All Brian Shimkovitz did was start a music blog. Granted, this was back in the early 2000s, when starting a music blog was a fresh idea, but still... It’s hard to believe Shimkovitz could’ve imagined what he was getting into. Back then, he was an ethnomusicology student with an intense interest in African music. He gave his blog the unambiguous name Awesome Tapes from Africa, and he used it to post MP3s of beautiful, incredible, and bizarre songs from the colorful and inexpensive cassettes he collected during his travels across the continent.

Now with close to 300 tapes posted, the blog highlights music from all parts of Africa, with styles ranging from pop to rap to funk to rock to the many points between, including regional genres like highlife, juju, mbalax, and Ethio-jazz. In a time when so many music-focused websites cover artists you can hear on all the other music-related websites, Awesome Tapes from Africa is truly an overflowing source of magnificent sounds that would otherwise be unheard beyond the borders of their home countries.

Shimkovitz has grown his hobby into a business: He started a record label, splitting profits 50/50 with the artists and helping African legends like organist Hailu Mergia transition from cab driver to viable touring act in his 70s. Shimkovitz has also established an in-demand DJ career, with upcoming dates in New York, Paris, and Morocco. But this week, he stops at Holocene to showcase a bunch of his latest tape-based cosmopolitan jams. Awesome.