NEW WORLD

AFRICA

OLD WORLD (inc Asia, Arabia)

African Discographies

Greetings, Platterbugs!

Updated 3 February 2026

My Best of the Year 2025 is HERE with a podcast too

New releases

Mohammed al-Harazi cassette of Yemeni music from Hive Mind, and it's "name your own price" for a limited time

Latest from Albarika Stores is a set of salsa from Toffo Housso, backed by les Volcans du Benin

"Fanjiry" by Damila, new Tsapiky music from Madagascar (Feb 6)

The late Congolese legend, Bopol remix from Palenque records

also from Palenque: Zando Beats from Kinshasa, very urban

Vintage highlife from the Benders (Lagos, 1974) no vinyl mentioned, as yet, and their debut album, pioneering Afrobeat featuring Tunji Oyelana and a guest shot from the Lijadu Sisters

Coming in March from Bongo Joe:
Leve Leve vol 2: Sao Tomé & Principe sounds of the 70s and 80s

Barezzi: Jazzy flamenco from Belgium

Thorsten Bednarz says this is "beyond everything"... 2 hot tracks from Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou

Tony Pitt, African explorer

Garissa Express: Somali women based in Northern Kenya (from 2010)

Gordon Koang, a Nuer from South Sudan, now expatriated in Australia

French compilation of Malagasy Tsapiky, but not quite as distorted as usual!
proceeds from sales go to providing musical instruments for the artists

Solo guimbri from a young man, Mostafa Mahjoubi
& he performs with an ensemble Dar Gnaoua Bambara Khamlia

Video

Matthew Wilson of JAZZ CRAZY has posted "Bembeleza Mapendo" by Mwenda Jean Bosco

from Ellen K-N:
Jossman x Canalón de Timbiquí x Nidia Góngora "Corrètte"

Alaa Zouiten: Flamenco with oud and strings

Otherwise

Radio profile of Leo Sarkisian (1921-2018), African traveler who recorded for Tempo Records and then Voice of America (via Matthew Lavoie)

I updated the Congo in Kenya page (thanks as always to Alan W)

R.I.P.

Latest Muzikifan Podcast

Message of Dodd, a tribute to Studio One:
singles, versions and extended mixes from Jamaica

Gimme Candy: music from India and Arabia,
plus Congo, Jamaica, Peru & Cuba

LOS ROGER'S DE IQUITOS
¡QUE ARDIENTE! (Vampisoul VAMPI 345)

This is Psychedelic Cumbia from Peru, delivered by some of the originators. Los Roger's became famous in the late 60s and early 70s, and inspired many other bands. This is their rare debut album from 1971 and features a relentless driving guiro behind its twangy momentum. Their hometown, Iquitos, is one of the remoter places in Peru, situated in the Amazon basin: it can only be reached by river or air. I might have caught some of this sound in 1979 when I was in Peru, and Iquitos was my next stop, but I was relieved of my traveler's checks by a hotel clerk who snuck into my room in the middle of the night and picked my pocket. I was naive, not realizing you should sleep with your valuables on your body. I learned a lot of useful (later) travel pointers on that trip, being young and reckless. I also did not hear any good music, though one night I was overcome with loneliness when I was in a little park in Miraflores and "Roxanne" by the Police came over the cheap Tannoy system someone had hooked up to a transistor radio. Hearing your own pop in another country is a very alienating and sad feeling, especially on a quavery radio link wafting out on the evening breeze over the vast ocean. This album comprises a couple of hit singles and two EPs recorded by Los Roger's (dont ask me where the apostrophe came from) who broke up a year later, feeling that the music industry was impossible to deal with any longer. But this musical snapshot shows a talented band, heavy on the percussion (cue the bongos on "Mambo en España") rocking out with the sounds imported from farther northeast, from Columbia (the pure cumbia covers of "La Varita de Caña" and "La Saiba") and Cuba ("Descarga Rogers"), and personalized with wildly riffing electric guitars. Fifty years on it still has a danceable groove.

Most recent reviews

(click on maps at the top of the page to get to continent of choice)

January 2026

Excavated Shellac: Voices is filed under world miscellany
Lenine's Eita can be found in Brasil part 3

December 2025

Dr Nico presents African Fiesta Sukisa &
Roger Izeidi presents African Fiesta Vita Matata are both filed in Congo Classics part 2
Noura Mint Seymali is filed in Arabia part 3
Syran Mbenza's Rumba Africa is filed under Music of Congo 4
Pelengana Blo's Hunter Folk vol II is found in Mali part 6
Son Palenque's latest is filed in Colombia part 3
Africa Shangazi is filed in Kenya & Tanzania part 3

November 2025

Bizimungu Dieudonne from Rwanda, is filed under African miscellany
Philip Tabane and Malombo's Sangoma is filed in South Africa part 2
Los Wemblers can be found in Peru part 2
The Last Poets' Africanism is filed in USA part 2

October 2025

I put Cheikh Lo's latest, Maame, in Senegal part 4
The return of Radio Tarifa can be discovered in Euro misc
Salsa Dura from the Discos Fuentes Vaults is bound for Colombia part 3
Alhaji K. Frimpong, both Black and Blue albums are reviewed in Ghana part 2

September 2025

Mahotella Queens' latest is filed in South Africa, part 2
Ahmed Mukhtar and Ignacio Lusardi Monteverde's Al-hambra can be found in Old World misc
Alick Nkhata's Radio Lusaka is heard in Zambia
Nadir Ben is filed in Algeria
Los Estrellas del Caribe &
Grupo Son San are found in Colombia part 3

July 2025

Edna Martinez is filed in world miscellany, though her music is from Colombia
Music for a Revolution is definitely from Guinea
Gasper Nali and his babatoni can be found in Malawi
Haris Pilton and Balkan Voodoo Orchestra is in the Balkan and Gypsy section
Petit Goro's Dogon Blues went to Mali, part six!

...

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A DISCOGRAPHY OF DOCTEUR NICO
By Alastair Johnston

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