{"title":"African","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfrican vinyl that reflects the continent’s vast musical landscape — past, present and future. From highlife, Afrobeat and desert blues to experimental electronics and diasporic sounds, our selection highlights essential reissues and new releases. Rhythm, resistance, joy and innovation, pressed to wax and made to travel far beyond borders.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-solar-model-of-ibn-al-shatir","title":"The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir","description":"\u003cp\u003ePat Thomas returns to OTOROKU for his fourth collection of solo piano improvisations, this time recorded in a studio setting at London’s Fish Factory. For 25 years now, beginning with Nur (Emanem) and continuing through Al-Khwarizmi Variations (Fataka), The Elephant Clock of Al-Jazari (OTOROKU), and now The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir, Pat Thomas has drawn on the Arabic world for titles for his solo piano work - specifically the long-standing Islamic tradition of astronomical invention. For Thomas, the work of the polymaths he dedicates his music to has been sidelined by Eurocentrism, just as the Arabic origin of “jass” and the scalar, intervallic and polyphonic contributions made by Arab musicians have been routinely overlooked. Islamic innovation is at the heart of Thomas’ solo projects and draws a direct link between his Sufi faith and a totally unique style of playing. Each of his solo piano records is a dedication - not just to the innovators Thomas names but to the beauty of the universe in all its complexities. Starting standing up with one hand inside the piano and one on the keys, ‘The Solar Model’ begins with single staccato bass notes appearing like chondrites in the darkness, occasionally tumbling towards a rhythm and then falling out of it. Metallic string work starts to pull towards an unseen centre and eventually notes from the upper registers appear, clear and light. With both hands drawn to the keys, Thomas builds towards scintillating beauty, carried through “The Laws of Motion” and propelling us towards the A-side closer, “For George Saliba”. Notes fall rapidly, colliding to form a crowded core with a warped sort of bebop in its middle - distinctive Pat with a nod to the Duke’s groove. The whole landscape of the A side swings with this one movement, until its energy is spent on one last sweeping rotation. On the B-side, “The Oud of Ziryab” notes to the instrument maker who added a 5th pair of strings to the Oud. The single bass notes of the first side are swapped for clusters, bursting together and decaying in space. Making use of the sustain pedal and the silence of a studio setting, it’s one of the most open, lush recordings of Thomas at the piano we’ve heard - more Muhal Richard Abrams than Monk, the lower end thundering under rapid, crystalline blues. “For Mansa Musa” brings back a swing instantly recognisable as Pat, with a huge euphoric lift halfway that crowns the record but the album’s end title “The Birds are Singing” is more celestial, more chromatic - a reminder that the spiritual matters just as much as the physical for Thomas. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Otoroku","offers":[{"title":"Black LP.","offer_id":50380152242507,"sku":"2213785","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD.","offer_id":50380152471883,"sku":"2217624","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Pat_Thomas__The_Solar_Model_of_Ibn_Al-Shatir_ROKU040_e8ead871_thumbnail_409.jpg?v=1726209506"},{"product_id":"100-sahara-guitar-2","title":"100% Sahara Guitar","description":"\u003cp\u003eEtran de L’Aïr the Stars of the Air, the longest running wedding band in Agadez, capital of Tuareg guitar, return with a new album of sun-schlazed desert sound! Their first album, No.1, brought their music to critics and fans. Their second album, Agadez, sent them into the international touring circuit. And now they're back with \u003ci\u003e100% Sahara Guitar,\u003c\/i\u003e ready to take on the world, with those swinging melodies, like a sandstorm blowing in from across the sea.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEtran de L’Aïr are 100% Sahara, and that goes same for the band, all sons of Agdez, including brothers Moussa, Abdoulaye, and Abdourahamane, and their dear friend, the youngest of the group, Alghabid. All the brothers write and play guitar, swapping out instruments while Alghabid keeps the Four on the Floor.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003e100% Sahara Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e, Etran de L’Aïr are back to claim the throne, with their first studio album! And what a sound it is. Recorded in sunny studios on the West Coast, the brothers take that old Agadez sound to new levels, adding even more guitars into the mix, weaving layers of reverb-laden melodies and shimmering harmonies into a tapestry of sound. How much guitar can they fit into one record? The answer is 100%.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sahel Sounds","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50380218761547,"sku":"2211504","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Blue LP","offer_id":50380218925387,"sku":"2211505","price":28.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f846b842-9bbd-49f2-073d-d1cb71a437c1-1_71b2cb96_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726211111"},{"product_id":"savane","title":"Savane","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased in July 2006 via the World Circuit label, \u003cem\u003eSavane\u003c\/em\u003e was Ali Farka Touré’s final solo album, and a deeply resonant “farewell” work. Recorded in Bamako, Mali with his specially assembled down-home ngoni group, and often acclaimed as his finest album, \u003cem\u003eSavane\u003c\/em\u003e is both one of the most traditional and seemingly the most blues drenched of Ali’s recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2026 celebrates the 20th anniversary of this landmark album, to honour this milestone, World Circuit are issuing a limited edition yellow colour vinyl and housed in a gatefold sleeve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhether you’ve lived with the music for two decades or are discovering it anew, this edition invites you to experience \u003cem\u003eSavane\u003c\/em\u003e with fresh eyes and ears.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BMG","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50382173372747,"sku":"1069349","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":50434115436875,"sku":"1069348","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2LP - Yellow","offer_id":56978055135563,"sku":"R1167-6678","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/34c2e69b-0e36-41b1-951e-144885554f3f_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726244100"},{"product_id":"avoude","title":"Avoude","description":"\u003cp\u003eDogo du Togo \u0026amp; The Alagaa Beat Band, are an innovative West African band with a one-of-a-kind hypnotic sound that combines psychedelic rock, Togolese rhythms, voodoo melodies, and dancefloor grooves. Dogo (the bandleader) calls their sound \"Alagaa Trance.\" The band has recorded a stunning album called \"Avoudé\" that will be released in November on We Are Busy Bodies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"We Are Busy Bodies","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50382283473227,"sku":"2222175","price":37.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_232bad4a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726247122"},{"product_id":"che-belew-march-forward","title":"Che Belew (March Forward)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAyalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. Mesfin’s music is some of the funkiest to arise from this unconquerable East African nation. Mesfin’s recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7” singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia’s 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of this East African nation. Though Mesfin was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of Ethiopia in 1974, he has returned almost 50 years later with this triumphant set albums the first time that his music has been presented in this form. These albums give us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in anthologies built from Mesfin’s uber-rare 7” single releases and from previously unreleased recordings taken from master tapes. Che Belew gives us a chance to discover a rare and beautiful moment in music history, in an anthology built from his uber-rare 7” single releases. Contains an oversized 11” x 11” 16 page book that tells the story of modern Ethiopian music and Mesfin’s role within it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Now Again Records","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50382776107339,"sku":"1101927","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Gold LP","offer_id":50382776959307,"sku":"2046986","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50382774075723,"sku":"1101926","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/282dcb49-6c6d-46c7-9d01-c80d1df1575c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726258967"},{"product_id":"amatssou-deluxe-bonus-tracks","title":"Amatssou Deluxe Bonus Tracks","description":"\u003cp\u003eTinariwen, the pioneering, Grammy-winning Tuareg collective,\nshare a new limited edition picture disc vinyl. It features the\nfour bonus tracks that originally appeared on the deluxe\nedition of their acclaimed ninth studio album \u003ci\u003eAmatssou\u003c\/i\u003e. Lead\nsingle ‘He Layla’ is inspired by a traditional song from the\nDjanet region (where the Amatssou album was recorded). In\ntypical Tinariwen fashion, the song tells the story of the past\nwhen the Sahara was under the French colony – poetry using\nmetaphors of the wild life of the desert.\n\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the two decades since Tinariwen emerged from their base\nin the African desert to tour the globe, they have got to know\nmany renowned country, folk, and rock musicians from the\nUSA including Kurt Vile, Stephen O'Malley, Jack White, and\nWilco. Tuareg nomads and cowboy drifters. Camel trains and\nmustang horses. The timeless horizon of the endless Sahara\nand the wild frontier of the Old West - several thousand miles\nof ocean may divide the desert blues of Tinariwen and the\nauthentic country music of rural America but the links are as\npalpable as they are romantic.\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wedge","offers":[{"title":"White LP","offer_id":50382801830219,"sku":"2176376","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/WEDGEEP0123_Packshot-1_9c2e10d4_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726259486"},{"product_id":"imarhan","title":"Imarhan","description":"\u003cp\u003eEvery purchase online or instore gets a free Rough Trade \/ City Slang sampler CD.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe band's debut album is intent on dismantling the ideas western listeners have about popularized Tuareg music. This new wave of Tuareg musicians sound very different to the desert distortion that accompanies groups like Mdou Moctar or Group Inerane. Instead, it finds a calm and passionate soul, provides sumptuous slow burners, and a complexity of composition that hasn't been demonstrated by previous music exported from the Saharan people's musical repertoire. Even if the band has a direct DNA link to trail blazers Tinariwen - (Eyadou Ag Leche of Tinawiren is a cousin of frontman Sadam, and guided their evolution and produced and co-wrote several songs on this album), their poetry and flow has a more integrally urban base than the ancestral tamashek poetry and traditional rhythms of their elders, Tinawiren.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInstead they offer something much more fresh and intricate; there is a lot of sensitivity and space in these jams, a lot of room for your mind to ponder and drift. This intimacy of Imarhan's sound is no coincidence. In the language of the Kel Tamashek people 'Imarhan' means 'the ones I care about' - Iyad Moussa Ben Abderahmane aka Sadam, Tahar Khaldi, Hicham Bouhasse, Haiballah Akhamouk and Abdelkader Ourzig all grew up near each other in Tamanrasset, Southern Algeria, in a Tuareg community of Northern Malian descent. The giant divide between their spiritual home and physical home is heard in their tracks: the funkier groove of Western Africa, the emptier, subtle tones of Saharan Traditional folk music and the fire and romance of Algerian Rai music. No other Tuareg release to date has had such a variance of rhythms, tempo and feeling. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eImarhan's record is a heads-up to anyone who thought Tuareg music as just one thing: it's an invitation to closer listening and also an album that will stay fresh for a long time and influence those from the Sahara and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"City Slang","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50382821687627,"sku":"399618","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/bd2e7ccf-1008-4e31-8f6e-12d507ab503f_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726259988"},{"product_id":"yalla-miku","title":"Yalla Miku","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is Yalla Miku's debut album. It is a new way of combining African, European, electronic, acoustic and electric music and cultures. The project was launched by Cyril Cyril duo, then joined by Simone Aubert and Vincent Bertholet from Hyperculte and three musicians with migrant backgrounds: the Moroccan Anouar Baouna, the Eritrean Samuel Ades and the Algerian Ali Bouchaki. For its initiators, the idea was not to appropriate a non-European heritage and to interpret it in the company of musicians from these countries. They opted for a more radical approach: to propose a base of compositions on which the migrant musicians then worked with their instruments, which range from the derbouka to the guembri via the krar, the Eritrean lyre. The album, nourished by these stage performances, was recorded in autumn 2021. The result is full of vibrations, unusual sounds and life experiences. Sung in Arabic, Tigrigna and French, the lyrics glide over throbbing rhythms, borrowing from gnawa, krautrock and electro trance. Their eponymous debut album sounds like a call to travel beyond the barriers of sound, a call to a horizon without a visa. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Les Disques Bongo Joe","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50382866645323,"sku":"2011905","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50382866907467,"sku":"2011906","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Yalla_Miku_dabfaa92_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726261466"},{"product_id":"vol-3-16","title":"Vol 3","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn the heels of his already critically acclaimed (yes, already!) retrospective, \u003ci\u003eWorld Spirituality Classics 3: The Muslim Highlife of Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, Alhaji Waziri Oshomah\u003c\/i\u003e — the Oyoyo King, the Godfather of Afemai Music, the Etsako Super Star, Mr. Please Please Please, Mr. Dynamite - returns with Vol. 3.Along with the other four volumes of the series, \u003ci\u003eVol. 3 \u003c\/i\u003eis now available—for the very first time! - as part of a complete set (in a box): \u003ci\u003eVol 1 - 5 (1978 - 1985)\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWaziri hails from a small part of Edo State in southern Nigeria called Afemailand, known for being a harmonious region where Muslims and Christians live - and dance - together. And there, as a devout Muslim and an exemplar of religious piety in his community, Waziri’s music fuses Etsako\/ Afemai folk styles with pan-Nigerian highlife and pop to create a sublime vehicle for his Islamic philosophy that gets everyone - Muslims, Christians, whoever - on the dancefloor.Every song on Vol. 3 (one of which you might recognize from The Muslim Highlife) strikes his signature balance of traditional music, highlife, and funk, as he entreats you to stay on the straight and narrow, though there’s nothing straight about his beat.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luaka Bop","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50383099920715,"sku":"2014926","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/bd3e1e8c-894a-3104-0bb1-227ec31c6ea4_e454c798_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726263043"},{"product_id":"wegene-my-countryman-2","title":"Wegene (My Countryman)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAyalew Mesfin stands aside the likes of Mulatu Astake, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hailu Mergia and Alemayehu Eshete as a legend of 1970s Ethiopia. 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Originally released by record producer Joe Boyd's (Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, Pink Floyd) Hannibal Records in 1999, the album was met with critical acclaim, and has since become a symbol of Mali's musical heritage and the kora tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo celebrate the 25th anniversary of \u003cem\u003eNew Ancient Strings\u003c\/em\u003e, the album has been newly remastered and makes its vinyl debut. Inspired by the landmark 1970 album, \u003cem\u003eAncient Strings\u003c\/em\u003e (recorded by their fathers, Sidiki Diabate and Djelimadi Sissoko), Toumani and Ballake took to making their own contemporary version.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMany of the songs are taken from the original repertoire, but the music is all modern Mali and played beautifully making this an exemplary classic in its field. 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The band is heard here in full relief; soaring vocals and guitar at the forefront, the mesmerizing sparkle of the ardine, elemental bass lines and propulsive rhythms swirling together to conjure a 360 degree vibe. \u003ci\u003eArbina\u003c\/i\u003e refines a sound that the band has gradually intensified over years of touring, aiming to posit a new genre from Mauritania, distinct unto itself; music of the Azawan. Supported by guitarist, husband and fellow griot, Jeiche Ould Chighaly, Seymali's tempestuous voice is answered with electrified counterpoint, his quarter-tone rich guitar phraseology flashing out lightning bolt ideas. Heir to the same music culture as Noura, Jeiche intimates the tidinit's (Moorish lute) leading role under the wedding khaima with the gusto of a rock guitar hero. Bassist Ousmane Toure, who has innovated a singular style of Moorish low-end groove over the course of many years, can be heard on this album with greater force and vigor than ever before. Drummer \/ producer Matthew Tinari drives the ensemble forward with the agility and precision need to make the beats cut. Many of the songs on \u003ci\u003eArbina\u003c\/i\u003e call out to the divine, asking for grace and protection. \"Arbina\" is a name for God. The album carries a message about reaching beyond oneself to an infinite spiritual source, while learning to take the finite human actions to necessary to affect reality on earth. 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There are songs of struggle and resistance with oblique references to the recent desperate political upheavals in Mali and the increasing power of the Salafists. “Dear brothers all rest, all leisure will always be far from reach unless your homeland is liberated and all the elders can live there in dignity,” Ibrahim Ag Alhabib sings on ‘Arajghiyine.’ The album’s title \u003ci\u003eAmatssou\u003c\/i\u003e is Tamashek for ‘Beyond The Fear’ and it fits - Tinariwen have always been characterised by their fearlessness - and as Bob Dylan once said, the power of rock’n’roll is that it makes us “oblivious to the fear” as the music gives us the strength and resilience to confront adversity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the two decades since Tinariwen emerged from their base in the African desert to tour the globe, they have got to know many renowned country, folk, and rock musicians from the USA including Kurt Vile, Stephen O'Malley, Jack White, and Wilco. Tuareg nomads and cowboy drifters. 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An incredibly groovy Ethiopian record, originally from 1969-1972. Amazing orchestral 'Ethio-groove' filled with US soul, jazz, sometimes Latin and the deepest Eastern rhythms, even including some great nasty and dirty fuzz guitars. A true gem of Ethiopian modern instrumental music, which illustrates perfectly this symbiosis of strong rhythms and quality arrangements of subtle yet deep Ethiopian melodies. A must for all '60s\/'70s collectors! In the Ethiopian musical landscape, Mulatu Astatke is a unique musician, composer, arranger. His real contribution consists in his action for instrumental music, in a country where orchestral traditions doesn't exist. For the last 30 years, he is the leading head of the Ethiopian musical scene. 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On this epic record, the 43-year-old journeyman is accompanied by his faithful band and a couple dozen guest stars who have been regular accomplices in the bass player's 37-year music career. This Dakarois musician began strumming guitar frets at six years old, egged on by an inspirational father who, at the time, was conducting Senegal's Symphonic Army Orchestra. Precociousness was Alune's middle name. Within years, he learnt scales for the piano, guitar and bass. Isma?l Lo's bass player, Samba Laob? N'Diaye, lent him his first bass guitar at five and, irony of sorts, he took over from N'Diaye's successor 12 years later. In 1999, he began his recording career at the singer's side for Lo's seminal albums, first with Jiguen and, two years on, Dabakh. This was just one of a list of collaborations Alune Wade enjoyed over the decades. They read like a who's who from the worlds of jazz and crossover music: Joe Zawinul, Marcus Miller, Oumou Sangare, Bobby McFerrin, Youssou N'Dour, Cheick Tidiane Seck, Harold Lopez-Nussa, Lokua Kanza, Blick Bassy, Fatoumata Diawara... the list goes on. His inspirations - Weather Report, Charlie Parker, Salif Keita, to name but a few - reflect musical choices he made. 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Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA’s expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like “Tizita” or “Anchihoye Lene”) upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia’s original compositions (like “Yegle Nesh”) shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments—often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePioneer Works Swing (Live)\u003c\/i\u003e brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he’s been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. 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Super-rare, first time available outside Ethiopia! In the years since Shemonmuanaye, Mergia has revamped his touring career, playing festivals and clubs worldwide, including a recent tour supporting Beirut. By 1978, Addis Ababa's nightlife was facing challenges. The ruling Derg regime imposed curfews, banning citizens from the streets after midnight until 6:00 am. But that didn't stop some people from dancing and partying through the night. Bands would play from evening until daybreak and people would stay at the clubs until curfew was lifted in the morning!. One key denizen of Addis' musical golden age, Hailu Mergia, was preparing a follow-up to his seminal 'Tche Belew' LP with the famed Walias Band. It was the band's only full-length record and it had been a success. But his Hilton house band colleagues were a bit tied up recording cassettes with different vocalists. Still Mergia, amidst recording and gigs with the Walias, was also eager to make another recording of his instrumental-focused arrangements. So he went to the nearby Ghion Hotel, another upmarket outpost with a popular nightclub. Dahlak Band was the house band at Ghion at the time. Together they made this tape 'Wede Harer Guzo' right there in the club during the band's afternoon rehearsal meetings, with sessions lasting three days.! Dahlak Band catered to a slightly more youthful, local audience, while Mergia's main gig with the Walias at Addis' swankiest hotel had a mixed audience that included wealthy Ethiopians, foreign diplomats and older folks from abroad. Therefore, their sets featured lighter fare during dinnertime and a less rollicking selection of jazz and r\u0026amp;b. Meanwhile, Dahlak was known more for the mainly soul and Amharic jams they served up for hours two nights a week to a younger crowd. Mergia released 'Wede Harer Guzo' (\"Journey to Harer,\" a city in eastern Ethiopia) with Sheba Music Shop, which was located in the Piazza district but has long since shut down. His cassette copy is the only known source we could find. Jessica Thompson at Coast Mastering managed to restore the recording to clean up layers of hiss, flutter and distorted frequencies, made worse by years of storage. Although there are some remaining sonic artifacts of the era's recording and cassette duplicating quality, this reissue captures the band's inimitable vibe. Recalling the audience's positive reaction to Wede Harer Guzo's novel arrangements, he says it sold well and found many fans. 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In the discotheques, they invented a new dance called the ‘Pata Pata’ where couples dance apart and then reach out and touch each other. I went to Argentina for a concert and, across South America, they are singing my song.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe track peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 12 and the album. Other songs on the album included a version of the traditional Xhosa classic, \u003ci\u003eClick Song Number One\u003c\/i\u003e (‘Qongqothwane’), the atmospheric \u003ci\u003eWest Wind\u003c\/i\u003e, later famously covered by her friend Nina Simone, and a version of Tilahun Gessesse’s \u003ci\u003eYetentu Tizaleny\u003c\/i\u003e which Makeba learned on a trip to Addis to perform for Haile Selassie at the Organisation Of African Unity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMastered by The Carvery from the original reel to reel tapes, \u003ci\u003ePata Pata\u003c\/i\u003e is released in its mono and stereo versions for the first time. 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Her music is a unique mix of Western classical music in the vein of Erik Satie, Ethiopian music, and Religious Christian meditation music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn this reissue of her first LP, originally released in Germany in a very small pressing, we find \u003cstrong\u003eTsege Mariam Gebru\u003c\/strong\u003e playing her own compositions solo on piano. She plays with restrained grace and purity. The record invites repeated listening well and is filled with spiritual warmth. We are very proud to present this LP - the first in a series of records we will be releasing with music culled from the monumental Ethiopiques CD series. 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Six years after his breakthrough on the international scene with the song Soul Makossa, Manu Dibango was enjoying one success after another, having composed the original music for several films. The previous year, Manu returned to the studio with long-time collaborator and producer Roland Le Couviour and sound engineer Claude Achallé to work on his new album. \u003ci\u003eThe Sun Explosion\u003c\/i\u003e album features long tracks, straddling a variety of styles from the nonchalant reggae-jazz of opening track Anty, to the more traditional afro-funk-jazz of Matumba on the A-side. Bearing in mind that 1978 was the year of disco, it's now time to turn the record over to discover the B-side and listen to the sounds of the era trace their way through the epic-funky strings of Motapo or the vibrant brass and funky xylophone of the eponymous track, \u003ci\u003eSun\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eExplosion\u003c\/i\u003e. 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It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their native Edo culture and fusing them with new sound effects coming from West Africa´s night-clubs. Unlike the rather polished 1980´s Nigerian disco productions coming out of the international metropolis of Lagos Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare minimum. Someone was needed to channel this energy into a distinctive sound and Sir Victor Uwaifo appeared like a mad professor with his Joromi studio. Uwaifo took the skeletal structure of Edo music and relentless began fusing them with synthesizers, electric guitars and 80´s effect rackswhich resulted in some of the most outstanding Edo recordings ever made. An explosive spiced up brew with an odd psychedelic note known as Edo Funk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat's the sound you'll be discovering in the first volume of the Edo Funk Explosion series which focusses on the genre's greatest originators; Osayomore Joseph, Akaba Man, and Sir Victor Uwaifo: Osayomore Joseph was one of the first musicians to bring the sound of the flute into the horn-dominated world of highlife, and his skills as a performer made him a fixture on the Lagos scene. When he returned to settle in Benin City in the mid-1970s - at the invitation of the royal family - he devoted himself to the modernisation and electrification of Edo music, using funk and Afro-beat as the building blocks for songs that weren't afraid to call out government corruption or confront the dark legacy of Nigeria's colonial past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAkaba Man was the philosopher king of Edo funk. 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Treble-soaked electric guitar lines snake back and forth through percussion-and-cavaquinho driven rhythms rooted in the sound of the islands established by the previous generation of Cabo Verdean emigres; subtle keyboards wash through the background, and the vocals, traded between Joana Do Rosario and To-Ze, alternately push the music forward and soar above it. The resulting album is both deeply felt and fiercely executed, and in its grooves one hears the sound of some of the finest Cabo Verdean musicians of their era locked in complete unity of purpose.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt should have been the beginning of something extraordinary; but the pressures of making ends meet forced the musicians back to their day jobs, and Voz Di Sanicolau vanished as quickly as they had appeared, leaving their lone album, \u003ci\u003eFundo de Mare Palinha\u003c\/i\u003e, as sole proof of their existence. Forty-four years later the album sounds as fresh as it did the day it was recorded. 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