Sahara Swing cover

Sahara Swing

Released

It’d be impossible to talk about funk revivalism without bringing up Jan and Max Weissenfeldt (a.k.a the Whitefield Brothers), the Munich-based groove scholars who woodshedded their way into tons of indie-hip-hoppers’ crates with their group Poets of Rhythm. It’d be even more impossible to even mention all their aliases and side projects in a reasonable amount of space, so why not focus on Karl Hector and the Malcouns, the pseudonymous Jan-led Afro-and-elsewhere-beat group that shines by evoking rather than imitating. Sahara Swing lets its pan-African influences — Nigerian grooves, Ethiopian melodies, and the all-important American on-the-one — sound more like a fair trade fusion than a colonizer snatch-and-grab.

Nate Patrin

Recommended by

Suggestions
Dark Sunrise cover

Dark Sunrise

Rikki Ililonga, Musi-O-Tunya
Shaft cover

Shaft

Isaac Hayes
Homenaje cover

Homenaje

Brownout
In the Raw cover

In the Raw

The Whitefield Brothers
Antibalas cover

Antibalas

Antibalas
Hustlers Convention cover

Hustlers Convention

Lightnin' Rod, The Last Poets
Juju Music cover

Juju Music

King Sunny Adé