The sounds of the Sahara have been making big waves in recent years – but way back at the start of the 70s, this legendary group really set the scene with a set of key recordings done in Casablanca! Ahl Nana were some of the first to mix the electric guitar with more regional instrumentation – often with a sound that's relatively spare, and which really lets the fuzzy tone of the instrument mingle with percussion and chorus vocals from the rest of the group – all at a level that's maybe slightly less psychedelic than recent Saharan guitar work, but no less hypnotic overall! The whole collection is a real revelation, and brings together these lost recordings for the first time outside of Africa – with ten titles that include "Hob Mene", "Nahnou Sigharou El Ouatane", "Zeinab Moussa", "Bayna Daouali", "Emolli Tidwall Eherne", and "Yer Sabou Yerkoy". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that's as groovy as the group looks on the cover – and one that comes across with just the blend of acoustic and electric instrumentation the image might imply! Ansambl Mileta Petrovica are a Serbian group from the 80s who took older songs and reworked them with a cool style that's almost garagey in approach – save for the fact that the keyboards are much more fitting to the decade in which the music was recorded! The use of bongos is great, as it keeps things nice and rootsy at the core – while the guitar has plenty of surf-styled echo, and resonates really strongly through the music. Tracks are all instrumental, and titles include "Robot", "Zov Gitare", "Japanka", "Miletova Gadje", "Cocek Ajd'Mo U Planine", "Niski Disko", and "Zoranov Cicek". LP, Vinyl record album

Lucho Bermudez may look a bit square on the cover, but he was a key force in the rise of cumbia on the Colombian scene of the postwar years – and also handled a fair bit of other really great styles too! That work is finally given its due here – in a well-done package that brings together key tracks from Lucho's years on the scene – music that's served up in a variety of rhythms, but which is united in the way that Bermudez takes rootsier styles and mixed them with modern jazz instrumentation – a blend of modes that's very much at the same level that was happening in Havana during the period, but with very different results! A number of these tracks feature vocals from the lovely Matilde Diaz, and the instrumentation blends in lots of earthy percussion with well-crafted reed lines from the larger group. Titles include "Plinio Guzman", "Arroz Con Coco", "Gaiteando", "Mi Cumbia", "Irma", "Tolu", "Taganga", "Tambores De Chambacu", "Prende La Vela", "Santa Marta", "Fiesta De Negritos", "Danza Negra", "Colombia Tierra Querida", and "Nelly". LP, Vinyl record album