What can I say apart from utter fantastic. This was THE best stuff send to our inbox in August and the reason that keeps us sifting through hundreds of irrelevant music every month. Read about Akwaaba Music’s trip to Angola. If you’re going to buy one album this month make it this one.

Histórias da Casa Velha is a collection of songs released in Angola, mainly during the years leading to independence in 1975. In the 1960s and 1970s, Carlos Lamartine was one of the leading voices in the struggle against the Portuguese, and this collection highlights the difficulties and victories of the movement he was a part of, the MPLA party, which came to power with Agostinho Neto, and is still ruling Angola today. Lamartine plays semba, a typically Angolan genre rooted in traditional carnival rhythms, such as kilapanga, rebita, kazukuta and kabetula. In semba, much of the rhythm is not carried by drums, but instead by guitars, allowing the music to develop more complex chords, some of them borrowed from the Portuguese’s rich melodic heritage.

Semba and Brazilian samba share common roots, however neither derives from the other: both appeared as they are today during the 20th century, at a time when there was extremely limited exchange between Brazil and Angola. However both words come from the Kimbundu language, and both are rooted in the rhythms of present day Angola and Congo. On Histórias da casa Velha, Lamartine is backed by some of semba’s finest bands, among which Os Merengues, led by Carlitos Vieira Días, son of Carlos Vieira Días, founder of legendary Angolan band Ngola Ritmos.

Vieira Días and Lamartine are alive today and still perform and release music. We hope to contribute to their music and allow it to travel outside of Africa.