Segun Bucknor: Poor Man No Get Brother. Bucknor's highlife and afrobeat recordings with the Assembly and the Revolution in the late 60s and early 70s. Very hypnotic and addictive, I just can't get enough of this album: heavy combo organ throughout, nice horn arrangements, and a lo-fi spring-reverb drenched production.

Geraldo Pino and the Heart Beats: Let's Have a Party. From Sierra Leone, this singer, guitarist and bandleader was a huge influence on the West African soul/funk/afrobeat scene back in the 60s. He does one of the best James Brown imitations I've ever heard, other than the Godfather himself...

The Budos Band: The Budos Band II. I gotta give these guys props, they've definitely got their own thing going. Dark, heavy, minor-keyed instrumental "afro-soul": think Ethiopian funk meets James Bond. I just can't stop listening to this album, it's just so haunting.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: War/Mercury. I love these guys, they've really got an original sound: just brass and drums, with a sousaphone holding down the bass function. The 8-piece horn section is in fact made up of the sons of Sun Ra trumpeter Phil Cohran. Picture instrumental hip-hop, meets the Arkestra, meets Dixieland, meets military fanfare music. Part of Souljazz caught these guys in Amsterdam, while we were on tour: man, that was a hype show...

Quantic Soul Orchestra: Tropidelico. Probably the group's best album to date, Quantic's really outdone himself this time. He's been living in Columbia for the last while, so the album definitely soaked up the tropical latin vibes: cumbia, descarga, boogaloo, funk... The sad minor-keyed latin tunes are my favourites, they just sound so fresh. Great production too, Quantic just gets better every time.

Bobby Valentin: Let's Turn On/Arrebatamos. Dirty latin boogaloo album from late 60s Spanish Harlem on the legendary Fania label. Some stuff is funkier, other stuff more classic latin, but it's all really deadly.

Orlando Julius & his Modern Aces: Super Afro Soul. Super tight highlife soul from 1966. The songs are short and to the point, well arranged, and incredibly funky.

Moussa Doumbia: Keleya. Crazy heavy afrofunk from 70s Mali. This one is really rough and distorted, with a loose jammy feel: it might not be for everyone, but it definitely sounds unique. The track "Djoliba" even gives you the play-by-play of a soccer game, in French: gotta love it...

Tony Allen: Lagos No Shaking. The original afrobeat drummer is back to his roots with a beautiful, raw, classic-sounding album. Tony's got a great voice too, there's nothing this man can't do.

Orlando Julius: Orlando's Afro Ideas 1969-1972. The Nigerian afrobeat pioneer at the height of his funkiness. A great re-issue, these recordings were almost impossible to find before.

James Brown: Say It Loud. The title track was a full-fledged anthem at the time of its release, but I really dig some of the lesser-known tunes on this album. "Goodbye My Love", in particular, has got to be the greatest JB ballad of all time, just mind-blowing.

Pharoah Sanders: Elevation. Spiritual afrocentric jazz at its finest. There's an incredible dynamic range on this album, from serene whispers to chaotic cries. There's even a cool cover of a Nigerian ju-ju tune, "Ore-Se-Rere".

Jorge Ben: Jorge Ben. A beautiful samba album recorded at the height of the Brazilian Tropicália movement of the late 1960s. The orchestration by composers José Briamonte and Rogerio Duprat complement Jorge's trio especially well, ranging from psychedelic to jazzy, from avant-garde to loungy. This one's actually one of Marielle's all-time favourites.

Willie Colon: The Hustler. An early album from the Nuyorican gangster, featuring a young Hector LaVoe for the very first time. This is heavy, raw salsa/boogaloo about as far as it gets from Ricky Martin.

The Bombay Connection, Vol. 1: Funk From Bollywood Action Thrillers. Incredibly strange yet funky collection of sountracks from late 70s/early 80s Bollywood. Wah-wah guitars, space organs, and bongo breaks meet tablas, tanpuras and Indian pop singing.

May 2006

Panama!: Latin, Calypso and Funk on the Isthmus 1965-75. Soundway is such a good label. This time, they take us away from Africa and concentrate on the little-known music scene of Panama. These rare tracks really reflect the cultural diversity of the country: you've got latin jazz, descarga, cumbia, calypso, funk, soul... incredible grooves.

Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo: The Kings of Benin Urban Groove 1972-80. I've been looking for stuff from these guys for some time, and I was floored when I found this comp. A blend of hard afrobeat, funk and cuban music, Poly-Rythmo really have a sound of their own.

Nostalgia 77: The Garden. Benedic Lamdin stepped away from hip-hop production to do this live souljazz album. Some of the tracks sound more like long, drawn out beats than actual songs, but the album sounds fabulous: the Ornette/Cherry sax and trumpet lines, the dreamy Rhodes, the brush drums, the African percussion, the noisy double bass...

Flying Dutchman: Anthology. Anthology of the famous 1970s souljazz label. There's some really nice stuff on here: Lonnie Liston Smith, Gil Scott-Heron, Harold Alexander, Gato Barbieri, Oliver Nelson, Bernard Purdie, Esther Marrow (never heard of her before - wicked gospel-soul-mama), and my favourite, 'The Creator Has A Masterplan' sang as a duet by Leon Thomas and Louis Armstrong (yes, THE Louis Armstrong). Too cool.

Golden Afrique Vol. 2. This is a sweet compilation of rare rumba and early soukous music from the Congo, recorded between 1956 and 1982. Franco, Sam Mangwana, Docteur Nico and all the greats are on here... There's even an early Manu Dibango track that he recorded during a trip away from Cameroun, ten years before Soul Makossa.

January 2005

Ghana Soundz: Afrobeat, Funk & Fusion in 70's Ghana, vol. 2.
I thought volume 1 would be tough to beat, but this one comes pretty darn close! Incredibly funky and varied throughout, these are s'more dusty grooves from the depths of the hot ghanaian landscape.

David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters: Gwotet. Featuring the great Pharaoh Sanders on three tracks, it's incredible how this man brings the entire recording to a whole other level with his very personal and spiritual approach to the tenor sax. This is a great album, with a heavy booty-shakin' African and Caribbean flavour. Recorded in Montreal, if anything this album might suffer from a slightly too pristine sound, but don't let that turn you off, this is a good one.

Midwest Funk: Funk 45's from Tornado Alley. A collection of raw and obscure funk 45s from mid-western USA, this one's not for the faint of heart. Bluesy guitar, sax and organ driven tunes with a Meters or M.G.'s feel, most of these are heavy, rough and lo-fi. Some are better than others, but they've all got this undeniable mojo to 'em.

Pulp Fusion V.3: Revenge of the Ghetto Grooves. I recommend the entire Pulp Fusion series, but this one is especially solid. Hip-hoppers will definitely recognize a sample source or two... You've got the foundation right here.

Augustus Pablo: King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown. Widely acknowledged as the original creator of dub, King Tubby gives his tape-echo, reverb and filter laden treatment to Augustus Pablo's iry melodica music. In true dub fashion, this is minimal, drum and bass heavy music, where the lead instruments simply weave in and out of the rhythmic soundscape. If you're a huge melodica fan, like me, check out Pablo's instrumental reggae albums, like 'East of the River Nile', to hear more of his playing.