Ostinato US Vinilo y CD

Review: The Gulf of Tadjoura is a basin of the Indian Ocean in the Horn of Africa, south of the entrance to the Red Sea. It's an area rich in natural flora and fauna, with a bustling and lively music scene to match, as proven by this new compilation on Ostinato's Djibouti Archives series. It all features a 40 person Somali ensemble of dancers, actor, musicians, percussionists and singers called 4 Mars (named after the founding date of The People's Rally for Progress in 1997. The group served as house band for that collective and here show their sound is full of soulful and sassy grooves that tend to go slow but build you up big. Elements of African, Asia and Mediterranean culture all permeate the tracks, some of which are studio recordings, other live performances.

Review: This record claims to be the first ever international release to come from Djibouti, a secret hotbed of musical goodness in East Africa. The country is a small and often overlooked land but once you dig deep you'll find a culture brimming with vitality despite the fact almost every band in the land is a national enterprise. In 2016, that changed when Ostinato Records met with senior officials of Radiodiffusion-Television Djibouti to discuss a lifting of the rules and three years later they were granted access to the archives and have put together this record, helmed by sax maestro Mohamed Abdi Alto and stuffed with essential afro styled funk and soul.

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: Proving that the wonder of African electronic music unfolds and evolves on its own terms, Ostinato present the sound of Jantra to the world. Reportedly performing in the border town of Gedarif and on the 'outskirts of outskirts' of Khartoum in his native Sudan, Jantra uses a Yamaha keyboard to jam out endless street rave sessions to feverish crowds. He doesn't have rehearsed songs, just freestyle playing of sparkling, cosmic melodies elicited from an instrument he had to get customised at a Khartoum market so it would fit the mode of Sudanese melodies. The label followed Jantra to some of the parties he played, and merged earlier cassette recordings with new sessions to create a kind of hybrid release which introduces his music to the world in spectacular fashion.

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: 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: 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!