This been my jam since summer! 🔥🔥🔥

Togo Disco

Ibo Combo - Mateau

Saxon lee & The Shadows international: Mind your buisness ( Dj Julien Lebrun edit)

June 23rd marks the arrival of the long-awaited proper reissue of Amara Toure’s groundbreaking Afro-latin studio works captured between 1973 and 1980. Analog Africa has prepared a special gatefold double LP version on 140g vinyl, encompassing the three singles he recorded under the Black and White ensemble between 1973 and 1976 along with the highly coveted Orchestre Massako group’s stunning 1980 LP Accompagné Par L’Orchestre Massako. This is the entire known works of the mystic composer and it is stated in the press that after he recorded Accompagné Par L’Orchestre Massako, he would never been seen again and his whereabouts are unknown to this day. Breaking ground out of the rich legacy and musician development system Dakar, Senegal, producer Ibra Kasseì created, the origins of Ibra’s movement begins in the late ’50s when fusion music around the world was beginning to stretch outside of sketch forms. Cuban styles of son montuno and patchanga were infused with local folk traditions and modern instrumentation of each successive generation, producing a hybrid of West African and Caribbean music that is intoxicating and hypnotic in every rhythm, harmony and overtone. Senegal was buzzing with new creativity through the ’60s and beyond, met with an array of highly advanced musicians and visionaries. Nightlife music for those that wanted something beyond the radio hits and presented with a passionate essence that connected many people in the region of the time.

Amara Toure was brought up in a progressive movement unlike any other and by the time he was able to head his own groups and record his own content from the experience he gained networking with Ibra Kassei, African music had finally hit a global scale. When you open up the lid on the musicians who never made it outside of the regions known for strong music activity, an overwhelming list of artists come up and there is no question that Amara Toure ranks amongst the top of these creators. Originally from Guinea-Conakry, Amara Toure remained underground and raw during his tenure producing records, creating some of the most earth-shattering grooves and harmonies from any West African artist ever. To have his works in one album from the exceptional team at Analog Africa is a dream come true, updating pre-existing copies of originals that run in the triple digit numbers amongst hardcore collectors and doing a great job at preserving the analog warmth of the originals. The singles material was recorded in Cameroon while the 1980 content was done in Libreville, Gabon. Absolutely breathtaking guitar, percussion and horn heavy music that is timeless without question. For the vinyl junkies, this one has been pressed on deluxe gatefold double LP as a 140-gram vinyl and is presented in four-color screenprinted covers and also comes with a screenprinted poster. Limited edition to 1,500 copies, so order now if you want to secure a vinyl copy as these will surely run out quickly. Analog Africa does various reprints on back catalog titles out of print but these are never announced ahead of time. One can only hope they will run multiple campaigns for these prints as this music is too good for words.

Get it HERE

Salamouti  - Amara Touré et l´Orchestre Massako

Sneak peak of the forthcoming twelve from Afro7 records. Two mid 80s Kikuyu Disco Bombs by Julius Kangethe. Extended Edit and Rework by Didier Selin.

KIRU STARS (Julius Kangethe BYLAW / Didier Selin extended mix) 'FAMILY PLANNING' Snippet

@Soundway-records repress the only record from Nigeria's 'Sound Preisdent' who signed Fela Kuti to EMI Nigeria and produced all of Fela’s revolutionary early material from 1970-73.

Read more & buy: http://www.stampthewax.com/2016/08/01/odion-ikebe/
Listen on Youtube: bit.ly/idion--iruoje-ikebe

Down To Earth

Pre-Order

Odion Iruoje - Ikebe (STW Premiere)

‘Leave, If not I will kill you’

In early 1978, Vincent Ahehehinnou left the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou without explanation. He had been one of their principal vocalist since 1968 and had helped transform them from a hard-charging nightclub band into a musical powerhouse and Africa-wide sensation. By the end of 1977, after an explosive performance at the pan-African arts and culture festival (Festac77) in Lagos, the band had reached the very pinnacle of their success.

For nearly forty years, the reasons behind Vincent’s sudden departure have remained a mystery. Until now.

In an interview included with Analog Africa’s new reissue of Best Woman – Vincent’s first post-Poly-Rythmo album, which has been out-of-print for close to four decades and nearly impossible to find outside West Africa – the great singer finally breaks his silence. He didn’t leave … he was pushed.

Poly-Rythmo were already popular in their native Benin but, in the aftermath of Festac ’77, the band were poised for break-out success throughout Africa. One of the people who stood to benefit most was the band’s manager Adissa Seidou, whose label Albarika Store had released most of the band’s recordings. However Adissa’s vision for Poly-Rythmo didn’t always line up with that of the musicians and, more often than not, it was Vincent who spoke up for the band.

The two men grew increasingly estranged until one day – at the funeral for Adissa’s father no less – Adissa gave Vincent an ultimatum of sorts. In Vincent’s own words: ‘I asked him if there is a way we could sort out our differences to which he replied that the only solution was for me to leave the band, adding, “if not I will kill you”’.

And so Vincent found himself forced out of the band he had helped build. He tried his hand at various business ventures, but soon realised that the pull of music was too strong. On a business trip to Nigeria, Vincent met with Ignace de Souza of Benin’s Black Santiago band, who agreed to arrange Vincent’s songs, assemble musicians, and book a session at the legendary Decca Studios in Lagos. 

With everything in place Vincent returned to Cotonou, gathered together all the money he had saved over the years and set out again for Lagos. But the simple bus journey to Nigeria turned into a nightmarish odyssey of military corruption … and  had it not been for the random kindness of an unknown woman on the bus, this album – along with Vincent’s subsequent solo career – might never have existed. Vincent tells the full story in the liner notes to this LP.

But Vincent did make it to Lagos and the sessions went ahead. The nine-piece band, handpicked by de Souza, learned the songs and set them to tape in the span of only a week … but the results are as timeless and essential as anything to emerge from West Africa in the late 1970s.

Vincent’s afrobeat credentials are in full evidence on opening track ‘Best Woman’ (English) whose driving beat, focussed horns and intricate vocal melody recall the raucous intensity of Poly-Rythmo. But the deep funk of the title track turns out to be only a warm-up for album-highlight ‘Maimouna Cherie’ (French), a moving expression of love and longing which kicks off with a hi-hat and wah-wah guitar workout but shifts gears mid-way into a more concentrated and contemplative groove. 

The funk and afrobeat gems on Best Woman are balanced by songs that draw upon Sato, one of the many Vodoun rhythms of Vincent’s native Benin. Side one concludes with ‘Vi Deka’ (Mina), an epic slow-burner propelled by some of the record’s most soulful vocals, while album closer ‘Wa Do Verite Ton Noumi’ (Fon) all but dares you not to lose yourself in its sublime hypnotic trance.

Ahehehinnou Vincent Vol.1

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Best Woman - Vicent Ahehehinnou

I remember the day clearly. I was searching for treasures in a record shop in Yaoundé, the Capital city of Cameroon, when suddenly I came across a 7-inch record with a picture of a young man wearing a traditional hat and bearing the marks of several imposing vertical scars on the side of his face, carved when he was just a boy as a reminder of his heritage in the Musgum tribe of the northern part of the country.

The record contained two songs – ‘Gandjal Kessoum’ and ‘Touflé’ – by an artist I had never heard of before named Hamad Kalkaba. Both cuts were raw classics of fuzzed-out bass, pin-sharp horns, built upon the unshakable foundation of Northern Cameroon’s mightiest rhythm: the Gandjal. The shop owner - who noticed that I was listening to the same record over and over again - mentioned that ‘There is another single with a green cover of the same artist, if I am not mistaken’.

Over the next six years I searched for that ‘green cover’ and finally found it in a record collection belonging to an old bar in Parakou in northern Benin. While most of the records had been beaten and worn by a life spent in the jukebox, this one had been sitting in its paper sleeve for forty years, untouched and unplayed, seemingly waiting for us to pick it up and rip the two soulful Gandjal tunes from it, the masterpieces ‘Fouh Sei Allah’ and ‘Tchakoulaté’.

These two records, plus a third simply named ‘Nord Cameroon Rythms’ constitute the entire discography of Hamad Kalkaba. Neglected for decades by all but the most devoted collectors of Afro music, Hamad Kalkaba and the Golden Sounds at long last gathers together the body of work of one of Cameroon’s forgotten geniuses.

But unlike many musicians who emerged from nowhere, recorded a few singles and vanished again, Kalkaba hadn’t disappeared. Far from it. He was a distinguished public figure, a retired Colonel in the army of Cameroon, and a former member of Cameroon’s Olympic Selection Committee. When we tracked him down he was serving as president of the Confederation of African Athletics. And Although Kalkaba’s job kept him busy, and he seemed initially dismissive of the music he’d made as a young man, he turned out to be an enthusiastic ally in this project. He arranged interviews, helped fill in the blanks and, when we finally met him in Yaoundé in 2016, provided us with photographs, lyric sheets and notes.

During the interview Kalkaba explained how the songs recorded in the mid 1970s were part of a movement, a movement initiated by musicians from all around Cameroon who, with the help of keyboards, drum kits and electric guitars, had started to modernise the traditional rhythms of their regions. For Kalkaba it was no different and backed by his band the Golden Sounds, devoted himself to the promotion of the sounds of northern Cameroon.

One of the aims of Analog Africa is to showcase the colourful diversity of styles that exist in Africa and its diaspora and today we are very proud to be able to give these Gandjal tunes their first worldwide release.

Hamad Kalkaba and the Golden Sounds 1974 - 1975

Get the Record here:

Hamad Kalkaba - Astadjam Dada Saré(Leave a comment, tell kalkaba how much you love his song!)

Andrea Benini - Drumphilia Vol. 1
"a journey inspired by early African Electronic music and modern beats"

Written, Performed, Arranged and Produced by Andrea Benini 
Mixed by Andrea Benini and Andrea Scardovi at Duna Studio (RA) Italy
Mastered by Kelly Hibbert
Andrea Benini plays: electronic drums, analog drum machines, drum synthesizers, bass synthesizers, syncussion, percussions, log drum, marimbula, kalimba, sansula 
*Danilo Mineo plays Jew's harp on Marranzanu 
*Max Castlunger plays balafon, kalimba, percussions on Jawa

Out June 22nd - Cristalline a division of Agogo Records

A1 Jawa (03:31)
A2 Maharaja (05:30)
B1 The Juggler (02:31)
B2 El Guerrero (04:22)
B3 The Forbidden Tale (03:48)
C1 Marranzanu (04:16)
C2 Pink Twirl (04:22)
D1 Paramour (02:24)
D2 Blue Drop (02:59)
D3 Bacio Rubato (02:32)
D4 Cosmonomade (03:30)

bonus track CD/digi : Syncussion (06:51)

All tracks written by Andrea Benini
www.andreabenini.com

This Album is dedicated to all the *Rhythm Diggers* around the Globe.
A big *Grazie" to my lovely Family (Patrizia, Gualtiero, Giulia) for constantly supporting me. 
Andrea Benini

https://andreabenini.bandcamp.com/album/drumphilia-vol-1

Drumphilia

El Guerrero

Rehwe Mie Enyim

Premiere: Y-Bayani & Baby Naa - Rehwe Mie Enyim

Available on Analog Africa No.13 - The Skeletal Essences of Afro Funk
Release date: April 30th

Ecoute ma Melodie - Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou

*Analog Africa - The Future Of Music Happened Decades Ago*

Hamad Kalkaba - Astadjam Dada Saré(Leave a comment, tell kalkaba how much you love his song!)

Analog Africa

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