Back catalogue: International

Review: This is a global single with a great story that starts with an afro-funk groove made by Italian Jah Sazzah. He wanted a vocal for it so turned to Nickodemus who handed his own touches and then sent it Grammy-nominated Colombian vocalist Jimena Angel. The result is a vibrant Afro tune with vivid melodies. Remixer Poirier is a legend in Latin music circles. The Montreal man has formerly been associated with Ninja Tune and is synonymous with lots of classy remixes and fresh takes on a modern Afro-Caribbean sound. This is another one that reworks the ring into a more bouncy and infectious sound with gorgeous vocals and a clean arrangement that allows the drums and perc to shine.

Review: This a unique release that features a song that was released by two different bands during within the same year. The song 'Meshkalina' was by a psychedelic and prog band from Peru called Traffic Sound and then, soon after, by Latin duo Paco Zambrano and Reynaldo Murrieta under the name Paco Zambrano Y Su Combo. The latter version is more traditional and Latin while the Traffic Sound version is more psychedelic garage rock band-like. Two formidable and very different versions featured on limited splattered 7" vinyl.

Review: There is scant little information out there about Yoanson & Karamie. What we do know is that they were young artists from the French African diaspora who met with Nessim Saroussi and his label Ness Music in the late 80s and were encouraged to record the music presented here. It is their only official EP and it is a brilliant mix of Afro-tropical percussions, disco, electro and vocals that call to mind the likes of Arthur Russell. Philippe de Lacroix-Herpin is the man festered here as Prof Jah Pinpin and he brings some of his signature saxophone brilliance to flipside jaunt 'The Final Bird (Le Temps D'une Vie)'.

Review: Alzheimer, the record, is a stranger everywhere on earth - that is to say, wherever you might be listening to it, it will always sound like it's from somewhere else. The product of a foreign culture, for even though it was created and recorded in Caracas, Venezuela between January 1997 and 9/9/99, it's the result of forgetting everything and recomposing a new Sound World from the faintest, blurriest recollections of musical culture. Its purpose is confusion, its uniqueness is creating it in the realm of Music; a clash of instruments and minds. Everything you hear on the record was performed by humans and insects, spoken and sung by living beings, roughly a decade before the smartphone. The Alzheimer ensemble still exists and fully supports this initiative of celebrating the 24th year of its first of two published albums on vinyl. The spirit of our group will never be captured by robotic 'intelligence'.

Review: The third and most especial edition in the latest selection of versions of the reissued LP by Alonso Toro, Paul Desenne, and Pedro Vasquez - Alzheimer. Coming hot on the heels of an original, as-it-was reissue as well as a gemmy Ricardo Villalobos rerub, this deluxe edition comes in a beautiful yellow and lilac LP box, and features the latter's two remixes as well as an exclusive Wetsuit Je Me Souviens version. A curio of the Venezuelan vanguard, the album was recorded between January 1997-99, and hears the fabled trio of musicians "forget everything" that came before, enlisting the recorded help of every member of the animal kingdom - from mammals to insects - and shooting squarely for a whole new sound-world-order in the process. Sonically flowing between heritage Latin music and minimal electronica, the purpose is to confuse and the effect is indeed confounding, though no less dazzling.

Review: A unique compilation for its quality, selection, sound and taste; only the best of Gladys Palmera's Collection, one of the largest real-world Afro-Latin music collections in the world, can be heard. With different versions of well-known songs, surprising displays of vocal mastery, crazed jam sessions, virtuosic instrumentation, gatherings-together of musicians unnoticed until now and rare songs by artists who've only just been found thanks to Palmera's archive. Tastemaker extraordinaire, Palmera herself spent hours searching, listening to, choosing, selecting and refining each track for inclusion on this comp, which collates recordings from the 60s and 70s made in different cities in Latin America, in styles ranging from the most traditional Antillean folklore to mixes and combinations with jazz, swing, twist, exotic and bossa nova.

Review: Misha Panfilov is an Estonian composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, based in Funchal, Portugal and Atlantico is a stunning showcase of his work on the Miraaz label. He mixes up psych, prog rock, jazz horns and international rhythms right from the opening moments of the dramatic 'Verticle.' Things take a more wistful folk bent on the jaunt that is 'Alegria Em Movimento' with more expansive jazz stylings taking over on 'Caleidoscopio'. This one comes on heavyweight vinyl and with an insert, plus great artwork, so is a real treasure.

Review: Following Far Out's reissue of Agustin Pereyra Lucena Quartet's La Rana, the label continues its memorialisation of the late, great Argentinian guitarist's music, with the first ever direct from tape, audiophile reissue of Pereyra Lucena's self-titled debut album from 1970. Hailing from Buenos Aires, Augustin was nonetheless obsessed with the music of Brazil; this combined with his Argentinian roots to produce a sound entirely his own. After being scouted in a nightclub, by musician and guitar craftsman Jorge Demonte, Agustin was invited for an audition at Argenitinian label Tonodisc, and before he knew it, was in the studio recording his first album. The album's atypical bossas and spiritual swinging sambas, composed by many of Agustin's heroes, were elevated to new heights by Agustin's dazzling arrangements and phenomenal guitar playing. The almost cosmic reaches Agustin achieved with his sound are balanced against the stylish sophistication and breezy nature of the music.

Review: With this CD edition to complement the main LP reissue, we're once again met with the beauteous multi-instrumental talents of Agustin Pereyra Lucena, Argentina's finest. His self-titled debut record from 1970 is quite literally a 'bossa nova' (direct translation, 'novel swelling', 'new upswell'), doing justice to the genre name with a dialectical, pioneering regional take on already-established styles like samba and the aforementioned, informed by his outsider status as an Argentinian looking in on Brazil. Atypical for its time, Agustin's guitar playing never quite settles into any looping riff, instead revelling in free-associative improvs and overdubs of the crispest quality, both low and high in pitch range.

Review: A formerly impossible to find second album by Nicaraguan band Poder De Alma, first released in 1975. A cool mix of Latin funk, jazz, salsa and psychedelic grooves, this one includes some of the group's most sought-after tracks like 'Bacanal' 76,' 'Mimo' or the antiracist statement 'La Conga de las Dos Razas.' After recording their first LP in Guatemala, the Nica supergroup travelled to Costa Rica to register their second album; this time, the recording studio and equipment available to them (including a Mini-Moog) were an improvement compared to their prior project and the band saw a new line-up. The result was a powerful album which is now one of the holy grails of Latin funk worldwide.