In 2015 Superpitcher was invited to go on a safari in South Africa. He stayed at the breathtaking Tanda Tula camp in Timbavati adjacent to the Kruger National Park. Apart from being stunned by the untouched nature of the area, he was also blown away one evening by a performance of the Tanda Tula staff choir. He was so touched by their folk songs and beautiful Shangaan language that he decided to record and produce a CD for them to sell in the camp's shop, free of charge with all proceeds going to the choir members. This recording has since enabled guests from around the world to take the captivating voices of the Tanda Tula Choir home with them. Not much later, Superpitcher approached Autonomous Africa with the idea of us putting out a remix EP. It contains four very different but somehow complementary remixes from Superpitcher, LAPS, Red Axes and Esa. All profits from this release will be split between Tanda Tula choir and the International Library of African Music. Founded by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey in 1954, ILAM is an an organisation dedicated to the preservation and study of African music. More

afi Allstars is a collaborative recording project between Optimo Music artists Thomas Lea Clarke (MR TC) and Conal Blake (Whilst) and members of the Tafi Cultural Institute of Tafi Atome, Ghana. After having previously visited Tafi Atome to take part in the Music of the Volta Region Study tours that are organised by TCI in collaboration with Green Door Studio, Clarke and Blake secured funding from Creative Scotland to travel back to Tafi in November 2016 to record a mini-album of tracks that blend the rhythms and melodies of traditional Borborbor and Agbadza drumming forms and Ewe songwriting with electronic instrumentation and dub recording techniques. Clarke and Blake travelled to Tafi with a basic recording set up of laptop, microphone and soundcard, a drum machine and a synthesizer and the six tracks on the record came to fruition through various ways of working. More

Many of the problems Africa faces are a result of outside interference by other countries, and as the 21st century progresses we will see the continued pillage of African resources to feed the global capitalist machine on an unprecedented scale. Corrupt and greedy regimes gladly sell their land and mineral wealth to finance their own extravagant lifestyles while the vast majority of ordinary people see little or no improvement in their own lives. An autonomous Africa run by the people for the people, where African land is predominantly used to feed African people and Africa's vast wealth of resources is used to benefit the people of Africa seems the only logical way forward. Autonomous Africa's goal is to highlight this message and here presents to you 4 tracks of African inspired grooves. We fully realise a small run, independently released 12" is going to make very little difference to the world, but doing something has to be better than doing nothing. The idea of an autonomous Africa may be naive and unrealistic, but at some point the world we live in will have to change or future generations are going to be left with very little as we consume way more than our fair share. We have collectively buried our heads in the sand thinking we are powerless to engender change. Individually we have little power but collectively, the power is ours. More

First up is Tabou For The People by Sofrito Specials Featuring L Barrabas which Twitch edited for his dj sets a couple of years back. The lovely people at Sofrito kindly gave permission for it to be included on this release. It's a relentlessly driving slab of 4/4 Afro Funk with horn explosions. Next up is the 10th and final track in Twitch's Cumbia series. The first 8 were released on Japan's Let's Get Lost label and the missing number 9 is being saved for a future release. Colombia's Cumbia was born out of African influences. This track is based around a sample from Colombian Cumbia legend Andres Landero and is an attempt to fuse traditional Cumbia sounds with up to date production styles. The end result is a slow motion hypnotic Cumbia retaining the haunting melancholia inherent in the original sample. Leading the AA side, Twitch passed a wild Highlife song by Ghana's Atakoru Manu to Glasgow's super talented Auntie Flo (whose highly recommended Future Rhythm Machine album recently saw a release) to play around with. Auntie Flo cut it up and added additional drums and bass to come up with this euphoric modern Highlife groover More