Awesome Tapes From Africa Blogger Starts Record Label

For those of you who who haven't heard of Brian Shimkovitz'sblog, Awesome Tapes from Africa, it's definitely worth a visit. Armed with an extensive cassette collection garnered from several trips to the continent in the early 2000s, plus a flow of contributions from friends and followers of the blog, New York based Shimkovitz dedicates his virtual life to uploading music that 'you won't easily find anywhere else - except, perhaps in its region of origin'. Alongside the audio you can get a glimpse of the cassette covers, and usually a brief comment of informative opinion about the music from Shimkovitz himself.   

What started off as as a hobby in 2006 has now entrenched itself as an all-consuming project, and five years on from the establishment of the Awesome Tapes blog, Shimkovitz is making is first release through his own record label. As noted in a Guardian article for which Shimkovitz interviewed, this month he will be putting out on vinyl, CD and digital download a record by Malian singer Nâ Hawa Doumbia called 'La Grande Cantatrice Malienne Vol 3', made in Abidjan in Ivory Coast in 1982.