review

PRE-ORDER ITEM : Expected January 1st 1970. This item will only be shipped to you on or after the official release date. Please note any orders containing pre-order items won't be shipped until all items are available, so please order this separately to avoid delays. Please remember that release dates are at the mercy of labels, distributors, and pressing plants and will change constantly.

FORTHCOMING ITEM : Expected January 1st 1970. Please click the 'EMAIL ME WHEN AVAILABLE' button to be notified when the item is in stock. Please remember that release dates are at the mercy of labels, distributors, and pressing plants and will change constantly.

Many of the problems Africa faces are a result of outside interference by other countries, and as the 21st century progresses we will see the continued rape of African resources to feed the global capitalist machine on an unprecedented scale. Corrupt and greedy regimes gladly sell their land and mineral wealth to finance their own extravagant lifestyles while the vast majority of ordinary people see little or no improvement in their own lives. An autonomous Africa run by the people for the people, where African land is predominantly used to feed African people and Africa's vast wealth of resources is used to benefit the people of Africa seems the only logical way forward. Autonomous Africa's sole goal is to highlight this message and here presents to you 4 tracks of African inspired grooves with all proceeds being donated to Medecins Sans Frontiers operations in Africa.

First up is Tabou For The People by Sofrito Specials Featuring L Barrabas which Twitch edited for his dj sets a couple of years back. The lovely people at Sofrito kindly gave permission for it to be included on this release. It's a relentlessly driving slab of 4/4 Afro Funk with horn explosions.

Next up is the 10th and final track in Twitch's Cumbia series. The first 8 were released on Japan's Let's Get Lost label and the missing number 9 is being saved for a future release. Colombia's Cumbia was born out of African influences. This track is based around a sample from Colombian Cumbia legend Andres Landero and is an attempt to fuse traditional Cumbia sounds with up to date production styles. The end result is a slow motion hypnotic Cumbia retaining the haunting melancholia inherent in the original sample.

Leading the AA side, Twitch passed a wild Highlife song by Ghana's Atakoru Manu to Glasgow's super talented Auntie Flo (whose highly recommended Future Rhythm Machine album recently saw a release) to play around with. Auntie Flo cut it up and added additional drums and bass to come up with this euphoric modern Highlife groover.

Lastly we have Twitch's Birds and Bees and Flowers and Trees (Bonus Beats). While working on a track that will see release later in 2012, Twitch was EQ ing the drums and noticed that with most of the other elements muted there was a great bonus beats ideal for mixing in and out of tracks in his dj sets. "Bonus beats" used to be a common feature on 12" singles but seem to have almost vanished these days, so we are very happy to mark their return here. The completed track will also see release later in 2012 but in the meantime, here's 6 minutes of hypo beats for your delectation. The vocal sample is courtesy of one of the greatest (and sadly forgotten) voices Jamaica ever produced; radical dub poet Michael Smith.