Global Grooves — Recently Added

The definitely got the title right on this one – because the set is filled with some of the most heavenly tracks from the legendary Ethiopiques series – that legendary run of compilations that was the first introduction for most of us to the amazing music of Ethiopia! This package ... LP, Vinyl record album

A great bit of jungle exotica from funky sitar player Ananda Shankar – composed as a full piece with an "atmosphere of twilight and the feeling of watching animals at a water hole", but with a sweeping soundtracky feel that makes it more like some lost 70s film gem in the best ... LP, Vinyl record album

Mad funk from Ethiopia – classic work by the legendary Mulatu, one of Africa's heaviest artists of the 70s! Mulatu's been kind of a beathead secret for years – as most of his exotic grooves were never issued properly outside of Africa, and have only been the province of collectors who ... LP, Vinyl record album

Mad grooves from the Ethiopian scene of the 70s – featuring work by the enigmatic Mulatu, plus some of the other extra-cool artists on that country's groundbreaking soul and funk scene! Mulatu plays Fender Rhodes and organ on his tracks – grooving with a slow, snakey approach that's ... LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent work from a hard-riffing combo – a smaller group from Benin who work in this wonderful blend of guitar, bass, and percussion – topped with very cool organ lines that sometimes almost have a horn-like sort of vibe! Tracks are all nice and long, and have some familiar West ... LP, Vinyl record album

An album of righteous power from the great Paul Ngozi – every bit as important on the 70s Zamrock scene as contemporaries Witch and Musi-O-Tunya – but an artist who's maybe also more powerful and personal as well! As you might guess from the title, there's a lot of politics in the mix ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool collection of work from Benyamin Suaeb – an Indonesian artist who was as much an actor as he was a singer – a legacy that really comes through in the weirdly offbeat style of this work! The tracks are selected from Benyamin's many albums of the 70s, and they are ... LP, Vinyl record album

Two rare albums from Uncle Victor Chukwu – a hell of a guitarist, and the driving force behind both of these Nigerian gems from the late 70s! Akalaka is a record that's maybe higlife in outward appearance, but which has a very different quality overall – in part because the guitar work ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool combination of creole roots and contemporary club – served up here by the duo of Oriane Lacaille and JereM Boucris – artists who are clearly bent on finding a whole new genre just for themselves! The French language vocals are great – and the music is full of older ... LP, Vinyl record album

The soulful sound of Bukky Leo takes off in all sorts of directions here – served up in a sweet soup of remixes by some great overseas talents! The work has the same Afro Funk vibe as some of Bukky's classic records – complete with his searing tenor work and strong lead vocals – ... LP, Vinyl record album

A set with a really cool concept, and one that takes the acoustic guitar sound of West Africa into very different territory – as Tidiane Thiam plays here with some great help from producer Makhtar N'Diaye, who adds in some percussion, samples, and other elements too! The aprroach is great, ... LP, Vinyl record album

Catchy, clubby grooves from the team of Zack Roberts and Gebah Swary – a Liberian duo who issued this very catchy record at the start of the 80s! The pair have an 80s look on the cover, and definitely bring that into their music too – with early electro touches used in very spare ways, ... LP, Vinyl record album

A contemporary artist, but working here on a very ancient instrument – the Kenyan obokano, which is a large eight-stringed instrument that brings out these bassy tones that are completely unique – blended here with a second version of the instrument, plus fuzzy guitar, bass, and other ... LP, Vinyl record album

A South African collective with a really wonderful vibe – jazzy instrumentation at the core, but sometimes topped with soulful vocals that have a soaring, righteous quality! There's certainly echoes of older SA styles here – especially on some of the the jazzier moments, and in the way ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really haunting take on the sound of Ethio jazz from the 70s – served up here by a mix of Ethiopian and Italian musicians who take the music in really wonderful directions! There's a female singer on most numbers, sounding beautiful next to electric krar, flute, bass, Fender Rhodes, and ... CD

A beautiful 70s album from Harari – a South African group who already had a long legacy in music before this set, and who really seem to come together with a style that's even more sophisticated than some of their previous albums! The cover might make the record look a bit disco, but there's ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of the most unusual groups we've heard from the Lagos scene of the 70s – a combo who definitely have a bit of funk in their style, but also a pretty trippy sound too – one that seems to draw from some of the headier sounds in the UK from a few years before – maybe folk-funk, ... LP, Vinyl record album

A great collection of grooves put together by up-and-coming DJ Kampire – an East African talent who really knows her music, and who comes at the selection of rare cuts here in nicely different ways than DJs and compilers from the US and UK markets! There's a great ear here for more ... CD

A record with a hypnotic image on the cover, and a very hypnotic sound within – all sorts of great guitar lines wrapped around basslines and percussion, percolating in a lean take on highlife – that earlier version of the material, before things got a bit more cleaned up and ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of the key hybrids of reggae roots and West African grooves on the Nigerian scene of the 80s – a set that's maybe one of the strongest ever from Maxwell Udoh, and one that also has a righteous way of reaching across the Atlantic to unite and embrace two different musical styles! The ... LP, Vinyl record album

Four rare tracks from Cotonou singer Stanislas Tohon – all originally issued only as rare singles, and brought together here as a package that represents some of the first global circulation of this work outside his scene! The music is from that time when contemporary electronic modes were ... LP, Vinyl record album

A damn soulful album from Ghanaian percussionist Rim Kwaku Obeng – recorded in LA at the end of the 70s, with loads of sweet clubby touches in the mix! Rim gets in plenty of tight percussion – lots of which showcases his rim-heavy approach to the drums – and also plays keyboards ... CD

One of the coolest records we've ever heard from the Mali scene of the 70s – a set that's got lots of unusual rhythmic impulses and vocal inflections – with a style that moves way beyond anything we might have expected! One of the best elements of the record is this really cool use of ... CD

The one and only album by Mali's Sidi Yassa De Kayes – a beautiful group who really transcend any easy labels or genre conventions! The style here is almost more personal than some of the other large ensembles in Mali at the time – as the feel is pretty raw and up-close throughout, ... CD

One of the greatest groups in Mali during the 70s – a legendary ensemble with a really other-worldly sound! Super Biton De Segou have a way of folding together their horns with their grooves that's really mindblowing – taking all the sharp edges and exotic flavors of the reeds, and ... CD

Amazing music from Mali – quite different than most other albums we've heard from that scene in the 70s – with wonderful reed work that really lives up to the "jazz" in the group's name! The sound is bold and righteous, but with an other-worldly vibe too – a really ... CD

Other-worldly sounds from a Kenyan fiddle player, but one who uses the instrument in ways that are completely unique – a style known as Orutu music, in which the instrument is used to spin out these hypnotic waves of sound next to spare percussion and really incredible chanted vocals! There's ... LP, Vinyl record album

A legendary group from the 70s Nigerian scene – one who could be as trippy as they were funky – often in ways that had them using studio production to really get some cool effects from their vocals and guitar! There's a spacey edge to most of these tracks – one that comes through ... CD

A rare boogie set from the Nigerian scene – but one that also has the power to circle the globe with a universal sense of soul – as you might guess by the cosmopolitan look of Livy Ekemezie on the cover! The set's got a very strong tie to the grooves of the New York scene of the time ... CD

Heavy Nigerian funk from the great Segun Bucknor – an artist who was working during the same Afro Funk revolution as Fela Kuti & Africa 70, but one who never fully got the exposure he deserved on a global level! By the time of these cuts, Segun had already been working hard in a variety ... CD