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BONGO JOE RECORDS

Various Artists

La Ola Nocturna (Experimental Songs & Deviant Pop From The Spanish 80’s)

'La Ola Nocturna' explores the most adventurous side of Spanish pop in the 1980s. Spanning post-punk, new wave, synth wave, darkwave and experimental electronics, this compilation brings together 25 tracks that capture an Spain in transition, suspended between the euphoria of newfound freedoms after Franco’s dictatorship and the uncertainties of an emerging modernity.

Far beyond the familiar story of Madrid’s Movida, 'La Ola Nocturna' uncovers a rich and often overlooked independent scene where offbeat pop, nocturnal soundscapes, punk feminism, cybernetic utopias, gothic romanticism and DIY experimentation flourished side by side. From Madrid and Barcelona to San Sebastián, Vigo and the Canary Islands, these artists forged a distinctly Spanish musical language, shaped as much by international influences as by the unique context of the country’s democratic transition.

A journey through a decade of freedom, contradictions and relentless creativity, 'La Ola Nocturna' reveals the roots of Spain’s future indie movement while celebrating a generation that turned the night into a laboratory for artistic invention.


TRACK LISTING

1. Aventuras de Kirlian - En invierno
2. Ciudad Jardín - Homúnculo
3. El Guerrillero Rojo - Vueltas
4. Kremlyn - The Girl Is Mine
5. &Nil - Tilly
6. Los Monaguillosh - Voces en la jungle
7. Aerolíneas Federales - Soy fea
8. Esclarecidos - El muro acabo con Matt (Berlín)
9. Zush & Tres - On the Rooms of Mush
10. M-ak - Atseden une bat
11. Línea Vienesa - Te vas a morir
12. Alphaville - Ataque lateral
13. Víctor Nubla - Cloaca Máxima II
14. Parálisis Permanente - Bacanal
15. Ataque de caspa - La pesca
16. El Aviador Dro y sus obreros especializados - Obsesión
17. Fracción del Ejército Rojo - Apoyo Internacional
18. Aventuras de Kirlian - Marnie la ladrona
19. Javier Segura - Camino largo
20. Esclarecidos - Música para convenios colectivos
21. Mataparda - La llegada del cometa
22. Agrimensor K - Nuevas factorías
23. El Último sueño - Los muebles están volando
24. Alphaville - Paisajes nocturnos

Forest Law

Golden Crown / Enchanted

With 'Golden Crown' and his interpretation of Prefab Sprout’s 'Enchanted', Forest Law brings together two songs that reflect both his songwriting and his musical influences. One is an original composition from 2018, rediscovered years later and revived almost unchanged, pairing bright pop melodies with a sharp meditation on power.

The other pays tribute to a song that became a personal obsession after his long-overdue discovery of Prefab Sprout. Together, these recordings highlight Forest Law’s gift for understated arrangements, memorable melodies and lyrics whose depth unfolds with every listen.


TRACK LISTING

1. Golden Crown
2. Enchanted

Viagezero

Viagezero

Viragezero was born on a cold Sunday evening in December, on the way home from a Chris Cohen concert at Geneva’s Face Z festival. In the winter night emerged the desire to create a new collective space, nourished by the long drifting journeys of kosmische musik.

Initially conceived as a parallel playground bringing together the duo Citron Citron, former members of L’Éclair and musicians from Magic & Naked, the project quickly developed its own gravity. This self-titled debut album sketches a world both familiar and distorted, where everyday landscapes slowly slip into stranger territories.

Driven by nervous synths, hazy guitars, shifting electronic textures and rhythms drawing from 1990s trip hop and abstract hip hop, Viragezero builds a suspended and immersive music. A music guided as much by sensation as by structure, where repetition becomes a moving force and tensions evolve without ever fully resolving.

At the centre of the album are Zoé Sjollema’s lyrics, drawn from fragments of dreams collected over several years. Her instinctive writing blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination, tracing recurring themes of solitude, wandering, exhaustion. and disconnection. Rather than telling stories, the songs unfold as emotional states, inhabited by shifting landscapes, distorted memories and fleeting impressions.

Somewhere between dream pop, electronica, IDM and spectral songwriting, Viragezero delivers a dense and instinctive debut album. A nocturnal and hypnotic record that transforms fragments of reality into constantly shifting sonic matter.


TRACK LISTING

1. Balcon 
2. Rien Ne Vient 
3. Ticket Fantôme 
4. Ex Elf
5. Labyrinthe
6. Larmes De Feu
7. Tracasse 
8. Dans Les Ruines 

Yassine Nana

Yassine - Modern Pop From Mauritania (1984-1987)

This compilation brings together eight tracks by Yassine Nana and his group, recorded between 1984 and 1989, during a key moment in Mauritania’s musical history. A central figure of one of the country’s most respected musical families, Yassine stands at the crossroads of a long-standing tradition and a period of deep transformation in form, sound and production.

Recorded in Mauritania as well as during stays in Paris and Rabat, these songs integrate drum machines, synthesizers and electric guitars into Saharan musical structures. Influenced by reggae, soul and new wave, the group develops a sound that reflects the circulation of music and technology in the 1980s, while remaining firmly rooted in Mauritanian languages, themes and melodic systems. Love, travel, exile and music itself run through lyrics sung in Hassaniya and classical Arabic.

Originally released on cassette and long confined to local circulation, these recordings offer a rare perspective on African popular music of the period, seen from Nouakchott. A body of work that documents a Mauritanian modernity, both popular and exploratory, now brought back into circulation by Les Disques Bongo Joe and Sofa Records.


TRACK LISTING

1. Boustan El Achar
2. Fatma
3. Samraa
4. Telephone
5. Messager Aala Ettayper
6. Biqalbi N'thab
7. Ma Ahla Lilat Samar
8. Bouaamrane

Société Étrange

HEAT

With 'Heat', Société Étrange extends its work around repetition, groove and cyclic structures, shaping an instrumental music that is both hypnotic and enveloping. Without any radical shift, the Lyon-based trio subtly moves towards more melodic and more cinematic forms, revealing warmer, more textured and sometimes more luminous atmospheres.

Formed by Antoine Bellini (electronics), Romain Hervault (bass) and Jonathan Grandcollot (drums), Société Étrange builds here a more diffuse trance, driven by generally slower tempos than on 'Chance'. Organic drums interact with drum machines and layers of synthesizers, while the bass carries both pulse and melodic lines. The music breathes more, leaving space for silences and micro-variations, and unfolds as an immersive listening experience.

With 'Heat', the band explores a strange form of instrumental pop, without formats or choruses, nourished by an imaginary close to soundtracks and narrative electronic music. A warm and hypnotic album, where repetition becomes texture, tension turns into atmosphere, and each track draws its own sonic landscape.


TRACK LISTING

1. Coquet
2. Place Saint Bruno
3. Heat
4. Fenêtre sur cour
5. Chamber dress
6. Soleil lourd
7. Fifth

Various Artists

Léve Léve Vol. 2: Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds 70s-80s

Following 'Léve Léve Vol. 1', this second volume continues a long-term exploration of the popular music of São Tomé and Príncipe, with a clear focus on rhythm, movement and dancefloor energy. Curated by Tom B., 'Léve Léve Vol. 2' brings together emblematic recordings from the 1970s and 1980s, carefully restored and remastered, designed as much for close listening as for DJ use.

The compilation deepens and completes the first volume by returning to key groups such as Sangazuza, Conjunto Equador, Africa Negra and Pedro Lima, while also unveiling previously unreleased or hard-to-find tracks. Across the record, puxa and socopê rhythms unfold with remarkable intensity, capturing these bands at the height of their powers: tight arrangements, driving grooves and a strong sense of collective momentum.

Beyond celebration, 'Léve Léve Vol. 2' also reflects a precise cultural and political context. Several songs reference Luso-African independence struggles, spirituality, love and everyday life, anchoring this music in a history shaped by resistance, circulation and hybridization. Recorded in São Tomé, Luanda or Lisbon — often with the involvement of key figures from the Lusophone diaspora — these tracks reveal a modern musical landscape that has long remained under-documented.

Conceived as a living record rather than a static archival object, this compilation speaks equally to DJs and curious listeners. It once again affirms Bongo Joe’s approach: bringing powerful, popular and complex music back into circulation, without nostalgia or exoticism, and making it fully present today.


TRACK LISTING

1. Sangazuza - Mário Bi Cedo
2. Conjunto Equador - Maia Da Môle
3. África Negra - Apoiámos A Luta Dos Nossos Irmão
4. Sum Alvarinho - Cacau
5. Sangazuza - Zon Fada Non
6. Tiny Das Neves E Conjunto Sol D'África - Áfriaé
7. Pedro Lima E Conjunto Popular Os Leonenses - Sossegado (Puxa)
8. Conjunto Equador - Pecado Dy Mundo
9. Sangazuza - Sono Sá Kuá De Téma
10. África Negra - Simoa
11. Conjunto Mindelo - Queima Roupa
12. Sangazuza - Luiza Antê Kedja
13. Bulawê N'Guli Fala, Quinta Das Palmeiras - Tira A Mão Da Minha Xuxa
14. Os Úntuès - Feça Non Chigá-zá
15. Pedro Lima - Mêm De Mina Mue 

Damily

Fanjiry

After decades spent shaping the sound of southern Madagascar and becoming one of the defining voices of tsapiky, Damily returns with Fanjiry, his most intimate and focused record to date. Known for electrifying village ceremonies and carrying the fever of Toliara across continents, he takes a sharp turn — not away from trance, but deeper into its core.

Recorded in just three days at Studio Black Box with analog wizard Peter Deimel, Fanjiry strips the tsapiky band down to a single guitar and a single heartbeat. Damily plays alone, yet fills the space completely — bass, rhythm, melody, pulse, and breath merging into a dense and vibrating sound. Every riff is architecture, every harmonic a door opening onto memory, childhood landscapes, and nights where music heals, binds, and exhausts the dark.

There is no nostalgia here, no museum of tradition. Fanjiry is a new frontier for tsapiky: raw, precise, suspended between earth and sky, born from craft and necessity. The title — the last star before dawn — captures its essence: a quiet moment before the world awakens, where a single guitar can hold an entire history and still point forward.

TRACK LISTING

Fanjiry
Alohotsy
Sikilony
Kalavabitiky
Zongoya
Zipo Tralala
Tsapatsapao
Roro Soa
Alakarabo


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