The king of acid-fuzz guitar presents a barbed bouquet of classic psych covers — The Stooges, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, MC5, Jefferson Airplane and co — with killer, piercing fuzz-wah guitar and bizarre software-generated vocals. ‘One of the finest acid-punk shredders to ever walk the planet, Munehiro Narita gives these time-honored psych rock classics a serious kick in the ass, in the most bizarre and Japanese of musical settings’ (Steve Krakow, Galactic Zoo). ‘Munehiro Narita (High Rise et al) bleeds all over a series of massively re-wired cover versions of classic psych while computer generated little girl vocals relocate the whole damn thing in another future altogether’ (David Keenan).

More from the archives of Tom Mkhize, re-imagining traditional South African music as Library Music in 1980s Johannesburg. Plenty of mbaqanga on this volume, running back to kwela, marabi and early South African jazz. The opener’s a knockout — thumb piano (heavy with delay), makhoyane gourd-resonated musical bow, sikhelekehle fiddle, steel drum and synthesizer.

‘Spectacular examples across the board: mesmeric guitar playing in the Barotse style, which uses tunings from the local thumb-piano tradition; kangombia thumb-piano music; rollicking drum ensembles; and jaw-dropping performances of siyemboka, Barotseland’s national music, played on silimba — giant wooden xylophones, sometimes five metres in length, played by four or five men at once’ (The Wire).

‘Dreamy musical segments, fleeting glimpses, odd sounds, temple shrines, decay, death, afternoon rains, and mysterious celebrations… from the Irrawaddy delta to humid nights on the streets of Isan province.’

Amazing, psychedelic, engagé afro-disco from the same milieu as William Onyeabor, with Gaspar Lawal on percussion. Very warmly recommended.

Beautifully direct Wassoulou songs by the twenty-year-old accompanied only by N’Gou Bagayoko on acoustic guitar.

Starkly intimate, utterly captivating early recordings by this wonderful Malian singer. Voice and acoustic guitar only; as if you were the only person in the room.
The sound has been brilliantly restored by Awesome Tapes, for its fiftieth release.
Achingly beautiful music; hotly recommended.

Instrumental music from the north: like the hunting bow, made from wild vine and the tendon of an antelope, struck with a stick or a porcupine spine. One end goes in the performer’s mouth, which makes a resonator.

In the new Luminessence series of ECM’s vinyl-reissues: audiophile pressings in elegant, high-quality editions, with tip-on gatefold sleeves including new liner notes.

Deep, vibesing, rootical excursions in Brazilian percussion, especially berimbau; originally released by Saravah in 1973.
Newly remastered from the master tapes; gatefold sleeve.
Fabulous.

Music for a ballet telling the life of of a daughter of a black slave, recorded in 1974 by the likes of Nana Vasconcelos, Joao Donato, Paulinho Jobim, and members of Som Imaginario; and containing the definitive versions of some of MN’s most iconic songs, including Os Escravos De Jó and Maria Maria.
‘Sheer beauty’ (The Guardian). ‘You don’t need to understand a word to realise that this is awesome music’ (Time Out).

Two teenagers’ amapiano music from Gauteng province in South Africa, drawing on jazz, folk, afro, deep and tech house, kwaito, and dibacardi… but sounding like none of them.