Summery, joyous, experimental pop; full of musical surprises and emotional twists and turns. The lush brass and woodwind arrangements are guided by Antonio Neves. Classic songwriting and cutting edge production, lit up by the beauty and chaos of Rio, and its sounds and rhythms; inspired by the pioneers of Música Popular Brasileira.

The multi-faceted genius of Eugene ‘Yonachak’ Cline, producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer from St Lucia, beautifully presented by Hornin’, with top-notch, live-and-kicking sound, in a gorgeous sleeve.
It’s a gripping, crazy mix. Deep, mid-seventies roots, Half Moon style, extended, with an instrumental, and ace dubs; nuts but banging late-eighties digi; off-the-wall rasta-soca fire.
Great stuff.

This is terrific.
Scintillating, masterful, roaring, classic Cubanismo, beautifully recorded in 2017 at the storied Areito Studio in Havana.
Descargas, jazz, boogaloo, son… and some ritual music to bring the curtain down. You’ll find yourself hungry for more.
The musicianship is dazzling in every corner of the orchestra; set on fire by the timbales of Changuito (from Los Van Van), and booted along by a hard-swinging, full brass section led by trumpeter Julito Padron, graduate of the legendary septet Nacional de Igacio Pinero, and later Irakere. The sound is steeped in tradition but by no means stuck in the past.
The vinyl is beautifully presented in a heavyweight, high-gloss gatefold.
Joyous, superb music; the real deal. Hotly recommended.

Lovely new recordings of maloya music, from Reunion, in the Indian Ocean.
Heartfelt singing amidst bustling, organic percussion, featuring kayanm shakers and berimbau-style bobre, with a pendulous bottom end.

A fabulous selection of Swahili popular music from the East African coast — Lamu, Mombasa, Tanga, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and the Comoros — taking in Tanzanian dance-band music, Congolese-style rumba and the hypnotic, Islamic sounds of Taarab, from the 1960s to date.

An early seventies South African expression of the London Beat scene, mixing in R&B, funk and moon-stomping, organ-led reggae. The 45s Reggae Shh! and Reggae Meadowlands were big underground hits on the Mod scene.
Featuring top-notch South Africa session musicians like guitarist Johnny Fourie and keyboardist Zane Cronje.

Deep taarab from 1982.
Zuhura and co came through the Mombasa scene of the 1970s, with a more uptempo musical style, and with Zuhura turning away from the usual Bollywood influences towards traditional Swahili poetry, for her direct, feminist lyrics.

‘Amazing! Like stumbling on a treasure-trove of unheard Charlie Patton and Blind Willie McTell 78s, but imbued with the spirit of Mahlathini and Ladysmith Black Mambazo,’ says Joe Boyd.