Aby Ngana Diop - Liital - CASSETTES

Aby Ngana Diop was the most famous taasukat in Dakar, Senegal in the 1980s and 1990s. Taasu is a Wolof-language poetic style, usually performed by women griots over frenetic drum patterns, with an aggressive verbal flow thought to presage rap. Her only album Liital was groundbreaking in the history of Senegalese music because it was the first commercial recording to feature a traditional female taasukat performing to the modern accompaniment of mbalax, Senegal's quintessential pop genre. The distinctive style is captured in all it's ear-popping, left-field glory on the recording, which was massively popular upon it's . Diop's powerful chants and incantations above urgent female chorus, cross-rhythmic blasts of the sabar and tama drums, as well as synthesizers, drum machines, hand claps, tambourine jingles and horse and train engine samples. When Aby Ngana Diop died unexpectedly on July 4, 1997, the country mourned her passing, but continued to celebrate her music. Although this cassette has caught the attention of some African music aficianados who have stumbled upon it in recent years, it remains largely unknown to the wider world. Hopefully this re- from Awesome Tapes from Africa will change that.

Professor RJ Ross was a founding member of the legendary Detroit funk band known as Brainstorm and played on their award-winning album, InchStorminInch. His song from that album InchThis Must Be HeavenInch still gets airplay world-wide to this day. The University of Soul is the name of the ensemble headed by RJ Ross on this first InchSoulInch album to be produced at FIM. Containing beautiful smooth jazz male vocals with wonderful arrangements and sonority it is a not to be missed. RJ Ross composed most of the songs on this album; he even sang all of them. His music and his unique broken-voice singing style are definitely Inchsweet soulInch creations. Released on the latest audiophile known as DXD Digital eXtreme Definition, LIM DXD CDs have taken the current audio standard a step further to bring you closer to the source of the original recording. Playable on all CD players.

Shapeshifting between electronic experimentation and acoustic texture, the Queens-based artist has long delved into themes of erosion and lithification, along with the infinite possibilities of metamorphosis. On her new album Powders, alchemical forces connect ideas from every stage of her career just as they dissolve her practice into atomized particles ripe for reconstitution. The results find Eartheater at a fertile crossroads, honing her pop songwriting and lyrics to their most vivid state to date-all without losing the thread of experimentation that has always enlivened her work.