African

New Arrivals

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    Hennie Bekker
     
    Jabula
    “Jabula” is the fourth release in the renowned African Tapestries series, which pays homage to Hennie Bekker’s homeland.
    World: African
     
     
    Hennie Bekker
     
    African Tapestries (Amani)
    Hennie Bekker continues his sonic journey through Southern Africa with “Amani”, the fifth and latest release in the “African Tapestries” series. This album is a masterpiece of world music and ambient that builds on the first four albums in the series.
    World: African
     
     
    Hennie Bekker
     
    African Tapestries (The Smoke That Thunders)
    “Jabula” is the fourth release in the renowned African Tapestries series, which pays homage to Hennie Bekker’s homeland.
    World: African
     
     
    Hennie Bekker
     
    African Tapestries (Kusasa)
    “Kusasa” meaning “tomorrow”, is the third release in the renowned African Tapestries series, which pays homage to Hennie Bekker’s homeland. This album is an expedition of world music interwoven with sounds from his native land.
    World: African
     
     
    Amazing Grace Children's Home
     
    Amazing Grace: Songs from the Amazing Grace Children's Home
    Seventeen traditional spirituals sung by the girls of Amazing Grace Children's Home in Awasi, Kenya, a home for girls who have been orphaned by AIDS. The songs are all a cappella in the traditional African style.
    World: African
     
     
    Bob Bloom
     
    Where's Your Drum?
    World: African
     
     
    Loide
     
    Loide, Live at Bohemian Caverns
    With roots in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, but raised in Sourthern California, Loide serves up a mix of contemporary jazz and warm Afro-lusophone rhythms.
    World: African
     
     
    The Folksoul Band
     
    Somethin' To Say On Mardi Gras Day
    Twenty-first century Mardi Gras dance music including traditional New Orleans dance tunes, spirituals, and original compositions.
    World: African
     
     
    Various Artists
     
    African Village Music
    Halim El-Dabh presents diverse African traditional music from throughout the great continent
    World: African
     
     
    The Robben Island Singers
     
    Songs from South Africa's Freedom Struggle
    Three ex-political prisoners sing the historic folk songs that kept hopes alive for generations of freedom fighters inside South Africa's most notorious Apartheid prison, Robben Island Maximum Security Prison.
    World: African
     
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    Top Albums

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    ALBINO!
    Live In San Francisco
    An explosive live set from the West coast's premiere Afrobeat act; their brand of West African funk oozes with hypnotic percussion, an enormous horn section, churning guitars, and rousing protest messages in the tradition of Fela Kuti.
    The SF Music Award-winning ALBINO! is a 10-piece Afrobeat ensemble that honors the fiery legacy of Nigerian musical revolutionary Fela Kuti. ALBINO's high-energy grooves and explosive stage show thick with hypnotic percussion, a heavy horn section, African dance, outrageous costumes, and infectious group choreography have firmly established the band as the West Coast's premier Afrobeat act. Live in San Francisco was recorded in July of 2006 during ALBINO’s performance at the Second Annual Afrofunk Festival. “We were amazed by how well the ecstatic energy of ALBINO’s live set was captured in this recording so we knew we had to release it as soon as we heard it,” says the band’s co-founder and tenor saxophonist Nathan Endsley. According to the SF Weekly, "ALBINO's ass-inspiriting percussive engine comes from a rhythm section of local all-stars; together, they form rhythms based in the West African tradition which holds at its heart the inseparable union of drumming and dance. Atop the band's rhythmic maelstrom ride tightly figured five-part horn lines. The section's 'heavy heavy' bottom end features a snarling dual baritone-sax yawp. This is world music that lives up to the name." In keeping with the revolutionary message central to Fela’s Afrobeat legacy, the majority of songs on Live in San Francisco offer scathing sociopolitical commentary and urgent calls to civic action. For example, “Deconstruction of the Transitional Movement” confronts the erosion of American civil liberties in the name of national security. “Are We Safe Yet?” questions our current administration’s misdirected military aggression in Iraq and its perpetuation of a culture of fear in the name of counter-terrorism. Furthermore, “No Go Sell Me” is a tirade against consumer culture and the advertising industry’s pollution of the media. Finally, “Puppet Boy” skewers a certain incompetent, fraudulently elected Chief Executive by pulling back the curtain to expose the ominous forces Roving behind this figurehead.
    World: African
     
    Eric Wainaina
    Sawa Sawa
    World: African
     
    Children of Agape Choir
    We Are Together Soundtrack
    World: African
     
    Children of Agape
    Thina Simunye
    World: African
     
    Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko
    Africa to Appalachia
    World: African
     

    Editor's Picks

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      Artists You May Know

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      Antibalas
      Government Magic
      World: African
       
      Thomas Mapfumo
      Mabasa
      World: African
       
      Antibalas
      The Mercury Lounge - New York, NY - 1.12.03
      World: African
       
      Thomas Mapfumo
      Sweet Chimurenga
      World: African
       

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      Top Songs

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      1.
      We Are Together (Thina Simunye)
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      2.
      lala We-Qawu
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      3.
      Pigogo (Peacock song)
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      4.
      Happy Day
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      5.
      Ngihambile
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      6.
      Hlanhlaleyo (feat. Zwai Bala)
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      7.
      Ketheyako
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      8.
      Satane
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      9.
      Baba Wethu
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African
       
       
      10.
      Homeless / Sithi Shwele - Live in New York (feat. Paul Simon)
      Children of Agape Choir
      World: African