The enigmatic Amara Touré from Guinée Conakry finally getting a well deserved compilation showcasing all of the 10 songs ever released between 1973 and 1980. Cuban influenced music of a different kind featuring amazing spaced-out guitar works!!

It is the late 50s, and Senegal is going crazy to the groove of Son Montuno and Patchanga. Brought to West Africa by Cuban sailors in the early 40s, these styles were immediately adopted by a flourishing music scene that did not hesitate to embrace the Caribbean sound, mixed it with their own Folklore, and, in the process, created something new. Through the unique cultural fusion of West African and Caribbean influences, Latin music took on a new and unique sound - the format was reinvented.

Producer Ibra Kassé and his Miami nightclub acted as the spearheads of this movement. They brought a breath of fresh air into Dakar’s nightlife, further energising one of West Africa’s most exciting cities. The demand for ballroom parties and live acts exploded, attracting numerous musicians from surrounding countries. One of the musicians who answered this call was percussionist and singer Amara Touré, from Guinea-Conakry. Spotted by Kassé while performing with Dexter Johnson, Touré was asked if he would like to be part of a new project. Little did he know that this project would become a phenomenon.

Immensely important for the development of Senegalese modern music, Le Star Band de Dakar, led by Mady Konaté, became a sort of musical incubator and workshop, where many musicians learned and practiced their trade before moving on to become stars in their own right. Touré’s talent on percussion was undeniable, but it was his powerful and raw voice that captivated the producer. The fascinating way Touré interpreted Cuban music was unparalleled, and it was this feature that encouraged Kassé to recruit the unknown artist. 

Although already brimming with incredible talent, Amara Touré’s joining of Le Star Band de Dakar in 1958 began the band’s meteoric rise to the top. The band quickly became Dakar’s number one orchestra, and it cemented the reputation of the Miami nightclub as the hottest spot in the country. The place was packed nightly, and Dakar was boiling.

Amara Touré’s Senegalese adventure lasted for ten years when he received an irrefutable offer and in 1968, joined by a few talented Senegalese musicians, headed to Cameroon and immediately formed the Black and White ensemble. Many live gigs later and it was time for the first songs to be recorded. A total of three singles were produced between 1973 and 1976. These singles, representing the first six songs on this compilation, fully epitomise and distill the essence of what Touré had learned during his career. His Mandingue roots fused with the Senegalese sound that he had mastered - the perfect foundation for the Touré’s Cuban interpretations.

If Touré’s intention was to create the most sensual music ever recorded in Africa, he might very well have reached this goal. The musicians on the recording sound like they are playing in a smokey, poorly lit juke joint, where dark rum was sipped ever so slowly, and the pulse of the music took up a life of its own. How many couples have danced, swayed, and melted together to the distinct sound of Amara Touré? Nobody can say for sure ...
Amara Touré’s success poured across the borders of Cameroon, and in 1980 he went to Libreville, Gabon, to team up with the powerful Orchestre Massako. Touré recorded an LP at that time which is hailed by many music aficionados as one of the very best African albums. The songs from that LP are the last four on this compilation.

TRACK LISTING

1. N'Nijo
2. Temedy
3. Lamento Cubano
4. Cuando Llegare
5. Fatou
6. N'ga Digne M'be
7. Salamouti
8. Afalago
9. Tela
10. Africa 

The last time I found myself on the phone with Jean-Christian Mboumba Mackaya known as Mack-Joss - founder of the Mighty Orchestra Massako - I could hear gun-shots in the background. Libreville was upside down following the re- election of president Ali Bongo in August 2016. By the time I was ready to go ahead with this project, Mack-Joss’s phone number had been disconnected, and shortly afterwards I found out that the baobab of Gabo nese music had fallen.

An adept of folk rhythms, Mack- Joss’s career as a musician began when he was just 17 of age and he quickly established himself as a staple of Libreville’s nightlife scene, singing in various local bands. By 1966 he had released “Le Boucher”, his first hit which swept the African airwaves and earned him the respect of Franco, the legendary master of Congolese Rumba. Franco ´s encouragement helped transform him from a Gabonese singer into an ascendent figure of pan-African culture. Between 1968 and 1970 Mack- Joss and his Negro- Tropical immortalised a good number of singles recorded in a makeshift open- air recording studios and in 1971 Gabon armed forces decided to form their own band. Mack- Joss was recruited to become the band leader and this was the birth of Orchestre Massako which became Gabon’s national orchestra.

At the end of the 1970´s funds were made available to bring recording equipment over from France. Studio Mobile Massako was born and Mack-Joss’s songwriting ability provided hit after hit. The master tapes with the recordings were sent to Paris for mixing and Mack- Joss would personally make the journey to France, carrying the reels in his hand luggage. The vinyl records were then pressed in France and shipped back to Gabon, and to other distributors throughout the continent.

About a dozen long play records were recorded between 1978 and 1986 and most were released on Mass Pro, Mack- Joss ´s own label. A few of these recordings featured a singer from Guinée Conakry by the name of Amara Touré who had joined Orchestre Massako as a singer in 1980 and had become an important ingredient in the band’s success. His specific voice, impossible not to recognise, left no one unmoved (ask those who listened to the compilation AALP078).

Mack- Joss’s retirement in 1996 marked the end of Orchestre Massako. With a four decades spanned career, his contribution to Gabonese culture cannot be overstated and continues to inspire the respect and devotion of people who knew him.

TRACK LISTING

Gnekelhe Mohi - Gnekelhe Mohi Ft Amara Touré
Boungoumoune - Orchestre Massako
Dibembi - Orchestre Massako
Temedy - Temedy Ft Amara Touré

In 2010, I had asked Eamon Ore-Giron - aka DJ Lengua - if he would be interested in compiling a Latin project for Analog Africa, and if so, if he had a theme in mind He replied, "Have you ever heard of rebajada?" The question mark above my head, together with the wall of China, must have been the only other object visible from out of space because Eamon, probably noticing I got paralysed, continued, "Rebajada in Spanish means "to reduce, to lower". It's basically Mexican sonideros (soundsystem operators) slowing down the beat of a Cumbia to create a much more tangible music to dance to.

I'll send you a mix I made last year and let me know what you think." And so he did.That mix was called Rebajada Mota Mix and I began listening to it on a loop. Although I was not immediately hooked it was intriguing from the get- go, and so I kept listening until magic began unfolding. Slowed down music allows you enough time to hear right through it, revealing itself in ways I had rarely experienced before. Everything became more transparent and I was noticing sounds normally only perceptible by bats. A near psychedelic experience. That mysterious mix included a few Ecuadorian songs by Junior y su Equipo - aka Polibio Mayorga (a cult fgure in the sonidero scene), a couple of Mexican tunes, one Colombian, and various Peruvian songs, undoubtedly the driving force behind this project.

The sonidero who brought Peruvian and Ecuadorian music to Mexico was the legendary Pablo Perea from Sonido Arco-Iris, and although his fngerprints are all over the compilation Saturno 2000, this selection of songs in rebajada is exclusive to DJ Lengua. With the exception of a few classics from Polibio Mayorga and La Sampuesana – the queen of all rebajadas – most of these songs were probably never performed as such before, let alone released. So how did rebajada come to be? In a nutshell; Rebajada started with two families of brothers – the Pereas and the Ortegas – who travelled all over Latin America and returned to Mexico with heavy loads of records which they would sell to the various sonideros always on the lookout for new tunes. Colombian beats especially seemed to ft almost perfectly with the Mexican dance steps – but they were just a bit too fast. As a result some sonideros began experimenting with equipment, and Marco Antonio Cedillo of Sonido Imperial created a revolutionary pitching system that could slow records down to an extent other players could only dream about. And so rebajada was born . . . or so we thought. At the same time in north of the country, in Monterrey, sonidero Gabriel Dueñez almost got electrocuted by a short circuit that nearly set his record player on fre. As a result the platter started spinning in slow motion for the rest of the party, turning Cumbia into a different affair altogether. The youngsters went crazy for it and started harassing the sonidero with requests to record cassettes for them. Reluctant at frst, Dueñez fnally began recording a series of pirated cassettes called "Rebajada" which included mainly Colombian cumbia and porro in slow- mo exclusively. Those tapes took the city by storm and turned rebajada into a celebrated and defant movement of the youth. Of course it would not be a Mexican urban legend if it didn't include dramaturgical elements, and so for nearly 30 years, until this day and probably for ever, both cities have been arguing and claiming ownership the creation of rebajada for themselves. But sonidera Joyce Musicolor, who never has time for such trivial arguments, got straight to the point: "Rebajada, and the equipment to perform it, is from here [Mexico City] but it was Monterrey that popularised it."

TRACK LISTING

1. Los Dinners - Sampuesana
2. Junior Y Su Equipo - La Borrachita
3. Manzanita - Paga La Cuenta Sinverguenza
4. Hugo Blanco Y Su Arpa Viajera - Infinito
5. Manzanita Y Su Conjunto - El Jardinero
6. Los Feos - Feito Parrandero
7. Junior Y Su Equipo - Bien Bailadito
8. Los Santos - Saturno 2000
9. Lucho Gavilanes - La Danza Del Mono
10. Conjunto Típico Contreras - Capricho Egipcio
11. Los Gatos Blancos - El Chacarero
12. Los Atomos De Paramonga - Pa' Oriente Me Voy
13. Junior Y Su Equipo - Alegrate
14. Grupo Celeste - Todo Lo Tengo De Ti Menos Tu Amor
15. Los Ecos - La Fuga Del Bandido

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

For most of the 1970s Essilfie- Bondzie's Dix and Essiebons labels were synonymous with the best in modern highlife, and his roster was a who's-who of highlife legends. C.K. Mann, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Kofi Papa Yankson, Ernest Honny, Rob 'Roy' Raindorf and Ebo Taylor all released some of their greatest music under the Essiebons banner.Yet Essilfie- Bondzie had been destined for a very different career. Born in Apam and raised in Accra, he was sent to business school in London at the age of 20, and returned to the security of a government job in Ghana. But his passion for music, inspired by the sounds of Accra's highlife scene, had never left him, and in 1967 he figured out a way of combining music and business by opening West Africa's first record pressing plant.The venture, a partnership with the Philips label, was a huge success, attracting business from all over the continent. By the early 1970s Essilfie-Bondzie had left his government job to concentrate on his labels, and by the mid-seventies he was on a hot streak injecting album after album of restless highlife into the bloodstream of the Ghanaian music scene.Essiebons Special features a selection of obscure workouts from some of the label's heaviest hitters. But in the course of digitising his vast archive of master tapes, Essilfie-Bondzie found a number of Afrobeat and Instrumental maszterpieces tracks from the label's mid-70s golden age that, for one reason or another, had never been released. Those songs are included here for the first time.Sadly Essilfie-Bondzie passed away before the compilation was finished. But his legacy lives on in the extraordinary music that he gave to the world in his lifetime

TRACK LISTING

Kofi Psych - Ernest Honny
Dee Mmaa Pe - Joe Meah
Yeaba - CK Mann & His Carousel 7
Shakabula - Santrofi- Ansa
Tinitini - Seaboy & Nyame Bekyere
Ahwene Pa Nkasa - Joe Meah
Ernest Special - Ernest Honny
Africa - Seaboy
Medley - Nyame Bekyere
Say The Truth - Ernest Honny
Wonnin A Bisa - Black Masters Band
Egye Tu Gbe - Sawaaba Soundz
Fa W‘akoma Ma Me - CK Mann Big Band
Odo Mframa - Ernest Honny

Yaoundé, in the 1970´s, was a buzzing place with every neighbourhood of Cameroon´s capital, no matter how dodgy, filled with music spots but surprisingly there were no infrastructure to immortalise those musical riches. The country suffered from a serious lack of proper recording facilities, and the process of committing your song to tape could become a whole adventure unto itself. Of course, you could always book the national broadcasting company together with a sound engineer, but this was hardly an option for underground artists with no cash. But luckily an alternative option emerged in form of an Adventist church with some good recording equipment and many of the artists on this compilation recorded their first few songs, secretly, in these premises thanks to Monsieur Awono, the church engineer. He knew the schedule of the priests and, in exchange for some cash, he would arrange recording sessions. The artists still had to bring their own equipment, and since there was only one microphone, the amps and instruments had to be positioned perfectly. It was a risky business for everyone involved but since they knew they were making history, it was all worth it.

At the end of the recording, the master reel would be handed to whoever had paid for the session, usually the artist himself. And what happened next? With no distribution nor recording companies around this was a legitimate question. More often than not it was the French label Sonafric that would offer their manufacturing and distribution structure and many Cameroonian artist used that platform to kick-start their career. What is particularly surprising in the case of Sonafric was their willingness to take chances and judge music solely on their merit rather than their commercial viability.

The sheer amount of seriously crazy music released also spoke volumes about the openness of the people behind the label. But who exactly are these artists that recorded one or two songs before disappearing, never to be heard from again? Some of the names were so obscure that even the most seasoned veterans of the Cameroonian music scene had never heard of them. A few trips to the land of Makossa and many more hours of interviews were necessary to get enough insight to assemble the puzzle-pieces of Yaoundé's buzzing 1970s music scene. We learned that despite the myriad difficulties involved in the simple process of making and releasing a record, the musicians of Yaoundé's underground music scene left behind an extraordinary legacy of raw grooves and magnificent tunes. The songs may have been recorded in a church, with a single microphone in the span of only an hour or two, but the fact that we still pay attention to these great creations some 50 years later, only illustrates the timelessness of their music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Africa Iyo - Jean-Pierre Djeukam
2. Sie Tcheu - Joseph Kamga
3. Ma Wde Wa - Los Camaroes
4. Esele Mulema Moam - Los Camaroes
5. Yondja - Ndenga Andre Destin Et Les Golden Sounds
6. Odylife - Damas Swing Orchestra
7. Quiero Wapatcha - Charles Lembe Et Son Orchestra
8. Song Of Love - Louis Wasson Et L´Orchestre Kandem Irenée
9. Monde Moderne - Pierre Didy Tchakounte Et Les Tulipes Noires
10. Les Souffrances - Tsanga Dieudonne
11. Moni Ngan - Willie Songue Et Les Showmen
12. Mayi Bo Ya? - Johnny Black Et Les Jokers
13. Ma Fou Fou - Pierre Didy Tchakounte
14. Woman Be Fire - Lucas Tala
15. Ngamba - Ndenga Andre Destin Et Les Golden Sounds
16. Mezik Me Mema - Mballa Bony

It was in Benin City, in the heart of Nigeria, that a new hybrid of intoxicating highlife music known as Edo Funk was born. It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their native Edo culture and fusing them with new sound effects coming from West Africa´s night-clubs. Unlike the rather polished 1980´s Nigerian disco productions coming out of the international metropolis of Lagos Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare minimum. Someone was needed to channel this energy into a distinctive sound and Sir Victor Uwaifo appeared like a mad professor with his Joromi studio. Uwaifo took the skeletal structure of Edo music and relentless began fusing them with synthesizers, electric guitars and 80´s effect racks which resulted in some of the most outstanding Edo recordings ever made. An explosive spiced up brew with an odd psychedelic note known as Edo Funk.

That's the sound you'll be discovering in the first volume of the Edo Funk Explosion series which focusses on the genre's greatest originators; Osayomore Joseph, Akaba Man, and Sir Victor Uwaifo: Osayomore Joseph was one of the first musicians to bring the sound of the flute into the horn-dominated world of highlife, and his skills as a performer made him a fixture on the Lagos scene. When he returned to settle in Benin City in the mid-1970s - at the invitation of the royal family - he devoted himself to the modernisation and electrification of Edo music, using funk and Afro-beat as the building blocks for songs that weren't afraid to call out government corruption or confront the dark legacy of Nigeria's colonial past. Akaba Man was the philosopher king of Edo funk. Less overtly political than Osayomore Joseph and less psychedelic than Victor Uwaifo, he found the perfect medium for his message in the trance-like grooves of Edo funk. With pulsating rhythms awash in cosmic synth-fields and lyrics that express a deep personal vision, he found great success at the dawn of the 1980s as one of Benin City's most persuasive ambassadors of funky highlife. Victor Uwaifo was already a star in Nigeria when he built the legendary Joromi studios in his hometown of Benin City in 1978. Using his unique guitar style as the mediating force between West-African highlife and the traditional rhythms and melodies of Edo music, he had scored several hits in the early seventies, but once he had his own sixteen-track facility he was able to pursue his obsession with the synesthetic possibilities of pure sound, adding squelchy synths, swirling organs and studio effects to hypnotic basslines and raw grooves.

Between his own records and his production for other musicians, he quickly established himself as the godfather of Edo funk. What unites these diverse musicians is their ability to strip funk down to its primal essence and use it as the foundation for their own excursions inward to the heart of Edo culture and outward to the furthest limits of sonic alchemy. The twelve tracks on Edo Funk Explosion Volume 1 pulse with raw inspiration, mixing highlife horns, driving rhythms, day-glo keyboards and tripped-out guitars into a funk experience unlike any other.

TRACK LISTING

1. Africa Is My Root - Osayomore Joseph And The Creative Seven
2. Ta Gha Hunsimwen - Akaba Man & The Nigie Rokets
3. Popular Side - Akaba Man And The African Pride
4. Iranm Iran - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
5. Sakpaide No.2 - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
6. Ta Ghi Rare - Akaba Man & The Nigie Rokets
7. My Name Is Money - Osayomore Joseph
8. Ogbov Omwan - Akaba Man & The Nigie Rokets
9. Aibalegbe - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
10. Who No Man - Osayomore Joseph And The Ulele Power Sound
11. Obviemama - Sir Victor Uwaifo And His Titibitis
12. Ororo No De Fade - Osayomore Joseph And The Ulele Power Sound

One night in 1975, a successful tax lawyer named Rafael Machuca had his mind blown in Barranquilla's 'Plaza de los Musicos'. Overnight he went from a high ranking position in the Columbian revenue authority to visionary production guru of the newly formed record label that bore his name, Discos Machuca, and for the next six years he devoted his life to releasing some of the strangest, most experimental Afro Psychedelia Cumbias ever produced. La Locura de Machuca is the story of one man's bizarre odyssey into Colombia's coastal music underground, and the wild, hypnotic sounds he helped bring up to the surface. The Colombian music industry was thriving in the mid-seventies, but while homegrown bolero and vallenato tunes were doing well on the charts, it was imported African records that were setting crowds on fire at the picos – the sound-systems that fuelled neighbourhood parties – and wherever those records were played there were always a handful of groups who were inspired to plug traditional Cumbia directly into the electric currents coming from across the Atlantic.

It was these obscure bands, who fused Colombian and African rhythms with the swirling organs and psychedelic guitars of underground rock, that fired Machuca's imagination. While the label made its money releasing popular hits by legends such as Alejandro Durán and Aníbal Velásquez, that money was poured back into a unique run of experimental releases by fringe artists such as La Banda Africana, King Somalie, Conjunto Barbacoa, and Abelardo Carbono, one of the godfathers of Champeta Criolla. When Machuca couldn't find groups to realise his particular vision, he simply created them himself. Drawing on a fearsome roster of musicians associated with the label, he assembled bands that lasted only as long as it took to record an album ,and unleashed the results – complete with arrestingly unusual album covers – under a series of different names such as Samba Negra or El Grupo Folclórico. This unorthodox approach led his long time recording engineer, Eduardo Dávila, to describes Machuca's productions as the "B-Movies of Colombian music."

The story of Doctor Machuca and his eccentric exploits tells of one of Colombia's most atypical and peculiar record companies; a defining pillar of Afro-Caribbean psychedelia. His productions have come to represent the roots of Champeta and set the pedigree standards for Afro and Costeño avant-garde. The seventeen tracks on La Locura de Machuca, harvested from the darkest, strangest corners of the Discos Machuca catalogue, sound like little else recorded before or since.

TRACK LISTING

1. Samba Negra - "Eberebijara"
2. King Somalie - "Monkey´s Dance"
3. El Grupo Folclórico - "Tamba"
4. Los Viajeros Siderales - "El Campanero"
5. Rio Latino - "Ayu"
6. Aníbal Velásquez - "La Mazamorra Del Diablo"
7. La Francachela - "Mosquita Muerta"
8. El Grupo Folclórico - "Juipiti"
9. King Somalie - "Le Mongui"
10. El Grupo Folclórico - "El Tornillito"
11. Samba Negra - "Long Life Africa"
12. La Banda Africana - "Te Clavo La...Mano"
13. Myrian Makenwa - "El Platano"
14. El Grupo Folclórico - "Tucutru"
15. Grupo Bola Roja - "Caracol"
16. El Grupo D'Abelard - "A Otro Perro Con Ese Hueso"
17. Conjunto Barbacoa - "Wabali"

This triple LP / double CD reissue of the band’s first two albums - the first installment in a three-part series dedicated to Dur-Dur Band - represents the first fruit of Analog Africa’s long labours to bring this extraordinary music to the wider world. Remastered from the best available audio sources, these songs have never sounded better. Some thirty years after they first made such a splash in the Mogadishu scene, they have been freed from the wobble and tape-hiss of second and third generation cassette dubs, to reveal a glorious mix of polychromatic organs, nightclub-ready rhythms and hauntingly soulful vocals.

In addition to two previously unreleased tracks, the music is accompanied by extensive liner notes, featuring interviews with original band members, documenting a forgotten chapter of Somalia’s cultural history. Before the upheaval in the 1990s that turned Somalia into a war-zone, Mogadishu, the white pearl of the Indian Ocean, had been one of the jewels of eastern Africa, a modern paradise of culture and commerce. In the music of the Dur-Dur band - now widely available outside of Somalia - we can still catch a fleeting glimpse of that golden age.

On their first two albums, Volume 1 and Volume 2, three different singers traded leadvocal duties back and forth. Shimaali, formerly of Bakaka Band, handled the Daantho songs, a Somalian rhythm from the northern part of the country that bears a striking resemblance to reggae; Sahra Dawo, a young female singer, had been recruited from Somalia’s national orchestra, the Waaberi Band. Their third singer, the legendary Baastow, whose nickname came from the italian word ‘pasta’ due to the spaghetti-like shape of his body, had also been a vocalist with the Waaberi Band, and had been brought into Dur-Dur due to his deep knowledge of traditional Somali music, particularly Saar, a type of music intended to summon the spirits during religious rituals. These traditional elements of Dur-Dur’s repertoire sometimes put them at odds with the manager of the Jubba Hotel who once told Baastow “I am not going to risk having Italian tourists possessed by Somali spirits. Stick to disco and reggae.”

Yet from the very beginning, Dur-Dur’s doctrine was the fusion of traditional Somali music with whatever rhythms would make people dance: Funk, Reggae, Soul, Disco and New Wave were mixed effortlessly with Banaadiri beats, Daantho and spiritual Saar music. The concoction was explosive and when they stormed the Mogadishu music scene in 1986 with their very first hit single, ‘Yabaal,’ featuring vocals from Sahra Dawo, it was clear that a new meteorite had crash-landed in Somalia. As Abdulahi Ahmed, author of Somali Folk Dances explains: “Yabaal is a traditional song, but the way it was played and recorded was like nothing else we had heard before, it was new to us.” ‘Yabaal’ was one of the songs that resurfaced on the Likembe blog, and it became the symbolic starting point of this project. It initially seemed that Dur-Dur’s music had only been preserved as a series of murky tape dubs and YouTube videos, but after Samy arrived in Mogadishu he eventually got to the heart of Mogadishu’s tape-copying network - an analogue forerunner of the internet file-sharing that helped to keep the flame of this music alive through the darkest days of Somalia’s civil strife - and ended up finding some of the band’s fabled master tapes, long thought to have disappeared.

TRACK LISTING

Ohiyee
Yabaal
Heelo
Hiyeeley
Aw Baahilowlow
Doon Baa Maraysoo 
Salkudhigey (Previously Unreleased)
Haddi Aanan Gacaloy (Previously Unreleased) 
Intro Vol.2
Jaceyl Mirahiis
Dab - Abdulahi Sharif Hasan
Saafiyeey Makaa Saraayeey
Jaajumoow Jees
Diinleeya
Caashaqa Maxaa Ii Baray
Keene Gardaran
Jubba Aaka
Aduun Hawli Kama Dhamaato

One of the greatest accordionists in Northeast Brazil, Reginaldo Alves Ferreira, better known as Camarao(Shrimp) or Maestro Camarao, was born in Fazenda Velha, Brejo da Madre de Deus, Pernambuco, on 23 June 1940. He learned to play accordion by watching the movements of his father, the accordionist Antonio Neto, who took him to parties where he played. After that, according to him, he perfected his skills by listening to Luiz Gonzaga and studying the method of Mario Mascarenhas.

He played at the region’s fairs, raffles and patron festivals. He developed his artistic career in the city of Caruaru. The title of ‘Maestro’is not from his education, but rather given to him by broadcasters. At the age of 18, he met Luiz Gonzaga, whom he considers his master despite not forgetting his father’s teachings. He was a great friend and partner of the ‘rei do bai o’(‘King of Bai o’- Luiz Gonzaga’s nickname), with whom he participated in 28 recordings, including LPs, 78rpms and CDs.

TRACK LISTING

Retrato De Um Forro
A Casa De Anita 
Rio Antigo
Sereia Do Mar
Xe M
Quem Vem L
Forrozinho Moderno
Voc Passa, Eu Acho Gra A
9. XaXando Com Garibaldi
N O Interessa N O
Os Camar Es
Se Quiser Valer 
Camar O No Oriente
De Serra Em Serra
A Cigana Ihe Enganou
Fim De Festa

The Pop Makossa adventure started in 2009, when Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb first travelled to Cameroon to make an initial assessment of the country’s musical situation. He returned with enough tracks for an explosive compilation highlighting the period when funk and disco sounds began to infiltrate the Makossa style popular throughout Cameroon. So why has it taken almost eight years from that first visit to the final compilation? From the very beginning, there were several mysteries hanging over Pop Makossa.
What had happened to Bill Loko, the teenage super-star whose monster hit "Nen Lambo" caused such a sensation that he was forced to flee to the other side of the world? How did bandleader Eko Roosevelt go from Cameroonian prodigy to chief of an idyllic seaside village? And who exactly was Mystic Djim, the dreadlocked producer and mercurial hit-maker whose wizardry on a simple home four-track recorder could outshine even the mighty studios of Cameroon’s National Radio station?
It was not until DJ and music producer Déni Shain was dispatched to Cameroon to finalise the project, license the songs, scan photographs, and interview the artists that some of the biggest question marks began to disappear. 
Makossa, the beat that long before football, managed to unify the whole of Cameroon, was successful in part because it was so adaptable. Some of the greatest Makossa hits incorporated the electrifying guitars and tight grooves of funk, while others were laced with cosmic flourishes made possible by the advent of the synthesizer. However much came down to the bass; and from the rubbery hustle underpinning Mystic Djim’s ‘Yaoundé Girls’ to the luminous liquid disco lines which propel Pasteur Lappé’s ‘Sekele Movement’, Pop Makossa demonstrates why Cameroonian bass players are some of the most revered in the world.
Yet at the end of it all, there was still one final mystery facing the production team at Analog Africa: how was this compilation of amazing sounds from Cameroon going to begin? After many month and hundreds of different running orders, something still didn’t seem to click … until one day they came across a mighty song entitled ‘Pop Makossa Invasion,’ recorded for Radio Buea, a tune so obscure that even in Cameroon it had never been released. Suddenly the whole compilation fell into place...

TRACK LISTING

CD/LP 1:
Pop Makossa Invasion - Dream Stars
Yaoundé Girls - Mystic Djim & The Spirits
Nen Lambo - Bill Loko
Sanaga Calypso - Pasteur Lappé
M´ongele M´am - Eko
Ngon Engap - Olinga Gaston

CD/LP 2:
Ye Medjuie - Emmanuel Kahe Et Jeanette Kemogne
Mininga Meyong Mese - Nkodo Si-Tony
The Sekele Movement - Pasteur Lappé
Mussoliki - Bernard Ntone
More Love - Pat´ Ndoye
Africa - Clément Djimogne

"Sweet Sweet Dreams" was recorded at the legendary SHARC studios, located on a hill in Chaguaramas (near Port of Spain) and despite a fantastic sound and monster Soca-boogie tunes like "Let's Get It Together", "Let's Make It Up" and "Way, Way Out" the album was a commercial flop, probably due to the fact that it didn't sound like anything else coming out of Trinidad & Tobago at the time. It fused a range of different rhythms and new sounds, primarily heavy synth riffs.
When it came out in 1984 "Sweet Sweet Dreams" was described as "way ahead of its time". Undeservedly it was panned by critics and, unable to reach markets, disappeared into the dusty record collections of a few music aficionados. Now, more than three decades later that cosmic dance-floor UFO is about to take off again, change all that and set the record straight. Remastered and cut by Frank Meritt at The Carvery the album is truly a masterpiece. But who is this Shadow behind "Sweet Sweet Dreams?" Shadow is a man of understated magnitude. A truly enigmatic artist, he first emerged in Trinidad and Tobago during the 1970s, becoming a part of the tapestry of Caribbean music and reinvigorating calypso at the time. Calypso, the indigenous folk music of Trinidad and Tobago, has roots in West African kaiso rhythms, French Creole influences, and the hardships endured by the African slaves brought to Trinbago, whose descendants still use it as a tool for satire, self-expression, and social commentary. Calypso has also given birth to several other music genres, including soca, with its uptempo beats and festival context. Shadow effortlessly moves between both. Shadow came from a humble but musical family and started writing songs as a youth while tending cattle in the fields. To his family's initial chagrin he chose calypso over church music but his talent and drive were undeniable. In the early days of his career Shadow's style was cramped when working with some of the more conservative music arrangers who felt that calypso and soca should fit a mould. But after a while Shadow teamed up with more innovative arrangers, including Arthur "Art"de Coteau, who followed their and Shadow's intuitions resulting in a long line of hits.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: The lucky ones may have nabbed a copy of the 12", but everyone's still after more Shadow. This killer Caribbean disco LP is every bit as good as the single promised, boasting far out synth licks, irrestible grooves and more than a little of the power cosmic.

TRACK LISTING

Let's Make It Up
Let's Get It Together
Dreaming
Moon Walking
Without Love
Way Way Out
D'Hardest

Analog Africa's new release 'Siria' is a collection of carefully selected tracks drawn from the great Mestre Cupijo's six studio albums. Coming from the state of Para in Northern Brazil 'siria' is a cross pollination between the music of the inhabitants of the Quilombos, a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by escaped slaves of African origins, and the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest.

It is a breathing, pulsing, emphatic beat, and the modernised version of this local music, created by Mestre Cupijó, has been igniting street parties and traditional festivals across the state of Pará in Northern Brazil for decades.

To grasp the soul of this music, Cupijó went to its source and lived with the quilombolas (maroon) community of the Amazon. Upon his return, enriched by this life-changing experience, he founded the band Jazz Orquestra os Azes do Ritmo with the goal of reinventing siriá and modernising samba de cacete, banguê and other folkloric music of the state of Pará. Airwaves from the Caribbean and Latin America had also brought the cumbia sound of the mighty Colombian orchestras, merengue from the Dominican republic and Cuban music to the Amazon, all of which had an impact on the music of Northern Brazil, mambo especially! Mestre Cupijó took these influences and mixed them in with the ingredients he had studied in the Quilombos. That fusion - as we are witnessing on this record - had explosive effects.

Analog Africa are ferociously proud and honoured to have the chance to present these carefully selected tracks from Mestre Cupijó's six studio albums. They hope that his music captivates you with the magic and bewilderment and they recognise his compositions as true anthems of life and vitality, vibrantly encouraging all to drink and dance until sunrise! Let go of your inhibitions and immerse yourself in the wonderful world of Mestre Cupijó - Segura!

A Portuguese civil servant, entrepreneur and Angolan music fan named Luis Montês self-designed Kutonocas, Sunday afternoon live music festivals started in Luanda in 1961 and is the basis on which this great compilation is built.

This compilation is a dedication to the short lived recording industry in Angola, a brief moment of history between 1969 and 1978 in which three recording companies produced approximately 800 records, mostly singles. They are rare jewels, each song with a significant story and feel behind it. You will hear exciting music blazed with the anticipation of emancipation, tracks fuelled with a sense of unity, community, importance and immediacy. This addictive, outlawed music from Angola shakes and grooves with the smoothness of staccato machine gunfire. The intimacy of those participating in this musical revolution meant they playfully and professionally wanted to trump each other’s style due to the limited recording and performing opportunities. The optimism of Independence can be heard in these recordings; a common goal between the audience and musicians.

The characteristically generous liner notes feature 44 pages acquired in coordination with the National Library of Luanda and the art magazine “Note E Dia” and Analog Africa head honcho Samy Ben Redjeb has managed to collect newspaper clips, extremely rare pictures of the bands on stage and printed interviews from the 70s.

TRACK LISTING

CD Version:
Avante Juventude - Os Angos
Senhor Doutor - Quim Manuel
H'hoca - Tony Von
Kia Lomingo - Urbano De Castro
Bina - Jovens Do Prenda
Mabele - Oscar Neves
Agarrem - Africa Ritmos
Saudades De Luanda - Os Kiezos
Bongololo - Kito
N'Ga Kuna M'Butu - Muhongo
Lemba - Negoleiros Do Ritmo
Snipes - Dicanzas Do Prenda
Bazooka - Carlo Lamartine
Divua Diami - Cisco
Meca - Levis Vercky's
Chamavo - Elias Dia Kimuezo /
Olha O Pica - Africa Ritmos

LP Version:
LP 1:
Avante Juventude - Os Angos
Senhor Doutor - Quim Manuel
N'Hoca - Tony Von
Kia Lomingo - Urbano De Castro
Bina - Jovens Do Prenda
Mabele -Oscar Neves
Agarrem - Africa Ritmos /
Saudades De Luanda - Os Kiezos

LP 2:
Bongololo - Kito
N'Ga Kuna M'butu - Muhongo
Lemba - Negoleiros Do Ritmo
Snipes - Dicanzas Do Prenda
Bazooka - Carlo Lamartine
Divua Diami - Cisco
Meca - Levis Vercky's
Chamavo - Elias Dia Kimuezo
Olha O Pica - Africa Ritmos