Not what you might expect when shopping for African music – unique electronic sounds from Cameroon musician Francis Bebey – as heavy on keyboards as other 70s work is on guitar! There's still plenty of acoustic elements in the mix though, too – lots of earthy percussion at the bottom, which links some of these tracks to other styles of the time – even though some of the more unusual tunes here have these great electronic sounds that almost feel like they came from the late 70s German underground! The mix of modes is breathtaking – as if Moebius and Roedelius recorded with musicians from Lagos – shaking off the colder sounds of the Conny Plank side of the spectrum, to come up with a warm new style that's really unique! Titles include "La Condition Masculine", "Sahle", "The Coffee Cola Song", "Super Jingle", "Pygmy Love Song", "Agatha", "Catching Up", and "Divorce Pygmee". LP, Vinyl record album

Totally cool, totally amazing music from the enigmatic Francis Bebey – a contemporary on the early 80s African scene of William Onyeabor, and an equally experimental artists! Bebey used a fair bit of electronics, but often with sounds that had acoustic roots – in this case, the ultra cool sansa, which is a similar thumb piano to the kalimba – amplified here in really great ways, and mixed with some moody, dark elements throughout! The music has much more of a 70s vintage than you'd guess from the dates on the record – thanks partly to the raw percussion, and very offbeat production – which sometimes is mellow, sometimes bursts out in these shocking waves of sound. Titles include "Sanza Tristesse", "Forest Nativity", "Sunny Crypt", "Ngoma Likembe", "Guinee", "Di Saegi", and "Binta Madiallo". LP, Vinyl record album

Totally cool, totally amazing music from the enigmatic Francis Bebey – a contemporary on the early 80s African scene of William Onyeabor, and an equally experimental artists! Bebey used a fair bit of electronics, but often with sounds that had acoustic roots – in this case, the ultra cool sansa, which is a similar thumb piano to the kalimba – amplified here in really great ways, and mixed with some moody, dark elements throughout! The music has much more of a 70s vintage than you'd guess from the dates on the record – thanks partly to the raw percussion, and very offbeat production – which sometimes is mellow, sometimes bursts out in these shocking waves of sound. Titles include "Sanza Tristesse", "Forest Nativity", "Sunny Crypt", "Ngoma Likembe", "Guinee", "Di Saegi", and "Binta Madiallo". LP, Vinyl record album

A whole host of cool Latin tracks from the French West Indies scene of the late 60s – not music that flowed to Guadeloupe or Martinique from Cuba or Puerto Rico – but fresh new sounds that were directly inspired by the boogaloo generation on the New York scene! The tracks here aren't straight Latin Soul – and they're hardly familiar Latin, either – and are instead this wonderful hybrid of elements, including some previous Caribbean modes – all fused into the tighter, shorter burst of energy that was unlocked once Joe Cuba and some of his generation discovered the smaller combo mode of Latin grooving! There's a nicely messed-up criss-crossing of sounds going on here – not the same as, but with similar energy to the Spanish Harlem scene at the time – on cuts that include "Jerk Vide" by David Martial, "Mais Tu Sais" by Dany Play, "Je Voudrais Danser Avec Toi" by Les Bois Sirop, "Sauvagement Sexy" by Gaby Siarras, "Sekirite" by Maurice Alcindor, "Tu Bois Beaucoup" by Le Ry-Co Jazz, "Disque La Raye" by Joby Valente, "Ou Que Di Moin" by Monsieur X, and "Ou Pas Z'Amis En Moin" by Henri Debs. LP, Vinyl record album

A totally wonderful collection of music from the very tiny scene in Mauritius – an island nation in the Indian Ocean, nicely poised at a real crossroads of culture during the 70s! The music here begins in the style of sega, which often features a local percussion instrument at the core of the rhythms – but there's a huge amount of the fuzz promised in the title, cool touches on both guitar and organ that are woven strongly with the percussion, in ways that almost feel like a psychedelic take on the sounds of East Africa! Most numbers have French vocals, and the blend of voice, fuzz, and rhythms is great – on titles that include "Maria" by Daniel Delord, "Capito" by Lelou Menwar, "Beau Pere" by Colouce, "Machin Sex" by Jean Claude, "Pop Sega" by George Gabriel, "Qui Fine Arrive" by Claudio, "Django" by Harold Betty, "Silvie" by Roland Fatime, and "Soul Sabattah" by The Features Of Life". LP, Vinyl record album