Back catalogue: Funk Soul & Jazz

Review: A unique political story told in 20 chapters, Angola 2 Soundtrack delves deep into the nine year history of recorded music culture that was born out of the live music oppression set in place by Portuguese rule. Between three labels over 800 recordings were released during this fertile period, each one reflecting Angolan folk and distinctive Latin influences. And these are 20 of the most creative highlights. From the frenetic guitar rhythms and harmonic chants of "Mabele" to the psychedelic highlife shimmers of "Avante Juventude" via the insistent, street-bound sermon of "Snipes", this collection is entrenched in a rich musical history. Complete with well researched booklet and powerful imagery, it's an immaculate lesson in modern music history.

Review: Analog Africa has repressed the highly valued and long since sold-out Congo Funk! Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River: Kinshasa/Brazzaville 1969-1982. It is a compilation that superbly shows off the raw energy and funkiness of the Congolese rumba scene. This is the country that spawned such as legendary bands as African Jazz, OK Jazz and African Fiesta and it is said that the concert ahead of the legendary Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman is what really set young hopefully musicians on their paths, after they saw James Brown play live. The story of those artists and the labels they released on in the ensuing years is what is told so well here across four sides of vital wax.

Review: Just when you think that the well of obscure music from around the world has run dry, Analog Africa returns to put the record straight. Pop-Makossa shines a light on a glorious but largely overlooked period in the story of Cameroonian makossa, when local musicians began to replace funk and highlife influences with the rubbery bass of classic disco and the sparkling synth flourishes and drum machines of electrofunk. The resultant compilation, which apparently took eight years to produce, is packed full of brilliant cuts, from the heavily-electronic jauntiness of Pasteur Lappe's "Sanaga Calypso" and horn-totin' Highlife-disco of Emmaniel Kahe and Jeanette Kemogne's "Ye Medjuie", to the dense, organ-laden wig out that is Clement Djimogne's "Africa".

Review: Analog Africa's latest must-have release focuses on the little-known musical culture of the Para state on Northern Brazil, and specifically the port city of Belem. Since the 1960s the city's musicians have been serving up unique and exciting new styles that draw as much on West African, Cuban and Caribbean music as they do the rhythms and instrumentation of the Amazonian tribes based nearby. It's these kinds of unique and exuberant fusions - think heavy bass, bouncy ska-style rhythms, punchy Afro-Cuban horns, densely layered drums, celebratory vocals and tropical guitars - that make "Jambu E Os Miticos Sons Da Amazonia" such an essential listen. Context is provided via the included 44-page booklet, whose extensive liner notes track the development of Para's unique musical culture.

Review: Analogue Africa's 33rd compilation from their regular series, "Essiebons Special 1973 - 1983 // Ghana Music Power House", celebrating legendary producer Dick Essilfie-Bondzie's many achievements within Ghanaian music, which coincides with Analog Africa's 15th Anniversary.

Review: A very special release, available for the first time internationally... Here Analog Africa explores the pollination of rural Brazilian music made by Amazon natives and the influence of escaped African slaves. Composed by Mestre Cupijo and recorded between 1975 and 1982, each track blasts and wheezes its own unique narrative. From the frenetic rhumba of "Tubarao Branco" to the spiralling horns and rich chants of "Siria Quente" via sad croons and concrete guitar strums of "Passarinho Siriri" there's a vibrant fusion of elements that will resonate with fans of music from both sides of the Atlantic.

Review: This is the sort of album that we record nerds always fall for. The title alone is exciting - who wouldn't want to take a Sonic Expedition into the Peruvian Amazon between 1972-1986? It is a classy collection that brings together vintage cumbia sounds and all its many famously lopsided rhythms and scratch sounds. The tunes come from all over the place but most notably the shores of the Amazon where hundreds of tiny villages all fomented their own subtly different takes on the tried and tested template. This is a rather modern take on cambia too with electric guitars, squeaky Farfisa organs and proto-synths all making the sounds instead of early styles with a big band feel and plenty of accordions.

Review: After 12 years in the making one can only imagine how excited (and impatient) we are to finally announce the release of "Saturno 2000", the 34th compilation in our Analog Africa's regular serie. For this particular project we've delved deep into the scene of the Mexican's sonideros (sound-system operators) to present the "Rebajada" movement they've created using locally made pitch controls, speakers and sound effects.

Review: In 1976, seven Cabo Verdean musicians going by the name Voz Di Sanicolau gathered in a small recording studio in Rotterdam where they laid down an album of fearsome coladeira songs inspired by the music of their home island of Sao Nicolau.

The album took only a few days to record, which may explain the unexpected urgency that fires each track. Treble-soaked electric guitar lines snake back and forth through percussion-and-cavaquinho driven rhythms rooted in the sound of the islands established by the previous generation of Cabo Verdean emigres; subtle keyboards wash through the background, and the vocals, traded between Joana Do Rosario and To-Ze, alternately push the music forward and soar above it. The resulting album is both deeply felt and fiercely executed, and in its grooves one hears the sound of some of the finest Cabo Verdean musicians of their era locked in complete unity of purpose.

It should have been the beginning of something extraordinary; but the pressures of making ends meet forced the musicians back to their day jobs, and Voz Di Sanicolau vanished as quickly as they had appeared, leaving their lone album, Fundo de Mare Palinha, as sole proof of their existence. Forty-four years later the album sounds as fresh as it did the day it was recorded. It is unknown if dutch sound engineer Frans Rolland, who oversaw the recordings, knew he was helping to make history: during these sessions, Joana Do Rosario, whose majestic vocals were crucial to the sound of Voz Di Sanicolau, became the first Cabo Verdean woman ever to appear on a long playing record.