A solid and decades spanning double dose set of classic and less canonized gems from African sax legend Manu Dibango – 2CDs with material recorded from the mid 70s to early 00s! It's got blueprint level 70s Afro Soul, timeless African boogie, sultry, kinda jazzy groovers with Afro percussive elements, European dancefloor influenced numbers and more – well chosen to highlight his stylistic sprawl over the years! 30 tracks on 2CDs: "Bessoka (Version Courte)", "Lagos Go Slow", "A La Claire Fontaine", "Waka Juju", "The Panther", "Soul Makossa (Manu Version)", "Ambiance Tropika", "Aloko Party", "Reggae Makossa" "Negropolitaines", "Gombo Sauce", "Mboa", "Tek Time" and many more. CD

A really cool Ethiopian record, but not the sort you might expect – as most of the instrumentation here is heavy on electric elements, which includes a fair bit of 80s keyboards, synth, and drum machine lines! The group were actually exiles, living in the Washington, DC area during the early 80s – and the record is almost a fusion of Ethio roots with more familiar American styles – a bit like the work that Mulatu created during his early time in the US, but with a very different vibe! There's lead vocals on one track, but most of the set is instrumental – and filled with plenty of sweet keyboard lines and guitar riffs – jazzy, electro, and plenty charming – on titles that include "Kalatashew Waga", "Anchi Bale Game", "Tez Alegn Yetintu", "Bahta's Highlife" and "Samba Shegitu". LP, Vinyl record album

Sweet 80s grooves from the Turkish scene – served up in a mode that mixes earlier styles with instrumentation that's a bit more fitting for the decade – drum machine rhythms and keyboard lines coming into play with more exotic melodies, and vocals served up in a variety of styles! Some of the tunes here are tagged as "disco", but in a way that's really refracted through the span of space and time that led to these recordings – hardly familiar club modes, but still plenty darn groovy – and a nice take on Andaolu modes from a few years before! Titles include "Fiance", "Fidayda", "Emmoglu", "If You Want My Love", "Sunglasses Belly Dance", "Tabancamin Sapini", "Misty Mountain Melodies", and "Eminem". LP, Vinyl record album

A South African soul set from Gloria Weems, but one that feels like some of the best of the New York scene at the time – especially the underground indie work that was letting a lot of electro soul elements come into the mix! The bass pedal elements are great, and the drum machine rhythms are right on the money – making for a set that's all-catchy, all-groovy all the way through – with a half dozen rock-solid boogie numbers that would have easily broke big on our side of the Atlantic, had Gloria gotten signed to a label like Jive! Titles include "Push It Up", "Wanna Dance With You", "Don't Let Me Drop", "Lovelight", "Never Give It Up", and "Wanna (version)". (Soul, Global Grooves) LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic sounds for fans of funk and rock alike – music from the freaky, fuzzy 70s scene in Zambia – a place where styles effortlessly criss-crossed to really produce something new and unique! The work here is often heavy on fuzz guitars, but also has some wickedly soulful basslines and drums – so that although the tunes can be psych-styled, they're also pretty darn funky too – often at a level that's a bit like the Nigerian Afro Funk of the time, but much grittier and more righteous! The quality of the music and scene is explored in depth in the package – which includes a very detailed booklet of notes and photos – all to support the selection of music, which may well be the hippest so far from the Now Again label – and that's really saying a lot, if you know their other titles! Tracks include "Funky Lady" by Teddy Chisi, "Fast" by Salty Dog, "Rain & Sunshine" by Crossbones, "I Don't Know" by Born Free, "Fwe Bena Zambia" by Five Revolutions, "Who's That Guy" by Ricky Banda, "Changa Namwele" by Machine Gunners, "Poverty" by Cosmos Zani, "Dzikolino Ni Zambia" by Keith Mlevhu, "Running" by Blackfoot, and "Everyday Has Got A New Dream" by Dr Footswitch. CD

Shankar was one of the few flying the flag of jazz/Indian music crossovers in the 80s – pushing the genre a bit farther forward at a time when most other players had abandoned it! Given that his instrumentation here is violin and drum machine, the sound's a bit different than some of the sitar/tabla-based sessions of the past – but there's a similar sensibility going on, one that stretches out the sound with inspirations drawn from Indian music, executed by a quartet that also includes Jan Garbarek on soprano and tenor sax, Zakir Hussain on tabla and congas, and Trilok Gurtu on additional percussion. Titles include "Paper Nut", "I Know", "Watching You", "Conversation", "Song For Everyone", and "Let's Go Home". (Jazz, Global Grooves) LP, Vinyl record album

There's less disco here than you might expect, as the group's a very jazzy one – with tenor and flute from South African jazz legend Basil Coetzee, working next to the organ and drum machine of Pops Mohamed as he creates a very cool, unique groove! The music's an extension of other South African funk of the time, but given the use of drum machine on some tracks (a few feature live drum performances), there's a mix of modes going on here that's really unique – jazz funk, but of a leaner style – maybe a bit more laidback, and with plenty of focus on reedwork and keyboard solos! The set brings together tracks from three rare albums by the group – and titles include "Dark Clouds (part 1)", "Spiritual Feeling", "Night Express (single version)", "Kids In The Dark", "I'm Organized", and "Pops Blue". LP, Vinyl record album

A funky soul record with a really great pedigree – tracks recorded by a Nigerian group, but done up in London with a vibe that's very much like some of the best east coast soul of the time! There's a style here that's not unlike some of the best club work of the P&P Records generation – a three-female vocal approach that's borrowed from the mainstream, but which is set to quirkier grooves that bubble and percolate in a really great way – boogie rhythms at many points, but peppered with cool keyboard parts that sometimes get a bit spacey – and which make the record a real underground groover in the best way possible! Titles include "Next To You", "Let Love Begin", "Heart To Heart", "Galaxy", and "Groove Machine". (Soul, Global Grooves) LP, Vinyl record album

A sweet 80s groover from the South African scene – a set that makes great use of drum machine rhythms and keyboards, but at a level that's nicely warmed up by the group's vocals! There's plenty of elements here that link up with that moment when electric African material was getting wider circulation in the Northern Hemisphere, thanks to work by labels like Celluloid or Jive – and although this set never got hat sort of larger exposure, it's right up there with some of the best South African soul of the time! Titles include "Mind Games", "Right On Time", "Fire Passion Ecstasy", "Where Did We Go Wrong", and "Say Say No". LP, Vinyl record album

Sweet synth soul from 80s Nigeria – a set that definitely shows the evolution of that country's sound in the decade after the rise of Afro Funk – and a record that also delivers plenty of the beats promised in the title! There's lots of elements here borrowed from electro – drum machine rhythms, tight basslines, and plenty of keyboards – all percolating nicely next to the rougher-edged vocals of Nkono Teles – a singer who does an equally great job of delivering a catchy hit and a more seductive number. Touches of highlife filter into the mix here and there, but still in an electro-tinged way – and titles include "Be My Lady", "Party Beats", "Time For Fun", "Love Vibration", and "Highlife Makossa". CD

Sweet synth soul from 80s Nigeria – a set that definitely shows the evolution of that country's sound in the decade after the rise of Afro Funk – and a record that also delivers plenty of the beats promised in the title! There's lots of elements here borrowed from electro – drum machine rhythms, tight basslines, and plenty of keyboards – all percolating nicely next to the rougher-edged vocals of Nkono Teles – a singer who does an equally great job of delivering a catchy hit and a more seductive number. Touches of highlife filter into the mix here and there, but still in an electro-tinged way – and titles include "Be My Lady", "Party Beats", "Time For Fun", "Love Vibration", and "Highlife Makossa". LP, Vinyl record album

A percussion record, but one with a very different twist – as the set was done both in collaboration with dancer Tonny Kennybrew, and based on his sense of motion – and it was done at the end of the 80s, and features a very cool mix of both acoustic and electric instrumentation! Percussionist Jean-Pierre Boistel handles a nice array of instruments at the core – kalimba, quinto, congas, bass tambours, bells, berimbau, shakers, and many other percussion elements – and at times, he uses computer-assisted programs to help line up the acoustic sounds, but in ways that hardly make them sound like some lame drum machine beats at all. Instead, there's a richly organic quality to the record – spare and lean, but nicely focused too. Titles include "Vas Y Peter", "C'Est A Sete", "A Capucine", "Des Perce Boys", and "Dans Le Secret & Clepsydre". LP, Vinyl record album

Rare slices of work from Mdou Moctar – material collected from tapes recorded between 2017 and 2020, often featuring the group in a range of different settings in their native Niger! The work throughout is filled with the sublime guitar of Mahamadou Souleymane – but the shift in setting makes for a strong sense of variety, especially as some of the titles feature more guitar lines than vocals, which is always OK with us! Titles on this first volume include "Imouhar (drum machine version)", "Chismiten (drum machine version)", and live takes of "Sibidoul", "Layla", "Afrique Victime", and "Afelan". LP, Vinyl record album