During her youth in Zimbabwe, Stella Chiweshe stirred up a tempest of emotions when she learned to play the thumb piano mbira. This sacred instrument was considered a musical no-go for women, and was featured in popular ceremonies that British colonial masters attempted to eradicate from the nation’s native culture. However, Chiweshe fell in love with the instrument and persuaded a relative to teach her to play, practicing in secrecy and performing at forbidden parties. Soon, the artist  gained further acclaim by combining singing and mbira with Western drumkit, funky electric bass and a marimba which blended magically with the thumb piano. Her band Earthquake blew up in Zimbabwe after releasing her album Ambuya?, a comprehensive introduction to the euphoric side of Chiweshe’s extensive repertoire. On her latest offering, Chakandiwana, we hear the work of a mature musician with meditative calmness and melodic sensitivity.

Sudan Archives is a 24-year-old self-taught violinist, singer and producer. The Ohio native  grew up to a soundtrack of gospel in a strict Christian environment. Unhappy with her overly anglo name – Brittney Denise Parks – her mother nicknamed her Sudan. After leaving home, Sudan moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at a music college. As if preordained, it was in her exploration of Sudanese music that Sudan Archives finally found a way to play violin that felt natural to her, a pentatonic sound full of attitude which, in her ears, had very little in common with Western musical ideals. Armed with only a violin, loop station and microphone, Sudan Archives recorded a sensational debut EP informed by a rich array of influences including Sudanese violin music, West African rhythms, electronic music and R&B. In addition to her own songs, she has remixed Kanye West and brings us a clever interpretation of Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta,” entitled “Queen Kunta”.

Through their mega-sexy performance art and music, this Johannesburg duo is fighting to change the lives of black LGBT people in South Africa – and across the world! Fela Gucci and Desire Marea pull any audience into the vibrant dance performance that is their live show. With wigs and lofi video projections, they make a gesamtkunstwerk-ish experience out of their electronic dance music, gqom, a kind of bare bones house music that is created in South Africa’s townships and distributed via authentically DIY methods, like taxi drivers who play the latest productions for customers on their way out for a night on the town. FAKA themselves call their extraordinary creation gqom-gospel “laments for cock.” When not performing their own music, FAKA are resident dj’s at Cunty Power, a club that wants to be a safe and fun party zone for queer, trans and non-binary night owls in Johannesburg. The world outside of Africa became aware of FAKA when Mykki Blanco interviewed them in his South African documentary Out Of This World. At the end of 2017, FAKA released their second ep, Amaqhawe, and it has since been clear that they are determined to make sure plenty of ass – not to mention worldviews – will be shaken to its foundations.

The golden age of Turkish rock music reincarnated – in the Netherlands! Those of us who have developed a slight addiction to the recent wave of compilations with rediscovered Turkish 60s and 70s recordings (Istanbul ’70, Psych Funk A La Turkish, etc) won’t be able to resist the whip-cracky rhythms, trance inducing microtonal synthesizers and electric saz solos of Altın Gün. Two of the group’s six members have their background in Turkey, but were not even born yet during the heyday of stars like Selda, Barış Manço and Erkin Koray. It was these figureheads who created the soundtrack for a new urban Turkish identity with equal parts of Anatolian folk music and western psychedelic rock, funk and disco. With only one seven-inch single to date, Altin Gün have already created an international reputation as a phenomenal live act – and queues wind around the neighborhood when they play in their home country. Their debut album “On” will be released this spring.