Carl Craig back on Honest Jon’s, in devastating form: nervy and urgent, epic and apocalyptic, kicking and funky. Lagos re-tooled in Detroit.

Paradigmatic yet forward-looking township jazz from 1975.
Braiding Wes Montgomery into marabi, the legendary guitarist leads a stellar line-up of musicians including Kippie Moeketsi, Barney Rachabane, Gilbert Matthews, Dennis Mpale, and Sipho Gumede.
The opener glances sideways at the commercial success of Abdullah Ibrahim’s recent Mannenberg — but the real magic follows on, when the players cut loose in their own, new directions.
This is the first vinyl reissue. Sleevenotes by Kwanele Sosibo feature interviews with key musicians, and previously unpublished photos.

Deep Berlin steppers. Dubwise traces of our original Lagos recording — the percussion of Yinka Ogunye, the singing of fifties palmwine legend Rolling Dollar, Oscar Olimbi’s guitar lick — blend in with Moritz’ own warm Oberheim voicings, additional drumming, and cool-and-deadly rhythm track. It’s a tough, masterly dance record in fine Rhythm And Sound style (evoking vintage House, too) — which during its ten-and-a-half minutes seems to ponder time elapsed and journeys undertaken.
Reggae Land Dub is the thumping, pared-down dub of Wareika Hill Sounds’ rootical rework of Ise Nla. Magnificent trombone and percussion; expert, classical JA mixing. Brings to mind the versions of Black Man Stand Up Pan Foot.

This mix by Mark Ernestus — one half of the Basic Channel, Maurizio and Rhythm And Sound teams — kicks off our series of reworkings of tracks from Tony Allen’s Lagos No Shaking album.

Like a dream, but authoritatively, this remix from Jamaica magnificently crosses the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti with the grounation reggae tradition of Count Ossie.

‘Oud-player with The Handover, Eissa was mentored by two legendary figures in Egyptian music: composer and multi-instrumentalist Abdo Dagher, and oud master Hazem Shahin. The music here is heavily rooted in both Egyptian classical music and a number of different folk music traditions, but it goes its own way, through expansive and intricate original compositions.
‘The epic title track, with Eissa playing oud exclusively, takes up two thirds of the album. It seamlessly transitions into heart-stopping recitation of the thirteenth century poet Baha´ al-din Zuhayr… serious, loving, tender and insistent, all at once. Visionary and virtuosic, but at the same time warm and close.
‘A future classic.’

Mid-seventies stoner afro-rock, slurring and moody, slathered in fuzz, from Kiwe in northern Zambia.

Eight poetic songs attuned to the early 1970s chanson of Brigitte Fontaine, performed by Mauricio Amarante and Marine Debilly Cerisier.

Startling 1975 excursions into Tarantism — a kind of hysteria ostensibly triggered by spider bites, for which dancing is the only cure, with its own set of cultural traditions based in Basilicata, Apulia, Sicily.
Obsessive, hypnotic chants, rhythms, and drones, mixing together folk, avant-gardism, and psych, with shots of Dylan and North African drumming.

A fresh, engaging compilation, spanning 1978-1988: a decentred, porous map of the Gallic musical scene during the Sono Mondial era, running routes from the suburbs of Paris to and from the French Caribbean Antilles and throughout the African diaspora; and revelling in the new general access to electronic instruments like synthesizers and drum machines.

Superb singing, in Urdu, with reined-in accompaniment by Vijay Iyer on pianos and electronics, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog.