Collection: New Releases

Dutch label Afrosynth's latest dig into the South African scene of the 1980s and '90s focuses on the career of Kamazu, a prolific artist who released six albums and a handful of killer singles between 1986 and '97. It's a great collection, combining his better-known hits - the mid-80s boogie goodness of "Korobela" and superb 1991 Kwaito smash "Indaba Kabani" - with a quartet of lesser-known cuts from his bulging catalogue. Our picks include the slo-mo Kwaito dreaminess of "Atikatareni" and the cheery, synth bass-propelled brilliance of "Victim", though the standard throughout is dizzyingly high. A must-have for all those who love the distinctive warm, dreamy and synth-heavy sound of South African dance music from the late '80s and early '90s.

Record store buddies DJ Mad A (Adam Embleton) and Dr. Stevie The Ambient Guru (Stevie Hewitt) first lay down the four tracks that make up this reissued EP in 1990. At the time, Ibiza was kicking off, acid house was still alive and well and bleep techno was on the rise. Somehow all of that feeds into the music yet the results are unlike anything else. "Northern Echo" is wonderfully weird and freaky synth house, "Communication" is all jittery drum patterns and sci-fi sound effects from another dimension and "System Shock" is some weird bastardised electro track. "Levitating Pharaoahs" closes with some lush dream house to get you thinking.

Those who've followed Alex Attias' career over the last two decades will tell you that he's always been capable of crafting the kind of jazzy, soulful, life-affirming fare more readily associated with UK broken beat producers. He's at it again on "I Wanna Know", a deliciously warm and sultry slab of dancefloor soul rich in samba-fired house beats, fluid piano lines (provided, we think, by Kid K), drowsy chords and a killer lead vocal from Georgia Anne Muldrow. Over on side B, Attias strips out most of Muldrow's vocal on a Dub Mix that rightly layers up the beats, emphasizes the track's jazzy horns and virtually bathes in the liquidity of its jazz-funk synths.