CDs, Cassettes and Videos
Hip hop
Mabulu
Karimbo
Mabulu is an inter-generational Mozabican group that incorporates South African and Zimbabwean pop in with the traditional marabenta music. Karimbo is the debut album from this talented and diverse group.
Riverboat 2000 (cd)
Listen to samples from Karmibo and buy it from Amazon
Listen to samples from Karimbo and buy it from Calabash Music
Mabulu
Soul Marrabenta
Follow up album to the hugely successful Karimbo
Riverboat 2001 (cd)
Listen to samples from Soul Marrabenta and buy it from Amazon
Listen to samples from Soul Marrabenta and buy it from Calabash Music
Maureen Lupo Lilanda
Tetwe
With touches of Anglique Kidjo and Miriam Makeba, mixed with her own flavours of Jazz and Afrofunk she creates an exciting blend.
(cd)
Listen to samples from tracks from Maureen Lupo Lilanda's Tetwe and buy it from Calabash Music
Mzekezeke
Ama B.E.E.
Mzekezeke won both Artist of the Year and Song of the Year at the South African Music Awards (SAMA) in 2003. The masked man of Kwaito, Mzekezeke delivers messages of hope and humility, as well as questioning authority. Click here to listen to samples from Mzekezeke.
TS Records 2005 (cd)
Mzekezeke
Sguqa Ngamadolo
Mzekezeke won both Artist of the Year and Song of the Year at the South African Music Awards (SAMA) in 2003. The masked man of Kwaito, Mzekezeke delivers messages of hope and humility, as well as questioning authority.
Listen to samples from tracks from Sguqa Ngamandolo by Mzekezeke and buy it from Calabash Music
SWAY
One For The Journey EP
UK hip-hop artist Sway Dasafo, winner of 2005 MOBO for best hip-hop act.
Buy One For the Journey from Amazon
Various Artists
Kwaito: South African Hip Hop
'The pulsing dance beat of Kwaito evolved from such styles as mbaqanga and dancehall, as well as house and disco. Boom Shaka contributes a soulful, modern version of 'Nkosi Sikelela', the national anthem, while Arthur performs the controversial 'Kaffir', a song that would not have been allowed under the apartheid regime. Kwaito lyrics are often chanted rather than sung, and some tracks, such as Jimmy B's 'Make Em Bounce', are rooted in the more familiar vocal styles of South Africa.' Paul-Emile Comeau
Tracks. 1. Qula (Bring [The Boys] - Brenda Fassie; 2. Yiyo Lendawo (This Is the Place) - Arthur; 3. Amadlozi (Ancestors) - Bongo Maffin; 4. Vuk'uzenzele (Wake Up and Do It for Yourself) - Aba Shante; 5. Jiva (Jive) - Brenda Fassie; 6. Makhamisa (Mouth Open with Surprise) - M'Du, M'Du; 7. Yu Make Me Go Mmm - Arthur; 8. Come Get Me - Aba Shante; 9. Nkosi Sikelela - Boom Shaka; 10. Make Em Bounce - Jimmy B.; 11. Siya Jola (Ok'salayo) - M'Du, M'Du; 12. Vuli Ndlela (Accept the Situation) [Remix] - Brenda Fassie; 13. Wara Wara (Yak Yak, Gossip) - Spokes "H"; 14. Kaffir - Arthur/
Earthworks 2000 ASIN B00004WF17 (cd)
Listen to samples from tracks from Kwaito: South African Hip Hop and buy it from Amazon
Various Artists 
Kwaito: South African Urban Beats
Tracks. 1. Mandoza - Godoba; 2. TKZ - Phalaphala; 3. Arthur - Kaffir; 4. Skeem - Waar Was Jy; 5. Trompies - Magasman; 6. Boom Shaka - Thobela; 7. Mandoza & Mdu - 50/50; 8. Zola - Ghetto Fabulous; 9. Jamela - Nyaka Nyaka; 10. Kabelo - Plantsula 4 Life; 11. Chiskop - Klaimar; 12. Mandoza - Nkalakatha; 13. Mapaputsi - Izinja; 14. Thembi - Sekhukona Bani.
EMI 2004 ASIN B0000C6J5O (cd)
Poetry
Attila the Stockbroker
Live in Belfast
Poet, songwriter and musican who gate-crashed the culture in the early 1980s with the wave of punk-poets collectively known as 'the ranters'. Often accompanied by thrash mandola his work is streaked through with rhetorical realism and riotous humour, all riding on strong rock-rhythms.
57Productions £9.99 (cd)
Valerie Bloom
Yuh Hear Bout?
Val Bloom is a popular poet, performer and widely respected educationalist. This recording brings together Val's new and known works for both youth and adult audiences in a format that lends itself to the poems vibrancy and immediacy - including many of her most loved comic monologues, tragic narratives and haunting lyrics - all demonstrating a palpable delight in Jamaican patois.
57Production £7.99 ISBN 1-899021-03-5 (cassette)
Jean 'Binta' Breeze
Riding on de Riddym
Jean 'Binta' Breeze is an artist of international standing. Born in Jamaica, dividing her time between the UK and the Caribbean, she works for the stage and the page as a writer and performer. Revealing a generous and uncompromising vision - her work explores a wide range of personal, social and political issues and demonstrates a sublimely tuned lyrical sensibility. Coming through on the rhythms and reverberations of reggae Breeze is first known as a 'dub-poet' although her work extends all easy definition - taking in jazz and blues and the magic of theatre. Riding on de Riddym brings together many of her most well-known works from her books by Virago, Bloodaxe and Race Today, including the poems - 'Red Rebel Song', 'Testament' and 'Ryddim Ravings'.
57Productions £9.99 ISBN 1-899021-09-4 (cd)
57Productions £7.99 ISBN 1-899021-01-9 (cassette)
Jean 'Binta' Breeze
Tracks
This recording remains Jean's finest poetry and music album - with her poetry set to sublime dub and jazz scores by Dennis Bovell and Dub Band and co-produced by Linton Kwesi Johnson. The cd features such classic pieces as 'Dreamer', 'Ordinary Mawning' and 'Arising'.
57Productions £12.99 (cd)
John Cooper Clarke
Disguise in Love
Originally released in circa 1978 - surreal and satirical by turns - targeting class and racial bigotry, advertising and the gamut of generational delusions with The Invisible Girls augmented by the likes of Pete Shelley, Paul Burgess and Bill Nelson - including 'I Don't Want To Be Nice', 'Teenage Werewolf', and 'Health Fanatic'.
57Productions £11.99 (cd)
John Cooper Clarke
Snap, Crackle (&) Bop
Widely regarded as his most successfully realised album with the Invisible Girls (1980) - flirting with the top 20 for nearly two months - giving-off intense musical heat and blistering wit - including 'Beasley Street', 'The It Man', and 'Evidently Chickentown'.
57Productions £11.99 (cd)
Zena Edwards
Healing Pool
Performance poetry by Zena Edwards with acapella and special musical collaborations.
57Productions £9.99 (cd)
John Hegley
Family Favourites
Brings together John Hegley's poems and songs concerning his familial relations - both real and imagined - as well as touching upon the eternal themes of glasses and dogs. John Hegley is a poet and comedian, musician and singer, cartoonist and dancer. A perennial favourite in performance - he has been variously described as 'Comedy's poet laureate' (The Independent), 'a joy, technically deft and delightfully silly' (The Telegraph), and as 'one of the funniest men alive … in the tradition of Edward Lear, Stevie Smith, Ivor Cutler and Roger McGough'. (Adrian Mitchell, New Statesman)
57Productions £9.99 ISBN 1-899021-14-0 (cd)
Linton Kwesi Johnson
LKJ acapella LIVE
Recorded live at Ronnie Scotts and other venues in the 1990s. Sampling works from over three decades - it carries such poems as 'If I Woz A Tap Natch Poet' and 'Di Anfinish Revahlueshan', 'Bass Culture' and 'Five Nights of Bleeding'.
57Productions £12.99 (cd)
Linton Kwesi Johnson
More Time
The most recent of Linton's albums with the reggae-bassist and composer Dennis Bovell and Dub Band - finding them on the finest of form - from the tender and searching lyricism of 'Hurricane Blues' and 'Reggae Fi Bernard', to the incisive social and political commentary of 'Liesense Fi Kill' and 'New Word Hawdah'.
57Productions £12.99 (cd)
Adrian Mitchell
The Dogfather
Adrian Mitchell's work demonstrates an allegiance to a vital popular tradition - embracing passionate lyricism, humour and dissent. This double CD collection represents his selected spoken works from a time-span of over 30 years - featuring poems drawn from all of his books - including Greatest Hits, Blue Coffee, Heart on the Left and All Shook Up (Bloodaxe).
57Productions £12.99 ISBN 1-899021-10-8 (double cd)
Lemn Sissay
Different Drums
Fusing the lyrical and the polemical, up-beat humour and deadly seriousness - Lemn's performances are notorious for their dynamism. His work has taken in collaborations with a range of jazz-fusion outfits including Secret Society, Working Week, Byron Wallen, The David Murray Big Band, Dis Jam and Leftfield.
57Productions £9.99 ISBN 1-899021-07-8 (cd)
Various Artists
Hearsay: Performance Poems Plus
Features the voices and works of 20 of the most popular poets working in the UK today including John Hegley, John Agard, Grace Nichols, Mike Rosen and Ian McMillan is available with or without the complementary book, which includes all the poets and poems from the cassette and more. Ostensibly put together for younger teenagers Hearsay has the broadest possible appeal.
57Productions £7.99 ISBN 1-899021-00-0 (cassette)
57Productions £2.99 ISBN 0-09-930362-0 (book)
Various Artists
Poems on the Underground
Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik and Cicely Herbert (eds)
Listen to poems featured in the POems on the Underground project since it launched in 1986 with contemorary poems read by the poets themselves.
Orion 2006 £5.99 ISBN 0752874217 (cd)
Various Artists
Poetry Against War
On 14 February 2003 - on the eve of the biggest anti-war demonstration the UK has ever seen - in protest at the imminent invasion of Iraq by British and American troops - a group of poets came together in London to stage an event as part of, and in response to, rising public opposition. It was a remarkable event, taking place at the Bloomsbury Theatre featuring Tony Harrison, Adrian Mitchell, Sarah Maguire, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mahmood Jamal, Michael Rosen and Benjamin Zephaniah amongst others. The film features the poets performing extraordinary works in an extraordinary context, from Tony Harrison's 'Initial Illumination' - a poem whose form was forged in the heat of personal and public anger regarding the first Gulf War - to Benjamin Zephaniah's 'Rong Radio Station' - becoming a virtual anthem of the anti-war movement; from Adrian Mitchell's new twist on the (sadly) seminal 'To Whom It May Concern', through Linton Kwesi Johnson's exposition of 'the language of dehumanisation and the dehumanisation of language' in 'New Word Hawdah' - to Michael Rosen's inspired satirical take on teaching recent history to students of the future.
57Productions (in partnership with Team Video) £15.99 Duration: 41 minutes (video)
Various Artists
Poetry in Performance Volume 1
17 poets, 43 poems, 72 mins
Sampling the voices and works of contemporary poets in performance, this new production is an aural odyssey through some of the most powerful and delectable lyrical works in currency - with both live and studio produced recordings, a cappella and special guest musical collaborations. Featuring: John Hegley, Adrian Mitchell, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jean 'Binta' Breeze, Kwame Dawes, Liz Lochhead, Tom Leonard, Peter Finch, Owen Sheers, Brendan Cleary, Pascale Petit, Mimi Khalvati, Debjani Chatterjee, Sarah Maguire, Dana Bryant, Lemn Sissay, Patience Agbabi and Zena Edwards.
57Productions £9.99 ISBN 1-899021-08-6 (cd)
Various Artists
Poetry in Performance Volume 2
Jukebox Edition - 20 poets, 50 poems, 72 minutes
Roger McGough, Rita Ann Higgins, Brian Patten, John Cooper Clarke, Jackie Kay, Kamau Brathwaite, Moniza Alvi, Maura Dooley, Imtiaz Dharker, Neil Rollinson, Choman Hardi, Ian McMillan, Michael Donaghy, Dorothea Smartt, Matthew Sweeney, Francesca Beard, Salena 'Saliva' Godden, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jayne Cortez and Michael Rosen.
'Audio has to be the perfect medium for poetry. Benjamin Zephaniah concludes this second volume not with a bang but a whirlwind. Back his exuberant rant with drum and bass and you could be listening to chart-topping rap. What makes this anthology so special is its variety: 20 contemporary poets from half a dozen countries reading 50 poems whose content ranges from intimate domestic recollection ... to savage political satire. For people who insist they don't understand or have little time for poetry this is the ideal introduction.' Sue Arnold, The Guardian
57Productions £9.99 ISBN 1-899021-12-4 (cd)
Various Artists
The Poetry Quartets
Produced in partnership with Bloodaxe Books, this is a new series of recordings of contemporary poetry. Each two-hour double cassette is a poetry quartet of four poets reading and talking about their work, each with a half-hour selection.
The Poetry Quartets: 1
Poets reading and talking about their work: Simon Armitage, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay, Glyn Maxwell
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 468 2 (Cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 2
Poets reading and talking about their work: Fleur Adcock, Carol Ann Duffy, Selima Hill, Carol Rumens
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 469 0 (cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 3
Poets reading and talking about their work: James Fenton, Tony Harrison, Peter Reading, Ken Smith
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 470 4 (cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 4
Poets reading and talking about their work: Paul Durcan, Brendan Kennelly, Michael Longley, Medbh McGuckian
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 498 4 (cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 5
Poets reading and talking about their work: Helen Dunmore, U. A. Fanthorpe, Elizabeth Jennings, Jo Shapcott
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 499 2 (cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 6
Poets reading and talking about their work: Moniza Alvi, Michael Donaghy, Anne Stevenson, George Szirtes
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 519 0 (cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 7
Poets reading and talking about their work: John Burnside, W. N. Herbert, Liz Lochhead, Don Paterson
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 520 4 (cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 8
Poets reading and talking about their work: Andrew Motion, Charles Causley, David Constantine, Lavinia Greenlaw
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 550 6 (cassette)
The Poetry Quartets: 9
Poets reading and talking about their work: Benjamin Zephaniah, Anne Rouse, Ian Duhig, Matthew Sweeney
Bloodaxe in association with the British Council £11.75 ISBN 1 85224 551 4 (cassette)
Benjamin Zephaniah
Reggae Head
This release represents the broadest and deepest sampling of Zephaniah's spoken-works to date - including such contemporary classics as Money Rant, Me Green Poem and Us An Dem - yet with a strong emphasis on the new - with poems from the most recent books, poems heard only on radio and poems committed to the air for the very first time - including I Have A Scheme, The Death of Joy Gardner and the title poem - Reggae Head. The poems speak for themselves. The performance is consummate. The politics is personal and offered up with wit and warmth. The roots rhythms run long and deep.
57Productions £9.99 ISBN 1-899021-05-1 (cd)
57Productions £7.99 ISBN 1-899021-04-3 (cassette)
