International Recommendations September 2017

Review: Afrocentrist Philou makes his debut on Basic Fingers with a trio of deep-seeded treats comprising one original and two game-changing edits. This homage to the Senegal/Mali mountain region softly ignites with the cosmic yearns and mild acid grounding of "Lumumba's Revenge". It sets the scene for two takes on regional traditions; "Tartit's Tribe" adds a driving afrobeat and hypnotic swing to an ancient Tombouctou desert song while "Fadimata's Dibabba" is a dense and inebriating weave of Senegalese instruments and chants.

Review: Amongst fans of Brazilian music, Sivuca is arguably best known for his 1973 cover of "Ain't No Sunshine" - later a favourite on the rare groove scene - which re-casts the Bill Withers classic as a sumptuous chunk of shuffling samba sunshine. Here, the track gets reissued as part of Mr Bongo's brilliant Brazil 45s series, alongside his lesser-known - but no less impressive - cover of Edu Lobo's "Ponteio".

Review: Afro 7's latest beautifully packaged 12" - check the luscious, silk-screen printed sleeve - takes a trawl through the back catalogue of obscure Kenyan band Them Mushrooms. The outfit founded in 1969 and continued recording until the mid 1990s, but it's for their late '70s and early '80s synth-laden sevens that they're arguably best known. The four tracks showcased here are all taken from those impossible-to-find singles. There are highlights around every turn, from the chanted male vocals, undulating synths and fretless bass brilliance of "Akumu Nvar Kisimu" and hazy, triple time funk swing of "Ndogo Ndogo", to the fizzing Moog lines and rubbery bass of sweet EP closer "Msondo Ngoma".

Review: Congolese musician Kiala Nzavotunga is something of an unheralded hero of the Afrobeat scene. Since deciding to visit Nigeria in the early 1970s he's played with many legendary figures and bands, including Fela Kuti, and famously founded one Europe's first Afrobeat band, Ghettoblaster. Now based in Japan, Afroblaster is his latest musical endeavour, and this is the outfit's debut single. A-side "Sorrow, Tears & Blood" offers a contemporary update of the Fela Kuti/Africa '70 sound, with a straighter 4/4 rhythm that should appeal to disco and house fans as well as Afrobeat enthusiasts. On the flip, "Dear Blood" offers a more traditional take on the style, with Kiala's vocal riding punchy horns, flanged funk guitars and a Tony Allen style drumbeat.

Review: Two delicious freeform rhythm jams from the heart of Bogota; Los Propios Bateros (AKA drummer and percussionist Pedro Ojeda) is the result of a deep documentary project that plots the rhythmic thread through the Americas as a cast of Columbian's next generation musicians explore the national legacy of descraga and pornpo across two warm and seductive improvisations; "Batazo Batero" swoons with a little light jazz in its step while "Bolillo, Baqueta Y Tombo" is more of a loose funk riff that writhes in and out of the tight staccato trumpet riff. Sublime as always from Names You Can Trust.

Review: The Brazil 45s / Mr Bongo outlet is back with its classic moves, coming through with some truly special soul blends out of the Brazilian golden era. Dalila and Neyde Alexandre feature in this latest 7", the former with 1968's "Canto Chorado", a slow-burning bubble of funky exotica - surely impossible to find in its original shade - and the latter with a funky little bomb from 1971 by the name of "Perplexidade" - surely the smoothest, sexiest soul number out this week! Lovely stuff.

Review: Colonel Faat aka Rocky Dawuni is one of Ghana's few reggae artists to have made a name for themselves since the 90s. He is particularly hard to come by these days, but Austria's Agogo imprint clearly know how to get their links form around the globe, and this new tune is a peaceful ballad for purely positive vibes. "Balantije" is one of those tunes you can slap on in just about any scenario, spreading love and good will wherever and whenever, guided by a subtle ska off-beat; Mankoora's remix takes it to more danceable territories, adding in a layer of percussion and just the right amount of funk. Yes.

Review: Tel Aviv based Afrobeat combo Hoodna Orchestra first caught our attention with their fine 2015 debut album, Let Go. They've apparently spent much of the last 12 months working with Ethiopian musicians, with the fruits of their collaborative labours due for release over a series of tidy 7" singles. This one sees them working with singer and poet Demisu Belete, whose superb vocals rise above the band's brilliant, laidback Afrobeat backing on A-side "Alem". The flipside "Dub Alem" goes even further, incorporating traditional instrumentation from the Adyabo Ensemble on a superb chunk of "Ethio-Dub" that fuses that past and present in fine style.

Review: First released in 1979 during the heyday of Brazil's jazz-funk movement, Antonio Adolfo's Viralata has long been considered an era-defining release by those who know. Given that original Brazilian copies are frustratingly hard to come by, this official reissue from Far Out Recordings - who previously worked with Adolfo on his 2007 set Destiny - should be an essential purchase for all those who dig Brazilian music. A little more jazz-focused than albums by contemporaries such as Azymuth, much of "Viralata" is slick, polished and incredibly well produced, with notable samba influences amongst the unashamed tributes to leading American artists. As you'd perhaps expect, the musicianship is astonishing.

Review: Championing and pioneering, the Gogo style of music from Tanzania and the rest of South-Eastern Africa, Msafiri Zawose comes from a long dynasty of musical craftsmanship. He's the fifth son of Hukwe Zawose, a legend around those parts, and the producer is an important supporter of the zeze and ilimba instruments. Soundway is the perfect home for Msafiri's fifth release to date, and the Uhamiaji LP marks a clear development on his part. Through these 13 diverse and provocative tunes, the producer spans all corners of the Gogo flex, dipping and diving in and out of more tranquil experiments, and then into harder, more dance-focussed tribal anthems. Percussion is the LP's forte and, unsurprisingly, the use of subtle electronics is what takes it from great to unmissable. For fans of the Honest Jon's label.

Review: Long lost groove gold from South Africa, The Movers blessed the world with almost 20 albums during their tenure throughout the late 60s / 70s. A fluid collective with scant documentation on their history, key players changed in the band frequently but Soundway have traced the credits of this rare opus down to producer David Thekwane and musicians Jabu Sibumbe, L Rhikoti, Lloyd Lelosa and Sankie Chounyane. Whoever the line-up was, the key sounds were always consistent as the troupe writhed and frolicked around disco soul axis, as is best celebrated here on the thumping funk fusion of the title track, the sweaty insistency and tightness of "Beat" and the awesome falsettos of "Work Is Done".

Review: Thanks to a steady stream of compilations and reissues, many are now familiar with the contribution made by Brazilian artists to the sounds of '70s jazz-funk and disco. This brilliant compilation takes a different approach, instead shining a light on the country's instrumental funk scene during that most exciting of musical decades. Largely made up of unknown cuts by obscure artists, the material combines the horn-toting, Hammond-sporting heaviness of U.S soul and funk from the period with the sun-kissed colour and jaunty swing of indigenous Brazilian music. It's a hugely attractive hybrid sound that guarantees thrills and spills throughout, not to mention a string of highlights. Check it out for yourself: we guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Review: Over the course of six inspired albums, the Meridian Brothers have carved out their own unique niche, somewhere between South American pscyh-folk, Brazilian Tropicana, lo-fi electronica and acid-fired early morning psychedelia. The Colombian band is at it again on this seventh full-length. While there are a few notable instrumental additions to their intoxicating sound soup - plucked and bowed cello motifs make an appearance for the first time, for example - for the most part the set is a kaleidoscopic, hard-to-pigeonhole romp in their usual superb style. Even so, the addition of strings is a bit of a step forward, adding another fine musical element to twist and bend to their will. That it works so well is not a surprise; after all, these guys haven't put a foot wrong over the course of their career.

Review: One of the many remarkable things about Rock Town Express's 1974 debut album - originally eponymously titled but now renamed after the album's most celebrated track - is that it was the work of just two musicians, who each manned multiple instruments during the recording process. Given that it sounds fiendishly loose and live, as if it was laid down in one take, that's seriously impressive. As an album, it offers a decidedly fuzzy fusion of early Afrobeat, Sly Stone style funk-rock and the mind of heady psychedelic rock that's more associated with bands from San Francisco. In other words, it's the kind of obscure but brilliant Afro-rock fusion that you need in your life.

Review: Martin Perna's infamous Antibalas crew, or 'bulletproof' as we like to call them, have been one of the most consistent sources of quality afrobeat since the late 90s, first coming through on the then fledgling Ninja Tune, out of the UK. Over the last five years, Brooklyn's ever-impressive Daptone Records have snapped them up, with this new album, Where The Gods Are In Peace, being the group's second LP for the afro powerhouse label. "Gold Rush" opens with a frenetic, supremely funky ode to Fela, all nervous and cosmic, followed by the comparatively deeper and more laid-back groove of "Hook & Crook". "Tombstone", on the B-side, receives three mixes, each of them featuring Zap Mama on the vocals - the deepest shade of afrobeat you'll find out here. Antibalas gives us hope that new music can be just as powerful as the original material from the 70s. 10/10.

Review: Admirable reissue imprint Comb & Razor Sound continues to unearth, license and re-print lesser-known gems from around the world. Their latest find is Fire Woman, the incredibly rare third album from little-known nine-piece Foundars 15. Interestingly, the album's tracks are not straight-up Afro-funk or Afro-beat workouts. Instead, they various take in Cymande style reggae/soul fusion, psychedelic '60s style pop, wild funk rock/Afrobeat fusion, Hammond-laden torch songs, and skewed Afro-jazz. It's a curious but hugely entertaining hotch-potch of styles that makes for hugely enjoyable listening from start to finish. Highlights include fuzzy, solo-laden closer "Ekele", the anthem-like "Simin Boogie" and Fela Kuti-ish "True Light".

Review: Amongst dub-loving post-punk collectors, few tapes are quite as coveted as Jim Welton and Chris Gray's second full-length outing as Amos & Sara. Originally released on cassette in 1983 and here pressed on vinyl for the first time, the set is an intoxicating blend of jaunty Latin horns, Afro-Cuban attitude, bustling dub basslines, quirky samples, skewed experiments and confirmed dancefloor bangers (see the dub disco pulse of "Pain Mambo" and the brilliant "Insomnia Samba". As loose, frenzied, imaginative and outright odd as anything from the period, Invite To Endless Latino is well worthy of your hard-earned cash.

Review: On Where The Gods Are In Peace, their first album for five years, long-serving NYC Afrobeat revivalists Antibalas return to Daptone with fellow veterans Zapa Mama in tow. The all-female Belgian combo provides vocals on album centrepiece "Tombstown", a suite of track in three distinctive "Movements". All three parts, which are drenched in reverb and delay and operate at a far slower tempo than much of Antibalas's output, are decidedly cosmic in tone, with greater percussive intricacy, subtle Afro-jazz influences and an impressive variety of instrumental solos. Of course, it wouldn't be an Antibalas album without a rousing dancefloor epic or two, and happily both the Fela Kuti style "Gold Rush" and funk-fuelled "Hook & Crook" tick that particular box.