***Dagoretti is proud to present this inaugural jungle project from indy stalward Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me, Polyvinyl Records) "When I first heard jungle in the mid-'90s, it was so exciting that it upset me. I was still fresh off of discovering punk, and now here was this new, totally different sound that was just as mystifying. Imagining how jungle was made was extra fascinating, and I even spent some time naively marvelling at how the drummers were able to play that fast and choppy. Most of my musical life would be dedicated to songwriting, but there was always a mental room set aside for electronic music, in particular trying to crack the code of how to make jungle tracks of my own. After releasing a couple of largely beatless ambient records under my own name and a tape of scattered electronic sketches as All Energy Must Continue Upward on the exceptional Good Glass label, I returned to my low decades-long drum & bass obsession as Ecoatm. A huge part of the inspiration for this project came from JPEGMAFIA's stuff produced solely with the SP-404 sampler. I'd initially wanted to make a loop-based album with the 404 from sounds I'd recorded on the four-track, dense and dreamy reverb cathedral sprawl like some of the songs that show up in the quieter moments of the record. After getting started there, however, I quickly started throwing breakbeats into the equation, playing everything by hand on the sampler in live takes....
LP $21.95
02/16/2024
***The Field Drift series began as a series of synth based electronic and techno experiments from lyre psyche musician Dr. Pete Larson (of the Cytotoxic Nyatiti Band, Dagoretti Records, Bulb Records) during a period of loss. These dark, murky techno tracks are minimal compositions using unfamiliar technology. Each track is approached differently, reflecting entry into new spaces from the comforts of old environments. Music is a journey and a trip through sonic lands, calling nowhere and everywhere home, wherever you are is where you need to be, but there's other places to go.
LP $21.95
02/16/2024
***The nyatiti, the eight stringed lyre of the Luo people in Western Kenya, moved to Nairobi and experienced a popular resurgence in the 1970s. Its infectious and driving sounds propelled people onto city dance floors and became the best known of so-called ethnic musics in Kenya. This is a curated compilation of some of the most famous singles that came out during Kenya's vinyl boom in the 70s and 80s. All tracks restored and remastered at Third Man Mastering in Detroit, MI.
LP $21.95
02/16/2024
***We are proud to present this collection of rare recordings from one of Kenya's most famous players from Kenya’s long traditional of fiddle music. Ayany Jowi creates a raw, hypnotic and frenetic set of sounds backed by a percussive and thumping chorus and was a master of Orutu music. Orutu emerged from the shores of Lake Victoria and was the precursor to Kenyan's famous guitar musical style benga that became popular throughout the 70s and 80s and continues to be popular today. "Ayany Jowi" was born in 1944 as Silvanus Ayany in a small village called Nyamango village in what is now known as Homa Bay county, along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. Jowi started playing ohangla music in school using empty jugs and steel tins for drums. He quickly moved on to make an "orutu", the one stringed fiddle of the Luo people of Western Kenya, and his career was born. Because of his wild and uncontrollable nature he was named “Jowi” which means “wild buffalo.” Jowi is likely the best-known fiddle player of the classic era of Kenyan recorded music and remains well known and respected as once of the greats in Kenya’s rich musical history. Jowi put out numerous singles on classic Kenyan labels throughout the 1970s, many of which made it to cassettes and CDs that people still listen to even to this day. We are intensely excited to present this restored and remastered (by Third Man Mastering in Detroit, MI) set of rare...
LP $20.25
11/03/2023
***The nyatiti is the eight stringed lyre of the Luo people of Western Kenya and is the best known traditional music in Kenya. This collection of restored and remastered recordings from the early and mid 20th century mark the first time that nyatiti music has been documented and made widely available to a worldwide audience. Nyatiti music’s infectious and hypnotic sounds are unforgettable. The driving beat of the nyatiti rings of far off styles of Western dance and techno music. Nyatiti players are highly respected performers in both rural and urban Kenya are called to show up at weddings, funerals and drinking halls and sing songs in tribute, in remembrance and for people to drink and dance to. Nyatiti music can still be heard to this day all over Kenya, but these recordings represent the unique sound of the first half of the 20th century, and the last visages of the sounds that existed for millennia previous before the music would change to adapt to a changing world. The record features classic players such as Ogola Opot, who would go on to define the Nyatiti sound for the genre’s popular resurgence in the 1970s and 80s. Opot was considered the grandfather of the sound that most Kenyans would associate with nyatiti music. Captain Oluoch, Opondo Mugoye and Okelo Mugubi were all famous players who were asked at some point to sit down and record for many of the fledgling record labels of the time. These recordings and the subsequent remastering...
LP $20.25
09/01/2023
***"Grandmaster Masese is one of only a handful of living practitioners of the obokano, the unique eight stringed lyre of the Gusii people of Western Kenya (Africa). The obokano is notable not only for its massive size, but also for its unique bass heavy, rhythmic buzz filled sound. Its trance inducing sounds are unforgettable. Masese himself is a seasoned musician, a dedicated human rights advocate, teacher, author and scholar based in Nairobi, Kenya. Masese’s commitment to his music and his enthusiasm to bring its sounds to the rest of the world inspired this collection of his songs. Rather than simply present an ethno-musicological presentation of traditional obokano music, he opted to create as unique a work as possible. I first ran into Masese in a club in Nairobi, where I saw him playing this giant bowl shaped lyre and heard him producing some of the most unique musical sounds I had ever experienced. It didn’t take me long to approach him about a possible collaboration. My label, Dagoretti Records, put out a single in 2019 which brought the attention of numerous alt-music luminaries including Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt, who featured it on a must listen list on the Bandcamp Daily. Grandmaster Masese’s first full length album features an international cast of musical characters, all adding to his singular sound. These include Kunal Prakesh (Jeff the Brotherhood, Weather Warlock) on guitar, Tokyo based percussionist and sound artist Samm Bennett (UA, Haco, Elliot Sharp, etc. etc. etc.), Detroit area percussionist Mike...
LP $20.25
07/29/2022
***Though he's more widely known for the easily digestible indie pop of his bands Idle Ray, Failed Flowers, and Saturday Looks Good To Me, Michigan-based artist Fred Thomas has an equally entrenched footing in experimental sounds and abstract instrumental music. His 2020 album Dream Erosion was a collection of languorous synth atmospheres that washed by in soft fragments, sounding beamed in directly from lost memories of a childhood visit to a planetarium. Those Days Are Dust is the second collection of Thomas' synthesizer pieces, this time taking a turn away from the gentle, sleepy glow of its predecessor for an approach that's spare and absorptive. Where Dream Erosion was made up of fully arranged songs, the process for Those Days Are Dust was different. Usually working with a single synth and a few different analog tape delay units, Thomas recorded experiments with loops and minimal composition daily throughout 2021. This resulted in music with a wintery feel, skeletal and solitary sounds akin to Hans-Joachim Roedelius' reflective sketches or the loneliest passages of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works catalog. Instead of polished, straightforward presentation, non-musical elements came into greater focus with these new loop-born songs. Tape hiss, white noise, disruptive distortion, and sounds happening within the environment were all tied into the production almost like additional instruments. On one song, a mic was placed directly on a heating vent as it wheezed in the room.
LP $20.25
07/29/2022
***Follow up to 2020's acclaimed self titled LP on Dagoretti Records, this one picks up where that one left off. Dr Pete Larson spent several years in Kenya under the tutelage of one of the last elder masters of the nyatiti, the eight stringed lyre of the Luo people in Kenya. But of course Larson had to go and mess it all up and create this African-psyche fuzz guitar synth fusion soundscape with indy rocker Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me), acclaimed percussionist Mike List (Porcelain Hammer), and Dave Sharp (Melvins). Not to be missed.
LP $17.75
07/16/2021
***Oduor Nyagweno is one of the last great elder players of the nyatiti, the eight stringed lyre of the Luo people from along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. This is a collection of recordings done by Michigan based freak musician Dr. Pete Larson on his cell phone during their weekly lessons. Featuring a range of nyatiti songs, from traditional to modern, songs of heartbreak, tribute songs, salacious songs of randy happenings and musings on life, this could be one of the most comprehensive collections of material from one of the greatest practitioners of the traditional musical arts.
LP $17.75
07/09/2021
***Abusuzit Akugru is an elder singer, performer and matriarch from Binaba in the North of Ghana. This special LP showcases her mindblowing talents, recorded in her home village with her band. 12 tracks of the most amazingly soulful gonje music like you have never heard before. Check it out. We promise that you'll be dancing and weeping tears of joy in no time. Gonje is a West African fiddle, accompanied by the siyat shakers and Abusizit's overwhelmingly great vocals. Recorded on a cell phone in Abusizit's village, outside, as it was meant to be. LP is limited to a mere 100 copies.
LP $17.75
06/04/2021
***Dagoretti Records is proud to present the second vinyl offering from Washington, DC’s Heart of the Ghost. HOTG are a mindblowing three-piece improvisational free jazz group featuring Ian McColm on percussion, alto saxophonist Jarrett Gilgore and bassist Luke Stewart. “Live at Rhizome” pairs Heart of the Ghost up with trumpeter Dave Ballou for a special recording. Recorded by Don Godwin and featuring art by Tatev Sargsyan (a Rhizome staple) this is their second vinyl offering from Dagoretti Records. Features liner notes from Ken Vandermark.
LP $17.75
09/11/2020
***opaquer is the first vinyl full length release from Kenyan sounds artist and producer KMRU (Joseph Kamaru). KMRU has been active on digital platforms for the past 4 years and has developed a significant music catalogue. KMRU knits sounds from his own Nairobi into expansive and cerebral ambient compositions that never fail to envelop the listener and leave them wanting more. In addition to his prolific output on his Bandcamp page, KMRU has released music on Byrd Out (UK) and was featured on Deadmau5's label Mau5trap for a track on their We Are Friends compilation. KMRU was selected as one of Resident Advisor's 15 East African artists you need to hear from 2018. KMRU’s sounds combine everything from gritty, indigenous field recordings to piano to 303. Dagoretti Records is proud to present opaquer to the world. African electronic music is among the most progressive music in the world right now and KMRU is at the forefront of this exciting aural movement. Limited edition.
LP $17.75
09/11/2020
***"DAVE SHARP called the Dagoretti Records office one day in September, 2016 asking if he could do a recording session in Nairobi. We naturally told him 'Yes!' not believing he might actually come. Through some twist of fate, Dave came into a handful of money and appeared unannounced in May of 2017. NDIO SASA were available without question. An SMS message was sent out to BOAZ JAGINGO (of KENGE KENGE ORUFU SYSTEM). A positive reply came immediately, time was booked at ADA and we were practicing the next day armed with nothing more than a few riffs and ideas. Dave is a well known professional bass player from Michigan with a heavy, distinctive sound with jazz, Indian, funk and metal influences. Boaz is among the best active musicians in Kenya, playing the orutu, a one stringed, violin like instrument from Western Kenya and singing in a traditional Luo style. KABOGE is an accomplished African percussionist who melds numerous percussion styles from East and West Africa. Alongside him is TOMO TSUKAHARA, percussionist from Japan who has lived in East Africa for nearly a decade. PETE LARSON plays the nyatiti, an eight stringed lyre like instrument from the Lake Victoria region of Kenya and the shamisen from Japan. Rounding out the sound is COLIN CROWLEY, a long time resident of Kenya who plays the American banjo in a Malian clawhammer style typical of the ngoni. This was a truly unique mix of people create a truly unique sound. The sessions for the...
LP $17.75
01/17/2020
***"I first saw HEART OF THE GHOST in Ypsilanti, MI in July of 2018 having heard of them through mutual friend and percussionist Sam Lohman. Immediately, I was floored by their unapologetic, aggressive and bass heavy take on classic free jazz music. Their sound is challenging and cerebral yet contains distinct ebbs and flows of sound that is difficult to ignore. Bassist LUKE STEWART is ubiquitous on the Baltimore/DC improvised music scene both as a solo artist and as a member of TRIO OOO (with my buddy Sam), NEW ARTISTS ORCHESTRA, IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS and others. Luke has already done more in his short time as a performing bassist than most musicians do in entire lifetimes. His thoughtful and challenging approach to stand up bass playing is at once mesmerizing and overwhelming. Multi instrumentalist IAN MCCOLM graduated from the Oberlin Music Conservatory and experiments with a wide variety of sounds both internationally and in and around the DC area and releases music under his IGM moniker. Ian brings a nuanced set of sounds into an otherwise hulking mountain of sonic chaos. Alto saxophone player JARRETT GILGORE, though unassuming in person, takes a blistering approach to the sax, leaving audiences feeling as if they have been hit with a pot of boiling water. In addition to Heart of the Ghost, he plays in Triage with Noah Jarrett and Kevin Ripley, Anthony Pirog's Body Puzzle, Xenga. Baltimore Afrobeat Society, Chris Pumphrey Sextet, Jaimie Branch's Bombshelter.
LP $17.75
11/29/2019