I recommend listening to African music on the regular. Appreciate the deeply soulful voices that aren't heard enough in the West, marvel at the intricacies, joys, sadness & propulsive nature of the music & ponder that it's pretty much the roots of all modern music. When it's from Nahawa DOUMBIA on Awesome Tapes From Africa singing about the, often ill considered subject of emmigration, then pay even closer attention.  https://nahawadoumbia.bandcamp.com/album/kanawa

The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo

Sáré Kon Kon Pt. 1 (Live at the Apollo)

GGLP-001 | FELA and AFRIKA 70 "SORROW, TEARS and BLOOD"

OFFICIAL AND HISTORICAL!
First Fela record released in Brazil and Goma-Gringa's debut release!

Limited high-quality reissue of the legendary black-president, king of Afro-Beat; Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
For the first time re-issued in his original version featuring the original extented 16 min version of 'Sorrow, Tears and Blood'.
Strictly limited to 500 copies! Beautiful silkscreened sleeve and high-quality exclusive photo insert!

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1977, on the 18th of February at dawn, a thousand armed Nigerian army men started tackling Fela and his Kalakuta republic, which were both seen as a symbol of defiance against the oppressive state.

‘Sorrow, Tears and Blood’ was among the first albums Fela released following the destruction of Kalakuta.

The title track is one of the most powerful protest songs ever recorded. In an impassioned attack on police and army violence against political dissenters in Africa, ‘Sorrow, Tears and Blood’ accurately depicts the trail left in the wake of the February 18th raid.

Fela sings how, invariably, the police and army leave behind them "sorrow, tears and blood" while the backing vocalists respond, "dem regular trademark".
As said by Fela, this LP was dedicated "to the memory of those who were beaten, raped, tortured or injured" during the Kalakuta attack.

Decca, which was Fela’s record company, scared by reprisals from the government, refused to release ‘Sorrow, Tears & Blood’. A decision that led Fela into setting up Kalakuta Records and making this album the label’s debut release.

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Get your copy here: http://en.gomagringa.com/product/lp-fela-kuti-sorrow-tears-blood

GGLP-001 | Fela and Afrika 70 "Sorrow, Tears and Blood"

PRE-ORDER FROM THE SOUNDWAY STORE AND GET AN INSTANT FREE DOWNLOAD OF 'TEOY SALAP PAMAA' 

Soundway’s second foray into South East Asia is focused on North-East Thailand, the epicentre of Molam and Luk Thung Isan music. Hypnotic phin & khaen riffs, pulsing, electrified country rhythms and heartfelt vocals punctuate another journey into the lesser known reaches of 1970s Thai music. 

The first volume of The Sound of Siam, released in 2011, was the first introduction for many to the artistry and innovations of modern Thai music. One of the most popular compilations on Soundway Records the music even made it onto the big screen with ‘Mae Jom Ka Lon’ by Dao Bandon featured on the soundtrack of ‘The Hangover Part II’.  In an interview with LA Times Mick Jagger spoke of discovering the collection that “some nutter put together” after hearing the riff from Jumpin’ Jack Flash on one of the tracks from the compilation.

In this second volume of The Sound of Siam the focus is firmly on the music the sounds of north-east Thailand, or Isan and attempts to show how a genre evolved and developed from essentially an acoustic tradition with specific geographic roots, to one that started to incorporate other instruments and influences that reached out to the Isan diaspora around the country.

The term molam is actually two separate words pushed together: Mo meaning ‘expert’ or ‘doctor’ and lam meaning ‘to sing’. Hence the literal translation means ‘singing expert’. Many molam records have extended intros that allow a vocalist to establish the theme of the song, as well as flex their improvisational muscles.

Luk thung (literally ‘song of the countryside’)is a much broader, rural style that had a bigger impact nationally. Artists like Saksiam Petchompu began fusing this style with molam, a move which propelled him to national fame. You can hear the influence of western funk, as well as Thai arrangements, on the luk thung Isan (as the hybrid became known) smash Jeb Jin Jeb Jai included here.

The Sound of Siam 2 - Molam & Luk Thung Isan from North-East Thailand 1970 - 1982’ features 19 tracks, many appearing outside of Thailand for the first time. Both CD and double LP & is accompanied with detailed liner notes written by compilers Chris Menist and Maft Sai.

PRE-ORDER:  http://www.soundwayrecords.com/product/sndwcd058-the-sound-of-siam-2---molam--luk-thung-isan-from-north-east-thailand-1970---1982

Always a peak record at any Paradise Bangkok event, 'Teoy Salap Pamaa' is another melodic mode. Pamaa is actually the Thai (and Isan) word for Burma, implying that this teoy might have taken its lead from a Burmese rhythm or melody. There is frenetic interplay between the khaen and cymbals creating an urgency tempered only by Kunchai’s ever-authoritative performance with her post- Ubon Pattana Band group, Mueng Dok Bua. Once again, she has the relationship blues as she decries men as being perennially untrustworthy liars.

Pre-order

Angkanang Kunchai - Teoy Salap Pamaa

10. Orlando Julius With The Heliocentrics - Jaiyede Afro (2014)

"House of Love (Ogbe Yekun)," ÌFÉ's second single is a ghostly, beckoning musical offering. Recorded live using improvised electronic instruments, ÌFÉ mixes Cuban Rumba with the digital sounds of Jamaican Dancehall, creating a musical space and expression altogether its own. At times tender, at other moments seductive and flirtatious, the song is an invitation / an offering to those forces that walk among us and a reminder that life is nothing if not a constant act of giving to receive.

OFFICIAL VIDEO: https://youtu.be/fmYYm0s-uws
BANDCAMP: https://grupoife.bandcamp.com
ITUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/house-love-ogbe-yekun-single/id1072947224
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/track/6HfR62fhMBIBYPoDvOh6pv
WEBSITE: http://www.ife-music.com

MANAGEMENT
LAURÉNE CHANSON
ife.alovesupreme@gmail.com

US PRESS CONTACT: 
PAUL DRYDEN 
paulfdryden@gmail.com

BOOKING:
ETIENNE ZILLER
e.ziller@3pomprod.com

HOUSE OF LOVE (Ogbe Yekun)

Ngihawukele

Kondi Band - Belle Wahallah EP
Out 13th May 2016 on Strut. Vinyl 12" out 27th May.
Order: https://strut.lnk.to/BelleWahallahSO

Serious new project on the way from Strut HQ as Freetown’s kondi (thumb piano) genius Sorie Kondi meets producer Chief Boima for an inspired Afro-electronic fusion. First EP ‘Belle Wahallah’ (literally ‘Belly Trouble’) comments on this issue of hunger in Sierra Leone and features the brilliant original mix and new versions from Hagan and Boddhi Satva. The simmering, sparse mid-tempo ‘Yeanoh (Powe Handa Blingabe)’, already championed heavily by Gilles Peterson, is also included on the B-Side.

Full-length album in the works for September.

For more info:
http://www.strut-records.com


Kondi Band - Belle Wahallah

Newen Plays Fela es un Ep con dos tracks de Fela Anikulapo Kuti interpretados por Newen Afrobeat e invitados como Seun Kuti, Cheick Tidiane Seck, entre otros.

Opposite People

Eba Aka Jerome et le Sanwi Star - Trasion (Alma Negra Edit)

New song from the forthcoming album by Nahawa Doumbia, out 29 January on Awesome Tapes From Africa.
Pre-order/stream http://smarturl.it/kanawa

Nahawa Doumbia’s new album Kanawa concisely captures this current moment in Malian history. The singer, whose storied career spans more than four decades, reflects on the immigration crisis from the Malian perspective in the title of her new album Kanawa. Across eight songs recorded in Bamako with a band including traditional and modern instruments, Doumbia merges her early work that relied on a spare expression of her trademark didadi rhythm with the bombastic range of contemporary Malian pop. The beautifully complex musical accompaniment that results is courtesy of the large ensemble she pulled together with producer and arranger (and day one collaborator) N’gou Bagayoko. 

The band features two highly expressive Malian string instruments, the ngoni and the slightly smaller kamalé ngoni, as well as a variety of percussion, drum programming, karignan (a metal scraper) and acoustic and electric guitars. Doumbia’s daughter, a celebrated singer with her own group and busy concert schedule, Doussou Bagayoko sings on “Adjorobena,” a song about patience, tolerance and living in peace. Doumbia weaves together a roadmap of her psyche when it comes to the good and bad life has to offer. She talks about marriage and women leaving home to join another through the metaphor of a tree in the garden; she includes gunshot samples in the song “Foliwilen” to honor the bravery of hunters, soldiers and other courageous people; she uses a bird in “Djougoh” to talk about lazy people; and, in “Ndiagneko” she advises people to ignore critics, just do you.  

Mali has gone through an intense period of regional strife and terrorist incidents over the last ten years and Doumbia roots the album in tragic local concerns with deep global implications. “The meaning of Kanawa is so simple. We see our children trying to cross the ocean all the time. I said that many of our children die in the ocean and some of them die while crossing the Sahara. But I ask them why do they leave their country? They said that they leave because of the family situation or problems like poverty and unemployment. I ask them to stay and work in their country. I call on the UN and African leaders so that we can coordinate our efforts to find a solution, to create jobs for them so that young people stop leaving. That’s why I chose it as the title of my album so that everybody can learn from it and also so that there is a reduction in the number of people emigrating. So that some will hear the message and stay home and grow the land. Leaving is not the only solution. My message is to help the youth find jobs.”

Nahawa Doumbia - Blonda Yirini

Awesome Tapes From Africa

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