Ranil y Su Conjunto Tropical
Galaxia Tropical
(Analog Africa)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

PERUVIAN singer, bandleader and composer, known simply as Ranil, ran a record label in Iquitos, Peru called Producciones Llerena releasing a dozen albums of infectious Amazonian rhythms known locally as “llullampe” on tracks like Galaxia Tropical, Andalucia and Inka. His record company was chaotic with albums issued with the wrong labels and missing song titles.

Analog Africa’s Samy Ben Redjeb travelled to Iquitos in 2019 to produce this 14-track vinyl set from these albums. On arrival in Belen, a bustling district of Iquitos, he found Ranil running a radio station, Radio Llerena, its loudspeakers booming out Peruvian cumbia music.

Outraged by the injustices in the Amazon, Ranil had run for mayor of Belen for the Popular Action Party but failed to get elected.

Sadly in 2020, before the album’s launch, Ranil died in the pandemic which swept through Peru but his free-spirited music lives on.

Leve Leve: Sao Tome & Principe 
Sounds 70s - 80s Volume 2
(Bongo Joe)
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑

THIS is a second set featuring the danceable grooves of the islands of the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe situated off the coast of central Africa. The islands were a transit point in the slave trade.

Volume 1 introduced us to Puxa music from this tiny nation that celebrated independence in 1975 when revolutionary groups overthrew the Portuguese dictatorship of Marcelo Caetano.

Packed with Puxa dance floor fillers — a mixture of Congolese Soukouss, Angolan Semba and Merengue, and Brazilian rhythms, the album sees the return of Sangazuza, Pedro Lima (the people’s voice of the island) and Africa Negra whose “Apoiamos a luta dos nossos irmaos” (We support our brothers’ struggle), is a revolutionary anthem. They recorded albums and cassettes at the island’s small studio and live outside in the courtyard.

With previously unreleased or hard-to-find tracks, its available on CD, vinyl and digital. Get your dancing shoes ready.

BCUC
The Road Is Never Easy
(Outhere Records)
⭑⭑⭑⭑☆

BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) play music “for the people, by the people, with the people.”

From rehearsing in a shipping container near the church where anti-apartheid activists made good their escape from South Africa, the band have already played Glastonbury, Womad, and in 2023, they received the prestigious Womex Artist Award — usually reserved for established artists.

There fifth set from Outhere Records takes a journey to the soul of Soweto and is rooted in the history and the voices of those who fought apartheid.

But now, more than 30 years after the collapse of apartheid, many hopes and dreams are still unfulfilled. The album is about the reality of life in Soweto.

With 10 songs, in Zulu and some English, songs like Amakhamandela (“Breaking All The Chains”) connect to daily life in the township.

The seven-piece band play British dates in April, May and in the summer. Go see them.