Mdou Moctar | Ilana: The Creator

ARTIST: Mdou Moctar
TITLE: Ilana: The Creator
LABEL: Sahel Sounds
Here’s the album I, and a lot of Moctar’s fans, have been waiting for him to make. The left-handed guitarist from Agadez, Niger has worn a path through Europe and the USA in the last several years, leaving audiences with mouths agape at his technique and energy and at the forward propulsion of his band.

Hama Sankare | Niafunke

ARTIST: Hama Sankare
TITLE: Niafunke
LABEL: Clermont Music
Veteran singer-percussionist Sankare, a former member of Ali Farka Toure’s Groupe ASKO, is a native of Niafunke, Mali, best known as Ali Farka Toure’s home town.

The Bongo Hop | Satingarona Pt. 2

ARTIST: The Bongo Hop
TITLE: Satingarona Pt. 2
LABEL: Underdog
Here’s the second release from trumpeter Etienne Sevet as The Bongo Hop; his first was one of my favorites of 2017.

DJ Panko | Panko Pa' Palenque

ARTIST: DJ Panko
TITLE: Panko Pa’ Palenque
LABEL: Palenque
Here’s the latest project from Lucas Silva, the man who’s done more than anyone to get Colombian champeta music in front of the masses. This time he’s engaged Barcelona-based DJ Panko to remix nine Silva-produced tracks.

Ibibio Sound Machine | Doko Mien

ARTIST: Ibibio Sound Machine
TITLE: Doko Mien
LABEL: Merge
The first two albums by Ibibio Sound Machine have been sensational in parts but inconsistent as a whole. On their third release, the band seems to have found the precise blend of African and first-world elements they’ve been searching for.

Ahmed Ag Kaedy | Akaline Kidal

ARTIST: Ahmed Ag Kaedy
TITLE: Akaline Kidal
LABEL: Sahel Sound
Guitarist-singer-songwriter Ahmed Ag Kaedy leads Amanar, one of the top bands in desert blues. He also had a key role in the development of Sahel Sounds, probably the most influential record label for Tamasheq music – Chris Kirkley, who runs Sahel Sounds, lived at Ahmed’s compound in Kidal, Mali for six months while he was building his label.

Miramar | Salida / Urgencia

ARTIST: Miramar
TITLE: “Salida” / “Urgencia”
LABEL: Daptone
Richmond’s Miramar, led by keyboardist Marlysse Simmons (Bio Ritmo) and fronted by singers Rei Alvarez (Bio Ritmo) and Laura Ann Singh (Quatro Na Bossa), specializes in boleros, the romantic ballads that were popular across the Americas in the 1940s and 50s.

Dexter Story | Bahir

ARTIST: Dexter Story
TITLE: Bahir
LABEL: Soundway
Dexter Story has worked all sides of the music business in his career: he’s done marketing and artist management, been a talent buyer and event producer, he’s produced and music-directed major events, and he’s a working musician as well.

Cumbia Beat, Vol. 3

ARTIST: various artists
TITLE: Cumbia Beat, Vol. 3
LABEL: Vampisoul
The uniquely Peruvian version of cumbia called chicha is now 50 years old. Vampisoul has been documenting the genre since 2010 with its Cumbia Beat series; Volume 3 suggests that there’s plenty more to be anthologized.

Frederico7 | Exotico Americano

ARTIST: Frederico7
TITLE: Exotico Americano
LABEL: self-released
Frederico7 (Frederico Geib to his friends and family) is a Brazilian-born musician now based in Austin TX.

Dawda Jobarteh | I Met Her By The River

ARTIST: Dawda Jobarteh
TITLE: I Met Her By The River
LABEL: Sterns
Here’s the third album from Gambian kora player Dawda Jobarteh, who now lives in Denmark.

Lobo Marino | At Appalachian South Folklife Center

ARTIST: Lobo Marino
TITLE: At Appalachian South Folklife Center
LABEL: self-released
Lobo Marino, the Richmond-based duo of Laney Sullivan and Jameson Price, has been making music for ten years.

Le Vent Du Nord | Territoires

ARTIST: Le Vent Du Nord
TITLE: Territoires
LABEL: Borealis
Le Vent Du Nord (The North Wind), arguably the finest Quebecois trad group currently working, blows back in with their tenth album.

Umut Adan | Bahar

ARTIST: Umut Adan
TITLE: Bahar
LABEL: Riverboat
As American and British rock spread across the world in the 1960s, Turkish musicians like Erkin Koray, Baris Manco and Cem Karaka energized and modernized folk and traditional music by adding the new sounds of garage and psychedelic rock.

Mdou Moctar | Kamane Tarhanin

ARTIST: Mdou Moctar
TITLE: Kamane Tarhanin
LABEL: Sahel Sounds
Tamasheq guitarist Mdou Moctar from Agadez, Niger is one of the most prominent second generation musicians playing what the Tamasheq call tishumaren or assouf or la guitare; in English, we typically call it “desert blues.”

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba | Miri

ARTIST: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
TITLE: Miri
LABEL: Out Here
At this point in his career, Bassekou Kouyate is synonymous with his instrument, the Malian proto-banjo lute called ngoni.

The Daktaris | Soul Explosion

ARTIST: The Daktaris
TITLE: Soul Explosion
LABEL: Desco / Daptone
When Soul Explosion was first released in 1998, Gabe (Bosco “Bass” Mann) Roth’s Desco Records marketed it as the reissue of an early 70s Nigerian afro-funk album.

Juaneco Y Su Combo | El Gran Cacique

ARTIST: Juaneco Y Su Combo
TITLE: El Gran Cacique
LABEL: Infopesa
Here’s a reissue of the 1972 debut album by Juaneco Y Su Combo, super-collectible in its original pressing and a key marker in the development of chicha, Peru’s unique form of psychedelic cumbia.

Salif Keita | Un Autre Blanc

ARTIST: Salif Keita
TITLE: Un Autre Blanc
LABEL: Naive
Mali’s Salif Keita, the 69 year old “golden voice of Africa,” says this will be his last album.

Tartit | Amankor / The Exile

ARTIST: Tartit
TITLE: Amankor / The Exile
LABEL: Riverboat
We tend to think of desert blues as music that was sprung, fully formed, on an unsuspecting world.