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One of the most incredible African collections we've ever heard -- almost more amazing than the African Scream Contest set from the same label! The package focuses on work by Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo De Cotonou -- a group who really live up to their name, by bringing in a host of complicated rhythms ...

Massive work from this funky Nigerian cat -- a set that offers up a key mix of James Brown funk and home-grown elements -- all in a blend that's totally unique! The 1970 album mixes together equal parts African highlife and American soul -- making for a style that's heavy one minute, lighter the ...

Funky African work from Fred Fisher -- a Nigerian trombonist who crafted his own unique groove at the end of the 70s! Fred both sings and plays trombone -- the latter with a Fred Wesley-like soulfulness -- and his rhythms here are really wide-ranging, and embrace a host of new styles coming into ...

A mid 70s effort from Hugh Maskela, recorded in Nigeria, an excellent melding of his jazz inflected pop sound with some deeper soulful grooves. The vibe here is showing both some funk and disco influences, but with trademark South African style melodies floating over top and a dedication to Fela, ...

Amazing grooves from the Lollywood scene of the 70s -- the Pakistani equivalent of the films coming out of India's Bollywood at the time! The grooves here are often quite different than what you might hear from Bollywood -- still touched with an Eastern, exotic sensibility (at least to our Western ...

The long-awaited full length set from Seun Kuti -- the Fela family member who's got even more of his father's groove going on than Femi Kuti! Seun's working here with the Egypt 80 band, who are in razor-sharp formation throughout -- hitting rhythms and instrumental passages that show they haven't ...

Incredible! This is a stunning set of African-inspired jazzy percussion tracks -- similar to some of the work done by Art Blakey on his Orgy In Rhythm albums, but with a lot better horn work, and with an overall conception that's much more unified! AK Salim did some sleepier work for Savoy in the ...

Mindblowing funk from 70s Africa -- a collection that's overflowing with great rare bits! If you ever thought that the sound of Afro Funk was just Fela, Tony Allen, and Manu Dibango -- think again, because this set will really expand your horizons! The package was expertly selected, compiled, and ...

Essential work from the African scene of the 70s -- a collection of tracks that goes way beyond the more familiar grooves of Fela Kuti and Manu Dibango! The set may well be the deepest so far we've heard from the always-amazing Soundway Records -- a package that digs into a wealth of under-heard ...

Forget the "rock" in the title, and just focus on the "funk" -- because this set of tracks is a massively heavy batch of Nigerian numbers from the 70s -- all with the same solidly soulful feel as more familiar Afro Funk work of the time! There's a definite emphasis on guitars -- ...

Massive funk from the Nigerian scene of the 70s -- and miles away from US disco of the time! These cuts represent a tighter, more uptempo side of African funk -- but they're never as polished or professional as American club or disco -- no soaring strings, female chorus vocals, or other sweetening ...

Get ready to discover a whole new realm of African Funk -- because this collection digs deeper than any we've ever had before! The mighty Soundway Records have come up with a blistering batch of grooves that push way past the bigger hits on the global scene -- to the real roots of the Afro Funk ...

A second heavy dose of sounds from the Panamanian scene of the 60s and 70s -- a long-overdue companion to the previous volume of the series on Soundway, filled with rare gems that are finally getting their first exposure to the world outside the isthmus! The sounds here are completely fresh -- ...

There's plenty of Afro Funk combos working today, but these guys are one of the greatest -- a totally hip French ensemble with a really amazing sound! Fanga has a groove that's really a cut above -- a way of pulling together all the best elements of the 70s generation of Afro Funk, and sifting ...

A collection of tracks that amount to some of incredibly deep audio archaeology -- a wonderful, consciousness wakening collection of globe spanning 78s from the first half of the 20th Century -- all from the darkest corners of the EMI Vaults! Honest Jons does an impressive job of collecting ...

The first album by the group that later went on to become Oneness Of Juju! The album was recorded with a group that featured Plunky Nakabinde and Lon Moshe on reeds and percussion -- plus Babatunde on congas and drums -- and the overall sound is very much in kind of an Art Ensemble Of Chicago mode ...

Rhythmic early 60s global grooves from John Berberian -- a master of the oud with a great group of players on these oft intense takes traditional Turkish, Armenian and Arabic songs! The melodies and rhythms are pretty impressive -- the percussion is particularly heavy and groovy! The oud is out ...

Do yourself a favor, and buy this album -- you won't be disappointed! The record is a gem all the way through -- a really unique mixture of LA soul jazz and African rhythms, with a sound that's almost like Hugh Masekela sitting in with the Jazz Crusaders! Of course, there's a lot of Jazz ...

Wow! This is probably the rarest of the Juju/Oneness of Juju albums -- and it's also one of the best! Unlike their first album on Strata East, the group's a little bit more inside, and doesn't get lost in overindulgent avant garde solos. Instead, they groove hard with a deep warm sound, in ...

These early Osibisa records always used to be fairly common years back -- perhaps because they were always a bit too hippy dippy and loose for the older funk crowd. But now, in today's blunted groove culture, they seem to have found a new appreciation for their trippy Afro funk style, and their ...

An incredible musical discovery -- and some really mindblowing grooves from a previously untapped source! As the title implies, Panama's a real crossroads of musical styles -- bits of Latin, funk, and other Caribbean influences -- all simmering together in the hot sun of the Isthmus, cooking up in ...

An incredible collection from Honest Jons -- and like some of the rest of their best, music we never would have heard otherwise! The focus here is on calypso music, but recorded in West Africa -- not the usual Caribbean setting -- a very unusual strain of styles that cropped up in the fading ...

An incredible look at Syrian singer Omar Souleyman -- an artist who's only been recording for a decade and a half, but who's managed to issue over 500 albums on his own! Souleyman's got a style that's almost spontaneous at times -- fast rhythms served up at really tremendous speed, topped with ...

A long-awaited full length set -- one that finally brings together all of the amazing Tony Allen reworks done by the Honest Jon's label! These "chop up" tracks were originally issued over a range of limited 12" singles, and they're really amazing stuff -- not just remixes of Tony ...

Pure insanity from the mighty Mulatu -- one of his few American albums from the 60s! The record's an incredible blend of New York Latin and some of the more Afro-styled grooves Mulatu explored more freely on his Ethiopian recordings -- served up in a jazzy style that has plenty of vibes in the mix ...

A definite eclectic groove here -- music that has its roots in Mandingo and Dioula rhythms, but also features a fair bit of American funk and soul touches too -- sometimes in the heavy grooves on the bottom, sometimes in the rumbling basslines and guitar parts too! The collection is a wonderful ...

The incredible early 70s Turkish psychedelic folk LP from Baris Manco -- totally riveting stuff that blends some traditional Turkish influences with the panoramic psychedelia of the late 60s & early 70s -- with fuzzed out rockm funk, and a fantastic melodic sensibility! The most fascinating ...

A killer blend of Latin and African rhythms -- topped by Kante Manfila's amazing work on guitar, which is produced with a range of weird and wonderful sounds! There's a quality to this music that's beyond easy description -- a 60s blend of African roots and outside influences -- most strongly an ...

Hard and heavy grooves that lay somewhere in a space between baile funk and African hip hop -- very bass-heavy material that's in the spirit of other Flamin Hotz releases! The set's billed as an EP, but really features enough for a full album -- 6 tracks that are all long, loud, and proud -- often ...

The most outwardly political album to date from Antibalas -- and quite possibly the funkiest one too! The set's got the group really grooving hard in their 70s Afro Funk-inspired vein -- jamming at a level that would make Fela Kuti blush -- working together with a fierce array of percussion, horns ...

Grooves unlike anything else you've ever heard in your life -- an assortment of mid 70s tunes from Mahmoud Ahmed, the second grooviest Ethiopian artist, next to Mulatu! Ahmed's sound is a lot more out there than Mulatu's -- less funky and jazz-based, and more in the mode of snakey rhythms, ...

Amazing 70s recordings from Ethiopian singer Alemayehu Eshete -- one of the greatest stars of the Ethiopiques series next to Mulatu! The style here is often quite funky at times -- a strong James Brown influence in some of the rhythms, hitting hard with a heavy funk groove at the bottom, and ...

One of the greatest grooves from the legendary Desco Records years -- a brilliant album of modern Afro Funk done by The Daktaris -- in a groove that's just as hard-hitting as any of Fela's work from the 70s! The album was one of the first to bring back an older African style to current funk -- and ...

A great overview of African grooves in the years before Afro Funk truly exploded -- early highlife sounds from Nigeria and Ghana, most of it a fair bit rougher than work in the genre from later decades! The sound here is equally heavy on percussion and guitar -- the latter of which still has the ...

Amazing music from the golden years of Ethiopian Music -- a set of tracks that will take you beyond the music of Mulatu, into a wealth of other talents from the scene at the same time! The sound here is incredible -- a mix of heavy funk, spacey jazz, and other exotic touches all coming together -- ...

One of the grooviest compilations we've ever seen -- a collection of work by American expatriates living in Israel at the end of the 70s -- a hip blend of US funk and Hebrew spirituality! Most of the work here sounds like the best spiritual funk of the 70s -- very much in an Earth Wind & Fire ...

A rocketing bit of South African funky soul -- and of the few great records released on Ahmad Jamal's short-lived Jamal label! The session's a lot hipper than some of the South African work that was issued in the US around the same time -- and the feel here is almost more in a London post-colonial ...

Amazing work from Nomo -- their greatest album so far, and an incredible step forward in styles! Nomo started out as an already-great Afro Funk combo -- but over the past few records, they've picked up a really hip range of musical influences -- spiritual jazz, electronica, Congotronics, and other ...

A landmark of Afro-centric jazz in the 70s -- and the first album by this famous underground collective! Oneness of Juju were a Washington DC-based group that grew out of the ashes of the Juju avant jazz ensemble -- formed in the culturally rich African-American community of DC in the 70s, with ...

Heavy funk from the Bahamas -- a whole bunch of groups that will show you that Nassau had a lot more to offer than The Beginning Of The End! The groove here is totally wonderful -- somewhat like American funk of the late 60s and early 70s, but served up with some very unusual rhythmic patterns too ...

An amazing world of music -- rare funk, soul, reggae, and other grooves from Belize -- all beautifully compiled in the rich Numero Music style! We're really stunned by the set -- as we had no idea at all that Belize had anything going on at this level -- and the collection is an amazing surprise ...

Mindblowing work from one of the greatest new groups we've heard in years -- Michigan's mighty Nomo, easily one of the greatest Afro Funk combos going! Nomo's got a tightness that surpasses most other heirs to Fela's throne -- an intensely focused energy that's really tremendous -- and which soars ...

Tight grooving benga funk rock from Extra Golden -- the third, and to date the best album from the cross cultural combo! At this point, it's not fair to simply call the group's sound a seamless blend of disparate styles, as we've been tempted to in the past -- they've found their own unique ...

Although South African vocalist Miriam Makeba had been cracking the American scene for the better part of the 60s, this was the album that really put her on the map -- as her hit version of the song "Pata Pata" forever guaranteed that African-tinged grooves would have a place in the pop ...

Really wonderful stuff -- a collection of totally unique grooves that won't cross over with any of your other African funk compilations! The focus here is on jazz, not funk or soul -- and the set features a wealth of great tracks pulled from obscure South African records of the late 70s and early ...

Very nice compilation of classic 60s African Highlife tracks -- featuring work by seven Nigerian groups, including The Black Beats, The Comets, The Happy Stars, The Modern King Stars, and The Stargazers of Kumasi. The overall quality is great, and the recordings are a nice mix of soul and jazzy ...

A really wonderful third album from Osibisa -- and a record that really crystallizes the group's sound into a trademark blend of African roots and more progressive-styled jamming! There's a mode here that's perfect for the cross-cultural London of the post-colonial 70s -- a style that brings many ...

A killer album of Afro Funky tracks, and certainly one of Olatunji's best! The record was recorded in the early 70s, and it features Olatunji breaking past his usual heavy blend of African percussion, into a vein that's a lot more tinged with jazz and soul touches. He gets some great help on the ...

One of Mickey Hart's first forays into the world music genre -- and way way better than his later Planet Drum recordings! The Grateful Dead's drummer plays with, and produces, an all-percussion ensemble that includes tablas, marimbas, talking drums, timbales, and congas. All the melody parts are ...

One of the funkier albums by African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, and a record that's filled with lots of short little groovers that have more of an edge than on previous pop instrumental albums of his. Includes lots of nice little ones that we have on 45 -- like "Fuzz", "Riot", ...