Expand your taste in music. Based in Beijing, China.
Cumbancha Records usually put out world-class music, but this one stood out rather brightly. From Kimi Djabaté’s Bandcamp site: “Hailing from the country of Guinea-Bissau, gifted guitarist, percussionist and balafón (African xylophone) player Kimi Djabaté is one of Africa’s most exceptional talents. […]
Though these tracks are from 2014, this scorcher by Vadou Game, one of Togo’s funkiest bands, features two tracks that will appeal to funk aficionados, especially the title track. Also, James Brown fans, take note. You’re going to love the grooves on […]
On October 13th,the African music world world lost an absolute demigod in the form of Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta. How important was he? Well, going by Wikipedia, he, “was a Congolese saxophonist, composer, bandleader, producer, record label founder, and music-business executive. He was […]
Analog Africa released a disc of music from Ivory Coast legend Ernesto Djédjé recently, and it was rather eye-opening to see that even in a place as far away as Côte d’Ivoire, they had the same problems of so-called foreign influence getting […]
Ajate are a Japanese band who have the Afrobeat sound down. They’re one of the best bands working in this style while seamlessly blending Japanese percussion, funk and soul into their milieu.
Italy’s Record Kicks has been releasing crime-funk, hip garage rock, deep soul, afro and boogaloo hits for 15 years so the label will be offering, as of May 15th, a compilation of some of their finest moments. Bands on this killer comp […]
I think this may be the first Gabonese album I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing. Orchestre Massako are a band who mixes Afro-Funk with cumbia beats, blending the best of Africa and Latin America together in a joyous mix.
Beefy, gritty, nasty funk. That’s what you will hear from this monster by DJ Daniele Baldelli. There are elements of tribal funk, Afrobeat, and soundtrack music that wouldn’t be out-of-place in old German or Italian krimis or Poliziotteschi. Calibro 35 would be […]
The Scorpios are a Sudanese/British Afrobeat band with an incredible pedigree. Regia Ishag, the band’s singer, is the daughter of the guitarist of one of Sudan’s funkiest bands, The Scorpions (obviously not the German hard-rock band bearing the same name). This new […]
Benin (formerly Dahomey) has produced so much good music, yet it’s suffered from a lack of availability in the West, meaning that only the most expert crate-diggers or West African music specialists were able to enjoy these artists. Thankfully, Analog Africa has […]