Mixtape #1: Afropop

Last year, self-explanatorily named cassette-excavating label Awesome Tapes from Africa reissued Hailu Mergia and His Classical Instrument, a 1985 album by a man who was once a star in his native Ethiopia, sitting atop the Addis Ababa club circuit with his funky outfit the Walias Band. (More recently, he'd been driving a cab for nearly two decades.) Here, Mergia headlines a bill that kicks off with a two-hour Awesome Tapes DJ set. Sounds like one hell of a mixtape to us.