Ostinato US Vinilo y CD

Review: Iftin is a band from Somalia that has a cult status amongst those who know. This is the first-ever retrospective of their music and it has taken seven years to get together. The music is taken from cassettes recorded between 1982 and 1987 at Al-Uruba hotel's secret studio. They were often performed for crowds in the basement of Somalia's national theatre and mix up Banaadiri rhythms from the south of Somalia, vocalists from Mogadishu and reggae-styled guitar riffs from Dhaanto all powered by brass that bends the traditions of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Truly world music.

Review: In a stroke of ingenuity Noori found a neck of a guitar whilst rummaging through a Port Sudan scrapyard along the Red Sea Coast in the 90s. Using their welding talents they fixed it onto a traditional four stringed tambour, creating what may be the only tambo-guitar hybrid in the world. Beja Power! Is a love letter to the Beja culture, inherently political and almost erased by the former Sudanese leader. This historically rich niche of Afro-Jazz is both nostalgic and mystical. Elements of surf rock, electric blues and psychedelia can be heard in these instrumental tracks, a 6-track capsule of a powerful identity nearly lost to the sands of time. Noori & His Dorpa Band's style is authentic and evocative and is a joyful proclamation and demonstration of the magic that is Beja sound and aesthetic.

Review: Ostinato Records is still in its infancy but the label has well and truly impressed us since they first launched last year. That initial string of reissue material from Cape Verde was sensational to say the least, and we're doubly impressed to see that the label heads have now sprawled out to Sudan, a corner of Africa that is comparatively less known in terms of music. With 16 tunes that have been selected for this essential double album, there is so much to explore and take in, especially given that this music is not something to be consumed superficially; let's the rhythms take you, revel in them, learn your surroundings. This is you being launched in Sudan. Hotly tipped!

Review: In 1988, on the eve of the civil war that began to tear apart Somalia in the early 1990s, an intrepid band of broadcasters and journalists secretly salvaged some 10,000 cassettes of homegrown music from the archives of Radio Hargeissa in Somaliland. Almost 30 years on, those tapes have finally been mined for Sweet as Broken Dates, a brilliant compilation that finally showcases some of the multitude of gems that were recorded and released in the country between the late '60s and early '90s. It's a brilliant collection, all told, full of exotic music that combines Western styles - soul, funk, disco, pop, reggae, boogie, psychedelic rock and even early hip-hop- with musical influences from the wider region (most notably Arabic and tropical music from islands in the Indian Ocean). In other words, it should be an essential purchase.

Review: The story of how the Cabo Verde islands became an unlikely centre for electronic music in the early 1970s has previously been told on Analog Africa's superb Space Echo compilation. Ostinato's Synthesize The Soul explores similarly territory, extending the story until the tail end of the 1980s in a bid to showcase the development of the country's unique, synthesizer heavy fusion of African, Portuguese and American sounds. It's naturally a fine collection, full of cheery, hard-to-define fusions rich in vintage synthesizer sounds, righteous horns, fuzzy electric guitars, celebratory vocals and fluid organ solos. In other words, it's like the greatest tropical party you've never been to, and William Onyeabor is playing the Moog.

Review: After that magnificent compilation from Analog Africa from summer 2016, we have become increasingly obsessed with the sound of the Cape Verde islands, an archipelago off the coast of West Africa. Until recently, its musical culture hadn't quite permeated the Western world, but things have changed. Thanks to that aforementioned compilation, and now this new collection of stupendous tunes compiled by the young Ostinato Records, we have realised just how amazing the island's music tradition really is, particularly in the 70s and 80s. These guys were ahead, using a mixture of local Creole singing and visionary synth experimentation, the have constructed a sound of their own, utterly inimitable and instantly recognisable. The same familiar names appear on this new comp, including Abel Lima, Tchiss Lopes, Jose Casimiro, and a whole slew of previously untapped artists. To us, this is the best form of outernational on the market at the moment, and we couldn't recommend this enough. KILLER.

Review: New York City label Ostinato Records make their impressive debut with this compilation of Haitian Jazz and Electric Folklore spanning two decades from the sixties onwards. Allegedly compiled from an array of private collections and radio archives in Brooklyn and several digging trips throughout Haiti, this 20-track selection offers an intriguing overview of the country's musical diversity in this period. Musical innovation is matched by percussive potency as Ostinato tell the story of a "vibrant laboratory of colliding influences" in the best way possible; with some truly delightful music! You can totally see "Pele Rein" by Les Loups Noirs getting played by Floating Points down Brilliant Corners. They also include a 20 page liner note booklet with vintage photographs mined across Haiti and its vast diaspora, an essay by a scholar of traditional Haitian Vodou rhythms at the School of Arts in Port au Prince, a history of the Haitian sound, and interviews with key figures of the forgotten scene.