Global Grooves — Recently Added

A totally smoking set of tracks from the Somali scene of the 70s – and maybe the coolest East African music we've heard from the time! The material here is all from a small label that was spun off an appliance store – and the imprint had a really great ear for recording these acts in ... LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent work from Souljazz Orchestra – a group who've consistently been one of the strongest contemporary Afro Funk ensembles for the past decade or so! There's a richness to the Souljazz approach that sets them apart from other groups that might just be going through the motions – ... CD

Searing sounds from 70s Zambia – from one of the hippest, funkiest, most sharp-edged groups on the scene! This sweet little set may well be the best album ever from Musi O Tunya – a perfect fusion of funky roots with lots of Afro Soul touches, and a wicked approach to the guitar that ... CD

Funky music from the West Indies – stripped down organ groovers, brass punctuated jams with rumbling drums and tasty guitar licks, funky steel band covers and and more from Syd Jones & The Troubadours, Dutch Rhythm, Steel & Show Band, The East Side Symphony, St Vincent's Supersould ... CD

One of the coolest records in years from the legendary Tony Allen – and that's saying a lot, given that his legacy includes famous work as a drummer with Fela Kuti, and a much more recent run of very experimental recordings! This set has Tony soaring out on Blue Note – and working with ... CD

Rare early work from Mulatu – material recorded in America, in the years before Mulatu returned to his Ethiopian homeland, and really set the scene on fire! The style here is a mix of Latin jazz with some more exotic elements – played by a combo that features Mulatu on vibes, alongside ... LP, Vinyl record album

Incredible! This is a stunning set of African-inspired jazzy percussion tracks – similar to some of the work done by Art Blakey on his Orgy In Rhythm albums, but with a lot better horn work, and with an overall conception that's much more unified! AK Salim did some sleepier work for Savoy ... LP, Vinyl record album

The final album by one of the mightiest groups on the scene in Cameroon during the 70s – a combo who had broken up, but who are resurrected here – and turn in one of their greatest recordings of the decade! The grooves are tight, fast, and filled with riffing guitar, quick percusison, ... LP, Vinyl record album

An Afro Funk record, but one with a bit of an unusual groove, too – as the set was recorded in France, and features some unusual moogy touches next to the percussion, horns, and guitars! Pasteur Lappe's definitely going for more of a global funk vibe overall here – and, a bit like Ice ... LP, Vinyl record album

Sweet Cambodian pop from the 80s – recorded by two artists who'd emigrated to Portland, then issued this album only on cassette back in the day! The style is an unusual extrapolation of Cambodian pop from the decade before – with vocals by both Holic San Yoeun and Sovann Yoeun – ... LP, Vinyl record album

Beautiful sounds from the Saharan scene – served up here by an Algerian combo with some wonderful guitar in the lead! The instrumentation is similar to some of their contemporaries, but also maybe crafted with a bit more tightness too – especially on numbers where the group's vocals ... LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing bit of Afro-futurism – as traditional instruments are presented in an electrified setting – percussion and keyboards joyously dancing together, but with a really raw groove! The keyboards are often stark and distorted – as pulsating as the percussion – and given ... LP, Vinyl record album

A real freakout of a record – played by a band who must have been one of the headiest acts in Niger during the 70s! That nation's not nearly as well-known for psychedelic acts as some of the other African scenes of the time – but Azna De L'Adner can easily stand with the best of them ... LP, Vinyl record album

A really seminal album from Fela Kuti – searing live set that pairs him with drummer Ginger Baker – formerly of Cream, and a huge supporter of Fela's music on the UK scene! Baker had already picked up a lot of Fela's influence in his music – and rather than the record being one ... LP, Vinyl record album

Ethiopian music from the 70s, but mostly work that's much more rootsy than the sounds you'd hear on the Ethiopiques series – despite the placement of "urban" in the title! Instead, these cuts represent a recorded version of that nation that circulated more widely amongst listeners ... LP, Vinyl record album

Pretty fierce grooves from the Foundars 15 – a late 70s Nigerian group who seem to sit equally in the balance between funk and rock at the time! As with other groups of the time, there's a way of mixing trippier elements with straightforward grooves – always set to English language ... LP, Vinyl record album

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, ... LP, Vinyl record album

Modern Egyptian music, circa 1983 – served up here in a collection of recordings that initially only appeared on cassette! The leader of the group is Al Massrieen, but the music is a very collaborative affair – keyboards, upbeat rhythms, and vocals from many group members – in a ... LP, Vinyl record album

An awesome tape from Africa, but a set that also shares lots with the American soul scene of the 80s too – as Om Alec Khaoli draws heavily on the bass and beat-heavy club sounds the time! The tracks were recorded in Soweto and Johannesburg, but have a groove that's strongly electric soul ... CD

Maybe the coolest music we've ever heard from Ethiopian keyboard legend Hailu Mergia – a late 70s session that has his organ lines sounding even groovier than ever, on some sweet tracks that also bring in a fair bit of funk to the grooves! The style is much more in an Ethiopiques vein than ... LP, Vinyl record album

The first few numbers we've heard from trombone player Toli and the Femm Nameless group – an all female Afrobeat-inspired combo who made some waves in the fertile Brooklyn live funk scene of early 00s alongside scene legends like Antibalas, the Dapkings and Menhan Street Band but disbanded ... 12-inch, Vinyl record

Two extended funky numbers from the early 80s Caribbean scene – both of them mighty nice! "Stay Up Zimbabwe" takes up all of side one – a slow-building groove that has this fantastic bassline that moves at a relaxed pace, but with plenty of power – while Brother ... LP, Vinyl record album

The Meridian Brothers have been making music for quite a few years now – and with each new release, they seem to open up another fresh corner of southern hemisphere sounds, and continue to find a way to weave them together into something quite fresh and unique! Few other folks could navigate ... LP, Vinyl record album

One of the coolest keyboardists you'll ever hope to hear – an artist who can take a cheesy-looking instrument, and turn it into something that sounds ancient and exotic! This album may well be the most perfect distillation of the talents of Abdou El Omari – as most tracks just feature ... LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing tribute to one of the greatest series of ethnographic material ever recorded – the legendary Disques Ocora records – still unsurpassed in terms of their care and quality! The material set a new standard for field recordings – handled by musicologist Charles Duvelle, ... CD

Some of the earliest recordings of voodoo work from Haiti – served up here in a 3CD collection that includes a surprisingly huge amount of material! Some of the rawest work here was recorded in the field, but with clarity enough to make the chanted vocals and heavy percussion come through ... CD

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 ... LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the most searing album we've ever heard from Antibalas – a set that's completely on fire from the very first note, both musically and politically – and which burns with an intensity that seems to blow away all their previous music! Make no mistake, we've always loved these guys ... LP, Vinyl record album

Odion Iruoje is billed as the "Sound President" on the cover – a title he definitely deserves, given the amazing sound of this set – which mixes early 80s Nigerian electro sounds with a bit of influence from hip hop too! Iruoje's completely comfortable in both mides – ... LP, Vinyl record album

Pure insanity from the mighty Mulatu – one of his few American albums from the 60s! The record's an incredible blend of New York Latin and some of the more Afro-styled grooves Mulatu explored more freely on his Ethiopian recordings – served up in a jazzy style that has plenty of vibes ... LP, Vinyl record album