Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

‘Procurando O Caminho’ is a killer samba-jazz number championed by such influential DJs as Gilles Peterson or Rainer Trüby when it was first rediscovered for the clubbing jazz scene a couple of decades ago; a certified dancefloor shaker highly sought-after by DJs and collectors worldwide.

On the flipside, ‘Chega Gente’ brings in a rather epic and spiritual atmosphere, combining the exotic sound of the berimbau and the chorus led by extraordinaire singer Salomé de Bahia — who years later would record one of the biggest hits and house music anthems in the late 90s with French producer Bob Sinclair: ‘Outro Lugar’.Two of the best songs taken from the Coisa Nossa 1979 release —at the time distributed locally only in small quantities by a Christian music label— reissued here on a 7” single for the first time, including an insert with liner notes and previously unseen photos.

Long awaited remix by Poirier & Voilaaa are finally available on vinyl. Following his last album Philantropiques’. These remixes are more in a dancefloor spirit with an extra instrumental and two unreleased tracks : the vocal version of ‘Senou Menm’ and ‘L’Originie du Monde’.

Ahemaa Nwomkro, which means queens of Nwomkro, are Victoria Osei and Theresa Owusuaa. Nwomkro is an old Ashanti musical style, which played an influential role in the origin of the typical more roots-like Highlife style of Kumasi, the cultural capital of Ghana in the middle of the jungle.

On this release the two singers have teamed up with the young generation of Highlife muicians of Kumasi. On guitar is Akule Pepe, who served for years in the group of Highlife legend Alex Konadu, the most on demand band in its time. The two songs are a rare example of how good pure Nwomkro gets together with typical Highlife.

3 x LP - Live in Sharjah Box Set + Booklet. designed by Lorenzo Mason Studio.

If you’ve ever travelled to Egypt and wandered through its crowded streets, you probably ended up buying a cassette or a CDR of popular synth based music heard in most cabs, cabarets, or alleys around town: the almighty Shaabi.Raed Yassin and Paed Conca based their project PRAED on research between Shaabi and Mouled (traditional trance music from Egypt) and the hypnotic structures of both these genres. Repetitive beats, loud Mizmar and loads of energy, with a strong influence from psychedelic rock, free jazz and electronica.

During the years in which the duo produced 4 albums and performed on an endless number of stages around the globe, PRAED started working on anambitious expansive project: an orchestra that could transpose this study of rural and popular culture into an immense, iconic work. In autumn 2018, supported by the Sharjah Art Foundation, PRAED Orchestra! premiered “Live in Sharjah”, interpreting new material merged with some of the band’s iconic pieces. The composition process started with the choice of musicians: the line-up consisted of some of the most innovative artists coming from a wide spectrum of musical practices. Each musician was chosen for a defined role, and the common denominator was their capacity to interpret written material, and their ability to improvise effortlessly. Each role was clearly set to work in unison with the rest of the group, while simultaneously sustaining a centrality in the choir. Solo parts masterfully drawn over the structure as a fil rouge connecting every piece of the entire concert; massive and powerful orchestral sections leading to a breathtaking trance-like state of mind; all of this material ultimately coalescing into an Egyptian Operette that narrates the sorrow, love, and deeply rooted culture of this urban music called Shaabi.

Paed Conca: Clarinet, Electric Bass, Electronics
Raed Yassin: Synthesizers, Vocals, Electronics
Alan Bishop: Alto Saxophone, Vocals
Nadah El Shazly: Vocals, keyboard, Electronics
Christine Kazarian: Electric Harp
Hans Koch: Bass Clarinet, Soprano Sax
Martin Kuchen: Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Sax
Maurice Louca: Keyboard, Organ
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh: Buzuk, Vocals, Modular Synthesizer
Sam Shalabi: Electric Guitar, Oud
Ute Wassermann: Vocals, Mouth Harp, Whistles
Khaled Yassine: Drums, Percussion, Darbuka
Michael Zerang: Drums, Percussion

Recorded live at Calligraphy Square on November 3rd, 2018 in Sharjah, UAE by: Sudish Suman & Shuaib Ahmad Poonthala
Edited by: Rabih Beaini at Morphine Studio, Berlin, Germany
Mixed by: Radwan Ghazi Moumneh at Hotel2Tango Studio, Montreal, Canada. Mastered by: Harris Newman at Grey Market Studio, Montreal, Canada.
Artwork by Lorenzo Mason Studio.
Project manager : Simsara Music

(LP + 12 page booklet) This ancient psychedelic folk with jazzy improvisations from the North West of Greece is unique and will touch your soul so deeply that epirotika aficionados always remember the place and the moment when they got to know this hypnotic and mes-merising music. In a similar way to the music of Alice Coltrane or Mulatu Astatke, it can take you out of the here and now - the pure beauty of the magical epirotika sound can make your mind drift off to otherworldly places.

50 years since their first LP “Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka” was released, The Master Musicians of Joujouka are releasing a stunning double LP recorded live at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris in 2016.

The recordings are a full immersion into the Joujouka sound with disc one featuring hypnotic flutes and drum and a side of songs with mountain violin played by virtuoso Ahmed Talha with lead vocals by the late Abdeslam Boukhzar. Disc two features the truly hypnotic rhiat suite of Boujeloud, recorded in its entirety for the very first time

Chìsake Algonquin: to chant; to conjure; to cast a spell; this generally involves a shake-house, or shaking tent, in which the conjurer goes into a trance; the conjurer then has an out-of-body experience, going into the future to predict coming events, or into the past; as well as going into any locality in the universe to seek out someone or something generally practiced for ancestral divination.

The unaccompanied flute pieces within this album are adaptations of Anishinaabeg shaking tent chants. The Anishinaabeg also known as Anishinaabe are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples that reside in areas now called Canada and the United States. They include the Odawa, Saulteaux, Ojibwe (including Mississaugas), Potawatomi, Oji-Cree and Algonquin peoples. The word Anishinaabeg translates to "people from whence lowered". The Anishinaabeg origin myths describe their people originating by divine breath.

The shaking tent or conjuring lodge was the setting for a divinatory rite performed by specially trained shamans otherwise known as Chìsakewininì. During the shaking tent ceremony the Chìsakewininì would construct a special cylindrical framework typically of birch or spruce uprights planted in the ground with respective wood hoops to bind it together. This created a tensile structure of which birch bark, deer skin, or cloth was used as a covering. Rattles of caribou and deer hooves, or cups of lead shot, were tied to the frame. The floor was usually softened with freshly cut spruce boughs. The vertical axis of the shaking tent represents the realm of mediating beings, while the horizontal axis the earth or world of humans. The Chìsakewininì would enter the shaking tent at night and once inside would not be visible from onlookers. The singing of chants and drumming would summon the Chìsakewininì's spirit helpers, whose arrival was signified by animal cries and erratic tent shaking. During this transcendent state, the Chìsakewininì could dispatch these spirit helpers or Manidò to distant regions to answer questions from the onlookers about the most auspicious places to hunt, the well-being of a distant relative, and what would happen in the future.

The chants were usually sung using vocables before, during, and after the Chìsakewininì entered the shaking tent. Like many other similar divination ceremonies, singular or collective, the opening chants begin lyrically. They gradually turn to more reductive abstract structures midway and then end in lyrical chants. This symbolizes the performer and listener leaving the external literal world, entering a more abstract state of mind, and then returning. Traditionally all songs were carved on birch bark for record-keeping with mnemonic pictographs or other marks for future use. Tally mark clustering, sometimes used for song-keeping throughout the Anishinaabeg, is used for this album's track titles and numerical sequence.

The album intro begins with the shaking of a necklace of otter penis bone, fish spine, bear teeth, elk teeth and deer hide, gifted from Algonquin Elder Ajawajawesi. It is meant to focus the listener's attention before the flute pieces begin. The warble or multi-phonic oscillation prevalent in the middle tracks traditionally represented the "throat rattling" vocalization of the tonic note or sometimes known as the horizon of which the melody floats off of. Due to the repetition of multi-phonic oscillation the performer will breathe erratically creating an altered state correlating with the Chìsakewininì ceremonial actions. All songs are repeated seven times to signify the seven sacred directions: east, south, west, north, above/sky, below/earth, and center.

The deep archives of disco legend and synth wizard Patrick Cowley continue to prove inspirational for Dark Entries. Cowley, who passed away from AIDS-related illness in 1982, was the multi-faceted producer behind numerous disco anthems such as Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to shed light on the lesser known facets of this singular artist’s output. This has resulted in a string of celebrated archival albums, including Catholic (featuring Jorge Socarras), School Daze, Muscle Up, Afternooners, Mechanical Fantasy Box, and Some Funkettes.

For the latest addition to this saga, White Trash Boom-Boom, Dark Entries has teamed up with The Stud to release four tracks culled from some of Cowley’s earliest rehearsal tapes. In 1972 Patrick was living in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood with Theresa McGinley and Janice Sukaitis, friends of his from New York. In 1973, Theresa and Janice formed White Trash Boom-Boom, an all-female avant-garde performance troupe. Reacting to the Angels of Light and the Cockettes, they captured the spirit of the times: camp, confrontational, and delirious. Theresa recalls, "We brewed a brand of performance that steered away from the doctrinaire and reveled in ambiguities." Patrick provided their theatrical experiments with appropriately zany musical accompaniment. Side A features two songs from the “Country and Western” skit, “Bride” and “Beer and a Pizza”, which were written by Janice and Karen Dunaway and produced by Cowley. The feminist skit tackled the issue of women’s limited life choices in society. The B-side contains “Baciami” and “Spengo la Luce”, two songs from “Goes to Little Italy”, a skit addressing Catholic expectations of female chastity, performed in 1974 on top of the bar at the Stud. These songs were lifted from an Italian folk 7” found at a thrift store, and feature “improvised” Italian. The material on Boom-Boom shows Cowley flexing his synthesizer muscles to create curiously camp genre pieces. This is an essential document of a bygone era.

White Trash Boom-Boom is limited to 330 hand-numbered copies. All songs were remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The cover was designed by Eloise Leigh, and features a photograph of the White Trash Boom-Boom skit “Goes to Little Italy”. The lithograph sleeves were printed by The Aesthetic Union. Included is an insert featuring notes from original Boom-Boom girls. The release date of Boom-Boom is timed to coincide with the opening of Queer Visions at Haight Street Art Center, an exhibition that explores the role of nightlife in queer art in San Francisco

Sophia Nzayisenga is the first female master of the Inanga, a traditional stringed music instrument, currently a favourite of young Rwandan musicians. Her father, Thomas Kirusu, one of the most renowned Inanga players, began to teach Sophia at a very young age. At the tender age of nine, Nzayisenga started performing at different concerts amidst the great opposition that was based on her gender and cultural norms: “Many people used to tell my father to stop me from what I was doing with the argument that I won’t get married because I was doing a man’s job” she recalls, “thinking that some particular activities should be done by a particular gender can block you from your potential. But with today’s gender equality advocacy, people should know that what a man can do a woman can do. Musical talent runs in my family, as far back as my maternal and paternal grand fathers.” Nzayisenga says. Andi Otto & Sophie Nzayisenga met in Kigali in January 2020. The recordings took place during the research for the theatre performance “Learning Feminism from Rwanda”, which has been created by the Flinnworks collective from Berlin together with artists from Rwanda in 2020. African feminists see Rwanda as role model and success story for high female representation in politics, education and workplace. Males tend to outnumber females in most parliaments around the world, but not in Rwanda. Rwanda was the first country in the world to have more than half of its government run by women. “If I die today, I would die a happy woman because I have achieved my dream of keeping our traditional culture booming and inspiring many youth to learn it” she discloses. Learning feminism from Rwanda!

A reissue that needs almost no introduction: Al Onzo's 'Tango Japan', a sleazy, dark and funky tale of a late night sake-fueled love affair.

'Tango Japan' is a rare outing into dance music from the prolific Jean Pierre Alonzo (otherwise best known for his work in the irreverent group Les Frères Brosse).

Officially licensed from JP Alonzo himself and painstakingly remastered by the Mothball team, 'Tango Japan' has never sounded better.

Also included as a bonus track is the never before heard 'Camel Soup in China Town', recorded around the same time as 'Tango Japan'.

Finnish band Behind The Trees releases their self titled debut ep.
Curiosity towards world music, shamanistic approach to rhythms and cosmic levels in life made it happen.
There are five different kind of tracks in the ep.
The intro track "Haiku" is a mood setter for the whole journey. Inspired by the mid eastern mystical soundscapes.
Second track "Bonefire" follows the path, painting a picture of desert campfire, where travellers psychedelic guitar will trip you out as your body follows the rhythm.
Third track "Acid Yerli" is the climax on the ep. Turkish disco and acid house combined, you don ́t have to be scientist to figure out the forecast.

On the flip side "X4" is a different kind of expedition.
Hear the waves hitting the rocks and balearic breese corressing your cheek bones. Track "X4" is a kind of balearic homage to eighties AOR, seasoned with chanting soft voice of Finnish singer Suva.
Last track "Gentle" relaxes your mind and body. The piece has a grounding vibe, with healing resonances that will restore your energy.

Dare to see Behind the Trees, the obscure adventure of life.

PURPLE COLOURED VINYL

Mdous Musik hat ihre Wurzeln zwar in traditionellen Tuareg-Melodien, gibt aber auch immer wieder Einflüsse von u.a. Eddie Van Halen preis. Neben Mdou besteht die Band aus Bassist und Producer Mikey Coltun, Drummer Souleymane Ibrahim und Gitarrist Ahmoudou Madassane. Zusammen haben sie längst auf ausgiebigen Touren bewiesen, dass sie nicht nur heimische Hochzeitsfeiern rocken können, sondern ebenso Festivalbühnen auf der anderen Seite der Erdkugel. Dabei beherrschen sie sowohl den hypnotischen Boogie von Black Sabbath der Masters of Reality-Ära, als auch den erhabenen elektrisierenden Groove von Black Uhuru. Mdou Moctar lebt in Agadez im Niger, einer eher ländlichen Gegend, die wie eine kleine Oase mitten in der Sahara wirkt. Hier entsteht auch ein Großteil seiner Musik, die ihn in West-Afrika zu einer echten Berühmtheit hat werden lassen. Verbreitet haben sich seine Sounds dort nicht durch das Internet und Social Media, sondern über die Speicherkarten aus Mobiltelefonen, die wie Tapes weitergegeben und getauscht werden und wie analog-digitales Lauffeuer durch das Land gehen. Den internationalen Durchbruch schaffte Mdou Moctar 2019 mit dem Album "Ilana: The Creator". Mit seiner vierköpfigen Band reiste Moctar anschließend durch die Welt und wurde schnell zum inoffiziellen Botschafter seines Landes. Nun liegt der langerwartete Nachfolger vor.

The 18 track album is executive produced by EarBuds and features live instrumentation throughout from Aria’s band the Seng Seng Family.
The album is an incredible exploration of sounds and topics that cover the current times and beyond.

Marcia Maria’s slow to mid tempo disco gem 'Amigo Branco’ has become a club favourite in recent times. Released in 1978 on Capitol Records, despite being better known these days, is actually from the hard-to-find and expensive album 7” EP & promo-only 12” single which features the greats Lincoln Olivetti & Robson Jorge in the production team. Not many tracks sitting around 96 BPM work so well on the dance-floor!

It could be argued that the talents of Simone have been somewhat over-looked of late. A key performer of Música Popular Brasileira (MPB), who has had a remarkable career recording over 30 albums. Simone’s adaptation of 'Tudo Que Voce Podia’ is a real treat and takes things back to the start of her career.

Taken off the self-titled album from 1973 on Odeon Records, this brilliant anthemic song was penned by Lô Borges & Marcio Borges and has also been recorded by the brilliant Milton Nascimento, Quarteto Em Cy (see BRZ45.09) & Azymuth. This stripped-down version has a beautiful build, with amazing strings riding the percussion & jazz-funk bass line, ending in melodic whistling.

Our much in-demand series of classic Brazilian 45s are back!

Featuring a vibrant new design, we’ve curated yet more wants-list regulars and unearthed fresh finds from Brazil that are destined to become collector’s items in their own right.

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You've gone your own idiosyncratic way since the 1990s. You've refused labels, moved in and out of different scenes and styles,
achieving different forms of success in different parts of the world. Sometimes you've been a band, sometimes a production team,
sometimes a bunch of DJs, sometimes simply indescribable. You still thrive in a world where everything you've ever done is instantly
available from the start of the story up to the present.
People are never sure of who you are, yourself included. Members come, go, come back, but it's not a question of joining or
leaving, so weren't they always members in any case? You've been described as a collective but that's too solid a definition. You're
closer to an anarchic self-built non-structure that goes its own way, follows its own plans and those so-called members, most of
whom aren't members at all, simply follow. Once the city was a joyful noise, one big random pirate radio playing random music
from random cultures making random connections across lines of history, genre and lifestyle. The rules weren't being broken, they'd
simply disappeared and the growth of sampling, electronica and dance culture invited a future full of possibility. Now that future has
arrived and turns out it's a bleak forest of red crane lights. What isn't burned down is sold off and replaced, and a new city,
designed to streamline and neuter any creativity, builds walls to keep out its own inhabitants. So, in reaction, you keep shining your
own light. You keep following your own path. You keep it funky. And, when the walls are put up, you listen to the walls until the
walls listen back. 'Walls Have Ears' is the new album from Transglobal Underground, featuring family members from the beginning,
the present and the future, including Natacha Atlas, Sheema Mukherjee, Inder Goldfinger

A reissue that needs almost no introduction: Al Onzo’s “Tango Japan”, a sleazy, dark and funky tale of a late night sake-fueled love affair.

“Tango Japan” is a rare outing into dance music from the prolific Jean Pierre Alonzo (otherwise best known for his work in the irreverent group Les Frères Brosse).

Officially licensed from JP Alonzo himself and painstakingly remastered by the Mothball team, “Tango Japan” has never sounded better.

Also included as a bonus track is the never before heard “Camel Soup in China Town”, recorded around the same time as “Tango Japan”.

The Bees are a textbook case of the chew and spit cycle that was the late 80’s South African music industry. Although their unknown story is likely unique, it is just as likely that it is no different to that of many other young artists who dreamed of getting their music heard at the time.

By 1988, the independent record label was no longer as uncommon as it had been at the beginning of the decade. As the 80s went on, more seasoned A&R reps and Producers that had gained experience and connections from their work under major labels would be trying to cash in on a market they helped create. Without the need of big rooms or expensive recording equipment, the digital advancements allowed many Producers to open or work in smaller studios and promote unknown artists under their own imprints. They would then have their catalogs marketed and distributed by the same major labels they had been working for just years prior. This would open up the possibility of a new era of stars as potential talent no longer had to be pitched to major labels in hopes of them taking a chance on a new signee over their already established artists. With the market growing and a struggle to keep up with the demand for new sounds this agreement would allow the major labels to put new emerging artists or groups on their catalog with little investment and high reward if it happened to be a hit.

ON Records was just one of the independent players at the time. Ronnie Robot had just signed the unlikely trio The Bees in hopes of adding a hit group to his label roster that consisted of solo acts. Despite the debut’s fresh house inspired sound, it failed to catch on was outsold by the bubblegum disco the label was known for. Over the years unsold back stock and promos would build up with the distributor. Luckily this allowed sealed copies from the label’s catalog to survive into the 90s when the distributor’s stock was unloaded and picked up by legendary Johannesburg jazz shop Kohinoor. Here sealed copies of the Bees first attempt sat under appreciated for over 20 years before becoming a hot title after they started circulating online and became club staples. This is how the first album of an unknown group with no success was able to become a collectors item and earn a reissue over 25 years later.

With their first record behind them The Bees were ready move forward and get back into the studio. A suggestion from producers had the trio change camps and go work with the newly formed Creative Sound Recordings, the label that promised “Music for the Future” and ended up being an essential studio in the early years of Kwaito. They would work with producer Chris Ghelakis and guitarist George Vardas, while a young Marvin Moses sat behind the desk. Musically the sophomore album was as good as a follow up as you could get. Building on the first album, Mashonisa delivers catchy melodies backed by heavy drum programming that would score points with any Pantsula. The Black Box inspired “ Never Give Up” was one of two tracks chosen to be pressed as the promo for the album, hoping to trick listeners with their catchy version of the hit( A year later the label would release their first volume of Black Box covers sang by neo soul diva BB, it would be a great seller). The label printed up an unknown amount of these in a last attempt to push the release in Shabeens and on Radio. The cheaper route of flooding the market with promo copies would only pay off 25 years later when unplayed copies started being rediscovered and had survived the years in a quantity that original run of the full album could not. Once again it was clear that with no mainstream appeal, the quality of the music on its own was not enough to garner any success at the time. The album flopped worse than their first and failed to make it past it’s initial run, making it one of the harder titles to get from the CSR catalog.

Mashonisa would be the last attempt from the Bees. They would disappear from the scene as quickly as they appeared. Of the three members it is only known that lead Singer Solomon Phiri continued in music fronting a wave dance group before he mysteriously vanished in 1993, never to be heard from again. Through a combination of luck and circumstance the group, which is unknown in South Africa to even the most plugged in musicians, producers and radio hosts of the time, managed to finally get some of the recognition they deserved 30 years later. Unfortunately this small blip of fame would happen with none of the band members present to give their side of the story, or even aware of how their two albums became popular enough to be printed on different continents in a new millennia. The Bees suffered the same fate as countless other artists of the time, who thanks to emerging independent labels and willing producers were given an opportunity to have a short career, only to be replaced by the meat grinder of the music industry when they failed to produce a hit.

The A side features an analog approach for a solid, instrumental techno, enriched with harmonica’s riffs. B side keeps a live techno touch, but flavored with house vocals and thought beats.

Hand stamped 10” white label from a new collaborative project between Paul Purgas (Emptyset) & artist and musician Imran Perretta. Working with South Asian sound archives AMRA explores diasporic echoes, archival disruption and Indian musical heritage, addressing themes of mythology, futurity and the trauma of partition.

40 years after the original release, Nanga Boko Records is very proud to
present you the official reissue of De Bonaberi A Douala, the first album from
the Cameroonian musician Nkotti François and his band The Black Styls.
Limited edition, high quality remastered sound, includes a very detailed
biography in both English and French languages with exclusive pictures for a
better comprehension of the work of the musician, and a voucher to download
the album in a HQ digital format.
Approved by the artist himself, 100 % legit, all 8 tracks are under exclusive
license of Nanga Boko Records.

Repress on purple vinyl!

Batov's Middle Eastern Grooves series has a new, funky, double-sided 7" addition titled ‘Big Baglama’ by Satellites: a fun release that gives vintage Turkish beats a new spin.

‘Big Baglama’ is a beautiful instrumental piece that captures the sound of an acoustic diwan saz - known as a baglama - integrating it in a series of riffs connected by a funky groove. The baglama gives off a fresh and lively feeling, despite the vintage flavour provided via the spacey synth and rippling drums. This track channels the energy and style of old school fuzzy vibe of Arif Sag’s saz recording of the ’70s but makes it new and entertaining to the ear, pulling the listener in for a fun ride.

The B-side ‘Deli Deli’ opens with a groovy bass riff and ululating synth, followed by a nifty melodic lead on the baglama and then Yuli’s enchanting vocals. The song is a new interpretation of an old piece by beloved 70’s Turkish folk singer Sakir Öner. This new version differs from the original in the more bright and poppy feel, conveyed by the 6/8 rhythm, and the addition of a whole new section by the band.

Satellites are another exciting act from the celebrated Tel Aviv music scene, and here at Batov Records we love them! Formed earlier this year, the group comprises talented vocalist Yuli Shafriri on the synth; Itamar Klüger on the baglama & bouzouki; Ariel Harrosh on the bass and Azriel ‘Raz’ Man on the drums. The band plays anything from Anatolian rock to vintage psych and spacey grooves. Satellites describe their sound as retro-fresh psych à la Turk, a musical "laboratory" lost somewhere between the mysterious alleys of 70’s Istanbul and the scorching sun and crystal blue sea of Jaffa-Tel Aviv, 2020.

'The Original Sound of Burkina Faso' follows the hugely successful 'The Original Sound of Mali' compilation released in March this year, also on Mr Bongo. Here we have a collection of songs that pay tribute to a truly golden age of music, touching on folk, funk, blues, highlife, disco, psyche, latin, rock and soul.
Burkina Faso may be one of the least well-known parts of West Africa but it has a deep history and musical pedigree. A few years before President Thomas Sankara changed his country's name from Upper Volta to its current one, a new sound emerged to soundtrack a cultural revolution.
Featuring music by Abdoulaye Cissé, Amadou Balaké, Pierre Sandwidi & Super Volta, Tidiani Coulibaly & Dafra Star, Bozambo, Youssouf Diarra and more.

Legendary Japanese rock outfit Les Rallizes Denudes were formed in 1967 and incredibly for a group that had only one official release (Oz Days Live, a double vinyl compilation release in 1973), played their last gig almost 30 years later in October 1996. The band's name apparently means 'fucked up and naked' which more than adequately describes their music. Formed by band leader Mizutani Takashi, the music remained remarkably familiar over the years, and is best described as high volume, raw lo-fi repetitive feedback-drenched guitar noise fests with nods in the direction of the Velvet Underground and Blues Creation but without the electronics. Radical left wing politics was never far from the band's agenda, with one original band member (Wakabayashi) being involved in the Japanese Red Army's highjacking of a flight to North Korea.. Consequently, the group's live appearances became less frequent and increasingly clandestine. All the band's albums were released in very small quantities and because of the group's reputation for secrecy and violence, as well as the difficulty in tracking down their recordings, Les Rallizes Denudes has assumed almost mythical status

The roots of Angolan popular music explored in the meticulous guitar studies from three of Mário Rui Silva's albums, Sung’Ali (1982), Tunapenda Afrika (1985) and Koizas dum Outru Tempu (1988).

Whether on mesmerising acoustic ballads or hypnotic groove-led tracks, the music of Angolan guitarist, researcher and intellectual Mário Rui Silva has a beguiling, melancholy quality, woven into the dynamics of his deft guitar playing.

Recorded and originally released only in Argentina in 1972, the album shows an exquisite and delicate dialogue between the guitar of Sebastião Tapajos and the percussion provided by Pedro Dos Santos that generates ambiences of unusual beauty and depth. It is a necessary addition to the much-hailed Pedro Dos Santos album “Krishnanda” in the collection of anyone with an interest in the most adventurous sounds of Brazil and also an essential work in the discography of Sebastião Tapajos.

Includes the killer afro-samba 'Mungangá' and the hypnotic groover ‘Sorongaio’.


DESCRIPTION

The ION studios, located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Balvanera, have been the usual setting for recordings by Argentine artists as popular as Les Luthiers or Charly García. In the early 1970s they also hosted Brazilian guitarist Sebastião Tapajos for several sessions accompanied by other musicians such as Arnaldo Henriques, Maria

Nazareth or Pedro "Sorongo" Dos Santos. Two albums would be published in the Argentine record label Trova of the recordings along with the latter.

Following the success of our recent reissue of several recordings from these sessions (“Vol. 2” VAMPI 212 and “Tudo É Moda” VAMPI 45073) we are now happy to present this “Vol. 1”. The connection between the delicate guitar of Tapajos and the surprising experimental percussion of Pedro Dos Santos, based on unusual objects such as spoons, deodorant containers or matchboxes, creates extraordinary beauty throughout the 12 songs on the album. The sound of the flute is another of the ingredients present in several of the songs and, although his actual involvement is not confirmed on the sleeve credits of the album, everything seems to indicate that Danilo Caymmi was the musician invited to accompany the Tapajos-Dos Santos duo.

Since its first release in 1972, this album has been highly sought after by all Tapajos fans, both inside and outside Brazil, becoming a title hard to get hold of due to the fact that it was initially only published in Argentina. Years later, when Brazilian rhythms were incorporated, along with jazz, to the spectrum of sounds regularly played at London clubs and a renewed interest in this album arose. The general vibe of this solid album is driven by an exquisite and delicate dialogue between the guitar of Sebastião Tapajos and the rhythmic approach provided by Pedro Dos Santos that generates ambiences of unusual beauty and depth, like the outstanding ‘Himalaya’. Also includes the killer afro samba ‘Mungangá’, the experimental percussion numbers ‘Cantico del Agua’ and ‘Solo De Bambu’ and the hypnotic groover ‘Sorongaio’.

In 1970 Barney Wilen assembled a team of filmmakers, technicians and musicians to travel to Africa for the purpose of recordi ng the music of the native pygmy tribes. Upon returning to Paris two years later, he created Moshi, a dark, eccentric effort fusing avantjazz sensibilities with African rhythms, ambient sound effects and melodies rootedin American blues traditions. Cut withFrench and African players including guitarist Pierre Chaze, pianist Michel Graillier and percussionist Didier Leon , this is music with few precedents or followers, spanning from extraterrestrial dissonance to earthbound, streetlegal funk. Wilen pays little heed to conventional structure, assembling tracks like "Afrika Freak Out" and "Zombizar" from spare parts of inde terminate origins. (Jason Ankeny, AMG)

Revelatory reissue of Barney Wilen’s ambitious jazz-fusion journey, Moshi (1972), presenting the legendary French jazzman and Miles Davis-sideman’s wildly ambitious effort fusing recordings of Pygmy tribes with African rhythms and stellar avantjazz leanings, sounding little like anything before or since its release. (boomkat)

Super rare and long out of print, the ground-breaking 1972 album from saxophonist Barney Wilen receives a reissue treatment of the highest order. Complete with a 20-page booklet and a never before seen DVD chronicling Wilen’s trip to Africa, this one is sure to be a delight for fans old and new. The deepest spiritual jazz grooves meet field recordings from the Upper Volta and b eyond, whilst psych rock influences collide with hypnotic and shamanistic percussion work. Truly one of the most out -there jazz records we’ve stocked for a long time! (bleep)

Originally issued by the seminal imprint Saravah in 1972, and among the most uncategorizable and sought after artefacts of the French avant-garde, Barney Wilen’s Moshi is nothing short of a masterpiece - long holding a coveted spot in the hearts of adventurous listeners and record collectors alike. A wild unkept cultural collage. A series of sonic experiments. A spiritual, psychedelic pilgrimage into the unknown - darting from one continent to the next, each of its tangents building toward a more optimist world view through ordered sound. Its scope remains as difficult to understand today as it was when it was released. Now brought back into the light by Souffle Continu, this is a moment to be celebrated far and wide. (Soundohm)

Deluxe reissue with additional artwork & remastered audio. 20-page booklet including rare pictures, sheet music & original liner notes. Bonus DVD with exclusive artwork of Caroline de Bendern’s movie « à l’intention de Mlle Issoufou à Bilma » documenting this incredible african journey.

Global electronic sound specialist - Producer and DJ Oliver Williams aka "The Busy Twist" is at it again. Among his numerous projects as a producer, this double-sider, dancefloor-focused EP is one of his seldom seen, more personal works in the vein of what he does best: an uptempo, bass-heavy madness, influenced by his regular trips to Africa, Latin America and the West-Indies, packed with undeniable British club music culture and production technique. Highly infectious energy, pure sunshine, 100% good vibes. Following up on The Busy Twist previous collaborations with Congolese singer Tres. "Nanko" is another joyful, sun-soaked, highly danceable Electro-Soukous party joint, loaded with captivating guitar grooves and soulful vocals. On the flip, "Rwendo Rweupenyu (The Journey Of Life) Remix" is an outstanding take on Zimbabwean Sungura Music (one of the country's most popular genres), originally performed by street band Daniel & Gonora Sounds, led by singer-guitarist Daniel Gonora and his drummer son Isaac. Respectfully using Daniel's mind bending guitar riffs and highpitched, uplifting vocals, The Busy Twist and his collaborator delivers an inspiring and remarkably effective version of the original song. Vinyl contains exclusive extended and instrumental Dj-friendly versions of both tracks that won't be available for download anywhere.

Mi Conga es de Akokan is built on the Conga de los Hoyos rhythms from Santiago de Cuba. Saxophones and trombones alternate with vocals imploring the listener to dance over intensely syncopated percussion, leading to a melodic flight by the masterful trumpeter Reinaldo "Molote" Melian. The horns re-enter, and the Orquesta takes off to soaring heights of rhythmic intensity and sophistication.

La Guajira is a slow country rhythm told by the tres guitar and percussion onto which horns and strings add slinking, narcotized harmonies. Pepito tells a sensual tale of romance with a girl from the country "la guajira", which slowly builds in intensity over soneos, coros and mambos until all parts interlock in a lugubrious climax.

This is the sound of optimism and hope. “Putoo Katare Yire” or “Wickedness has no home”, is the title of Ayuune Sule's brand new album translated from Frafra, the language from Ghana's Upper East Region and Ayuune Sule's first language. Ayuune Sule is a master of the Kologo, the double stringed lute played by troubadours for spiritual and educational messages.

During his tours through Europe in 2018 and 2019 Ayuune Sule got crowds dancing with his new song “Don't Be Lazy”, telling the people that "when you dance, when you move, the sickness runs away and leaves your body free. Your body will be strong." Back in Ghana, he went into the studio and recorded a very catchy version of that song.

In the North of Ghana in Bongo near Bolgatanga, where Sule grew up, is the location of the Top Link Studio by producer Francis Ayamga. He has been on tour together with Ayuune Sule all over Europe as part of the band of Ghana's number one Kologo star King Ayisoba. Ayamga's studio is a magnet for local talents and musicians of the region, nationwide and beyond. In collaboration with Makkum Records much of Kologo Power and Frafra Power music has been produced there, shaping the scene that it is today. Even African Head Charge's front man Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah decided to check it out and ended up recording two songs there with Ayuune Sule for this new album.

Ayuune Sule brings the soul into Kologo Power. He is the main kologo star in Kumasi, the second city of Ghana and capital of the Ashanti region. Together with King Ayisoba, Guy One, Atongo Zimba and Sambo, he represents the generation that broke Kologo music outside of the North East Region of Ghana. In 2015 he released his 7" single with the songs “What A Man Can Do A Woman Can Do More Better” and “Who Knows Tomorrow” on Makkum Records (MR12), which brought him to western scenes and audiences.

In 2018 his first full length album “We Have One Destiny” appeared on Makkum Records and Rebel Up Records. A solo tour in Europe followed in 2018 and 2019, when Ayuune Sule toured extensively from Denmark to The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Belgium and Bulgaria and became one of the biggest Kologo stars known. Because of COVID19 he was blocked from returning to Europe and decided to write an uplifting song about the corona virus, released digitally last summer on Rebel Up Records. After that he returned to the Top Link studio and recorded a full new album, featuring artists like Prince Buju and the legendary Bonjo from UK's outernational dub masters African Head Charge. The new album “Putoo Katare Yire” is a true explosion of high energy and catchy songs, Kologo driven, traditionally rooted yet aiming for the future. True Soul and Kologo Power coming from Ghana's Ayuune Sule, truly irresistible and touching. Arnold de Boer, Makkum Records

Ayuune Sule: “My people, let me tell you the meaning of my songs. Tezaa So Ndeyine means “The creator is our father” and is about some people sitting back with their bible, talking plenty and cheating people, telling others that God is not there for them. But everyone has a God and God is for all. Yelemeghre Kalebona means “No truth”. The truth must be told as many politicians don't talk true, they steal and they cheat. If there is no truth you can not survive. In Fighting Music, I tell my people: "Do not fight with a knife or a gun. Fight bad people with a message and fight them slowly, then they will learn and understand. Tesan Nonge Taaba means ”If we love each other”. All people have to love each other so that God will bless us all. If you fight, God will vex you. Yaalima Nyaane Yoo means “Madness is better than death”. If a person is mad, you can still treat him, if he's dead you will lose the person forever. Putoo Katare Yire means “Wickedness has no home”. Wicked people have problems everyday, never peace and no rest, wickedness has no home. Yaabe Waane means “Ancestral instrument”. I inherited my kologo instrument from my great great grandfathers and I'm supposed to pass it onto my children and grandchildren.”

‘Named after a street in the historic center of Quito, ROCAFUERTE paints an anachronic and anatopic picture of voyages between Latin America and Europe, set to a multitude of beats ranging from trip hop and reggaeton to juke and UK Garage, which the artist uncompromisingly blends with nostalgic samples of Italian chanson and Southamerican folk, warped through the magic of the artists' trusted tape machine.’

BlackMix mini album is the result of one year of work at Pit Spector’s studio where ten musicians brought their touch to sublime the songs of Seyba Sissoko. Guitar, trombone, goni, n’tama or djembe were recorded in the studio, where they mix with drum machines and other synthesizers, in a great jubilant mix.

Six tracks with a specific subject with texts in Bambara, French and English.

Songs description:

Immigration, with a very happy instrumental, this song gives advices to lift the mask of illusions and tell the whole reality of immigration:

Maloyako (The Shame): A punchy call to action and work, for emancipation and sharing. Shame is here inspired by the inequalities that are tearing apart Africa.

Saraka (Sacrifice) Evokes a visit to the marabout and rituals of sacrifice, like life and difficulties that mark it.

Identité: One country: music. One pride: to bring joy around you. One rule: live with passion the present moment.

Diarabi (Forbidden Love) Denounces the weight of tradition that, locked by the caste system, still prevents today to love freely.

Fanga (the force) Evokes strength from common values, which unite the people in all their diversity. This title is a direct reference to the civil war that has been tearing Mali apart since 2012.

First time reissue of radical and lovely album from UK female roots band African Woman. Originally issued on African Woman Records in 1982 and engineered by Mad Professor. Conscious lyrics, and a killer bongo cut. 500 copies only, so book now, or forget it.

Highly anticipated sophomore release from saxophonist and composer Sisonke Xonti, winner of South Africa's 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz. At the centre of the album, Xonti's four-part "Migration Suite" is his boldest work to date, exploring rural and urban identity and the perilous spiritual journey from homeland to the global village. Produced by Xonti and pianist Yonela Mnana and featuring photography by Mandisa Buthelezi, the album appears on As-Shams/The Sun as part of a roster of new artist releases on the cusp of the iconic South African jazz label's 50th anniversary.

16 electronic, atmospheric, global & groovy delights from the Josef Weinberger Theme Music library
compiled by Alan Gubby (Revbjelde, The Delaware Road). In 2015 I picked up around sixty JW Theme Music LPs in a local record store. They looked rather sad
unloved in their generic, beige & brown covers but closer inspection revealed several established composer
names & intriguing equipment listed on the sleeves such as the Fairlight CMI, Mini Moog, Yamaha CS80,
DX7, ARP Axxe, Prophet 5 & Roland CompuRhythm. Some of the albums appeared to be reissues of
older & sought-after Programme Music & Impress LPs, so with my interest piqued, I bought the lot. Undercurrents is a selection of moods & styles from those LPs, recorded for the JW libraries between the
late 1960’s and mid-1980s. There are shimmering synth arpeggios by Tim Cross (Mike Oldfield, Hall &
Oates, The Adverts), fretless ambient grooves by bassist & producer Mo Foster (Scott Walker, Dusty
Springfield), dusk till dawn meditations by classical Indian composer Naresh Sohal, fuzzy orchestral funk
by German library don Peter Thomas, strutting electronic rock by keyboardist Derek Austin (Frank Sinatra,
Peggy Lee, David Shire) saccharine soul and an Eno homage by library supergroup Midas Touch, a bold
as brass porno-Moog theme by Pete Smith (used in 1970’s skin flick Highway Hookers) plus film-noir
suspense & percussive jams by avant-garde UK jazzer Bob Downes.

Black Truffle is delighted to offer up a rare serving of unheard works by legendary Swiss artist Anton Bruhin. Active as a visual artist, poet, and musician since the 1960s, Bruhin has created important work in forms as varied as concrete poetry and landscape painting, imbuing everything he does with wit, humility, and absurdist humour. A recognised master of the jew’s harp (or Trümpi, as this ancient folk instrument is known in Swiss German), Bruhin’s sound work also encompasses tape collage, sound poetry, and manipulated bird song. On Speech Poems/Fruity Music we are treated to 26 short pieces made between 2006 and 2008 using the audio software Fruity Loops. These pieces carry on Bruhin’s long-running project of exploring the creative use and misuse of cheap, accessible technologies. In many of his analogue works, Bruhin explored the possibilities of simple cassette equipment. He invented DIY approaches to layering sounds by using multiple tape machines, experimented with distortion and tape speed, or, in his classic Inout (1981) created a maniacally single-minded audio monument to the pause button. Like the computer pixel drawings the artist produced around the same time as these recordings, Speech Poems/Fruity Music extends this approach to consumer software, presenting two parallel sequences of works that make use of Fruity Loops’ inbuilt synthetic instruments and its speech synthesis function. The instrumental works play like a twisted take on the aesthetics of 1980s video game soundtracks, using synthetic accordion and harpsichord sounds to realise jaunty little ditties that exploit their machine-realisation by making use of improbable pitch-bends and humanly impossible tempos and articulations. Between these samples of Fruity Music, we are treated to the Speech Poems, a series of recitations by a lone computer-generated voice. Many of them are in fact songs, as the synthetic voice crudely and hilariously changes pitch as it moves through its fragmented syllables and odes to cream in coffee. Carrying on Bruhin’s interest in the creative misuse of technology, many of the Speech Poems attempt to force Fruity Loops’ voice synthesis, designed only to speak English, to speak German. By entering phonetic text into the program, Bruhin gets it to produce a passable German alphabet and a series of approximations to a proper pronunciation of his name. Hilarious while strangely austere, entertaining but bizarre, Speech Poems/Fruity Music is classic Anton Bruhin, arriving in a beautiful mosaic cover by the artist, with the text of the ‘abc für anglophone’ on the back cover.

*2021 Repress ** Steeped in improvisational practice and known for their visceral live performances, the pair's sound combines Javanese folk and ritual music with metal and psychedelic influences. Rully Shabara's extended vocal techniques arc from guttural droning to frenetic chants and upper-register ululations, while Wukir Suryadi supplies dynamic instrumenta-tion using the bambuwukir, an amplified bamboo zither of his own invention. Menjadi (meaning 'to become') follows from the redose-3 containing "Di Kala Sudah" (reworked by Buchla synth master Charles Cohen) and is the first in a series of new Morphine releases pro-duced by Rabih Beaini and set to arrive over the next year, with artwork by Nathalie Du Pasquier, curated and designed by Tankboys.

In 1985 a wondrous album titled Hemp Is Here was created by the obscure English duo Leven Signs, composed of Pete Karkut and Maggie Turner. Since then, Hemp Is Here has proven to be a visionary recording that holds a special place in the ongoing expansion of experimental music. Through the method of tape collage, an unclassifiable recording was created that consisted of post-punk and avant-pop sounds, tribal rhythms and dub and folklore elements. The result was an unpretentious yet sonically sophisticated endeavour that subconsciously evoked the twentieth-century avant-gardist and minimalist music traditions. While maintaining a distinctly original sound, their output still contributed to local explorations and remained somewhat in line with other genre-dissolving bands from eighties England like Rimarimba, This Heat, Woo, 23 Skidoo or Eric Random and The Bedlamites.

Balkan brass interpretation of the Greek Laiko hit song from '58 by Belgo-French orchestra La Panika. Dubby remix by French producer JB Hoste from Le Caravane Electro.

Narcotic is perhaps one example of an album in both camps of the muslimgauze spectrum, it denotes the expertise acquired in oriental percussion by Bryn Jones after a crescent development and practice through action, part Tribal, part Ambient with shades of texturized noise, glitch details and field recordings, as result the listener is inside this intoxicant atmosphere of exotic madness, where the basic musical premise constituted by the consistent tribal beats from darbukas and tambourines contrasting radically with the eerie sounds from organic noise, distortions and minimal jams.