VA – Turkish Hamam House Disco Edits Vol.3 [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Turkish Hamam House Disco Edits Volume 3 is a selection of music for dancing and listening, ranging from disco folk to funk pop and from oriental funk to far-out electrified beats.

VA – Turkish Hamam House Disco Edits Vol.3 [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Tamikrest – Assikel LP [GBLP184]

For two decades, Tamikrest’s music has illuminated the sound, culture and conscience of the Kel Tamasheq (Touareg) people of the Sahara. Tamikrest means ‘connection’ or ‘union’ in Tamasheq, and the band have become one of the Kel Tamasheq’s most vital voices, raising awareness of their plight while channelling experiences of exile, loss and resistance. Their sixth studio album, Assikel, which means ‘voyage’ or ‘journey’, shows just how far the band have come. Formed in 2006 by Ousmane Ag Mossa and Cheikh Ag Tiglia, both originally from Tinzawaten near the Mali-Algerian border, Tamikrest emerged under the influence of Tinariwen, those legendary pioneers of Ishumar guitar music. A serendipitous encounter with Glitterbeat’s co-founder Chris Eckman and his group Dirtmusic at the 2008 Festival in the Desert in Mali marked the beginning of a long-standing partnership with the label – one that has since helped bring the band to international attention. They are now an established four-piece with guitarist Paul Salvagnac, who joined in 2012, and percussionist Cédric ‘Momo’ Maurel, who joined a year later.

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Tamikrest – Assikel LP [GBLP184]

VA – Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970-1980 [SNDWLP207]

Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970-1980 is a collection of rare jazz, calypso and percussive gems from Trinidad and Tobago from the revolutionary generation of the 1970s, bringing radical new political vision and reclaiming ancient spiritual consciousness through music. At the dawn of the 70s a shift was taking place all around the world. The streets of Port of Spain thronged with Black Power marches, trade union demonstrations and Carnival protest bands – one epicentre in a growing global exchange of ideologies and strategies among Pan Africanist circles in Jamaica, Guyana, London, New York, Montreal, Lagos, Accra and beyond. And when the meetings were over, the revolution moved to the cramped secret dance halls, the Carnival fetes, the steelband yards. The music always had a sharp edge. Searing commentary has always been part of the various types of music in Trinidad, and in the absence of lyrics, the defiant use of the drum maintains the resistance, as well as the re-framing of the playing of European instruments to the needs of the message. These recordings are as raw as an all night Carnival jam, the horns loud, the percussion ringing out, the bass dripping with joy and rebellion. Under the modern influences is a solid rhythm, an unbroken connection to Africa, the songs and keys and cadences brought across the middle passage. These songs are a peep into the untapped treasures of a revolutionary generation, looking at the world with fresh eyes and believing that music was a central part of the mission to build consciousness and regain confidence.

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VA – Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970-1980 [SNDWLP207]

Spirit Level (Miles Spilsbury & Gorse Panshawe) – Spirit Level LP [ND014]

Following on from his debut album, Miles Spilsbury returns to New Dawn with Spirit Level. A new project in collaboration with close friend Gorse Panshawe (Slugabed – who also produced Miles Spilsbury’s first album Light Manoeuvres). Recorded over one weekend in a weaving shed in Frome, in the English countryside. Surrounded by reels of yarn, they explored with saxophones, flutes, dusty old keyboards & drum machines. The resulting record conjures the murk and moss of Forestland and grounds with grooves from the Bongo setting on a Casio keyboard. Jake Long added mallet drums from his London studio to round off the album.

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Spirit Level (Miles Spilsbury & Gorse Panshawe) – Spirit Level LP [ND014]

Yassine Modern – Pop from Mauritania 1984-1989 LP [SR006/BJR125]

This compilation brings together eight tracks by Yassine Nana and his group, recorded between 1984 and 1989, during a key moment in Mauritania’s musical history. A central figure of one of the country’s most respected musical families, Yassine stands at the crossroads of a long-standing tradition and a period of deep transformation in form, sound and production. Recorded in Mauritania as well as during stays in Paris and Rabat, these songs integrate drum machines, synthesizers and electric guitars into Saharan musical structures. Influenced by reggae, soul and new wave, the group develops a sound that reflects the circulation of music and technology in the 1980s, while remaining firmly rooted in Mauritanian languages, themes and melodic systems. Love, travel, exile and music itself run through lyrics sung in Hassaniya and classical Arabic. Originally released on cassette and long confined to local circulation, these recordings offer a rare perspective on African popular music of the period, seen from Nouakchott. A body of work that documents a Mauritanian modernity, both popular and exploratory, now brought back into circulation by Les Disques Bongo Joe and Sofa Records. 

CD / vinyl

Yassine Modern – Pop from Mauritania 1984-1989 LP [SR006/BJR125]

ARMOR – Love Chaos LP [PNKMN61]

ARMOR, a new alias by Pascal Pinkert (Ambassade / Dollkraut). A few years ago he visited Turkey and Lebanon to collaborate with artists such as trip-hop legend Zeid Hamdan and Egyptian singer Maii. While many of these recordings found their way into Dollkraut releases, revisiting the material sparked the need for a new outlet. With ARMOR, Pinkert dives deeper into the space between folk traditions and electronic experimentation. Hypnotic drones merge with Middle Eastern percussion, while subtle rhythmic structures fuse with immersive soundscapes.

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ARMOR – Love Chaos LP [PNKMN61]

Psyché – Psyché II LP [FLIES81]

Nearly three years on from their self-titled debut, Psyché return with a new album that reinvigorates and expands their singular blend of groove and psychedelia. The band’s name itself—the ancient Greek word for ‘mind’ or ‘soul’—signals a deep-rooted love for psychedelic funk, while pointing towards a vast array of Mediterranean influences spanning Southern Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Maghreb. While their first record explored a mythical, timeless Mediterranean as a sort of ‘elsewhere’—reimagining ancient musical traditions through modern styles and sensibilities—Psyché II adds a subtle political dimension and shifts the focus toward a wider, more contemporary geography. Here, the Mediterranean becomes a modern lingua franca —a fluid bridge uniting diverse peoples, cultures, and musical legacies. In this vision, the band’s native Naples serves as a vibrant crossroads where sounds from North Africa and the Middle East meet the echoes of distant shores like Brazil and Colombia.

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Psyché – Psyché II LP [FLIES81]

Fauna – Taiga Trans LP [GB183LP]

Taiga Trans, the debut album from Gothenburg-based group Fauna, is a hypnotic collision of krautrock propulsion, psychedelic ritual, and subterranean rave energy. The eight-piece Swedish outernational collective channels a multicultural, multidimensional sound that feels both deeply rooted and otherworldly. Think Goat’s feral mysticism, Can’s motorik drive, and a dancefloor at its most transcendental. Electronic textures whoosh like solar winds. Quiet percussion sighs and chatters. A jaw harp sets up a twanging bounce. An ancient saz introduces a taut riff. Suddenly a high-strung electric guitar scorches and a deep, booming bass groove drops with a four-to-the-floor kick drum thud.

vinyl / CD

Fauna – Taiga Trans LP [GB183LP]

Abdou El Omari – Lost Tape 1980 [BB0191LP]

Abdou El Omari was born in 1945 in Tafraout, south of Agadir — a village suspended between the pink granite peaks of the Anti-Atlas and the waves of the Atlantic. A landscape already musical in itself. He grew up in the dry mountain light, surrounded by the rhythms of nature and Berber’s culture. Very little is known about the man — a veil of mystery still surrounds his life, only deepening the fascination. His name remains discreet, but his music continues to travel. It seems to drift from another time, another world, or perhaps from a dream shared between the blue nights of Casablanca and the silent dunes of the Sahara. In the 1970s, as Morocco was transforming, Abdou El Omari shaped a sound of his own — a visionary blend of spiritual jazz, psychedelic funk, Moroccan traditions, and early electronic experimentation. Today, his work is resurfacing, rediscovered by a new generation of listeners in search of lost horizons. This record stands among its rarest and most precious fragments.

vinyl / CD

Abdou El Omari – Lost Tape 1980 [BB0191LP]

Ali & Charif Megarbane – Tirakat LP [HABIBI034LP]

‘Tirakat’ brings together Jakarta-based trio Ali and Lebanese composer and multi-instrumentalist Charif Megarbane in a collaboration shaped by long-standing cultural exchange between Indonesia and the Arab world. Ali’s blend of 1970s Indonesian psychedelic funk, Melayu traditions, disco grooves and Arab melodic forms meets Charif’s long-running exploration of cross-regional sound, rooted in a shared musical vocabulary rather than genre. Rather than approaching the project as fusion, Tirakat reflects a way of making music that feels already interconnected. Melodies, grooves and textures move fluidly without signalling their sources, grounded in a performance-led process shaped by intuition, repetition and trust. Western instruments are played through techniques and sensibilities formed in Indonesia and Lebanon, emphasising circulation of influence. The title ‘Tirakat’ refers to a Javanese practice of discipline, patience and devotion, derived from the Arabic tariqa (“path” or “method”). This layered meaning mirrors the album’s focus on process and continuity. The result is a record that feels both contemporary and timeless, where Indonesian and Arab sounds intersect naturally through groove, texture and melody.

vinyl / CD

Ali & Charif Megarbane – Tirakat LP [HABIBI034LP]

Maxwell Elemuo Acc. By Friimen Music Coy [AF1013]

Maxwell Elemuo, Nigerian singer and soul provider of twitching funk entertainments, dons again his flares with Maxwell Elemuo Acc By Friimen Music Coy, a long-forgotten Afro-soul record now rereleased through Afrodelic. Backed by the Lagos-based Friimen Musik Company – though he himself was more a fixture of the Aba and Port Harcourt scene – Elemuo delivers seven heavens of late-60s energy despite their mid-70s birthdate: heavy, thudding drums and wah guitar framed aloud in warm, assured vocals. Album hearthstones ‘Love And Happiness’, ‘Let Me Love You’ and ‘People Get Ready’ ride that classic West African blend of American soul influence and local swagger, cementing a lesser-cited strand of southeastern Gulf soul.

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Maxwell Elemuo Acc. By Friimen Music Coy [AF1013]

Afrobot – Rough Tropical Edits [Afrobotic Musicology]

After years of lighting up dance floors around Europe and beyond, Afrobot it’s finally opening the vault. Dozens of unreleased edits – tested in sweaty rooms, peak-time moments, and long nights between 2009 and 2020 – are coming out at last. This new compilation series will travel through Africa, Disco, New Wave, Pop, Bollywood and electronic mutations. Raw cuts. Heavy grooves. Dance-floor weapons.

Afrobot – Rough Tropical Edits [Afrobotic Musicology]

Altın Gün – Garip LP [GBLP182]

Altın Gün, the Grammy-nominated Turkish psych-groove quintet from Amsterdam, return with their sixth studio album Garip — their most ambitious and diverse release to date, and a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Turkish folk bard Neşet Ertaş, a beloved icon of Anatolian music. Garip (“Strange” in English) features ten of his compositions, each reimagined and richly expanded through Altın Gün’s distinctive lens. An electrifying live band with an ever-growing global following, Altın Gün push their sonic boundaries even further on Garip — weaving in lush Arabesque string arrangements, bursts of saxophone, glimmering synth balladry, and a fresh surge of tightly wound rock ’n’ roll.

listen / CD

Altın Gün – Garip LP [GBLP182]

ARMOR – La Balade de Misrakis Feat. Feras Turk [PINKMAN] [FREE DOWNLOAD]

ARMOR, a new alias from Pascal Pinkert (Ambassade / Dollkraut). La Balade de Misrakis is the first single from the upcoming album Love Chaos, out this spring. A few years ago he visited Turkey and Lebanon to collaborate with artists such as trip-hop legend Zeid Hamdan and Egyptian singer Maii. While many of these recordings found their way into Dollkraut releases, revisiting the material sparked the need for a new outlet. With ARMOR, Pinkert dives deeper into the space between folk traditions and electronic experimentation. Hypnotic drones merge with Middle Eastern percussion, while subtle rhythmic structures fuse with immersive soundscapes.

ARMOR – La Balade de Misrakis Feat. Feras Turk [PINKMAN] [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Afrobot – Rough Afro Edits [Afrobotic Musicology]

After years of lighting up dance floors around Europe and beyond, Afrobot it’s finally opening the vault. Dozens of unreleased edits – tested in sweaty rooms, peak-time moments, and long nights between 2009 and 2020 – are coming out at last. This new compilation series will travel through Disco, New Wave, Bollywood, Caribbean sounds, and electronic Afro mutations. Raw cuts. Heavy grooves. Dance-floor weapons.

Afrobot – Rough Afro Edits [Afrobotic Musicology]

Gofret – Ankara Yolları Angara Havası [Arşivplak]

Experience the vibrant heart of Turkey with “Ankara Yolları Angara Havası,” a definitive collection of folk songs and dance beats (Oyun Havaları) straight from the Ankara region. Whether you are cruising down a long highway or just need to bring the festive spirit of a Turkish wedding to your living room, this album is your ultimate musical companion. High-energy renditions of Ankara’s most famous Oyun Havaları that will make it impossible to sit still. Ankara’s music is famous for its unique rhythm and the soulful sound of the electric bağlama. This album captures that raw, electric energy – ofteen referred to as “Angara Havası” – and blends it with professional arrangements that keep the beat driving forward.

Gofret – Ankara Yolları Angara Havası [Arşivplak]

Ara Kekedjian – Bourj Hammoud Groove [HABIBI0331]

Bourj Hammoud Groove shines a spotlight on the music of Armenian-Lebanese pioneer Ara Kekedjian, who was a defining voice in Beirut’s Estradayin pop scene. Fusing disco rhythms, shimmering synth-pop and Armenian melodic sensibilities, Kekedjian created music that was rooted in his community but also sounds somehow universal. Named after Beirut’s vibrant Armenian district, this compilation brings together his most essential recordings and is accompanied by an insightful booklet with liner notes by Darone Sassounian and rare archival photos. It’s a top-tier bit of archival curation that celebrates a musical legacy that bridges cultural history with danceable grooves.

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Ara Kekedjian – Bourj Hammoud Groove [HABIBI0331]

Moog Edits 2 – 10 Dokuz [Arşivplak]

Following up on the success of Moog Edits, “Moog Edits 2 – 10 Dokuz” takes the listener deeper into the sonic world of Turkish psych-funk and disco-folk. This new album is a continuation of the journey, bridging the gap between tradition and modernity with its seamless fusion of moog organ, modular synthesizer, bass guitar, electric saz and rhythmic percussions. Where the first album painted a rich landscape of Turkish psychedelia, 10 Dokuz introduces more intricate layers of rhythm and sound.
Drawing inspiration from Ottoman and Turkish music, this record delves into the complex and often mesmerizing world of “aksak” rhythms—specifically the 9/8 meter (sounds are 4/4 + 5/4 beats or easily 2+2+2+3 beats). 10 Dokuz means that “Ten and Nine” which means 19, first 10 tracks 2/4, 4/4, 8/8 and 3/4 rhythms, the last 9 tracks are 9/8 rhythms which is mostly using Ottoman and Balkan areas.
The combination of synthesizers, analog effects, and traditional instruments such as darbuka, and electro baglama creates about 70 minutes a vivid auditory landscape.

Moog Edits 2 – 10 Dokuz [Arşivplak]

Gasper Lawal – Ajomasé LP [STRUT503]

Ajomasé is the groundbreaking debut album by legendary Nigerian percussionist Gasper Lawal. Originally released in 1980 on his own label CAP, Strut are proud to now bring this unique album back to the racks. Lawal’s style was forged through decades of high-level percussion work with the likes of Stephen Stills, Barbra Streisand, George Clinton & Funkadelic, Manfred Mann, Alexis Korner, Vangelis and Ginger Baker’s Air Force band. Dissatisfied with existing genre labels and production norms, Lawal began recording his own album in 1976 at Vangelis’ own studio in London’s Marble Arch before switching to long, drawn-out night shifts at Surrey Sound Studios, using downtime between The Police’s sessions for Outlandos D’Amour. Lawal meticulously self-produced, composed, and overdubbed the album over four years, assembling an elite group of musicians from both Nigeria and the UK. The instruments used were often hand-built, including a powerful one-of-a-kind drum carved deep in the Nigerian bush. “This music is not about trends, about what is commercial or a “sound” of a particular moment,” explains Lawal, “it is about music to be felt, that gives pleasure. It is nurturing and meditative.”

Gasper Lawal – Ajomasé LP [STRUT503]

Praed Orchestra! – The Dictionary of Lost Meanings LP [CREP112]

PRAED return to Discrepant with the album ‘The Dictionary of Lost Meanings’. Known for their signature blend of Egyptian Shaabi, free jazz and improvisation, the Lebanese duo behind PRAED – Raed Yassin and Paed Conca – now assemble a full orchestra for the second time taking the music to a deeper, rooted level. The duo revisit their unique blend of Arabic heritage and free jazz sensibilities with an album that keeps pushing further into strange and unexpected directions.

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Praed Orchestra! – The Dictionary of Lost Meanings LP [CREP112]