Tags: Cape Verde

Review: While Analog Africa always outdo themselves with their inconceivable form and approach to reissuing rare tropical music, this Record Store Day sees them providing us with some seriously special moves from the inimitable islands of Cape Verde. It was their Space Echo compilation, released a few years ago, that put the African archipelago back on the map, and we haven't stopped dancing since. Through a seductive blend of synths, drums, and unforgettable chanting, the style of Fukuna is on our hearts wherever we go. Antonio Sanchez, a leading figure in the golden era of the Cape Verde sound (70s-80s), release Buli Povo to limited international acclaim; the original is a rare find, and so it makes total sense to have it pressed up once again. But, act fast, because these WILL fly! Totally killer stuff.

Review: Great Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora was pretty prolific and put out several still well-regarded albums, from Distino Di Belita to Cafe Alantico via Vox D'amor. Many of them have been reissued recently and next up to get that treatment is Club Sodade, which finds a bunch of her tracks getting a contemporary club rework by a wide array of musicians. It comes on heavyweight red vinyl so is ready for serious DJ deployment. Carl Craig's mix of organic hand claps and fizzing techno synth intensity on his rework of 'Angola' is one of the most well-known cuts here but deep house heads will also know and love Kerri Chandler's percussive take on 'Nho Antone Escarderode.'

Review: The 1999 album by the late Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora, Cafe Atlantico, is considered one of the greatest of its time, owing to its unmistakably ethereal sound. Adding to the mythology, Evora was known as the "Barefoot Diva" for her habit of performing without shoes. The album features songs in Portuguese, Spanish, and Creole, influenced by Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and Cape Verdean rhythms. Cuban musicians - the likes of Tata Guines and Barbaro Torres, Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso, and Senegalese singer Ismael Lo - appear throughout this exquisite, now reissued via MOV.

Review: Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora became known as "the barefoot diva" because, well, you guessed it, she often used to perform on stage with no shoes on. Her sounds are often classed as world music and she often sang in her native Cape Verdean creole but also on occasion in French and Portuguese, always with a certain melancholic aura. Her Distino di Belita album was a second studio long player with Jose da Silva and it includes a mix of her signature acoustic mournas and electric-coladeras as well as her most popular tunes, the superb 'Nova Sintra' and moving 'Distino di Bilita'.