Do you enjoy what you do...

A cosmic, phased-out percussion adventure by Shimshon Miel, a lone-wolf hippie from Tel-Aviv who experimented with hallucinogenic psych-folk, and self-released his only album in 1977. Fortuna Records reissues two of the album's killer cuts for the very first time, alongside a late-night club edit by Kalbata. Expect extra trippy percussion soundscapes layered on top of a thumping bass guitar in wild 70's style stereo action. Kalbata's remix is a straight up voodoo ritual, adding much needed 808 subs to the jacked-up original.

180g are delighted to release "Souvenir", an album by one of the most promising and talented music makers from today's Japanese underground scene: VIDEOTAPEMUSIC.

Videotapemusic is a young music and video producer from Tokyo who uses old Japanese and Asian VHS tapes collected in dusty recycle shops and closed rental video stores as raw material for his sampling work and video production, creating a singular and highly unique musical world that has created waves on the Japanese scene since 2009. Starting out strong with three self-released albums, followed by two albums on Japanese label Kakubarhythm and a collaboration 12" on EM Records, "Souvenir" is now the first Videotapemusic album released outside of Japan, available as a limited 180g heavyweight vinyl LP edition, and in digital format. The LP comes with a download card.

The eight tracks in "Souvenir" also feature the cream of the crop from the current Japanese scene: Beipana on steel guitar, MC.sirafu on steel pan, saxophonists Satomi Endo, Satoru Takeshima and Kaoru Masuda, trumpetistsTaichiro Kawasaki and Makoto Takahashi, DJ Eskimo, guitarist Yuichi Ushioda, percussionist and hand sonic player Hajime Matsushita, keyboardist Yu Arauchi, Videotapemusic on pianica and vocalists Sansuke Yamada, Toshihiko Ikeda and Ryu Tsuruoka. Dive into a world of musical delight and discover today's best music from Japan!

All Songs Produced by VIDEOTAPEMUSIC.

Recording & Mix : VIDEOTAPEMUSIC, Naoya Tokunou.

Mastering : Naoya Tokunou.

About 180g:

180g is a music agency providing vinyl pressing, distribution and licensing services specialised in the Japanese market. Its strong knowledge of the Japanese music scene and industry allows 180g to bring top quality solutions to the various international labels it is working with, for their development in Japan, and to Japanese labels for their development outside of the country. In addition, 180g runs its own record label.

Príncipe kick off 2018 in a big way with the remarkable début by P. (as in 'Producer') Adrix, a 22 year old artist originally from Lisbon, now based in Manchester, who is equally adept at crafting full tilt, teched-out bangers as effervescent electronic soul music. His first release, Album Desconhecido is a supreme example of the innovative scenius in Angolan-Portuguese music, ratcheting the thrilling dynamics of Lisbon's ghetto bass sound with deadly edits and pressure highly compatible with the UK's jump-up jungle, drill or soca grime vibes.
Building on ground-breaking work forwarded by producer/DJs Marfox, Nervoso, Nídia and Lycox in recent years, Album Desconhecido is jaw-droppingly fresh, even by Príncipe's up-to-the-second standards. And like Lycox, who hails from Angola and Lisbon via France, it's fair to say that P. Adrix's relative detachment from Lisbon has also led him to break the kuduro mould in scintillating new ways, effectively mapping out and recombining a glowing flux of ideas circulating the Black Atlantic diaspora.
Delivered in 9 short sharp stings between the seasick drill of Zelda Shyt and the laser-guided trance lixx of Viva La Raça, Adrix trades in a mix of virulent, adrenalised energy and soulful rollige that sets fire to any 'floor across the breadth of Album Desconhecido. It's clear and present in the turbulent, rug-pulling subs and febrile polyrhythms of Bola De Cristal, and to blinding degrees in the high-wire tension and bone-freezing edits of 6.6.6, whereas the zipping flutes of Ovni bind roots and future with breathtaking, needlepoint incision, leaving Sonhos to provide a dead sweet, even romantic contrast with the melancholic meditation of Tejo for fine measure.
After encountering Album Desconhecido, there can be little doubt that Adrix is making some of the most exciting dance music in the world right now - a boldly expressive and immediately effective sound that drives listeners to a rare but timeless sort of rave ecstasy - thrillingly synthetic and infused with an unmistakeable lust for the dance.In the right hands, it's dangerous stuff. You've been warned!

Das Debütalbum - TRUE steht weltweit bei über 1,7 Mio. Units (davon über 200.000/Platin in
Deutschland)Der Singlehit - WAKE ME UP steht bei 13 Mio. Downloads + 900 Mio. Streams weltweit
Über 3,7 Milliarden Audio- und Video-Streams gesamt. 15 Tracks inkl. der Hitsingle - Waiting For Love
und den neuen Singles - For A Better Day / - Pure Grinding .Topliner u.a.: Chris Martin von Coldplay
Wyclef Jean & Matisyahu, Mike Posner
Musikrichtung: Dance-Pop

Discrepant presents YET another unique document of Kink Gong's aka Laurent Jeanneau's collection of surreal soundscapes of augmented field recordings, this time turning into his love/hate relationship with China into a mesmerising and unique soundscape of unclassifiable music. Before becoming KINK GONG I had different names, one of my projects, designed by cultural circumstances in China at the beginning of the 21st Century, was DIAN LONG (electric dragon in Chinese). Starting a very long trip to nowhere I landed in Shanghai in 2000, with my gear in my bag in order to make music and recordings of whatever. Faced with the cruel tendency of modern China to reject tradition and embrace full on bling bling culture, my option was to attack this music industry commercial flavour by destroying it. I had in my bag a faithful portable CD player who knew how to turn syrup into crystal. Later, reaching Yunnan in 2001, I discovered the reality away from the bling bling of eastern towns and did a realistic soundscape of it.'

Musically and emotionally, Superpitcher's third full-length studio album, The Golden Ravedays is a one sound autobiography that exhibits the skill, feeling and depth of style that the artist has honed over a period of twenty years, musically, and forty-plus-years, emotionally. And full-length it is: The Golden Ravedays is an epic album of 24 tracks that was released in January 2017 and is stretching over 12 respective chapter albums during a one-year period on record label, Hippie Dance.

The second chapter of The Golden Ravedays saga, due for release in February 2017 introduces two further tracks of the haunting sound adventure. Side A introduces a very surprising spectacle of sound entitled What do you miss This track is unlike anything Superpitcher has released in the past. What do you miss is diving into a river, serenely floating past visions that bring calm, just to be overwhelmed by jazzy white waters of saxophone and primal animal poetry all the way from forests long forgotten. Let's Play Doctor is aptly titled as one can't help but imagine a satellite-propelled ambulance meandering through the galaxies without any haste or emergency whatsoever. Almost 20 minutes in length, Let's Play Doctor never bores. It's a playful tribute to taking one's time in enjoying the very now.

The second chapter of The Golden Ravedays saga, due for release in February 2017 introduces two further tracks of the haunting sound adventure.

Side A introduces a very surprising spectacle of sound entitled What do you miss

This track is unlike anything Superpitcher has released in the past.

What do you miss

is diving into a river, serenely floating past visions that bring calm, just to be overwhelmed by jazzy white waters of saxophone and primal animal poetry all the way from forests long forgotten.

Let's Play Doctor is aptly titled as one can't help but imagine a satellite-propelled ambulance meandering through the galaxies without any haste or emergency whatsoever.

Almost 20 minutes in length, Let's Play Doctor never bores.

It's a playful tribute to taking one's time in enjoying the very now.

African Scream Contest 2

A great compilation can open the gate to another world. Who knew that some of the most exciting Afro-funk records of all time were actually made in the small West African country of Benin Once Analog Africa released the first African Scream Contest in 2008, the proof was there for all to hear, gut-busting yelps, lethally well- drilled horn sections and irresistibly insistent rhythms added up to a record that took you into its own space with the same electrifying sureness as any favourite blues or soul or funk or punk sampler you might care to mention.

Ten years on, intrepid crate-digger Samy Ben Redjeb unveils a new treasure- trove of Vodoun-inspired Afrobeat heavy funk crossover greatness. Right from the laceratingly raw guitar fanfare which kicks o Les Sympathics' pile-driving opener, it's clear that African Scream Contest II is going to be every bit as joyous a voyage of discovery as its predecessor. And just as you're trying to get o the canvas after this one-punch knock out, an irresistible Afro-ska romp with a more than subliminal echo of the Batman theme puts you right back there. Ignace De Souza and the Melody Aces' Asaw Fofor" would've been a killer instrumental but once you've factored in the improbably-rich-to-the-point-of-being-Nat-King-Cole-influenced lead vocal, it's a total revelation.

The screaming does not stop there, in fact it's only just beginning. But the

strange thing about African Scream Contest II's celebration of unfettered Beninese creativity is that it would not have been possible without the assistance of a musician who had been trained by the Russian secret services to "search and destroy" enemies of the country's (then) Marxist-Leninist president Mathieu Kerekou.

Already familiar to fans of the first African Scream Contest as a mainstay of ruthlessly disciplined military band Les Volcans de la Capitale, Lokonon André vanished in a cloud of dust at Ben Redjeb's behest with a list of names and some petrol money, only to return a few days later having miraculously tracked down every single name he'd been given. The source of this Afrobeat bounty-hunter's impressive people-finding skills - his training with the KGB - highlights the tension between encroaching authoritarian politics and fearless expressions of personal creative freedom which is the back-story of so much great African music of the 60s and 70s. Happily, in this instance, Lokonon was tracking the artists down to oer them licensing deals, rather than to arrest them.

Where some purveyors of vintage African sounds seem to be strip-mining the

continent's musical heritage with no less rapacious intent than the mining companies and colonial authorities who previously extracted its mineral wealth, Samy Ben Redjeb's determination to track this amazing music to its human sources pays huge karmic dividends.

Like every other Analog Africa release, African Scream Contest II is illuminated by meticulously researched text and eortlessly fashion-forward photography supplied by the artists themselves. Looming large - alongside Lokonon André - in the cast of biopic-worthy characters to emerge from this seductive tropical miasma is visionary space-nerd Bernard Dohounso, who laid the foundations for Benin's vinyl predominance by importing and assembling the turntables that would play the products of his Bond villain-acronymed pressing plant SATEL, a factory that would revolutionise the music industry in the whole region.

The scene documented here couldn't have been born anywhere else but in the Benin Republic , and the prime reason for that is Vodoun. It's one of the world's most complex religions, involving the worship of some 250 divinities, where each divinity has its own specific set of rhythms, and the bands introduced on the African Scream Contest series and other compilations from that country were no less diverse than that army of dierent Gods. At once restless pioneers and masters of the art of modernising their own folklore, the mystic sound of Vodoun was their prime source of inspiration.

One especially irascible Vodoun-adept was Antoine Dougbe, who styled himself The devil's prime minister' while turning ancestral rhythms into satanically alluring modern beats. As Orchestre Poly-Rythmo songwriter Pynasco has observed sagely, Evil is not elsewhere, evil extends into the house'. And African Scream Contest II is a gloriously cinematic road-trip through an undiscovered realm of music lore whose familiarity is every bit as thrilling as its otherness.

Written by Ben Thomson, March 2018

Out of nowhere, Average delivers an esoteric soundtrack to exquisite label Junior Executive through three distinctly different cuts for your head and feet. Listed as 'Above Average', Haye Haye is straight up disco vibes for camp fire dances under starry Southern Cross skies. Try to sit still to this monster... On the humbly titled 'Below Average' side, Cold builds and builds until the mighty release finally delivers you from evil, whereas Hisingen takes you on a trip to some long lost hippie island where hypnotising flutes try to persuade you to join the cult. Wicked. !

London head Aroop Roy takes on Brazilian rhythms for the 4th time on GAMM and its quite possibly the best one yet.

The working formula, simple but yet very well crafted to work both in clubs and for home listening.
First off we get "Flecha De Foga" that uses a rare Nazare Pereira samba track as the foundation but with loads of added chords, beats and production details.

On the flip 'Todo Mundo Tem Amor' marries a driving analogue bassline to an amped up version of another Sul Americano classic - blazing !

Who Are You is a new collection of free form, free flowing music from E Ruscha V. A wandering, wondrous search for identity rendered in brilliant musical shapes and forms, Who Are You resides in the transitional realm between calm and ecstasy. A meaningful moment along an artist's transcendent path of self-discovery, and meaningful music to those who identify with a conscious universe. Who Are You is the first full-length release by Eddie Ruscha under his given name since donning the Secret Circuit guise in 2010 to administer an electronic antidote to the psychedelic / shoegaze dirge that dominated his formative music-making. Between Secret Circuit's two 12' EPs and a colossal full length, Tactile Galactics, on Beats In Space in 2013 and now, Ruscha has remained wildly prolific producing unfathomable fouron-the-floor formulas for the best and brightest labels outside of Space. The Secret Circuit hiatus suggests a return to self and an unmasked, untethered musical language, an approach Ruscha describes as 'exploring melody that can mutate as different shades of beauty.' Rhythm plays a supporting role on Who Are You, an album with less concern over club constrictions and more contemplation of open, unbound spaces, areas in which Ruscha sees the music capturing 'the feeling of a lost day.'

Crying Bamboos is a translation of the pidgin description of the sound of sacred flutes: "Mambu i cry, i cry, i cry".

Sacred flutes are blown to make the cries of spirits by adult men in the Madang region of Papua New Guinea. Pairs of long bamboo male and female flutes are played for ceremonies in the coastal villages near the Ramu River. There are seven male initiation flute cries from Bosmun, four flute cries from Bak: Borai with occasional single garamut percussion and two flute cries from Kaean, one with vocals and hand drums. The flute players were of the last generation to have learned this skill during a complete cycle of male initiation. These previouslyunreleased recordings were made in 1979.

Recorded by Ragnar Johnson

Notes by Ragnar Johnson and Jessica Mayer

Photographs by Ragnar Johnson

Tape to digital transfer and mastering by Dave Hunt at

Dave Hunt Audio, London

Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin

Simone Felice, the singer-songwriter/record-producer from deep in the Catskills, has announced the release of his new album The Projector on April 13, 2018 via New York Pro.

Riding the train down from the Catskills to New York City's slam-poetry scene in 1998, a callow 'tone-deaf' kid with little musical skills but verse in his heart. Forming a band with his brothers in 2005 and travelling the world. Hitting Number One in the US and UK with one production collaborator (The Lumineers' Cleopatra, 2016), scoring a Mercury Music Prize nomination (Bat For Lashes' The Bride, 2016) with another, striding into another side of 2018 with yet another (Peace, the Midlands band whose Kindness Is The New Rock And Roll bursts forth this spring). 

The first single to be taken released from the record is album opener and title track 'The Projector', premiering today on the Line of Best Fit. Spectral, almost skeletal at first, before the man's resonant voice and spartan guitar are joined by shiversome choral vocals from Bat For Lashes' Natasha Khan and haunted folktronica from Four Tet. Felice counts London's genre-surfing experimentalist as both close friend and neighbour. The track is a hallucinatory walk through the backrooms and hallways of modern human paranoia and tech-induced loneliness, as the warped choir sings: 'All the while you felt so alone/but all the while there were bugs in the phone and you were not alone.'
Listen to 'The Projector' HERE.

Up in the Catskill Mountains, Simone Felice was thinking. Considering the roads he'd taken, and also the roads that had taken him.

'I've been down the track,' says The Felice Brother turned solo artist, putting it mildly.

It was a lot to take in. And as he considered the prospect of a new album, it was a lot to get out, as well.

'So often artists are looking to what they're doing next, or are stuck in where they are today,' Felice thinks. 'Sometimes we forget to honour our history.'

'It speaks to my journey,' he begins. Back in the mid-Nineties, cresting out of his teens, he'd read at the Nuyorican Poets Café, a vital scene best exemplified by Saul Williams.

'I became a stand-up riddler, reciting my poems from napkins or from memory, it's how I cut my teeth. For me this was the beginning of understating the diabolical alchemy of the English language, the rhymes, the pictures you can paint, both terrible and fair, or as Patti Smith calls it: '... a string of words more precious than the emeralds of Cortés.'

Lights down, curtain up, flickering camera on: this is the world of The Projector. It's a handcrafted album of lone guitars echoing in the twilight, nocturnal electronics and woodsy vocals in which you can hear and feel the grain. Of scenes and moods, shouts and cries and pleas, interweaving narratives lovingly birthed in Simone's native woods, (with longtime recording collaborators David Baron, Pete Hanlon and James Felice) not far from the Kaaterskill Creek upon which he himself was born.

Our woodsy auteur will be coming down from the mountain this spring, travelling to the UK and Europe, one man and his guitar and his store of stories, for a series of evenings with Simone Felice. This Projector won't be hitting any multiplexes, but it will be unspooling in a run of bespoke venues - special environments for very special songs where, if you listen carefully, you just might sense something so emotional and true it's, well, cardiac.

'Since my surgery you can hear my heart ticking,' says Felice. He means it literally but, sure, we can take it figuratively, too. 'If you're in the room with me I'm the crocodile who swallowed the pocket watch. For a few years I'd try to dampen the sound when we made recording in the studio. But I've given up on that. If you listen closely you'll hear it when things go quiet. You might mistake it for a metronome that's off-time. But it's not. It's just my achy breaky heart.'

Strut presents the new album from the modern day leader of Afrobeat, Seun Kuti. The youngest son of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti is as incensed by injustice as his father ever was and, with his mighty new album Black Times including a feature from Carlos Santana, he honours the revolutionaries who have gone before and rallies the torch-bearers to come.Black Times is the fourth album by Seun & Egypt 80, the extraordinary dance orchestra created by Fela as a conduit for the common people. Inherited by the 14-year-old Seun in 1997, the younger Kuti has been building to this, his most accomplished and honest album yet. Black Times is a true reflection of my political and social beliefs,' says Seun, 34. It is an album for anybody who believes in change and understands the duty we have to rise up and come together. The elites always try to divide the poor people of the world. The same oppression felt by workers in Flint, Michigan is felt by workers in Lagos and Johannesburg.Here, then, are tracks designed to spark conversation and realign priorities. The elegant 'African Dreams' insists that commercial success counts for little. Pay no heed to examples set by accepted' African-American celebrities, says Kuti, and marvel instead at the philosophies of great thinkers like the late Pan-Africanist Doctor Amos Wilson. The message,' Kuti sings, is free.' 'Black Times', featuring Carlos Santana, gives us truth. Lyrics such as Understand your history / rise to be free' shine a forensics-style black light on that which is otherwise hidden. 'Bad Man Lighter' is a horn-heavy track calling out duplicity and defending the right to smoke the good weed, the politically charged 'Corporate Public Control Department (C.P.C.D)' is a roiling protest anthem directed at Muhammadu Bahari's Nigerian government and indeed, at deceitful politicians the world over. Co-written with veteran Egypt 80 saxophonist Abedimeji 'Showboy' Fagbemi, the frenetic, fingerpointing 'Kuku Kee Me' borrows from a Nigerian saying ( When someone is always on your case, you're like 'Save yourself the stress and kuku kill me now'') while 'Theory Of Goat And Yam' ridicules a homily invented by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, who justified corruption by likening politicians to goats tempted by yams: By taking money meant for a hospital or to build roads, they are actually costing human lives.' 'Last Revolutionary' is a paean to authentic leaders past, present and future, name-checking homegrown African revolutionaries and freedom fighters like Kwame Nkrumah and Thomas Sankara. I say the names of these men who died for us without any promise of resurrection,' says Seun Kuti. Maybe people will Google them, then set out on a journey whose destination is unknown.Black Times' is released on Strut on 2nd March 2018 with the title track released as a single on 7th December 2017, accompanied by a video directed by Jamie Delaney of Black Dog Films.

Acclaimed Malian musician Sidi Touré returns with his fourth album, 'Toubalbero'. Named after the large traditional drum used to gather people in the Malian region of Gao, 'Toubalbero' is a danceable, dynamic and, despite the region's significant political challenges, joyous album.
'Toubalbero' is the first album by the acclaimed Songhaï legend to be recorded with electric guitar and bass - the groove is irresistible.
'Toubalbero' was recorded in Mali's legendary Studio Bogolan where Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabate and Björk have recorded. The album was then mixed live by Jason Meagher at Black Dirt Studio (Steve Gunn, Black Twig Pickers, Jack Rose).
Since his debut album Touré has toured extensively in both Europe and North America at prestigious venues and leading world music festivals, including New York's Lincoln Center, London's Barbican, Chicago's Millennium Park, the Vancouver Folk Festival and New York's SummerStage festival. Touré will tour the US this Spring with appearances at the Brooklyn Bowl's Festival of Mali, New Orleans Jazz Festival, and The Kennedy Center to name a few.
CD in 4 panel mini-LP style gatefold package with metallic
gold ink. 2LP version pressed on virgin vinyl and packaged in a gatefold jacket with metallic gold ink and free digital download card.
Touré weaves beautifully textured songs, each takes a snapshot of an individual Songhaï musical style, from takamba dances to the holley played in possession rituals to the gao-gao played at joyful times like weddings.' - NPR Music First Listen