We’re really more than glad to see that Bandcamp’s Fridays have become a thing and music lovers are increasingly embracing and supporting them (next to supporting musicians and labels) month after month.
The 7th Bandcamp’s Friday has just started, so we though to virtually crate dig the latest releases from the world music world and give you a few music shopping tips.
And don’t forget the next appointments with the initiative happening on…
October 2, 2020
November 6, 2020
December 4, 2020
La Sonora Mazurén: Maratónico Sandungón Vol. 1 [In-correcto]
We start with some of our favourite new cumbieros. La Sonora Mazuren, a band born from the thriving Bogotá music scene five years ago, finally released its debut LP for In-correcto label.
In its 30 live-recorded minutes and nine chapters, Maratónico Sandungón Vol. 1 gives you just enough of a taste of the band’s dancy and organic drive.
Various Artists: La Locura de Machuca 1975-1980 [Analog Africa]
For our second entry, we only need to move a thousand kilometres north of Bogotá to reach Barranquilla. There, in 1975, a tax lawyer named Rafael Machuca founded Discos Machuca.
Rafael Machuca was also a dedicated music visionary who, next to releasing profit-making bolero and vallenato hits, also unearthed and gave some well-deserved exposure to lesser known Afro-Colombian bands.
This brand new Analog Africa compilation is a good-and-proper tribute to Machuca’s “work of heart” and a selection of some of the most thrilling Afro-Colombian vintagy tunes featuring a wide range of styles from champeta to cumbia and Afro-Caribbean rhythms to psychedelia.
Various Artists: African Electronic Diaspora: Black Lives Matter [Rebel Up! Records]
In the last few months, Belgians have given strong and empathetic support to the BLM movement. The country’s past, present and projections into the future have made Belgium an ever-evolving construction site when it comes to identity, discrimination and memory.
In Brussels, at Rebel Up! Records, they are keen on “keeping the flame burning and the discussion going” and African Electronic Diaspora: Black Lives Matter is their way to do it in music.
They collaborated with labels like Nyege Nyege Tapes, Bongo Joe Records, Sdban Records, Galletas Calientes, Blanc Manioc, Strut and artists like Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers, Lua Preta, Plu con Pla, Maga Bo, Onipa and Dandana to release a 28-track compilation and “raise funds for various (inter)national NGO’s, anti-racism advocacy groups and organisations of black initiative, with all proceedings to be donated to these causes”.
It goes without saying that, in pure Rebel Up! spirit, the album is not only an exemplary and inclusive initiative, but it’s also a wide-ranging and inspired music selection including some of the most exciting names in the African dispora music, global beats and bass scenes.
Spaza – UPRIZE! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Mushroom Hour Half Hour]
We never made it a secret that we have a soft spot for the visionary and inventive energy of Spaza. So, we are more than excited to welcome a new chapter in the history of the project launched by Johannesburg label Mushroom Hour / Half Hour last year.
Only this occasion, we are dealing with a slightly different work. The Spaza family has indeed composed the soundtrack for UPRIZE!, a documentary narrating the events that started on the morning of the 16 of June 1976, the outset of the Soweto uprising.
There’s arguably no better music interpreter than Spaza to set such a significant movie in music and there’s arguably no better way that they could have done it than with improvised performances. As their label pointed out, the soundtrack was composed while the film was “still being put together… with only snatches of footage and audio were available to the musicians via a projection on the wall of the living room in which they were recording”. As a matter of fact, pure Spaza’s style!
Various Artists – Salgari Records Various Artists 001 [Salgari Records]
We close our shopping list with another collective work. We move to Italy, in Turin, where Salgari Records have recently released their first digital compilation, which sum up their musical credo in 18 tracks.
The album is indeed an eclectic, atmospheric and electronic ’round the world ticket’ presenting musicians and producers united under and bringing forward the idea of global beats.
From the Afro-electro collaboration between Uhuru Republic and Msafiri Zawose to the refined and jazzy one between Gianni Denitto, Chalanga & Nina Simmons and from the Middle Eastern vibes spread by Lello Fusco to the Andean ones by San Ignacio & Morita Vargas, let yourself be lulled by the smooth grooves brought together by Salgari Records.