It’s a special, but also a strange sensation to be releasing an album of one of your early musical heroes. I first discovered The Movers on my very first “record safari” in 1996. My destination was Bulawayo, in southern Zimbabwe, and to get there I had to travel via Jo’burg. While in town I stopped at a store called Kohinoor, in search of Mbaqanga – also known as Township Jive – and found a few tapes which I listened to non-stop on the bus that carried me to the land of Chimurenga Music. One of these cassettes included the songs “Hot Coffee” and “Phukeng Special” which instantly became part of my daily life. Twenty-five years later I’m still grooving to them.

Following the huge success of 2018’s Kokoroko EP’ and the sensational Abusey Junction, "Could We Be More" is an expansive and ambitious debut album that speaks to the force of Kokoroko.

Electric Jalaba comprises six accomplished musicians with an empathy that feels telepathic and a groove that immerses. In Arabic, the mother tongue of Moroccan-born singer and guimbri player Simo Lagnawi, a leading practitioner of Gnawa music in Britain, they call this indefinable quality, “El Hal” – “The feeling”. “It’s the feeling that comes when we’re playing and totally forgetting where we are,” says producer and bassist Olly Keen. “The feeling of being grabbed by the music and lost in the groove.”

Dick Essilfie-Bondzie was all ready for his 90th birthday party when the Covid pandemic hit. The legendary producer, businessman and founder of Ghana’s mighty Essiebons label had invited all his family and friends to the event and it was the disappointment at having to postpone that prompted Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb to propose a new compilation celebrating his contributions to the world of West African music.

Kalita are proud to unveil the first ever compilation focussing on the phenomenon of ‘Burger Highlife’, a crossover of West African melodies with synthesizers, disco and boogie that took over Ghanaian airwaves during the 1980’s and beyond. Highlighting key recordings from genre-defining artists including Thomas Frempong and George Darko, as well as more obscure sought-after tracks by elusive bands such as Aban and Uncle Joe’s Afri-Beat, Kalita come to the rescue of audiophiles, DJs and music-lovers alike with ‘Borga Revolution!’ Spread over a double-LP housed in a gatefold sleeve.

Sangare' is renowned worldwide for her vibrant and powerful music, which often features revolutionary messages about women’s rights, tradition and poverty. In her 30 year career she has won numerous awards, counts among her many notable fans Alicia Keys and Beyoncé (who sampled the classic ‘Diaraby Nene’ for her 2019 Lion King release), and, for her tireless work on social progress and cultural development holds the prestigious titles of Goodwill Ambassador to the UN’s Food & Agriculture organisation, Commander of the National Order of Mali and Chevalier of Culture in France. ‘Timbuktu’ is a stunning collection of songs, fusing her distinctive Malian sound and voice with elements of blues, folk and rock – resulting in a timeless body of work, free from borders and genres.

This 4th full-length album by the legendary Congolese collective marks a new milestone in their already rich history, as the band have incorporated their own approach to electronic music into their new compositions.

The latest volumes in this highly acclaimed "London Is The Place For Me" series - Volume 7 - Calypso, Palm-Wine, Mento, Joropo, Steel & Stringband & Volume 8 - Lord Kitchener In England 1948-1962. Presenting the music of the Windrush generation: the post-war, London recordings of West Indians and West Africans, in the first wave of modern migration to Britain. Volume 7 - Calypso, Palm-Wine, Mento, Joropo, Steel & Stringband overflows with diverse musical styles, including steel band, stringband, calypso, joropo and mento. Volume 8 - Lord Kitchener In England 1948-1962 is devoted to the great calypsonian Lord Kitchener.

A host of horns, trumpets, sax, electric guitar and traditional Senegalese drums all feature on Awale Jant Band’s new studio album – YEWOULEN –Senegalese soul recorded and mixed in the heart of south London’s Peckham Road Studios, SE15. Awale Jant Band have good reason to celebrate! The band’s last 2019 concert was an all-African celebration headed by "perhaps the greatest drummer ever" (Brian Eno), Nigerian percussion master Tony Allen and then straight into 2020, with YEWOULEN - their first signed album for international release on the ARC Music label.

Gearing up for their third album for FatCat, Tal National look back on a fertile period spent further honing their sound and touring the US several times - leaving audiences sweaty and stunned time after time. They've laid down incredible sets at WOMAD and Roskilde, bringing the same intensity and jubilance to the festival set as they would a crammed club, converting the staunchest wallflower into a dancer for the night. At their core, that’s Tal National's intent, to make the people dance. Performances at their Niamey nightclub (yes they operate their own nightclub) are regularly raucous 5-hour non-stop dance parties for 300 people a night. With Tantabara the band continues their ongoing quest to translate that energy to tape, bottling the party for personal use. The grooves are the backbone of the album, and the intent is to create a trance-state that overwhelms conscious thought and lets the listener be surrounded by the energy and emotion of Tal National. Brimming with the band’s complex, intense spirit, the album is a continuation of the balance of tradition and innovation that have driven their previous albums. It’s a joyous celebration and euphoric epiphany all in one complex package. We'd expect nothing less at this point from Tal National.

A switch back to Atlantic finds Jean-Luc Ponty continuing to dabble in West African waters while re-establishing his earlier solid base in repeating sequenced patterns. The electronics are back, for Ponty splits his time between the electric violin and various synthesizers and sequencers while Abdou M'Boup and Sydney Thiam add African percussion, which often takes a back seat to the electronics as the rhythmic basis for the music. This time, though, the material Ponty has composed isn't as compelling as it had been in the past; at times, Ponty sounds like he is very competently treading water (though "Blue Mambo" has a compelling groove). Yet despite all of the changes Ponty has put himself through, his music still has a Continental elegance that cannot be mistaken for that of anyone else.

Theon Cross' new album, Intra-I, finds the gifted tuba player and composer creating a sound system powered by breath. This unique record is an uplifting celebration of Black music that, thanks to Cross' pioneering approach, helps to redefine the sonic possibilities of the tuba. Reflecting his own heritage, the young virtuoso melds jazz with dub, hip-hop, soca, grime and other sounds connected to the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. Additionally, the record - which features Remi Graves, Shumba Maasai, Afronaut Zu, Ahnansé, Consensus and Oren Marshall - is Cross' first music to include collaborations with guest vocalists, adding a further new dimension.

On this 1980 album, Osibisa drifted yet further toward an R&B dance-pop direction than they had on their previous studio record, Ojah Awake. Of course they weren't alone among popular recording artists in making concessions to disco during this era, and they didn't bury their African roots. It was still a somewhat dispiriting trend, and while much of the band's characteristic blend of African and Western influences remained intact, the songs – all of them around five minutes long, and relying on grooves more than content – were kind of blah. "Celebration" is about as close to a conventional soul-funk-disco track as the band got, and seems more like an Earth, Wind & Fire outing than an Osibisa one. At other points, the elements get more eclectic, creative, and (by Western pop standards) exotic; "Africa We GoGo" is reasonably convincing Africanized funk.