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VA – Horse Meat Disco Volume IV (2014)
After decades of vilification, disco began to gain traction in the culture once again in the early 21st century. Thanks to the productions from the likes of Daniel Wang and Metro Area, a new wave of...
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Orlando Julius & The Heliocentrics – Jaiyede Afro (2014)
Nigerian musical innovator Orlando Julius made his reputation internationally in the mid-’60s with his smash album Super Afro Soul. Fela Kuti was actually in Julius’ band, the Modern Aces, playing...
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VA – Dance Mania: Ghetto Madness (2015)
A follow up to last year’s Hardcore Traxx, Ghetto Madness is the second trip through the Dance Mania label’s vaults. While Hardcore Traxx covered the years 1986 to 1997, when the label laid the...
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VA – Next Stop Soweto 4: Zulu Rock, Afro Disco & Mbaqanga 1975-1985 (2015)
London-based label Strut Records releases the latest edition of their ‘Next Stop Soweto’ series with Next Stop Soweto 4: Zulu Rock, Afro-Disco, & Mbaqanga 1975-1985. According to Strut, this era of...
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VA – Spirit of Malombo: Malombo, Jabula, Jazz Afrika 1966-1984 (2014)
South Africa’s Julian Bahula created a unique synthesis of Western jazz and the indigenous rhythms of his home country, spreading his culture to an international audience as well as creating awareness...
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Pat Thomas – Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band (2015)
Pat Thomas is one of Ghana’s all-time great highlife vocalists, “The Golden Voice of Africa”. He began his carreer in 1969 with the Broadway Dance Band, leaving a year later to join the Uhuru Dance...
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Kanaku y el Tigre – Quema Quema Quema (2015)
Subtle electronic flourishes, eclectic instrumentation, and warmhearted songwriting infuse the second album by Peruvian indie folk duo Kanaku y El Tigre. Lima-based multi-instrumentalists Nico Saba and...
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The Souljazz Orchestra – Resistance (2015)
Canada’s powerhouse Afro / Latin / Tropical collective, The Souljazz Orchestra remain one of the most solid units in their scene, retaining their original line-up since they were first formed back in...
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Sun Ra and His Arkestra – To Those of Earth… And Other Worlds (2015)
Sometimes music is here to help us readdress the everyday. Some people use music as pure escape, “taking drugs to make music to take drugs to” (as Spacemen 3 so put it). On the odd occasion it looks...
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VA – Soul Sok Séga: Séga Sounds from Mauritas 1973-1979 (2016)
Following successful excursions into rare tropical and island sounds with the ‘Sofrito’ series, ‘Haiti Direct’ and ‘Calypsoul 70’ albums, Strut Records turns its focus to the Indian Ocean island of...
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VA – Aloha Got Soul: Soul, AOR, & Disco in Hawaii 1979-1985 (2016)
…Recent compilations such as Favourite Recordings’ AOR Global Sounds series have seen the previously only ironically enjoyed genre rising in critical stature. Much derided by critics during its heyday,...
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Sun Ra – In Some Far Place: Roma ’77 (RSD 2016)
Thanks to some inspired detective work by Art Yard Records, an intimate trio performance by Sun Ra in Rome in 1977, In Some Far Place, is receiving its first release for this year’s Record Store Day....
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Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids – We Be All Africans (2016)
Alto saxophonist Idris Ackamoor first met Margo Simmons (flute) and Kimathi Asante (electric bass) whilst students together at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio where one of their teachers was...
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Sun Ra – Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection 1952-1991 (2016)
In addition to hundreds of studio albums, live recordings, and compilations, the Sun Ra discography also contains dozens of singles, many of them dating from the early days of the artist’s career,...
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Kondi Band – Salone (2017)
Transatlantic dialogue takes a new twist on this collaboration between a Sierra Leonean thumb pianist and a North American DJ. It’s a heartening story. Sorie Kondi is a blind street musician from...
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VA – Oté Maloya: The Birth of Electric Maloya On Réunion Island 1975-1986 (2017)
Strut present a brand new compilation documenting the groundbreaking maloya scene on Reunion Island from the mid-‘70s, as Western instrumentation joined traditional Malagasy, African and Indian...
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Pat Thomas – Coming Home: Original Ghanaian Highlife & Afrobeat Classics...
As this compilation gets underway, with the Broadway Dance Band’s big-band highlife number “Go Modern,” the first thing you notice is the enveloping ambient charm of the recording, which sounds closer...
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The Souljazz Orchestra – Under Burning Skies (2017)
Just like the audience during their concerts, the Souljazz Orchestra can’t stand still. The Ottawa-based Afrobeat collective’s sound has flourished over their previous seven releases, and their...
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Mulatu Astatke – Mulatu of Ethiopia (1972, Remastered 2017)
Just about a decade ago, amid the faded 1960s grandeur of Addis Ababa’s Ghion Hotel — Mulatu Astatke’s favorite spot for coffee — the man himself leaned over and asked, “What exactly is the Red Bull...
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VA – ANDINA: The Sound of the Peruvian Andes 1968-1978 (2017)
The 1960s was a time of musical upheaval and experiment in Latin America as well as in the west. In Brazil there was tropicalia, while in Peru bands pioneered Peruvian cumbia, mixing Colombian dance...
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