At last… Miss Doctor Remixed
Miss Doctor was one of the biggest hits this year in Ghana. Appietus’ tight production has been booming throughout the entire country since last spring, so six months later it’s a special treat to see the vocals land in the hands of an army of young producers...
Pan African Music Stew mix for This Is Africa
This here is a 2 hour roundup of some of our favorite sounds coming from Africa. With a definite emphasis on sounds to make your hips move, and also definitely not an exhaustive line-up of genres - we are heavily biased towards Ghana, Angola, the Congo Kinshasa and...
12/17 DE: Akwaaba night at Surprise Club in Berlin
Now THIS here is an exciting event... lately, Akwaaba's so-called "Label Boss" (what a dubious expression!!) aka BBRAVE has been rocking more tropical / electro- oriented dancefloors. Now he is invited to make some noise at Surprise, Berlin's most notorious African...
Introducing Arc Djébé
Many,. many, MANY thanks to Ryan Lash for coping with the lack of structure, the heat, the at times dubious food and the heavy sweat-inducing "small walks" across Lomé and Accra!!! And tahnks to Tim aka Videomit for piecing this video together, at last we are excited...
Jozi + Durban and back – Tupolev Sound Crash SA house mix
Brussels rockers Darcyr and Leblanc of Tupolev Sound Crash just hit us up with this pretty impeccable set of South African house, simply called Mzansi - SA slang for... SA! As the Tupolev cats put it, this mix is not of the deep, mellow, or minimal strain that is...
French Global Bass blog interviews Benjamin Lebrave
The good folks over at French blog Global Bass met up with Akwaaba dood Benjamin Lebrave last October in Paris to catch up with Akwaaba and get some juice about the label - in French, something we have not done enough of!! Thankfully Tim also translated the interview...
12/01 DE: BLNRB – Just A Band + more in Berlin!
At long last! Just A Band come to perform in Europe, more specifically Berlin, as part of the NRBLN - BLNRB cultural exchange program initiated by the Goethe Institute. At the infamously awesome Haus der Kulturen der Welt on December 1, do not miss it!! BLNRB | Berlin...
Xylophones, live music and lack thereof in Ghana
A documentary about Ghana's popular music scene and the struggle between indigenous identity and mainstream music culture. The documentary is framed by a search for "the spiderweb"-- or the thin, vibrating fibers that African musicians once attached to their mbiras...
Imported Go(o)ds with bbrave in Delhi!
In this latest episode, we bring some Akwaaba goodness to India, courtesy of the Matchbox Collective. Get all relevant info for the event right here! As the crew puts in on their Facebook page: "Matchbox Collective serves electro, new funk, baile funk, kuduro, j-pop...
bbrave for Dublab: Super Soukous Mix!
For almost 2 years now, we've been building a diverse roster of contemporary artists from all over Africa. From Malian traditional music to kuduro, highlife to salsa, Akwaaba has been covering much ground, yet one important piece has been missing: Congolese soukous....
Crowd Krushers – Krush on Akwaaba Mixtape just in!
Heyyyo! Remember these cats? Yep, same doods we rocked Mancuso with last September in Tübingen! What a warm welcome... these cats are not only fantastic party DJs, who know how to appreciate a good African groove in their sets, they are also ideal hosts to a wonderful...
Combination Remix EP
[:en] Rewiiiiiiind: earlier this year we shared a dozen or so individual studio tracks from the track “Combination”, an interesting combination – pun shamefully intended - of traditional kora playing with an afrobeat jam session flavor. Following Jali’s debut album,...
Novidades de Angola
In no particular order, and to help you enjoy your week end, current favorites from the land of Mwangolé:
Akwaaba on Arte ‘Tracks’
On October 7 2010, Arte's flagship music program Tracks did a piece about Sound Hunters. This is the first half of the piece, focused on Akwaaba Music and label boss Benjamin Lebrave. Thanks to Arte for letting us post!
Annalove vs Akwaaba Mixtape
Last month in Berlin, we connected with AnnaLove at the Wile Out! party. Anna is originally from Austin, Texas, but has been rocking decks in Berlin since last January. She's also a contributor over at tropicalbass.com, and we might just see some Akwaaba action over...
Fraudian Slip! Highlife made in LDN
Better late than sorry! We've been meaning to post this for weeks... big up to our doods AJ & crew for putting together some fly highlife-tinged riffs from the back streets of London!!!! Read all the juicy propaganda from our buddies putting this out: Ghetto...
Ruff-n-Smooth feat. Iwan – Time Changes
Brand spankin' noo! Listen or grab the track from Bandcamp below:
Elegom Bounsa!!
[:en] DJ Djeff feat Maskarado - Elegom Bounsa by Akwaaba Music DJ Djeff offers a break from the raw Angolan kuduro batidas, and shows us a clubbier side to the Luanda sound on Elegom Bounsa, a collaboration with kuduro-house darling MC Maskarado. House and deep house...
Support Just A Band & Africa Unsigned
Have you heard of Africa Unsigned? Since you're here on our site then you'll probably really dig what they are up to: Africa Unsigned has been identifying up and coming artists throughout Africa, and funding recordings with the help of fans all over the world. Among...
GH LOVE
GH LOVE by Akwaaba Music A taste of the sounds we heard in Ghana, the sounds you'd hear if you were there now, and quite a few sounds we're releasing here on Akwaaba. Chale sink in, this is music for everyone!!!! Tracklist: 01 - NANA BOROO - EHA YE DE (UNRELEASED,...
09/14 WW: Ruff n Smooth!!
From Accra, Ghana, come one of the most influential duos of the year... Mr Ruff, and Mr Smooth! If you haven't heard their hit Swagger, now is a good time to grab it - for free: These doods are relative newcomers on Ghana's airwaves, but they're well surrounded... the...
09/10 DE: Ooops almost forgot, Wile Out! bbrave tonight in Berlin!
Just in the nick of time...! Anna Love, DJ Maxximus, Get Wavey Crew, DJ Zhao, Daladala and yours truly bbrave! Club ZMF is here.
09/09 WW: Arc Djebe ‘Dagbeneva” (Togo)
When was the last time you listened to music from Togo?!?! Even the biggest world music nerds seem to not be so well versed in this tiny West African nation's rich musical heritage. We've heard it all: that it has poor cultural heritage, that all of the talent is...
Huuuuuuge: Edoheart
This crazy track is only the tip of the iceberg... please run to Edoheart's myspace page and soak in the pungent creativity! Poetry, music, choreography... the Benin empire of modern-day Nigeria is very much alive. You can grab this song Sosomoneycockplease from...
09/26 ES: bbrave with Folcore crew, Diamond Bass, hat+hoodie + more
And another one! We connect this time with Barcelona / worldwide crew Folcore, who've been running the Club du Monde nights. On September 26, Akwaaba's own bbrave join the festivities, alongside Lisbon's Diamond Bass, who sounds a little like this: Also on the bill,...
09/11 DE: Akwaaba / bbrave in Tübingen
We are pretty stoked to make this one happen... we've been in touch with the Crowdkrusher guys in Tübingen, Germany for a few months only, and out of this new connection comes a link to the city's lively tropical scene, starting with a great party to be held at club...
It’s official! Akwaaba – BBRAVE Sept-Oct European tour!
It's that time of year... we're headed back to ye olde world to rock a bunch of tropical partaaaaays. Starting in Berlin during Berlin Music Week, which we will also attend - more on that in a bit. We are reconnecting with some key players in Germany and Berlin's...