Samora - Moengo (Self-published)
Just when we learned that Dutch reggae formation The Dubbeez were calling it a day, we stumbled upon 'Moengo', the long-playing debut of Surinamese-Dutch Samora Souprayen.
Local Uprising - Local Uprising EP (Roots Musician Records)
'Local Uprising' is the second EP the five-piece band of the same name from Oahu, Hawaii recorded for E.N. Young's Roots Musician Records label.
Marcus Gad meets Tamal - Enter A Space EP (High Records/Baco Records)
On this 'Enter A Space' EP, Marcus Gad seems to have lost his band Tribe, instead joining forces with Parisian beat maker Clement 'Tamal' Thouard.
Ekiti Sound - Abeg No Vex (Crammed Discs)
With Ekiti Sound, London-based Nigerian musician, vocalist and producer Leke 'Chif' Awoyinka created a musical dialogue between two world cities: London and Lagos.
One Root - Soldiers Of Love (Self-published)
Six years after their appropriately titled debut EP 'Revelation', Brussels based One Root with 'Soldiers Of Love', a title we thus far only associated with a very bad 1987 Eurosong contribution by Liliane Saint-Pierre, present a first full-fledged album.
FC Apatride UTD - Third Worldism (Earth Works Outernational)
FC Apatride UTD, our favorite Marxist Serbian reggae football club, is back with a new concept album entitled 'Third Worldism', this time focusing on: "...the implications of unequal exchange and mechanisms of structural imperialism leading to global polarization, inspired by writings of Marxist political economists and contemporary struggles of the global south.".
Nubiyan Twist - Jungle Run (Strut Records)
Three years after the release of their 'Siren Song' EP, Nubiyan Twist returns with 'Jungle Run', the second long player by this band dividing its time between London and Leeds.
Various Artists - This Is Frafra Power (Makkum Records)
After Dutch producer Arnold de Boer introduced the world to the sound of the current generation of Ghanaian kologo players with albums like 'This Is Kologo Power!', Atamina's 'Sycophantic Friends' or Ayuune Sule's 'We Have One Destiny', in the summer of 2017, Francis Ayamga introduced him to the music of the Frafra or Gurunsi, a people from the northeast of Ghana.
Chicos Y Mendez - Esencias (Self-published)
Exactly three years after the release of their debut EP '¡Siempre De Pie!, Chicos Y Mendez, the project around Belgian-Peruvian singer-songwriter David Mendez Yepez and composer/guitarist/keyboard player Thibault Quinet aka Tito, presents a first long player.
Refugees For Refugees - Amina (Muziekpublique)
With 'Amina', Belgian-international musical refugee project Refugees For Refugees presents a successor to its 2016 debut effort 'Amerli'.
Dub Caravan & Hornsman Coyote - Rootical Sojourn (Self-published)
For 'Rootical Sojourn', Serbian trombonist Nemanja Kojić, better known as Hornsman Coyote, once again joined forces with London-based Palestinian composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Felix Russ Abu aka Dub Caravan, after they already collaborated together a first time in 2013 for 'Breathe Of Peace'.
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Miri (Out Here Records)
For "Miri", an album on which the ngoni master tackles powerful sentiments like love, friendship and family values, Bassekou Kouyate returned to Garama, his native village situated on the banks of the Niger River, midway between the capital Bamako and Segou.
Philipp Greter - Logic Chaos (Hybrid Records)
Philipp Greter is a Swiss sound engineer from Lucerne and has been the producer and keyboard player of Swiss dub combo Dub Spencer & Trance Hill for many years now. For his solo debut, 'Logic Chaos', Greter breathes new life into the psydub or ambient dub genre.
General Roots - Showcase EP + Showcase In Dub EP (Self-Published)
Anyone who has already attended a Hollie Cook concert will undoubtedly have seen General Roots at work, but the band also stands its ground on its own as they prove with last year's 'Showcase' EP, of which a dub version is now also released.
Spellbreakers - Well Runs Dry EP (Bonafi Records)
Just over six months after the release of their debut EP 'Who Feels It Knows It', Spellbreakers return with a new maxi-single. The four track EP is titled 'Well Runs Dry' and once again counts 2 vocal cuts and as many dubs.
Alborosie meets Roots Radics - Dub For The Radicals (Greensleeves)
For a number of years now, Alborosie always provided us with a dub version of his most recent album, but for last year's release of 'Unbreakable', an album for which he collaborated with The Wailers United, he breaks with this tradition.
Various Artists - Nostalgique Congo: Rumbas Lingala, Swahili, Kikongo & Douala 1950-1960 (Buda Musique)
In our review of the Ry-Co Jazz compilation released on the Belgian Radio Martiko label at the end of last year, we briefly sketched out the history and evolution of Congolese rumba, and 'Nostalgique Kongo' delves even deeper into that history.
Kenny B - Hoe Dan Ook (Top Notch Music/Universal)
Hopefully we won't have to introduce Dutch-Surinamese singer Kenny B anymore. In 2015 the man scored a great radio hit with 'Parijs', a song everyone between Amsterdam and Paris should have heard at least once in the meantime.
Panache Culture - Way Down The Road (Self-published)
If we ignore 'Mozart Vibration', their 2016 reggae experiment with the oeuvre of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, this appropriately titled 'Way Down The Road' is the first new Panache Culture album since 2003's 'Le Discours'!
Kel Assouf - Black Tenere (Glitterbeat Records)
For 'Black Tenere', Belgian-Algerian-Nigerian band Kel Assouf was reduced to a power trio featuring Anana Ag Haroun on vocals and signature Gibson Flying V guitar, producer and keyboard genius Sofyann Ben Youssef on keyboards and Oliver Penu on drums.