The Portuguese singer, musician, producer, and composer Ana Lua Caiano returns with an exhilarating second album that expands and deepens the singular musical language she has been shaping in recent years—one where Portuguese folk tradition collides with electronics, rhythmic experimentation, lyrical rebellion and an intensely physical vocal presence. ›› read more

 

The nine-piece ensemble Shovel Dance Collective have been at the forefront of the resurgence of interest in traditional music since they came together in late 2019 and their two albums thus far – The Water is the Shovel of the Shore and The Shovel Dance – have been celebrated within, and far beyond, the confines of the folk scene in the UK and internationally.

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Three decades into their extraordinary journey, the legendary Istanbul-based collective BaBa ZuLa return with XXX – a hypnotic, uncompromising and undeniably vital statement of artistic freedom. Weaving together shapeshifting rhythms, hypnotic saz-driven atmospherics, and deep sonic rituals.

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On Oman’s southeastern coast, a remarkable musical tradition keeps history alive. In the Ash-Sharqiyah region, descendants of East Africans brought via the Indian Ocean slave trade preserve their heritage through Al-Mudema—sailor songs sung in Swahili and Arabic and accompanied by Omani bagpipes, sea conch shells, and percussion.

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Alison Cotton’s fifth solo album is a mesmerizing weave of haunted atmospherics and avant-folk songcraft. Built around her viola, harmonium, and transportive vocals, the album moves between stark drone passages and more layered arrangements with piano, percussion, and synths.

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The iconic Saharan rock band’s sixth album, Assikel, is by turns intimate, raw and deeply atmospheric. Recorded on analogue tape, with the band playing live and direct, the album fully captures their instinctive interplay and hypnotic presence. Songs of resistance, community and longing. Music for this moment.

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Taiga Trans, the debut album from Fauna, is a hypnotic collision of krautrock propulsion, psychedelic ritual, and subterranean rave energy. The eight-piece Swedish outernational collective channels a multicultural, multidimensional sound that feels both deeply rooted and otherworldly. Think Goat’s feral mysticism, Can’s motorik drive, and a dancefloor at its most transcendental.

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The celebrated Amsterdam psych-groove quintet unveils its most ambitious and eclectic album yet—a vibrant tribute to Turkish folk icon Neşet Ertaş. Weaving Arabesque strings, saxophone bursts, and shimmering synth-balladry into their hypnotic Anatolian rock ’n’ roll, the band pushes its sonic boundaries further than ever before.

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On their fourth album Yatta!, the celebrated Dutch quartet YĪN YĪN extends, bends, and ignites a joyous mix of disco, funk, surf, psychedelia, and Southeast Asian motifs. UNCUT magazine previously dubbed their highly addictive sound “cosmic disco”—a fitting starting point—but as Yatta! proves, the band’s sonic footprint is an ever-evolving kaleidoscope of sounds, textures, and beats.

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Noura Mint Seymali’s 3rd album is a thrilling explosion of contemporary Mauritanian griot music. Produced by Matthew Tinari (Noura’s drummer) and Mikey Coltun (Mdou Moctar), the album is raw and experimental; capturing with visceral clarity and adventurous sonics the intensity of her sound. Noura is again confirmed as one of the world’s most arresting voices.

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The Amsterdam-based six-piece Nusantara Beat has delivered their highly-anticipated debut album: a rich weave of Indonesian folk traditions, psychedelic rock, and vintage Indo-pop reimagined through a contemporary lens. Hypnotic grooves, radiant melodies and deep ancestral roots.

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British producer Shackleton reimagines Saagara’s 3 into a shadowy, dub-infused counterpart, transforming the album’s fusion of South Indian percussion, jazz, and electronics into a dark, atmospheric dialogue. What began as a simple remix request turns into a deep, experimental conversation, where Shackleton’s versions stand alongside Saagara’s original work, intensifying its drama and complexity.

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In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper is arguably the sharpest evocation yet of the group’s highly collective music process, enveloping rustic melodic folklore, outernational textures, non-linear song structures and dissonance, and a buzzing ambiance that can at times feel like an ecstatic ritual.

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Acclaimed Welsh composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cerys Hafana’s third album Angel, is a deep exploration of minimalism, traditional and avant-folk music and Hafana’s primary instrument the Welsh triple harp. The album alternates between vocal songs (all sung in the Welsh language) and instrumentals, often buoyed by a deft trio of sympathetic and exploratory musicians (drums, double bass, alto sax).

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Kimatika, the 3rd album by the Slovenian audio-visual trio Etceteral, is a visceral plunge into the raw undercurrents of futuristic jazz, motoric propulsion, free improv and elastic compositions. A growling baritone sax weaves through pulsating electronics and restless drums; the bass frequencies dense and cavernous.

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The celebrated Rwandan folk duo returns with a resonant fifth album. Combines their earthy vocals and acoustic instrumentation with atmospheric string arrangements. RRecorded 100% live and without overdubs by Grammy-award winning producer, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott). Unfiltered, intimate and deeply human.

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After the remarkable success and acclaim that greeted her second album Carry Them With Us, Scottish composer and small pipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul returns with a magic(k)al third album, Sunwise, which sees her push forward experimentally but also immerse her music more deeply in tradition, folklore and mystery. Sunwise is a revelatory album, steeped in landscape, ritual, minimalism and the eternal presence of the drone.

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AMMAR 808’s deep-rooted, room-shaking 3rd album »Club Tounsi« isn’t just a powerful statement of his Tunisian identity. It’s also a joyous celebration of the dancefloor, blending Mezoued rhythms and instrumentation with an impossibly infectious blast of bass-heavy futurism.

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Recorded in situ in the highlands of Lesotho—one of the world’s most elevated and perilous nations—the group Famo Mountain crafts raw, topical music driven by visceral vocals, accordion and percussion. This sound not only echoes the rugged beauty and harsh realities of its environment but also rises above them, creating something timeless and transcendent.

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This acclaimed Japanese psych-rock trio returns with a kaleidoscopic, otherworldly new album. Their musical core of drums, bass, keyboards and grouped female vocals, is augmented by an array of Japanese folk instruments. It’s a powerful swirling sound. A ritual music for undiscovered galaxies and unimagined futures.

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A veritable supergroup consisting of Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers), Mario Galeano (Frente Cumbiero) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo), Los Pirañas, the Colombian Avant-Latin experimentalists, return with their most formidable and forward-looking album yet. Daring, imaginative, eclectic and always deeply groovy, Una Oportunidad más de triunfar en la vida is an infectious trip into the dark, pulsating heart of Bogota’s thrilling underground music scene.

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Trupa Trupa returns with the “Mourners” EP, a bold new release produced by the renowned Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Idles, Amyl and The Sniffers). Featuring five dynamic, fast-paced tracks, the EP showcases a powerful rhythm section, blending loud basslines and driving drums with psychedelic elements, rage, and unexpected stylistic twists.

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Capturing the energy and the experience of Ammar 808’s 150+ global performances, the album unfolds as a pulsing interconnected journey. Live at Another Sky Festival delivers raw, dance-inducing grooves and a deeply individual high-energy Maghreb electronica.

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The legendary Malian desert blues artist Samba Touré, has returned with a new album Baarakelaw (The Workers) – the follow up to his highly-acclaimed 2021 album Binga. The album received ecstatic, career defining reviews and led to Samba being named the “Best Artist” of 2022 at Songlines magazine. Baarakelaw is a vivid mix of traditional northern Malian Songhoy music, blues-rock tracks with psychedelic overtones, ballads and love songs.

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Park Jiha, the acclaimed Korean composer/multi-instrumentalist, makes patient, immersive music; music that illuminates the essence and texture of the natural, living world. On her fourth album, All Living Things, her mastery of Korean traditional instruments is intricately woven with deeply personal compositions and a deft use of contemporary sonics. Terms like post-classical, ambient or even cinematic are useful, entry-level tags, but they only scratch the surface of this album’s shimmering, contemplative soundworld.

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A poignant sequel to Some Mississippi Sunday Morning (2023), the acclaimed prison recorded gospel album that UNCUT called “an inescapably spiritual experience.” Producer Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ustad Saami) has returned to Parchman Farm to record a new collection of raw, haunting performances from the prison’s Sunday gospel service.
Unforgettable.

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Avant-garde Colombian singer-songwriter Julián Mayorga returns with his ninth album, a clattering, absurdist slice of post-cumbia psychedelia. Chak Chak Chak Chak is a feverish mix of angular electric guitars, circuit-bent beats, found percussion and rapid-fire incantations, with influences that include Tom Zé, Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. Frenetic energy meets satirical wit. Surrealist fables entwined with defiant sonics.

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This legendary Istanbul band remains the most experimental exponent of the hotly-tipped contemporary Turkish psych-rock scene. BaBa ZuLa are revered sonic trailblazers who have built a cult following in all corners of the globe. İstanbul Sokakları (Streets of Istanbul) is a vivid sonic and political statement from a band that continues to show us the future.

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Saagara’s new album 3, is the third installment of this acclaimed collaboration between Polish producer/multi-instrumentalist Wacław Zimpel and four virtuosic musicians from the Carnatic musical tradition of southern India: percussionists Giridhar Udupa (ghatam), Aggu Baba (khanjira) and K Raja (thavil) and violinist Mysore N. Karthik. It’s a buzzing juxtaposition of dense Indian rhythms and pulsating electronic patterns.

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Dal:um – alongside peers Park Jiha, Jambinai and Leenalchi – are at the forefront of a new Korean music. The duo of Ha Suyean and Hwang Hyeyoung are virtuosos on two different types of traditional zithers, the gayageum and geomungo, and their music deftly navigates a plethora of contemporary influences: minimalism, experimental folk and abstract jazz.

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El Khat’s 3rd album mute belies its title as it careens out of the speakers with a raucous intensity. Formed in the garages and warehouses of Jaffa and now based in Berlin, the group’s ever-expanding vision makes a defiant stand against complacency, conflict and division. Skittering drums and brass, a jagged organ, hypnotic Yemeni melodies and one-of-a-kind DIY percussion and string instruments, all meld together in an infectious, heady soundscape.

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Hailing from Cyprus’s divided capital Nicosia, and led by Antonis Antoniou, the founder of Monsieur Doumani and Trio Tekke, Buzz’ Ayaz creates a transfixing Eastern Mediterranean psychedelia. Their self-titled debut album is a fuzzed-out urban soundscape of dubby electronics, 70s-psych organ, growling bass clarinet, amplified folk instruments, ritual beats and Greek and Anatolian melodicism.

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