Sahrawi singer-songwriter Aziza Brahim’s new album Mawja (Wave) is fashioned from a simple but powerful foundation: Saharan and Iberian percussion mixed with stately guitars and warm, enveloping bass. Co-produced by Brahim, the album is confidently eclectic. It navigates the textures of her life: the Sahara, Cuba and Spain. It even includes a drum part inspired by the Clash. Her voice is a wellspring of deep and resonant emotions.The yearning for homeland. The struggle for freedom.

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Saramaccan Sound (Suriname) are a brother duo – Dwight Sampie and Robert Jabini – who write and perform flowing acoustic songs sung in Saramaccan, the language from the Americas with the most African elements. Their debut album was recorded in situ by Grammy winner Ian Brennan along a remote riverside in the Amazon region of Suriname. The lyrics are topical and reference everyday strife such as the rising tides and floods in the area due to global warming.

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YĪN YĪN, the highly touted Dutch quartet from Maastricht, returns with a sonically expansive third album Mount Matsu. Recorded collectively in their own studio in the Belgian countryside, the album is a kaleidoscope of sounds and influences, occupying a no man’s land between Khruangbin and Kraftwerk, surf music and Southeast Asian psychedelia, Stax soul and mutant 80s disco, City pop and Japanese instrumental folk (sōkyoku).

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Lucidvox’s new album is vast-sounding. A collection of swirling ritual missives offered up in the hope of better times. Formerly based in Russia, for their new album That’s What Remained, the all-female quartet has added additional sonic thrust (horns, keyboards, strings, atmospheric textures) to their already acclaimed and impassioned psych-rock.

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The 2nd album from Belgrade Ethno-Noise outfit Lenhart Tapes, boldly extends producer Vladimir Lenhart’s acclaimed re-tooling of submerged Balkan musics. Hypnotic Walkman jams meet industrial rhythm loops and trad-folk songs interpreted by a lineup of thrilling female vocalists. A magical, beauty-and-the-beast encounter of dirty noise and righteous folk.

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São Paulo’s Afro-Brazilian groove visionaries Bixiga 70 return with an ecstatic 5th album – Vapor – their first in four years. The sound is joyful, a series of potent horn driven melodies and infectious polyrhythms. More than a return, Vapor is a rebirth. An exuberant, full-tilt party.

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Haunting in situ recordings from Parchman Farm maximum security prison in Mississippi. Producer Ian Brennan recorded the prison’s Sunday gospel service and the results are unforgettable. Performances range from solo acapella to a floor-shaking band. The repertoire includes both traditional and newly penned spirituals. The emotions are unfiltered and deeply resonant.

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Mesmerizing field recordings from Botswana. Producer/recordist/Grammy winner Ian Brennan ventured to an end-of-the-road location to document songs sung in Taa, a rich language on the verge of extinction.

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A genre-defying Afrofuturist manifesto from Uganda. Producer, dancer and choreographer Faizal Mostrixx’s singular vision of East African electronic music is a lush sonic tapestry of polyrhythms, modern dancefloor styles, amapiano, Nile basin ceremonial chants and Pan-African field recordings.

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Scottish smallpipes player Brìghde Chaimbeul’s second album “Carry Them With Us” is an exhilarating weave of rich textural drones, trance atmospheres and instrumental folk traditions. Acclaimed Canadian sound explorer and saxophonist Colin Stetson is a featured collaborator on the record.

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Their 5th album in as many years Aşk (deeper feeling of love), marks an exuberant return to the 70s Anatolian folk-rock sound that characterised Altın Gün’s first two albums. It is a record that radiates the infectious energy found in the Amsterdam-based sextet’s celebrated live performances.

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“Work Hard” solidifies King Ayisoba’s reputation as both a shamanic performer and a restless sonic experimenter. A wild mashup of Ayisoba’s frenetic kologo sound and musical deep dives from an exciting roster of Ghanaian producers and contributors.

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Acclaimed producer Raul Refree returns with his second solo album for tak:til/glitterbeat. A kaleidoscopic but seamless mashup of soundtrack music, post classical meditations, Iberian traditional elements and experimental strategies. Deeply immersive.

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Acclaimed Istanbul-based artist Gaye Su Akyol is due to release her fourth album, ‘Anadolu Ejderi’ (“Anatolian Dragon”), on 25 November. Building upon her combo of Turkish psychedelia, empowered commentary and retro-futurist sonics, her vision is more personal and uncompromising than ever before.

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Etceteral are a Slovenian experimental trio (saxophone & electronics, drums, visuals) who create a propulsive, polyrhythmic futurist jazz. It is a sound marked by abstract modular explorations, hypnotic drumming, ricocheted horn textures and crystalline production.

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The kaleidoscopic third album from Seán Mulrooney and his Ireland meets Berlin ensemble. Ecstatic folk-psych that full embraces the natural world and living ancestry, through joyful experimentation and deeply rooted sonics. An inspired soundscape that echoes eclectic and eccentric atmospheres: traditional Irish folk, outsider pop, global sacred music and drone rock.

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The award-winning Israeli-Persian singer returns with “Roya” (fantasy in Farsi) an exhilarating blend of tradi-modern rhythms and retro-Persian sonics. Recorded in secrecy in Istanbul with her band from Tel Aviv and risk-defying Iranian musicians from Tehran. A musical portal to a place of peace, joy and unfettered freedom.

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Middle Eastern psych-rock collective Al-Qasar’s debut album is an explosive mix of heavy Arabian grooves, global psychedelia and North African trance music. Guests include Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) & Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys). The band calls it “Arabian fuzz.” Brazenly electric and deeply connected.

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A thrilling collaboration between the acclaimed Belgian composer/instrumentalist Catherine Graindorge and the ever-iconic Iggy Pop. Haunting string and electronic textures melding with Iggy’s baritone, cautionary tales. A deep dive into the heart of these unsettled times.

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Yanna Momina’s Afar Ways was recorded live in a stilt-hut on the horn of Africa when Grammy-winning producer & author, Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project, Ustad Saami) visited Djibouti in the spring of 2018. The album is beautifully focused around Momina’s resonant vocals and the sparest of musical backings (acoustic guitar, handclaps, calabash).

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A Burkinabe urban griot (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kaito Winse) meets a Brussels noise punk duo. A new alloy that deconstructs both traditional and futurist knowledge. This thrilling ensemble is releasing their self-titled debut album hot on the heels of their acclaimed 4-song EP Dabalomuni (January 2022), that The Wire called “freaked, juddering electronic punk.”

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Dirtmusic’s journey has been one of twists and turns. In 2018, the group was enlarged to include Murat Ertel from Baba Zula and the resultant album “Bu Bir Ruya” was recognized as a breakthrough. The group’s new 2-song single Hum Hum (+ Western Lands) retains the lineup of Ertel/Eckman/Race and pushes the moody atmospherics and political critique to the next level.

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Faizal Mostrixx is an afrofuturist Ugandan griot. An avant-garde music producer, who creates powerful and poetic narratives through multi-sensory disciplines (beats, video, dancing and choreography). Advancing bold tales of contemporary Africa through a counterculture prism, Mostrixx is one of electronica’s hottest up and coming ambassadors for a continent on the move.

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Beautifully recorded in situ in the Rif mountains in the autumn of 2019, this 110-minute double CD presents these legendary musicians expansively and unhindered. The Master Musicians are a collective of Jbala Sufi trance makers, committed to creating a contemporary representation of their centuries-old musical tradition.

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The Slovenian “imaginary folk” trio’s most epic and transportive album yet. Powered by acoustic and often handmade instruments, these expansive compositions echo the borderless, collective spirit of groups like Don Cherry’s Organic Music Society and Art Ensemble of Chicago.

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Rough-hewn and exhilarating, EL Khat’s second album “Albat Alawi Op.99” is a deep dive into leader Eyal el Wahab’s Yemenite roots and their inspired re-imaginings. A careening orchestra of percussion, horns, strings, electricity and el Wahab’s own DIY instruments. Mesmerizing retro-futurist sounds.

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YĪN YĪN’s dazzling second album dives even deeper into dancefloor propulsion and space travel atmospherics than their lauded debut The Rabbit that Hunts Tigers (2019). Funk and disco beats. Electro experimentation. Global retro vibes. A shimmering, cinematic sweep.

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The luminous 3rd album from the acclaimed Korean multi-instrumentalist and composer. A gorgeous meditation on the intersection of music and light.

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Following the rave reception of their debut album “We Are,” the acclaimed Russian four-piece Lucidvox have returned 14 months later with a thunderous and lushly produced two-song digital single.

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Avalanche Kaito: a Burkinabe urban griot (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kaito Winse) meets a Brussels noise punk duo (Drummer/dataist Benjamin Chaval and guitarist Nico Gitto). It’s a completely new alloy and a huge opportunity to deconstruct both traditional and futurist knowledge.

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With B FLAT A this much acclaimed quartet from Gdańsk have produced their most epic and visceral statement to date. A universe where echoes of Can, Syd Barrett and Fugazi lovingly collide.

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Hunkered down and unable to record together, in 2020 the MEKONS created this glorious digital chain letter of an album. A sprawling manifesto of connection and defiance it deftly slides through fiddle tunes, digi-dub, fireside ballads and urgent rock & roll. First time ever on LP.

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