[From All Music.com-John D. Buchanan] South African house music DJ and producer Black Coffee built his career gradually over nearly two decades, riding the growing global interest in his home country's burgeoning dance music scene and eventually becoming arguably the biggest DJ in Africa.
Reserved and intellectual, this unlikely superstar was born Nkosinathi Maphumulo on March 11, 1976, in Durban and grew up surrounded by music, particularly influenced by his uncle's extensive reggae collection. At the age of 12, after his parents' divorce, he moved with his mother to the poor township of Mthatha, Eastern Cape. Two years later, on the day of Nelson Mandela's release from Robben Island, Maphumulo lost the use of his left arm when he was one of dozens of people run down by a taxi driver in a politically motivated attack. Throwing himself into music even harder than before, he eventually went back to Durban to study music theory at Natal Tech, majoring in jazz. He dropped out before the completion of his course, though, and he and two friends, Thandukwazi "Demor" Sikhosana and Mnqobi "Shota" Mdabe, became backing singers for acclaimed folk-blues guitarist Madala Kunene before going on to form the soul-pop trio Shana. At the same time, he continued learning about electronic music production, and in 2003 was accepted into the Red Bull Music Academy, jump-starting his career.
[From jannuslive.com-Mike Mettler] It’s been, well, a literal dog’s age since the vibrant powerhouse trio known as The Winery Dogs marked their recording territory with new music. But now, following a seven-
year break from the studio, The Winery Dogs are back in full force with their aptly named third album III, which is set for release on February 3, 2023 on the band’s Three Dog Music label (via Burnside Distribution/The Orchard) on CD and all digital formats. (A vinyl edition of III will also be forthcoming in just a few months.) III was self-produced by The Winery Dogs and mixed by longtime band associate Jay Ruston.
From the clarion call for connection and societal understanding in “Mad World” to the door-opening personal realizations of “Breakthrough” to the undeniable muscle-flexing reign of the white-hot “Pharaoh” and the album-closing energy spillage of “The Red Wine,” all 50-plus minutes of III prove The Winery Dogs haven’t lost a step when it comes to conjuring fresh hooks, gutbucket grooves, and bold harmonies.
[From All Music.com-Thom Jurek] Brothers Alejandro and Stephan (nee Estevan) Gutiérrez-Holtz are Hermanos Gutiérrez. Using traditional guitar, lap steel, and organic percussion (bongo and maracas), their instrumental music evokes impressions of remote spaces and untamed wild places, from the Ecuadorian beaches and coastlines to the deserts of Mexico and the American Southwest. The duo also 
draw primary inspiration from the spaghetti western soundtracks of Ennio Morricone and Stelvio Cipriani, vintage psychedelia, and classic Latin and South American music from the 1950s through the '70s. 8 Anos, their debut album, appeared in 2017, evoking symbolic soundscapes haunted by the ghosts of outlaws, vaqueros, pilgrims, rootless wanderers, and devastated lovers. 2018's El Camino de mi Alma added an electrified flamenco tinge appended by reverb. 2019's Hoy Como Ayer blended Ecuadorian boleros, Mexican cumbia, desert blues, and Latin American psychedelia, while 2020's Hijos del Sol was brighter and more uptempo and dynamic; its sound was more physical, its melodies more evocative. 2022's El Bueno y el Malo was recorded in Nashville and produced by Dan Auerbach.