Listening to the wondrous DIY soundscapes of sonic globetrotter Kundan Lal is always a thrill and a welcome diversion from the everyday drudgery. It comes as no surprise then that equally open-minded global explorers, aural tinkerers and musical wanderers of the road less travelled – such as Den Sorte Skole or DJ Marcelle – are among his "cult following". Having released his narcotic debut longplayer "Periodic Perciotic" back in 2017 and his trance-inducing [...]

With temperatures on the rise and the summer holiday season on our doorstep, Barcelona-based imprint El Palmas – an expansive passion project devoted to globally propagating tropical inclinations and flat-out dancefloor heat – decided to drop a 'mucho caliente' new four-tracker by the enigmatic Colombian crew La Jungla, prone to catapult your friendly neighbourhood BBQ setup to the next level. 

La Jungla first popped onto our radar with a split 7" release [...]

There are moments in life that simply pass us by and others that stay with us forever, glimpses of happiness, more often than not in combination with a song. For instance, I quite vividly remember a moment back in 2016, sitting passenger side in my best friend's Renault Grand Scenic travelling the wooded outskirts of Berlin and streaming a mix on Soundcloud, when a track came on that had us both bedazzled. That track turned out to be "Bangalore Whispers", a [...]

Who turned up the heat?! It's like we blinked and the summer season is upon us. In search of upbeat tunes to match our lifted spirits, we could hardly overlook this ebullient debut two-track release by NYC-based three-piece Loboko on Names You Can Trust. The band features young Congolese singer and guitar virtuoso Yohni Djungu Sungu, playing alongside legendary fellow Congolese master bassist and vocalist Ngouma Lokito (of Soukous Stars fame) and, last but not [...]

Who would've thought that autotune could sound this good? While browsing our personal list of potential current releases to review, we stumbled upon the extraordinary artwork gracing Babsy Konate's new ten-tracker on Sahel Sounds and had to know more. According to the release notes, Baba "Babsy" Konate is a DIY producer hailing from the north-eastern Malian city of Gao, situated on the edge of the Saharan desert, who is at the forefront of Gao rap, "a regional [...]

Berlin-based tropical bass pioneer, global bass connoisseur, Man Recordings label founder, DJ, producer, journalist and broadcaster Daniel Haaksman is no stranger to our humble editorial undertaking, starting with his 2016-released "African Fabrics" LP, blending traditional African genres with bass music styles from the northern hemisphere. Known for bringing Brazilian baile funk sounds to the Berlin club circuit in the early 2000s, Haaksman has always had an [...]

Nothing lasts forever and change is a given. True, true. But some things are made to outlast the fickleness of time and carry the torch for generations to come. As its first LP release, the newly formed London-based imprint Ritmo del Barrio recently reissued the originally 1982-released psychedelic cumbia album "Fiesta en la Jungla" by Los Dexter's de Uchiza. The ten-track record is remarkable on so many levels, be it in terms of its place in the history of [...]

In music, more often than not, it is about bringing the 'right' elements together in harmony to create something of wider appeal. And while the 'right' seems counterintuitive in terms of creative freedom or the jazz mindset, you just know it, when you hear it. Such is the case with distinguished contemporary Brazilian jazz trio Caixa Cubo, alias Henrique Gomide on piano, rhodes and synthesizer, João Fideles on drums and Noa Stroeter on bass and electric bass. [...]

Sometimes things do not go as planned. We were actually going to send you off into the weekend with a brand-new instalment of Jean Trouillet's far-reaching Globalwize format. However, we encountered some licensing restrictions on Mixcloud and could not upload the show. Instead, here's a recent 7" release on Philophon by label head Max Weissenfeldt's Berlin-based outfit The Polyversal Souls. 

The band had dropped its dynamic debut album "Invisible Joy" back in [...]

News these days has pretty much everyone going mental, that is if your soul has not been robbed of its capacity to feel any sort of empathy. Music With Soul mastermind, tropical innovator and one-man-band Alex Figueira (Conjunto Papa Upa, Lola's Dice, Fumaça Preta, Vintage Voudou) was not spared the psychophysical effects of a looming Armageddon, and in 2022, after two years of pandemania, found himself down to his last penny and on the verge of losing [...]

Released at the tail end of 2020 was the remarkable self-titled, afro-futurist debut album by French electronic producer Rrobin and Brazzaville's afro-feminist collective Les Mamans du Congo, led by the charismatic chanteuse and percussionist Gladys Samba. The nine-track longplayer absolutely blew our minds and remains one of our personal favourite examples of transcultural collaboration done well. Combining 'age-old Bantu lullabies performed on common [...]

It was a long train ride home after an even longer night of merrymaking back in 2016. I had recently downloaded the digital version of KUF's debut album "Gold" to my notebook and decided to give it a spin. Moments later, headphones on, I was overwhelmed by this novel, vocal-led, highly emotive wall of sound. Mind racing, dopamine flowing, tears streaming down my cheeks, something had struck a nerve and the pioneering Berlin trio had made a new fan. Fast forward [...]