The Freedom Principle

06/21/2025

De Frank Kakra - (2025) Finding De Frank – Rastapastarecords
De Frank Kakra’s Finding De Frank is a compelling compilation of his work as a singer, percussionist, and guitarist rooted in 1970s Ghanaian highlife, originally recorded across Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and now remastered for both audiophile clarity and dancefloor presence. Born in Togo of Ewe descent but associated with the highlife powerhouse of Ghana’s Gold Coast, Kakra’s instrumentation—jangly melodies, cosmic organ swells, buoyant percussion, and rhythmic guitar riffs—reflects that West African fusion of Afrobeat, calypso, and local folk music . What distinguishes this release from other highlife reissues is its careful restoration that unifies disparate recordings into an immersive listening journey, anchored by standout tracks like “Call Me Frank” and “Psychedelic Man” with hypnotic grooves that nod to both rhythmic West African tradition and the diasporic cross-currents of jazz and funk. While steeped in local sonic traditions, this anthology subtly resonates with the broader African diaspora’s improvisational and rhythmic sensibilities—ever confirming itself as a voice of the Ghanaian highlife lineage it springs from.

Provided to YouTube by ModulorPsychedelic Man · De Frank KakraFinding De Frank℗ RastaPastaRecordsReleased on: 2025-05-30Producer: De Frank KakraComposer: De ...

06/21/2025

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley - (2025) Wake Up Afrika (Ghana) - Agogo Records
Gyedu Blay Ambolley’s Wake Up Afrika (released May 30, 2025) finds the veteran Sekondi Takoradi–born artist blending his trademark Simigwa highlife—an energetic fusion of highlife, funk, soul, jazz, and early rap—with live instrumentation recorded in Ghana’s Rythm Africa and Simigwa Studios. Accompanying Ambolley on saxophone and vocals, a tight band featuring keyboards, trumpet, guitar, bass, drums, congas, and baritone sax anchors each track in the dance floor tradition of West African groove. What sets this release apart is both its continuity with his 1970s innovations—bringing rap style phrasing into highlife—and its polished modern production, mixed in the Netherlands, that allows subtle jazzy interplay and funk driven horn lines to breathe while still compelling movement. The album’s intertwining of Ghanaian rhythms with improvisational horn solos and soulful backing vocals underscores its deep ties to the African diaspora and jazz idioms, offering a rhythmic bridge between Accra’s dance halls and broader jazz funk traditions. In its final articulation, Wake Up Afrika delivers a wake call to the highlife pulse of western Ghana, confirming itself as a rightful chapter in that regional lineage.

Blay Ambolley

His new album " Wake Up Afrika " is a new dimension of Gyedu-Blay Ambolley's music. The world is at the cross road and needs a sane leader that will bring ha...

06/21/2025

Kasse Mady Diabate - (2025) TOUMARO (Mali) - One World Records
Kassé Mady Diabaté’s TOUMARO is a posthumous 11 track album recorded in Bamako and completed by his daughter Hawa after his passing, featuring acoustic instrumentation typical of Malian griot ensembles—balafon, n’goni, guitars, calabash, djembe—and dual vocals that reconnect to the Manding jeli tradition of West Africa. The album stands out for its seamless intergenerational collaboration, as Hawa’s songwriting and singing honor her father’s legacy while weaving in contemporary arrangements by arranger Madou Kouyaté, preserving the griot’s culturally grounded storytelling. While rooted in Mande folk forms, the album's rhythmic subtleties, layered vocal harmonies, and melodic interplay evoke jazz phrasing—particularly in the spacious dialogue between balafon and guitar—suggesting a quiet kinship with diasporic improvisational traditions. Each song, especially the title track “Toumaro” written by Hawa, feels like a respectful but living conversation across generations—a testament to its place within the Mandé musical lineage it so gracefully continues.

06/21/2025

Roots Architects - (2025) From Dub Til Now - Fruits Records
Roots Architects’ From Dub ’Til Now, released June 6 2025 on Fruits Records, is a pure dub instrumental album recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, and brought to life by over fifty veteran Jamaican session musicians, including Sly & Robbie, Ernest Ranglin, Dean Fraser, and the Roots Radics. Under the stewardship of Swiss producer Mathias Liengme and dub engineer Roberto Sánchez, the album features classic dub instrumentation—heavy bass, echoing drums, skanking guitar, melodious horns—all anchored in the seminal Kingston soundscape of the 1970s. What distinguishes this release is its instrumental-only focus, allowing the studio musicians—often the overlooked architects behind reggae’s foundational rhythm—to shine, and Sánchez’s mixing leans into inventive spatial effects reminiscent of King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry. While firmly rooted in Jamaican dub traditions, the album’s subtle jazz inflections—especially in the brass phrasing and keyboard improvisations—echo the African diaspora’s broader improvisational legacy . In its final reverberations, From Dub ’Til Now resonates unmistakably as a chapter in the Kingston-originated dub lineage.

Available on LP, CD and digital on Fruits Records: https://fruitsrecords.bandcamp.com/Drums: Sly DunbarBass: Robbie ShakespearePiano: Robbie LynOrgan: Ansel ...

06/21/2025

Seun Anikulapo Kuti - (2025) Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head) (Deluxe Edition) - Record Kicks
Seun Kuti’s Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head) (Deluxe Edition), recorded in Lagos with Egypt 80 and co-produced by Lenny Kravitz and Fela Kuti’s veteran engineer Sodi Marciszewer, maintains the signature Afrobeat blend of tightly interlocked horns, polyrhythmic percussion, and Seun’s alto saxophone and vocals rooted in his Nigerian heritage. This deluxe edition expands the original six-track set with remixes and collaborations—including Kamasi Washington on jazz-inflected versions and Pos of De La Soul, Adi Oasis, Alborosie, Damian Marley, Sampa the Great, Gaudi & Don Letts—bringing fresh textures from jazz, reggae, rap, and disco into the Afrobeat template. What distinguishes this release is its seamless weave of intercontinental voices—Kamasi’s sax reframing Afrobeat’s improvisatory currents, Sampa’s influence connecting continental resistance traditions, and Kravitz’s production layering in soulful guitar and rock rhythms—without forsaking the genre’s political core. While clearly entwined with the wider African diaspora and jazz lineages, the album retains its grounding in Lagos’s protest-fueled Afrobeat tradition—a deluxe gesture that still beats in time with its Nigerian roots.

Seun kuti fan page

Listen: https://recordkicks.lnk.to/MoveAfrobeat royalty Seun Kuti joins forces with jazz icon Kamasi Washington to share “Move (Keep Moving Version)”, out on...

06/21/2025

Siri Karlsson - (2025) Stockholm-Ouagadougou - Tombola Records
Siri Karlsson & Solo Dja Kabaco’s Stockholm–Ouagadougou is an 11-track collaboration bridging Stockholm’s avant-garde folk and voodoo-punk textures with the griot traditions of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, recorded between studios in Sweden and Burkina Faso and released May 23, 2025. The instrumentation—keyed fiddle, saxophone, synths, electric guitar, calabash, djembe, and Solo Dja Kabaco’s guitar and vocals—melds Nordic experimentalism with West African rhythmic folk, drawing on percussion-led grooves and string structures rooted in Burkinabè storytelling. What sets the record apart is its seamless approach to blending psych-folk expansiveness and spontaneous improvisation—a continuation of their 2018 Ouaga Sessions—resulting in moments that feel both exploratory and grounded. Though firmly rooted in Burkina Faso’s griot lineage, the album’s melodic and rhythmic nuances echo jazz’s improvisatory spirit, subtly linking European avant-garde and African diaspora traditions . Ultimately, Stockholm–Ouagadougou asserts itself as a musical handshake across continents, a conversation that sounds entirely at home in western Burkina Faso’s sonic heritage.

Provided to YouTube by ALOADED ABHey Solo · Siri Karlsson · Solo Dja KabacoHey Solo℗ Tombola RecordsReleased on: 2025-05-02Composer: Cecilia ÖsterholmCompose...

06/21/2025

**ky Combo - (2025) Locked Up in Love – Vlad
The new release from Sk**ky Combo, titled Locked Up in Love, comes out of Marseille, France, where the group blends vintage ska, early reggae, and soul-inflected rocksteady with a stripped-down rhythm section and tight horn arrangements. Anchored by offbeat guitar, melodic basslines, and analog organ, the band’s instrumentation echoes the classic Jamaican studio sound while infusing it with Mediterranean flair and bilingual lyricism. What sets this album apart is its balance of homage and originality—rather than emulating a fixed retro aesthetic, the group subtly incorporates local cadence and contemporary themes into the genre’s enduring groove. The musical lineage from the African diaspora is central here, particularly in the rhythmic structures and call-and-response vocal phrasing that trace back through Caribbean traditions. Locked Up in Love affirms the ongoing vitality of ska and reggae in southern Europe’s coastal soundscape.

Locked Up In Love, new album coming out May 2025 !Release Party : 29/05/2025 =) La Chaumière (Nantes) -------------------------------------------------------...

06/21/2025

Solo Diarra - (2025) Yimenga (Burkina Faso) - Global Sonics
The new release from Solo Diarra, titled Yimenga, draws on the griot traditions of Burkina Faso while reflecting the artist’s current base in France, where he continues to develop a cross-cultural sound rooted in the balafon, ngoni, and djembe. The album features layered percussion, cyclical melodic phrases, and call-and-response vocals, situating it within the Mandé musical continuum while introducing subtle harmonic additions from European acoustic instrumentation. What sets Yimenga apart is its clarity of intent—the arrangements remain spacious, allowing the tonal richness of the balafon and ngoni to shape the rhythmic and melodic landscape without overproduction. Diarra’s phrasing and compositional structure connect directly to diasporic currents, sharing rhythmic affinities with Afro-Cuban and African-American musical traditions through pulse and improvisatory flow. Yimenga offers a grounded yet fluid representation of contemporary Burkinabé music, shaped by both regional memory and diasporic dialogue.

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard EnterprisesYimenga · Solo Diarra · Ivan BlomqvistYimenga℗ 2025 Solo DiarraReleased on: 2025-05-23Producer, Recording Engin...

06/21/2025

Tidiani Koné - (1977, 2025) Tidiani Kone et le T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou-Benin - Fangate Djangele Et Djanfa Magni (Benin) - Acid Jazz Records UK
The 1977 release from Tidiani Koné et le T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou-Bénin, titled Fangate Djangele Et Djanfa Magni, captures a rare cross-border collaboration between the Malian bandleader and Benin’s most prolific Afrobeat orchestra. Centered in Cotonou but drawing influence from Mali’s brass-driven dance bands and Yoruba percussion traditions, the recording fuses electric guitar, organ, horn arrangements, and layered hand percussion into tightly woven grooves that move fluidly between Afrobeat, highlife, and Malian folkloric phrasing. What sets this release apart is Koné’s role as a griot-turned-arranger, injecting a distinctly West African narrative sensibility into the Poly-Rythmo sound without diluting its rhythmic complexity. The diasporic connections are audible in the propulsive backbeat, cyclical call-and-response forms, and the improvisational logic that recalls both jazz and traditional praise song. Fangate Djangele Et Djanfa Magni stands as a resonant example of 1970s West African fusion, grounded in its regional idioms and shaped by broader pan-African currents.

Provided to YouTube by PIASFangate Djangele · Tidiani Koné · T.P. Orchestre Poly-RythmoTidiani Koné et le T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou-Benin - Fanga...

06/21/2025

The Budos Band - (2025) VII - Diamond West Records
The Budos Band’s VII continues the Staten Island group’s fusion of instrumental Afrobeat, soul, and psychedelic rock, rooted in a deep horn section, heavy drums, and fuzz-drenched guitars. Drawing from the rhythmic legacy of Fela Kuti’s Nigeria and the dark funk of 1970s America, the band maintains its signature cinematic edge while leaning further into doom-laced grooves and minor-key intensity. What sets VII apart is its restrained, tightly constructed arrangements that avoid overstatement while still evoking intensity, creating space for each instrumental voice without straying into excess. The album’s lineage traces clearly through the African diaspora, channeling Afrobeat and soul-jazz traditions through a distinctly New York filter. As such, VII offers a brooding yet grounded expression of Afro-influenced funk that resonates authentically from its East Coast origins.

Directed by Nathan David Smith Based off the original artwork by Brian Profilio https://DiamondWest.lnk.to/Overlander VII Album: https://DiamondWest.lnk.to/VII

06/21/2025

Tom McGuire & The Brassholes - (2025) A Name For Everything I'll Ever Be - Slug Recordings
Tom McGuire & the Brassholes’ A Name For Everything I’ll Ever Be finds its home in Glasgow, Scotland, where the eight-piece band—fronted by Tom’s vocals and guitar, supported by a tight rhythm section, keyboards, backing singers and a four-man brass lineup—channels classic funk and soul through a distinctly Scottish lens. The album navigates personal terrain—parenthood, identity, social reflection—without sacrificing the groove that made their live sets viral through tracks like “Ric Flair,” blending punchy arrangements and soulful brass interplay into cohesive storytelling. Compared to other modern funk bands, their edge lies in emotionally grounded songwriting—songs such as “Dad’s Guitar” and “Infinity” balance mature themes with deep pocket rhythms, granting weight without sacrificing buoyancy. While their sound is rooted in the African diaspora’s funk and soul traditions—echoing James Brown, Tower of Power, and soul-jazz orchestration—their Glaswegian sensibility gives it a fresh clarity, eschewing pastiche for something more direct . In fusing these grooves with introspection, A Name For Everything I’ll Ever Be asserts itself as a modern funk record that feels unmistakably born of Scotland’s streets and stages.

"Infinity" performed live in session at Drygate Brewery, summer 2023. A previously unreleased song and the final track from our "Stay Rad" liv session. Watch...

06/21/2025

VA - Aquecimento São João (Brazil, Forro, 2025) – UME
“Aquecimento São João,” the new release featuring seminal Northeastern Brazilian artists such as Jackson do Pandeiro, Luiz Gonzaga, Rastapé, and Genival Lacerda, offers a tightly curated homage to the rhythmic and lyrical roots of forró and its satellite styles like xote and baião. These artists hail from the arid sertão and costal urban centers of states like Paraíba and Pernambuco, regions where the syncopated interplay of zabumba, accordion, triangle, and pandeiro defines not only musical identity but seasonal celebration. What sets this compilation apart is its archival grounding: instead of modernizing the form, it leans into the raw textures and cadences that shaped mid-20th century Northeastern soundscapes. Jackson do Pandeiro’s rhythmic phrasing, for instance, reveals echoes of Afro-Brazilian polyrhythms, while Gonzaga’s accordion stylings, though rooted in European folk instruments, bear improvisational qualities reminiscent of early jazz phrasing. Together, the tracks form not just a warm-up for São João festivities, but a faithful echo of a cultural landscape where drought, migration, and celebration coalesce into music that walks barefoot through the dust of the sertão.

Forró em LimoeiroComposição de Edgar Ferreira