Fine singing and oud-playing, with zither and violin, and the percussion which characterises the hejaz style — nasgar and naqrazan, darbuka and tar, both held at the same time in the left hand, struck by the right.

Warmly welcome, expertly recorded, new saze music from southern Albania, upholding its traditional, stunning mix of drones, in-your-face a cappella, and rootsy, virtuosic instrumentalism — in this case, violin, clarinet, lute and percussion. Produced by Joe Boyd.
Try searching out Albanian Village Music (78s from 1930 reissued by Heritage). Other-worldly and heart-stopping; totally knockout.

A thrilling, Sudanese, seventies blend of funk and soul jazz, with hot brass and organ, breaks and beats, even a shot of highlife. Nile Waves is knockout — as if the JBs fetched up in Khartoum.

Awe-inspiring 1950s recordings by one of the greatest bagpipe players of the century… from the Isle of Mull.

Likembe thumb-piano get-togethers, yodels and ekidongo harps, leg-rattles, vocal knees-ups, magwala horn groups, flutes, xylophones and drums.

Fervid vocal intensity from the venerable Tijaniyya and Muridiyya brotherhoods, singing hymns and poems to the glory of the Lord, live in concert.

‘The basic theme of the record can be summed up with one extremely powerful Bahasa Indonesian word, Tanah, which translates as ‘soil-ground-land-earth’. Shabara’s vocals are an expressive force, conjuring spirits from the soil with a deep, cosmic humility and respect for the land.
‘Suryadi has built a new guitar for these tracks and pushes the Senyawa sound into new territory, utilizing delay, loops, and other effects to constitute groundings of folk, metal, punk and drone, for Shabara to explore with his whispered poetry and jagged, sharp-as-a-kris animistic powers. There is simply no other sound like it.’

Seven songs by Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi, rootsily mystical and vividly al fresco, spiralling from peripheral sites beside rubbish dumps and rice fields, into a busy market at the heart of Yogyakarta, from dawn till dusk.

A suitably outrageous picture disc.

Sixteen albums, 1958-1987; singles; duets; radio and soundtrack recordings.
271 tracks; 48-page booklet, with numerous photos.

Funkdafied, discofried, cosmic soca-boogie from 1984.  Let’s Get It Together is a monster.

The magic moments of Sharam Shabpareh, front-man of Iranian garage legends The Rebels. ‘Blurting horns, evil bass grooves, cheesy organs, a thick strata of percussion going off like microwave popcorn.’

An astounding compilation of the breakneck Shangaan dance output of the Nozinja studio in Soweto, recorded between 2006 and 2009.