Slow Burn 12 tracks. Play it in order.

Opens the whole thing. Recorded in 1970 and sounds like it was made with no particular deadline. Folk music, technically. But the groove in it is not what you'd expect from that word.

The oldest track on the list. Astatke is considered the father of Ethio-jazz, a genre I didn't know existed until recently. This song manages to be both melancholy and warm at the same time.

A Zambian band who made exactly one album, then dissolved. The AI called it "Zambian psych-rock." What I can tell you is that it sounds like a band playing in a room together and meaning it.

Nigerian. 1973. There's an acoustic guitar at the start that gives you the wrong idea about where it's going. Then the rhythm section arrives and corrects you.

A Nigerian musician who spent decades being criminally underheard outside West Africa. This track has a groove so patient it almost feels like a philosophical position.

The pivot point of the list. A San Francisco soul singer rediscovered decades after recording. Smoother. More American. Sets up what comes next.

British, which is the surprising part. They sound like Lagos and London had a long conversation and this was the result. Six minutes long. Earns all six.

Masekela had already been making music for twenty years when this was recorded. The confidence shows. A long track that knows it's a long track.

The energy spikes here. It's the moment in the afternoon when someone turns the speakers up slightly and nobody objects.

Touré is the son of Ali Farka Touré. Khruangbin are from Houston. This collaboration should not work as well as it does.

The happiest track on the list. Late afternoon music. The moment when the plan to leave early quietly dissolves.

From 2021. No business being here after everything that came before it. But Simz has the same quality as the older records. She already knows. Good closer.