Aby Ngana Diop
Liital LP [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Aby Ngana Diop was the most famous taasukat in Dakar, Senegal in the 1980s and 1990s. Taasu is a Wolof-language poetic style, usually performed by women griots over frenetic drum patterns, with an aggressive verbal flow thought to presage rap. Her... |
Asnakech Worku
Asnakech [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 16/Nov/2018 ] There is perhaps no woman more cherished in modern Ethiopian history than Asnakech Worku. As a musician, actress, dancer and cultural icon, Asnakech inspired and challenged society for decades, until her death in 2011. From her beginnings as... |
Ata Kak
Obaa Sima b/w Adagya LP [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jul/2013 ] |
Ata Kak
Obaa Sima LP [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Ata Kak's cassette Obaa Sima fell on deaf ears when it was self-released in Ghana and Canada in 1994. The music on the recording - an amalgam of highlife, Twi-language rap, funk and disco - is presented with the passion of a Prince record and the... |
Bola
Volume 7 [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Bola is a singer and instrumentalist from Bolgatanga, Ghana who has been putting out tape after tape of ridiculously energetic and thoughtful songs for the last few years. Bola's Volume 7 has intense Frafra-language vocals, along with shredding... |
Bola
Volume 7 LP [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Bola is a singer and instrumentalist from Bolgatanga, Ghana who has been putting out tape after tape of ridiculously energetic and thoughtful songs for the last few years. Bola's Volume 7 has intense Frafra-language vocals, along with shredding... |
DJ Katapila
Aroo (12") [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / 12in - released 23/Mar/2018 ] DJ Katapila's Aroo EP is the latest addition to the iconoclastic producer's catalog of fast-paced, pan West African-influenced dance music. |
DJ Katapila
Trotro (LP) [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Awesome Tapes From Africa are releasing a re-issue of Ghanaian DJ, producer and rapper DJ Katapila's Trotro album. DJ Katapila started producing music in the late 90's at the age of 39, and as his set progressed, he began adding live rapping over... |
Dur-Dur Band
Dur-Dur Band Volume 5 [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jul/2013 ] This classic Somali band's 1987 recording captures some of the incredible sounds happening in Mogadishu during that era. Dur-Dur Band emerged in the 1980s, during a time when Somalia’s contribution to the creative culture in the Horn of Africa was... |
Dur-Dur Band
Dur-Dur Band Volume 5 [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Dur-Dur Band emerged in the 1980s, during a time when Somalia’s contribution to the creative culture in the Horn of Africa was visible and abundant. Seeking inspiration outside the impressive array of Somali traditional music that was encouraged at... |
Ephat Mujuru & The Spirit Of The People
Mbavaira [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / Cassette - released 27/Aug/2021 ] Mujuru was Zimbabwe's foremost mbira (thumb piano) player who brought Shona music to the world. Mbavaira is now available outside Zimbabwe for the first time. All-acoustic, calming music for these times. Mbira importance grew with the struggle for... |
Hailu Mergia
Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Hailu Mergia is an Ethiopian one-man-band accordion/keyboardist extraordinaire. Hailu made his name in Walias Band and later went on to do some visionary solo recordings. Hailu Mergia's beautiful and surprising 1985 foray into traditional Ethiopian... |
Hailu Mergia
Yene Mircha [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / Cassette - released 27/Mar/2020 ] Available on Vinyl LP, CD and Cassette. It's been a long, winding road to Hailu Mergia's sixth decade of musical activity. From a young musician in the 60s starting out in Addis Ababa to the 70s golden age of dance bands to the new hope as an emigre |
Hailu Mergia
Lala Belu (LP) [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 9/Mar/2018 ] The "obscure outsider artist from beyond the west" has become a familiar trope for old music excavated in far-flung places, thanks in part to the eagle-eyed tape rummaging of intrepid label owners such as Brian Shimkovitz. Under his Awesome Tapes... |
Na Hawa Doumbia
La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 3 LP [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jul/2013 ] Na Hawa Doumbia's La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 3 marks the first release for new label Awesome Tapes From Africa, a blog and DJ project known worldwide for shedding light on obscure and wonderful musical treasures from the African... |
Na Hawa Doumbia
La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 3 [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 24/Nov/2011 ] Na Hawa Doumbia's La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 3 marks the first release for new label Awesome Tapes From Africa, a blog and DJ project known worldwide for shedding light on obscure and wonderful musical treasures from the African... |
Nahawa Doumbia
La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol. 1 (LP) [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 20/Sep/2019 ] Nahawa Doumbia is one of Mali's defining vocalists of the last four decades. Her work journeys through progressive stages of musical evolution and sonic vogues, making it hard to summarize or even comprehend. She's played a part in popular music... |
Om Alec Khaoli
Say You Love Me [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 7/Jul/2017 ] Re-issue on Awesome Tapes From Africa of "Om" Alec Khaoli, the musician behind Harari and Umoja. Say You Love Me wasn't "Om" Alec Khaoli's first solo recording, but the 1985 EP solidified the bass player and songwriter's standing as one of South... |
Om Alec Khaoli
Say You Love Me (12") [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / 12in - released 7/Jul/2017 ] Re-issue on Awesome Tapes From Africa of "Om" Alec Khaoli, the musician behind Harari and Umoja. Say You Love Me wasn't "Om" Alec Khaoli's first solo recording, but the 1985 EP solidified the bass player and songwriter's standing as one of South... |
Papé Nziengui Et Son Groupe
Kadi Yombo [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / Cassette - released 8/Apr/2022 ] Kadi Yombo, published in 1989, is the most successful album in the quest for a fusion between tradition and modernity in Bwiti harp music of the Tsogho people of Gabon. Combining beating rattles with a layer of synthesizers, Papé Nziengui blends in a... |