Hailu Mergia & The Walias Band
Tezeta [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 4/Jun/2021 ] From their genesis as members of the Venus club in-house band in the early 70s, The Walias were at the forefront of the musical revolution during an era where modern instruments and foreign styles superseded the traditional fare to become the staple... |
Jess Sah Bi & Peter One
Our Garden Needs Its Flowers [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 17/Aug/2018 ] In the 1980s, Abidjan's Jess Sah Bi & Peter One became one of the most popular musical acts in not just the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), but broader West Africa, eventually performing with a full band to stadium-sized audiences at home and throughout... |
Jess Sah Bi & Peter One
Our Garden Needs Its Flowers (LP) [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 17/Aug/2018 ] In the 1980s, Abidjan's Jess Sah Bi & Peter One became one of the most popular musical acts in not just the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), but broader West Africa, eventually performing with a full band to stadium-sized audiences at home and throughout... |
Hailu Mergia
Lala Belu [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - 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... |
Nahawa Doumbia
Kanawa [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 29/Jan/2021 ] The meaning of "Kanawa" is so simple. We see our children trying to cross the ocean all the time. I said that many of our children die in the ocean and some of them while crossing the Sahara. Some climb over the wires across the borders and they have |
Nahawa Doumbia
La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol. 1 [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - 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... |
Native Soul
Teenage Dreams [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 24/Sep/2021 ] Kgothatso Tshabalala is 19 years old and Zakhele Mhlanga (DJ Zakes) is 18. Their 12-track debut electronic music album, Teenage Dreams, is not easily dismissed as a project that shows their age, though. Teenage Dreams presents a youthful,... |
Papé Nziengui Et Son Groupe
Kadi Yombo [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - 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... |
Penny Penny
Yogo Yogo [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 9/Oct/2020 ] The rags-to-riches chronicle of Penny Penny's life would be remarkable if he had only released his smash debut Shaka Bundu and packed houses for a few years. But the inimitable South African singer and dancer known for his trademark top ponytail and... |
Penny Penny
Yogo Yogo (LP) [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 9/Oct/2020 ] The rags-to-riches chronicle of Penny Penny's life would be remarkable if he had only released his smash debut Shaka Bundu and packed houses for a few years. But the inimitable South African singer and dancer known for his trademark top ponytail and... |
Professor Rhythm
Bafana Bafana (LP) [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Nov/2017 ] First time on vinyl -Key producer of early South African house music and kwaito Professor Rhythm is the production moniker of South African music man Thami Mdluli. Throughout the 1980's, Mdluli was member of chart-topping groups Taboo and CJB,... |
Professor Rhythm
Professor 3 [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 1/Jun/2018 ] Thami Mdluli's third instrumental album (which contains some background vocals, to be exact), portrays the moment when the dominant mbaqanga and American R&B-based bubblegum sounds being produced in Johannesburg and other urban centers were... |
Professor Rhythm
Professor 3 (LP) [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / LP - released 1/Jun/2018 ] Thami Mdluli's third instrumental album (which contains some background vocals, to be exact), portrays the moment when the dominant mbaqanga and American R&B-based bubblegum sounds being produced in Johannesburg and other urban centers were... |
Sourakata Koite
En Hollande [ Awesome Tapes From Africa / CD - released 18/Jan/2019 ] Sourakata Koité was born in 1955 in Malème, Senegal, a Malinke-speaking area. As Sourakata says, "All the Koité are musicians!" He is indeed a member of a family of djéli (or griot in french), the hereditary caste of musician-storyteller-historians... |
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... |