A compilation, which celebrates the sounds that are defining the sonic and cultural landscape of contemporary African youth cultures across the continent, has been released.
Accordingly, 'Taxi Sampler 01 - Rhythms & Vibes from the Spirit of Young Africa' covers a range of sounds and genres, including: afrobeats, afro hip hop, afrobass, gqom, Ethiopian electronic music and kuduro.
The project has been released in support of a documentary by Italian visual collective Crudo Volta, titled 'Taxi Waves', which explores modern youth and music cultures across three different African cities: Addis Ababa, Lagos and Maputo. It follows two other documentaries by the collective - 'Woza Taxi', which focusses on gqom in Durban, and 'Yenkyi Taxi', which explores afrobass in Accra.
The compilation was released by Python Syndicate, a new label launched by Crudo Volta's founder, Mike Calandra Achode, and Gqom Oh! label owner Nan Kolè (both pictured).
It contains unreleased and featured tracks from artists who have contributed to all three of the Taxi documentaries, including Warp/Arcola signee Ethiopian Records, TLC Fam and Citizen Boy, the latter two a part of the Gqom Oh! roster.
The compilation is available digitally and as a 2LP box, which contains a 26-page booklet that explains the socio-cultural context of the music on the project. Head to Bandcamp to purchase the album in both formats.
James Ball is Mixmag's Weekend Editor. Follow him on Twitter
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