Inna Vision - Best Yet: Celebrating A Decade Of Vision (Roots Musician Records)
Inna Vision has been in the business for ten years and is celebrating that anniversary with 'Best Yet: Celebrating A Decade Of Vision', a compilation album containing 15 of his greatest hits.
Steel Pulse - Mass Manipulation (Rootfire Cooperative/Wiseman Doctrine)
Fifteen years after their last album, 2004's excellent 'African Holocaust', Steel Pulse finally returned to the studio for 'Mass Manipulation'.
Iyahshine - Unforgettable EP (Reality Shock Records)
With this 6 track 'Unforgettable' EP, Krist Kemist of British label Reality Shock Records provides up-and-coming Jamaican talent Damon Palmer aka Iyashine with a first calling card.
RADIO77 - Future Bass Wave (Echo Beach)
RADIO77 is the brainchild of New York veteran DJ Joey Radio, who, with this project, for which he collaborated with, among others, Dubmatix, successfully attempted to mix dub with new wave influences.
Najavibes - Same Sun (Fruits Records)
Swiss band Najavibes may have been active for over twenty years, but because during that time they were mainly active as a backing band for veterans like Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Cedric 'Congo' Myton, B.B. 'Gaylads' Seaton or Prince Alla, this 'Same Sun' is only their second album to date, released just less than ten years after 2011 debut effort 'Musical Road'.
Max'1 And The Rootsmaker - Nah Give Up EP (Self-published)
With this 6 track 'Nah Give Up', Lille in the north of France based Max'1 And The Rootsmaker presents a first EP.
Nazamba - Nazamba (Dubquake Records)
It seems that for a good portion of dub-poetry you have to be in Switzerland these days. Earlier this year, Fruits Records already presented the excellent 'I've Seen', a new album by Jamaican veteran Oku Onuora, and now Dubquake Records, the label of French producers O.B.F., which also has roots in Geneva, Switzerland, is releasing this self-titled debut by George Scott aka Nazamba, an up-and-coming talent from Clarendon in Jamaica.
Ras Teo meets Lone Ark - Ten Thousand Lions (A-Lone Productions/Rebel Sound Records)
Ras Teo is a reggae artist from Los Angeles who grew up in Sweden. Over the years he's collaborated with heavyweights from the scene like Yami Bolo, Pablo Gad, Sizzla, Prince Alla and Fred Locks. For 'Ten Thousand Lions' Teo joined forces with Spanish producer and multi-instrumentalist Roberto Sanchez for a magnum opus consisting of twelve vocal cuts and as many dubs.
Danças Ocultas - Dentro Desse Mar (Galileo Music Communication)
Portuguese accordion quartet Danças Ocultas is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year and that's the sort of occasion making musicians want to broaden their horizons.
Bobby Hustle - Wolaba Vibes: The Costa Rica Sessions EP (Costa Rebel Studio)
Yours truly got to know Seattle based artist Bobby Hustle thanks to his 2015 'It's The Hustle' album. During a short promotional tour for that album in Costa Rica in 2016, the day after a performance in Puerto Viejo, Bobby was stopped by the local police who subsequently found a considerable amount of marijuana in the singer's car and promptly arrested Hustle.
Gili Yalo - Made In Amharica EP (Dead Sea Recordings)
After the success of his self-titled debut album released last year, for this 'Made In Amharica' EP Gili Yalo joined forces with Niles City Sound, an American production team consisting of Josh Black, Austin Jenkins and Chris Vivion.
Yabby You meets King Tubby - Walls Of Jerusalem (Pressure Sounds)
With 'Walls Of Jerusalem', the Pressure Sounds label revives one of the classics from the catalogue of Vivian Jackson aka Yabby You. Although in this case, revives is probably an understatement, as this album has a long history.
The Skints - Swimming Lessons (Easy Star Records/Mr Bongo)
With a wonderfully naive title like 'Swimming Lessons' it might seem as if The Skints wanted to surprise us with a breezy summer album, and the track list certainly leaves room for lighter subjects, but the British band wouldn't be themselves if their songs weren't full of razor-sharp social critique either.
Newen Afrobeat - Curiche (Self-published)
Yours truly got to know the Chilean afrobeat of Newen Afrobeat back in 2017 thanks to the release of their 2 track 'Newen Plays Fela' EP, but now the fifteen-piece band returns with 'Curiche', a new 7 track album.
UCee - Bridges (Good Call Records)
Nice discovery this 'Bridges', the second album by UCee, born Ussama Soleman in the German town of Regensburg in Bavaria, but of Tunisian-Egyptian descent.
BCUC - The Healing (Buda Musique)
With 'The Healing', which just like its predecessor, 2018's 'Emakhosini', barely counts three tracks, South African whirlwind BCUC led by front man Zithulele 'Jovi' Zabani Nkosi provides an appropriate final part to a trilogy that started with 'Our Faith' back in 2016.
Sista Livity & Sista Moni - Only Love (Good Over Evil Prod.)
For 'Only Love' Sista Livity and Sista Moni joined forces with production house, studio and sound system Good Over Evil.
dub_cmd - Moonsteppa EP (Dub-O-Phonic)
dub_cmd is the alter ego of Polish dub producer Gabriel Ufir, who migrated to the United Kingdom when he was eighteen and now lives somewhere near Hull on the British east coast.
AKA Trio - Joy (Bendigedig/ARC Music)
After the solo album '22 Strings' and the collaborations with Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, Senegalese kora-master Seckou Keita joined forces with Italian guitarist Antonio Forcione and Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale, for a project they called the AKA Trio.
Hama Sankare - Niafunke (Clermont Music)
For the successor to 'Ballébé: Calling All Africans', his 2018 debut album for Clermont Music, Malian vocalist and gourd percussionist Hama Sankare chose to pay tribute to his native village of Niafunke, where colleagues Yoro Cisse and Afel Bocoum also have their roots, and which was really put on the map by Malinese music legend Ali Farka Touré.