The name “Maistah Aphrica” means “never been to Africa” in the dialect spoken in Friuli Venezia Giulia, the northern Italian region where the band hails from. It’s meant to indicate an attitude of humility and respect towards the cultures and sounds that inform their music, a sort of  a sort of “we put our hands up” to being a bunch of white people making mostly African music that we don’t know loads about. But the eight musicians do it extremely well, flawlessly and subtly incorporating a variety of African sounds — from Ethiopian sax lines to synth riffs a la 1970s Basa Basa — with Italian library music, funk, and jazz, resulting in a full, bold, endlessly transportive sound.

– Megan Iacobini de Fazio