Recently, Superpitcher was invited to go on a safari in South Africa. He bought a custom made safari hat at his favorite milliner in Cologne (Ju¨rgen Eifler) and set off with big eyes and a pair of binoculars. It was wild and wonderful and he saw many exotic (and big!) animals, even a leopard in a tree that told him the secret of the universe. He forgot what the leopard said because his mind was still playing and replaying the sound of what he heard on the first night of his arrival – the hypnotic and moving sound of the voices of Africa, the voices of the wonderful Tanda Tula staff choir. There, the choir members work during the day at the camp and at night entertain the guests with their captivating voices and energetic dancing. So impressed was he with their songs and beautiful Shangaan language that he decided to record a CD for them to sell in the shop at their camp and now this precious recording is also available through Hippie Dance / Bush Recordings on vinyl and CD for you in whatever wherever camp you are. The LP of the Tanda Tula Choir comes with a very pretty poster. 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

Four remixes from the Youth Stand Up! album that was released on Autonomous Africa late in 2015 by JD Twitch, Midland, Auntie Flo and General Ludd. Youth Stand Up! is a collaborative recording project between Glasgow’s Green Door Studio, Lebeha Drumming Center in Hopkins, Belize, and the Tafi Cultural Institute based in Tafi Atome, Ghana. All proceeds will go to Tafi Cultural Institute, Tafi Atome, Ghana and Lebeha Drumming Center, Hopkins, Belize. 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