Ernest Ranglin & Avila - Avila featuring Ernest Ranglin EP + Bless Up (Avila Street Records)

Ernest Ranglin, guitarist and living Jamaican music legend, first shared the stage with drummer Inx Herman, bassist and keyboard player Jonathan Korty Yossi Fine in 2011, when they played at the High Sierra Music Festival in California.

Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band - Juguya (Sublime Frequencies)

For the very first time the Sublime Frequencies label travelled to Burkina Faso where they joined forces with Baba Commandant & The Mandingo Band.

Johnny den Artiest - Hartenkoning (Self-published)

If we tell you Johnny den Artiest (Arnoud Judong) crowned himself king of Flemish reggae now almost 7 years ago, you'll agree his fans had to show some serious restraint waiting for the release of this debut album.

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Ba Power (Glitterbeat Records)

After three albums by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba yours truly thought to have heard everything you could squeeze out of a ngoni, but somehow Kouyate but still manages to make 'Ba Power' sound fresh and exciting again.

Various Artists - Reggae Loves Jah (VP Records)

'Reggae Loves Jah' is the successor to last year's compilation 'Reggae Loves Africa'.

Alborosie meets King Jammy - Dub Of Thrones (Greensleeves)

Almost at the same time as the launch of the newest season of the popular television series 'Game Of Thrones', the Greensleeves label is releasing 'Dub Of Thrones', a true dub clash between veteran King Jammy and relative newcomer Alborosie.

Keith & Tex - Just Passing Through (Kebar Music/Self-published)

The fact legendary rocksteady duo Keith & Text again very active is we already knew thanks to the European tour they undertook last year and the 'Best Of ' compilation 'Redux' that was released on the French Soulbeats Records label almost simultaneously.

Mark Wonder - Scrolls Of The Levite (Heartbeat Europe/Rounder/Nowtime Sound)

For 'Scrolls Of The Levite', Mark Wonder joined forces with American producers Sikandar Syed and Fernando Cardoso, the duo behind the Nowtime Sound label from San Francisco.

Rocky Dawuni - Branches Of The Same Tree (Cumbancha)

In his native Ghana Rocky Dawuni is a real star and in the United States, where he's been living and working for quite a while now (Dawuni married the American photographer/producer Cary Sullivan), he's also made a name for himself.

Restriction - Action EP (Bristol Archive Records)

On the occasion of Record Store Day (18/04), the international heyday for vinyl lovers, Bristol Archive Records treats us to an exclusive and limited re-issue of the extremely obscure 'Action' EP by Restriction, meant as a taster for an upcoming anthology of this Bristol based band active in the early nineteen eighties.

I Kong - A Little Walk (Fruits Records)

Yours truly first discovered I Kong (a nephew of producer Leslie Kong who started out as a member of ska/rocksteady band The Jamaicans) back in 2006 when VP Records rereleased provided his 1979 album 'The Way It Is'.

Ras Lil Dread - Born Free (Dread House Entertainment)

Like many a reggae musician Ras Lil Dread, starting his career in music as a bass player for Californian band Three The Hard Way (later renamed Ras Dashan), also started dreading up at one point, but that being said, Antone R.

John Brown's Body - Kings And Queens + Kings And Queens In Dub (Easy Star Records)

Even though US band John Brown's Body (the band was named after the well-known American marching song about the abolitionist John Brown, who was hanged in 1859 following a failed attempt to start a slave rebellion) is in the same league as bands like Soldiers Of Jah Army, Groundation or 10 Ft.

Debashish Bhattacharya - Slide Guitar Ragas From Dusk Till Dawn (Riverboat Records/World Music Network)

With 'Slide Guitar Ragas From Dusk Till Dawn' already being the seventh studio album the Indian master recorded for the label, Debashish Bhattacharya can be considered a Riverboat Records veteran.

Mellow Mood - 2 The World (La Tempesta Dischi)

Barely a year after the release of 'Twinz', the Italian reggae twins of Mellow Mood are back already with '2 The World'.

Various Artists - Hanoi Masters: War Is A Wound, Peace Is A Scar (Glitterbeat Records)

'Hanoi Masters' is the first release in the brand new Hidden Musics series set up by Glitterbeat Records to give some lesser known music traditions the attention they deserve.

Zion Train - Land Of The Blind (Universal Egg)

For 'Land Of The Blind' (the title is a reference to the old expression: "In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.

Various Artists - Rocksteady: Taking Over Orange Street 1966 - 1968 (Kingston Sounds)

The golden era of the rocksteady genre may only have lasted for two years, the period yielded quite a number of classics in Jamaican music history.

The Very Best - Makes A King (Moshi Moshi Records)

The Very Best combines the forces of Swedish musician Johan Hugo and Malawian vocalist Esau Mwamwaya, blending western pop, rock and electronics with influences from the music of southern Africa.

Kiddus I - Take A Trip (Iroko Records)

The relationship between Kiddus I and Homegrown Band already goes back to 2005, when the French band around saxophonist Guillaume 'Stepper' Briard accompanied the Jamaican veteran a first time during a tour in France.