Global Grooves -- Recently Added -- CD  

A long-overdue collection of work -- one that really gets at the unusual appearance of Latin rhythms on the African scene of the postwar years! Latin sounds from Africa are nothing new, but they're one of those things that's always taken for granted, too -- kind of assumed in most discussions of ...

One of the hippest groups of the Nigerian scene of the 70s -- presented here in two classic albums, back to back on a single CD! Chapter One is a landmark set of African grooves -- very unusual in both conception and execution -- with a feel that's unlike anything we can think of! There's ...

The second volume of rare Afrofunk from Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou from Analog Africa -- a killer set of material recorded at EMI Studios in Lagos, Nigeria for the Albarika Store label -- impeccable sounding and feverishly played by the group! This one's fairly jaw dropping, catching us off ...

A great little Fela compilation of some of the Black President's most iconic material! This 2CD set features Fela's classic mid 70s recordings - with some of them edited down to shorter takes than the extended ones that appear on the full LPs, or "part 2" versions, but the track on the ...

A bit more than a Rough Guide, if you ask us -- actually a great little set that capable shows the range of Afrobeat and funk in a new generation -- featuring tracks by Souljazz Orchestra, Tony Allen, Kaleta & Zozo Afrobeat, Afrodizz and more! Compiled by Pablo "DJ Bongohead" ...

Wild grooves from Thailand with more than a little bit of soul and funk -- but a real kaleidoscope of pop sounds -- blending influences with a global reach that's really catchy & groovy all the way! There are more touches of psychedelia and otherwise bright and colorful sounds than you might ...

One of the coolest African collections we've seen in years -- a beautiful assortment of untapped grooves from the 70s, put together with a massive booklet that sets a whole new standard in packaging! The grooves here are different from other Afro Funk collections of the time -- definitely more in ...

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 double pack of African Funk -- featuring 2 albums' worth of material by the legendary Orlando Julius! Julius was one of Nigeria's biggest soul artists in the 60s -- and has been credited with virtually inventing the Afro Funk sound, and for being the inspiration to some of James ...

Massively wonderful work from the mighty Hugh Masekela -- easily one of his hippest, most soulful sessions ever! This double-length gem really has Hugh letting go -- moving way beyond the pop modes of the late 60s, into a long-flowing, open-rolling groove that's played by a spare quintet lineup ...

An amazing array of Afro Funk from the legendary Tony Allen -- 4 of his greatest albums ever, packaged together in a single set! The work here was all recorded hot on the heels of Tony's key years with Fela Kuti -- and shares a very similar approach to the groove -- long, stretched out passages ...

A group with a sound like no other -- one that features home-made electronics and amplification, and an array of highly-percussive instrumentation that includes thumb pianos, megaphones, microphones, and old car parts! Konono's been making this music for the past 25 years -- working in the suburbs ...

A cool collection of funky grooves from the Caribbean -- tracks that take a strong influence from American soul and funk, then blend it heavily with hip rhythms from the islands! A few of the names here are familiar, but most are relatively obscure -- and put together, the tunes on the set ...

A heady brew of guitar-driven numbers from Sir Victor Uwaito -- a key force in the Nigerian music scene for many years, and an instrumentalist with a really mindblowing sound! Some of these tracks have Victor playing a weird double-necked guitar, others a straighter version of the electric ...

Haunting vocal work from the republic of Georgia -- choral recordings that remind us a lot of the famous Bulgarian voices sides that circulated decades back -- but with a male-based membership that makes for a deeper sound overall! The CD's one of the first in a line of new ethnographic recordings ...

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 ...

Weird and wonderful sounds from India -- Konkani music with its roots in the state of Goa, filtered through a range of modern influences from the recording scene of Bombay! The sounds here are quite different than more familiar Indian modes you might know from sitar records or Bollywood ...

Balkan Beats galore -- a sweet set of remixes handled by Nickodemus, Dub Gabriel, and others -- all in a mode that follows strongly in the spirit and strengths of the originals! As with the core BBB grooves, the rhythms here are pretty contemporary, but the instrumentation carries echoes of older ...

An Afro Funk treasure from the 70s -- a rare album recorded by Pax Nicholas, a singer and percussionist who was part of Fela's legendary Africa 70 band! The album's got a sound that definitely echoes that heritage, but with a groove that's pretty weird too -- more stripped down than most of Fela's ...

A great collection of tracks -- even if it does suffer from the same sort of embarassing postcolonial colonialism that tinges most of the other Luaka Bop compilations. But once you get past that, the music's pretty darn great -- and the set does a very valuable job of unearthing lost funky and ...

A sprawling set of tropical grooves from Panama, and the third in the series from Soundway -- compiled by Roberto Gyemant and Miles Cleret, with a little help for this set from Will Holland, aka Quantic -- as soulful and brilliant as it is essential! These rare recordings blend cultural styles ...

The Republic Of Afro Beat keeps on pushing further into the global scene -- breaking down borders in a rich new revival of older African modes -- showcased here in a range of great grooves from around the world! The package follows on the other two entries in the series -- and like those gems, ...

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 -- ...

A very weird little collection -- a bit short on notes, but done with a wonderful packaging job that includes a hand-stitched bag, a special poster, and a limited, numbered pressing! The music here is supposedly all from the Thai scene -- and is often as funky as the title would imply, and with ...

A seminal bit of funky Afrojazz from the DC scene of the 70s! The album features work by percussionist Okyerema Asante, and also includes sax work by Plunky Nakabinde -- best known as the leader of the group Oneness Of Juju. Plunky's influence can really be felt strongly on the set -- and the ...

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 ...

One of the wildest albums on the Sublime Frequencies label -- really amazing music by a West Saharan group -- one that features some of the most incredible guitar you'll ever hear! The music is all of recent vintage, recorded especially for this CD project -- and the tunes have some incredibly ...

A global funk gem from Lightning Head, aka Glyn "Bigga" Bush of Rockers Hi Fi -- an artist who takes a surprising, truly funky, and wholly credible left turn into Afrobeat! Lightning Head doesn't forsake the electro grooves of earlier work so much as steep it very heavily in organic ...

Gritty, garage grooves and organ, guitar and percussion rich numbers from several mid 60s Thai combos -- revolving around industrious singer (although these numbers are mostly instrumental) and ringleader Payong "PM" Mukda! The pulpy groovers are top notch, mostly done with a small combo ...

Great work from the early days of Indian cinema -- a set that features music from a host of key films of the 50s! Ravi Shankar's music dominates the first half of the collection -- as it features themes composed for films that include Parash Pathar, Apur Sansar, Aparajito, Pather Panchali, and A ...

Pre-independence music from British colonies that include Kenya and Rhodesia, plus sounds from Portuguese East Africa and the Belgian Congo as well! Given the range of regions, there's a range of styles going on here too -- but much of the instrumentation begins with a strongly percussive bass, ...

Beautifully fragile work from the Kenyan scene of the early 50s -- music that's mostly built first on vocals, then layers in a bit of stringed instrumentation -- usually lyre-like instruments like chepkongo, thum, or kipukandet! The strings are usually quite raw and rhythmic -- pulsating behind ...

Beautifully recorded and richly passionate guitar music and vocals from the southern Congo and northern Zambia -- field recordings from Hugh Tracey from throughout the 50s -- with the sounds captured as impeccably as any African, or American field recordings of the era, for that matter. As is the ...

A wonderful and well captured collection of 50s field recordings of Zambian instruments and passionate singing of the people -- recorded beautifully by Hugh Tracey, the put together the influential Sounds Of Africa series for the International Library Of African Music. The instruments are the ...

Folksy work from the legendary George Sibanda -- a big postwar figure on the African music scene -- originally hailing from Zimbabwe, but with an influence felt all over the sub-Saharan part of the continent! George is a heck of a songwriter, and a pretty good guitar player too -- and most of the ...

Somi sings here in English and a few different African languages -- but the set's got all the warmth of a contemporary Neo Soul set -- thanks to really lovely production, and warm, laidback instrumentation that works totally great with her vocals! Somi's approach is often quite subtle -- vocals ...

A compilation of Ghana music like we've never seen before -- and straight up beautifully put together by Soundway -- 70s sounds that fused regional traditions with boundary free soul, rhythm & blues, and rock! Ghana in the 1970s was in a transition from a more prosperous, and less militarily ...

Pulp grooves from 60s & 70s Singapore -- gritty garage rock & soul, beat, and strange girl pop grooves compiled from rare Malaysian 45s! The tunes blend American and European rock & pop sounds with more traditional sounds of Asia and the Malaysian peninsula -- many with female vocals, ...

The fantastic follow-up to one of our best-selling titles! Like it's precursor, this second volume to Bombay The Hard Way takes 70s Bollywood brownsploitation film funk tracks and dialogue, and remixes them to pump up the beats, pull out the grooves, and create a more coherent sound overall. ...

The first ever comprehensive anthology of Ethio Jazz from unrivaled master Mulatu Astatke -- put together by our heroes at Strut Records -- the same label that released Mulatu's stellar collaboration with the Heliocentrics just a year earlier! Strut picks material from his prime 60s & 70s ...

A great little Fela compilation of some of the Black President's most iconic material -- plus a DVD featuring excerpts from documentaries and concerts over the years! This 2CD set features Fela's classic mid 70s recordings - with some of them edited down to shorter takes than the extended ones ...

A dazzling volume of killer sounds from Zambia! Sandwiched between the Congo and Zimbabwe, Zambia tends to get overshadowed, and while the small country has never been unusually prolific, this superb compilation proves that it's possessed plenty of talent. It's hardly surprising that one can hear ...

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 sublime blend of spiritual jazz and African rhythms -- and one of the few 70s recordings made by Mombasa, a European group put together by LA trombonist Lou Blackburn! The record's got a much more righteous sound than any of Blackburn's work of the 60s -- a boldness and sense of pride that comes ...

The definitive batch of tracks by one of the 70s' most famous funk ensembles ever! The Lafayette Afro Rock Band were a bunch of Americans, relocated in Paris, who mixed that city's strong African music traditions with their own American funk and soul leanings. The result was an incredible sound ...

The coolest collection of work we've ever seen on Manu Dibango -- a double-length collection that's heavy on gems from the late 60s and 1970s -- plus a few choice bits from later years too! The set's filled with the hard-grooving cuts that made Manu so great back in the day -- some of the most ...

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 ...

A beautiful mix of global grooves and Neo Soul -- put together by bassist Michael Olatuja, but featuring some especially nice vocals from guests who include Lynden David Hall, Ty, Terri Walker, Eska Mtungwazi, and Onaje Jefferson! There's kind of a cosmic jazzy feel to the whole record -- a ...

Brilliant work from Benin -- an ear-opening compilation that's filled with wonderful grooves we've never heard before! The rhythms are unusual, instrumentation hypnotic, and vocals really offbeat -- making the whole thing sound very different than more familiar African work we've stocked -- ...

One of the coolest Afro Funk groups of the 70s -- and an outfit who definitely earn the "poly rhythmic" in their name! TP Orchestre have a jagged, jaunty sound that's totally great -- really playfully rhythmic, in a way that breaks from the mold of most of their 70s contemporaries on the ...