Legendary French industrial pioneers Vox Populi! arrive on Dark Entries with a reissue of Sucre De Pastèque. Vox Populi! was founded in Paris in 1981 by Axel Kyrou, a multi-instrumentalist of Greek, French, and Palestinian roots. He soon recruited his future partner, Mitra, and her brother Arash Khalatbari, who were born in Iran and came to Paris in their teens, as well as bassist Fr6 Man (Francis Manne).
Their sound was motley, combining elements of musique concrete and early industrial with horns, flutes, and traditional Persian instrumentation. Improbably prolific and ceaselessly divergent, Vox Populi! found their way onto dozens of cassette compilations during the heyday of the 1980s DIY tape music scene, including releases…
Category: world
Multi-instrumentalist Chris Franck and DJ and producer Patrick Forge have been making music under the moniker Da Lata for a good quarter-century now. In all that time, the gist of the project has remained largely consistent: Da Lata‘s music is warm, soulful, and made, more or less, in collaboration with (or at least inspired by) artists working with musical styles that have emerged from African-Brazilian interchanges.
It’s a comfortable niche for Da Lata, which has done an admirable job of making music that holds up pretty well over the decades, even with heavy lounge and jazz-fusion vibes. Now, a full 25 years after the debut of Songs from the Tin, the new album Edge of Blue continues the group’s steady stream of appealing tropical grooves.
…includes instrumentals and acoustic versions (plus a new stripped track).
On their first two albums Kit Sebastian — the duo of multi-instrumentalist Kit Martin and vocalist Merve Erdem — hit upon a winning formula. They blended ’60s psychedelia from around the globe with jazz, soundtrack funk, easy listening, and nostalgic pop, then added winsome vocals and catchy, moody melodies played on instruments often unfamiliar to Western music, like oud and saz. Things were working do well that when it came time to record a third album, they didn’t tinker with the approach much.
Maybe New Internationale is a little more focused, taught and more psychedelic in spots? Perhaps a little less jazz and a little more sounds of…
Combing through a family member’s history following their death is a routine, if sombre and difficult task that falls to many a close relative. Committing to publicly honour that person’s life and work in a tangible way is something else entirely. Over seven years, just such a project has occupied Berlin-based producer Joseph Kamaru, who makes leftfield electronic music as KMRU.
His objective was to memorialise and widen awareness outside Africa of his grandfather, also Joseph, a hugely influential figure in Kenya’s music history and a political activist, who died in 2018 aged 79.
Heavy Combination may be a labour of familial love but like the dozens of his grandfather’s recordings that KMRU has remastered and…
Active as a professional DJ in Japan since the late eighties, DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite is also a renowned remixer, compiler and producer. An avid record collector and an expert of Wamono music, Yoshizawa has published in 2015 the now-classic Wamono A to Z records guide book, which instantly sold-out. The book unveiled a myriad of beautiful and rare records from a highly prolific, but still then unknown, Japanese groove scene. He has also selected a large part of the music in our highly acclaimed Wamono compilations.
For this brand new chapter in the series, Yoshizawa explores King Records’ legendary catalog and unearths exceptional, rare and unknown musical gems. King Records has been releasing music since 1931 and is one of the most prestigious labels…
While group names can often be random, Nusantara Beat has chosen one that encapsulates its ethos. Nusantara means all the islands that make up Indonesia and dates back to when kings wanted to unite the whole archipelago.
Today, it means unity, many cultures coming together as one. Accordingly, Nusantara Beat mix the rhythms and music of the Indonesian archipelago into one sound.
The Dutch group are well-placed to explore these sounds on their self-titled debut. Bassist Michael Joshua was born in the Indonesian province of West Java and moved to the Netherlands aged 15 while the other five members are of Indonesian heritage. Their musical starting point is Sunda Pop, which in the 1960s blended traditional…
Based in the Ecuadorian Andes, ‘neotraditional’ Jatun Mama, AKA producer Jesús Atzil Bonilla, reshapes the music of his native land in modernised settings, often employing electronic backing. Both ‘Jatun Chica’ and ‘Chificha Pugru’ are prime examples of his idiosyncratic and playful approach, adding pulsing electronic beats to ritual kichwa singing and Andean instrumentation.
What makes it work is the obvious reverence shown to the original source material, which is placed centre stage rather than treated as an adjunct to the beats, studio trickery and instrumental backing. Much of ‘Gulacpamba’ features raw and unadorned Andean singing and traditional instrumentation before being given subtle ambient backing. ‘Chiri Paramo’ takes the rhythms of…
Best known for his vocal, kora and balafon work with the glorious Afro Celt Sound System, N’Faly Kouyaté now shows that he has all the makings of a solo star.
He is, after all, an impressive musician; he comes from a distinguished griot family in Guinea and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Belgium. On this self-described “Pan-African Sonic Manifesto” he shows off his skills as a thoughtful singer-songwriter on a set dominated by electronica, percussion and stirring and tuneful ballads.
Kora and balafon solos are also included, of course, but what is most impressive here is the range and intensity of his vocal work, as he switches from intimate and direct songs like ‘Departure’ to the commanding ‘Mökhöya’ or…
Ah, Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-81 — a classic compilation. Released in 2009 by Soundway Records, it’s an epic five-LP set held in the highest esteem by those among us whose attention was caught by the fiery sounds of old West African music. Sixteen years later, the label is giving the album a second life by whittling it down into a lean 10-song suite titled Ghana Special: Highlife. Dedicated fans of retro Ghanaian sounds might be disappointed by the lack of fresh catches here (Soundway did actually release a direct sequel last year), but that doesn’t diminish the fact that every song is a killer example of how great this music could be. And given the shorter running time when compared to its lengthy forefather, it’s easy to envision…
Fabiano Do Nascimento is not simply sticking to his Brazilian roots. After all, he currently has a split residence between Los Angeles and Japan, trying to include all his experience and form them into a specific whole on his latest album offering Cavejaz. Primarily a guitarist, he uses various multi-string and multi-tuning (nylon string) guitars, stretching the sound of his instrument as far as it goes and in any direction it takes him, while at the same time trying to firmly root his sounds into his Brazilian heritage. For Cavejaz, Do Nascimento organised three separate sessions – one as studio sessions with renowned UAKTI member Paulo Santos and Jennifer Souza back in Brazil, while the second was recorded live during a Tokyo concert with with veteran Japanese musician…
47Soul’s Shamstep EP ignited their Electro-Arabic Dabke revolution in 2015. Now it returns with remixes from some of the Arab world’s most forward-thinking producers-Molotof, Toumba, and Hello Psychaleppo-bridging past and future.
47Soul single-handedly sowed the seeds of the Shamstep genre. The Palestinian musical collective formed in Jordan in 2013 with Tareq Abu Kwaik, Ramzy Suleiman, Walaa Sbait and Hamza Arnaout taking influence from hip-hop, electronica, and R&B and melding it with the sounds of Dabke, a traditional folk dance, and other Shaa’bi roots music from the Levantine region.
Shamstep, their groundbreaking debut EP released in 2015, not only helped coin the genre’s name but also brought a new audience…
…This remastered edition celebrating the 25th anniversary, includes a previously unreleased track.
Some musical genres change violently in sudden lurches. Others sway and shimmy forwards, evolving so gracefully so you hardly notice. When the impeccably laid back Brazilian bossa nova decides to embrace modern technology there’s no surprise it should do so ever so gently.
Bebel Gilberto has a pretty daunting musical heritage to live up to. Her father is João Gilberto, the man who invented bossa nova, and her mother is the singer Miúcha. Bebel’s first public appearance was a concert at Carnegie Hall with her mother and Stan Getz when she was nine years old. So it’s not surprising that shes taken a while to record this debut album.
…2025 edition features fully restored audio by Neil Combstock (Bōucan Road Studios).
Julien Philéas, better known as Granmoun Lélé (1930–2004), was a griot and one of the most outstanding artists from the island of Réunion. Lélé was a percussionist, singer, storyteller and, above all, a healer.
As a teenager, he worked as a fitter in a sugar factory. After a week of work, Lélé would sing at kabars — places where, according to Malagasy custom, men and women gather to dance to the sounds of traditional instruments. He was raised amid Tamil rituals and Malagasy ceremonies, and he also drew inspiration from his dreams, experiences and the surrounding nature.
The album Soléyé was originally released in…
Gambian kora master and singer-songwriter, Suntou Susso hails from a celebrated lineage of griot musicians. Counting amongst his family are some of the world’s most renowned West African artists including Seckou Keita, Solo Cissokho, and Mamudou Susso.
Offering a contemporary edge grounded in ancestral wisdom, Jaliya Silokang (The Path of a Griot) is more than an album; it’s a bridge between generations and continents. The original compositions are rooted in Afro-Manding style with polyrhythms, spark influences from folk, jazz and funk. This contemporary griot song book by Suntou Susso resonates powerful messages of personal responsibility — to each other and to the world. Jaliya Silokang shows Susso’s…
Many important West African musicians built productive careers in 1970s Britain, and the local stars were eager to incorporate their scintillating sounds into their own music. Originally from Ijebu Ode, Nigeria, percussionist Gasper Lawal spent much of the early part of the decade moving through the happening London scene as a session and gig musician for the likes of Joan Armatrading, Graham Bell, Stephen Stills — and even Barbara Streisand. There were stints in various groups too, including the Ginger Baker-led Air Force. But Lawal soon resolved to work on his own music, and his debut album, Ajomasé, first released in 1980 and now newly reissued by Strut, is a fascinating and surprising record with unusual eclectic flourishes throughout. “I wanted to do…
Six-piece La Chooma weave together a heady blend of instrumental sounds on Local Spirits, their full-length debut.
Built on layers of intricate percussion, rumbling basslines and wandering synth lines, they reference Afro-jazz, Latin music and more – but the intoxicating psychedelic vibes that they serve up owe as much to dub production as anything else.
The track ‘High Glow’ sees synth work that could have come from Afro-electro legend William Onyeabor atop a tight percussive groove and squelchy bass-tones. The effect is deeply hypnotic. Their wide-ranging cross-cultural sound is at times reminiscent of the blissed-out dub sonics of Puerto Rican dub aficionado Pachyman. Their sound could get a little samey, but…
Over the past few years Acid Jazz has been the proud custodian of the legendary Albarika Store label, which produced some of the finest, deepest West African cuts of the last century. The mainstay of the Albarika sound was the mighty T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, who were prolific throughout the label’s activity from the late ‘60s to the early ’80s.
When they reformed for their first-ever European tour in 2009, Benin’s T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo underscored their status as one of the all-time greats of West African music.
Formed in 1968 by bandleader Clément Mélomé, their rare alchemy of scorched funk and driving Afrobeat didn’t just defy a repressive political system; across fifty studio albums, it revealed a group infinitely worthy of the world stage.
Across a 40-minute drum-based suite, drummer and composer Sarathy Korwar reveals the transcendental nature of repetition as a thing of awe and beauty. Combining tablas, Southern Indian clay pot ghatams, drum kit, bells, xylophones, vocal drones and a Buchla Music Easel, Korwar unveils a morphing and organic investigation into rhythm itself. With previous work exploring identity, migration and futurism, Korwar is going back to basics on his latest release, There Is Beauty, There Already, showcasing the depths to which the drums can reach as instruments for ascension.
Korwar’s rhythmic layering is of particular note. With a clear debt to minimalist composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley, Korwar’s use of dense counterpoint is masterful, undulating…
