Monday, August 3, 2015

Merchant : Instant Funk

Ophelia - Red Light Lady

Cosmos Universal Band : Third Eye

Chain Reaction ‎: Search For Tomorrow

Gloria Ann Taylor : Love Is A Hurting Thing

Dexter Wansel : The Sweetest Pain

Universal Togetherness Band : Missing You

Janet Jackson : No Sleeep

Thundercat : Them Changes

Carey Bell : Hard Working Woman

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Kutiman : Cheeta Guava

Friday, April 17, 2015

Alice Russell : I'm The Man, That Will Find You

A beautiful cover of Connan Mockasin’s “I’m The Man, That Will Find You”
Russell and producer TM Juke have proven time and again their ability to infuse a powerful soul sound with diverse influences, and on “I’m The Man, That Will Find You” those inimitable vocal harmonies sparkle as the pair pay homage to one of their favourite current artists, having had Connan Mockasin’s “Caramel” album on repeat for the last year. This fresh, spacious and psych-tinged sound also hints at a new direction that they are exploring on the way to developing Alice Russell’s next album.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Daymé Arocena : Drama

Singer, composer, arranger, choir director and band leader, Daymé Arocena, is a skilful, charismatic presence in Cuban music. Her diverse musical talents will take her fast into broader territories. She sings the chants and song repertoires but also, absorbs music of any kind, particularly jazz and Cuban neo-soul. Brownswood Recordings are proud to present this latest track from the Havana Cultura Sessions EP due for release on the 30th March. "Drama" showcases Daymé's trademark mix of influences from classical Cuban Rumba to US Jazz.
 

The Soul Motivators : Free To Believe

The Soul Motivators are a heavy-hitting 9-piece funk ensemble that offer a Northern equivalent to contemporaries like Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Menahan Street Band and Antibalas. Featuring numerous veterans of Toronto’s thriving live music scene, with members who play everything from jazz and reggae to soul and folk, their version of metropolitan music cross-pollinates and creates something new and fresh.
 

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Sonzeira : Sambaio feat. Seu Jorge (Jose Marquez Remix)

Los Angeles DJ/Producer Jose Marquez’s musical influence is a result of being brought up on a stable diet of Latin and World Music. Always intrigued by electronic sounds, Jose's mission has been to fuse his love of world rhythms with the dance floor.
 

Emanative, Earl Zinger & Valerie Etienne : Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe

Emanative’s latest body of work comes in the form of this collaborative piece of art all in the name of the charity, the Steve Reid Foundation. With features from Four Tet, Collocutor, The Pyramids, Earl Zinger, Jessica Lauren, Finn Peters, Rocketnumbernine, United Vibrations and Steve Reid collaborator Ahmed Abdullah! This will be a limited edition release of 500 2xLP on 180g-heavyweight vinyl. This whole double album was conceived from the beginning as a way to raise both money and awareness for Gilles Peterson's Steve Reid Foundation. Orchestrated by Nick Woodmansey/Emanative, but not without the generosity, help and contribution of every musician and collaborator involved.
 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Pete Newman Clarinet Project : Is It Warm Here ?

Pete Newman is a clarinettist, saxophonist and composer based in Cambridge, UK.
Pete has toured extensively across the UK, Europe and Canada, most notably with world-fusion outfit Horace X. His current focus is the Pete Newman Clarinet Project, an ambitious amalgamation of funk, jazz and other styles, featuring Pete’s distinctive approach to the clarinet on his own compositions.

 

Monday, March 30, 2015

Astronauts, etc. : I Know

There is a fragile balance to Astronauts, etc. — an attempt to reconcile contradiction. Harmonious conflict rolls through Anthony Ferraro's soulful compositions with a struggling duality innate in each note. As a classically trained pianist Ferraro approaches his songwriting with both a disregard for his 15 years of focused lessons and a respect for the skill those studies have afforded him.
 

Feverkin & Koresma : Golden (feat. Cuff Malloy)

Collaboration between electronic producers Feverkin and Koresma with Cuff Malloy on jazz saxophone.
 

Sunday, March 29, 2015

The Mighty Mocambos : Showdown

The Mighty Mocambos’ new album “Showdown” sets another cornerstone in their prolific career as a globally active instrumental funk outfit. While maintaining their organic approach of recording real musicians live on tape, the group has refined their trademark sound with a dramatic edge, a hard hitting production and ventures into less obvious musical territories.

 

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

James Clarke : Mystery Movement

James Clarkes "Mystery Movie" was released in 1974 as library record, small group compositions in various moods. Ideally suited to the new Americanised style of T.V. and cinema film where music was used to create the mood and carry the action.
 

Monday, March 23, 2015

Cheyenne Fowler : Come Back To Me

Produced by Gene Russell in 1976 and appears on the very rare and killer album "Cheyenne's Comin'"
 

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

The Dip : Don't Make Me Wait

The Dip is an electrifying soul group from Seattle, Washington. The band (containing three members of Beat Connection) is comprised of seven musicians and originated at the University of Washington. Fueled by their self-released EP in 2013, The Dip has played a string of packed shows in Seattle, including an evening slot at the Northwest Folklife Festival, a capacity show at the popular Capitol Hill Block Party, an opening slot for the legendary Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Neumos, and numerous headlining shows of their own at various venues in Seattle and Bellingham. The Dip recently finished recording their first LP at Avast Studios, which will be released on April 14th. Their lead single, “Ready To Go,” came out in November 2014.
 

Friday, March 13, 2015

Jamie Lidell : Believe in Me

British producer Jamie Lidell became as widely recognized for his effective neo-soul vocals and performances as for his earlier career as a producer of groovy experimental techno. After some EP releases for labels such as Mosquito and an appearance on the Mille Plateaux-released Industrialsamplecoregouchbeat compilation, Lidell collaborated with equally well-known techno producer Cristian Vogel as Super_Collider in 1999. Following this project, most noteworthy for the popular track "Darn (Cold Way o' Lovin')," Lidell recorded a solo album for Warp in 2000, Muddlin Gear. Five years later, still on Warp, he pursued an organic neo-soul direction for Multiply, heavily assisted by fellow instrumentalist and producer Mocky. 2008's Jim was similar in approach and sounded much more natural than its predecessor. Compass For 2010's Compass, Lidell changed directions once again, employing the likes of Beck, Feist, and members of Grizzly Bear; its lead song, the title track, was a rather spacy folk-blues epic that later appeared in the soundtrack for the Rockstar video game Red Dead Redemption. He also wrote and sang on a track for Simian Mobile Disco's Unpatterns album from 2012, and moved to Nashville. After building his own studio, he used it to record his follow-up album for Warp, the self-titled Jamie Lidell, which saw release in early 2013.
"Believe In Me" is Jamies latest single.
   

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Lyn Christopher : Take Me With You

Released on Paramount Records in 1973, written by Kaplan Kaye, Christopher's self-titled debut and the 7" version of "Take Me With You" have been heavy collectibles by at least two different crowds. The first are KISS fans; Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley played on her album before they would blow up as KISS, after Smut Peddlers looped this up lovely in 1998, it then got "outed" on Dusty Fingers Vol. 3 and that all helped blow things up for sample hounds who began to chase after the LP and 7" versions.
 

Ramon Morris : Sweet Sister Funk

Ramon Morris' lone Groove Merchant date remains one of the most potent fusion records of its time. An uncommonly soulful tenorman, Morris proves ideally matched to the jazz-funk idiom, and Sweet Sister Funk achieves a near-perfect balance between its mainstream and experimental leanings, forging a series of fierce grooves as imaginative as they are accessible. Recorded with a crack supporting unit including trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater and percussionist Tony Waters, the album radiates with positive energy, it's a genuine shame Morris never again recorded as a leader, because the mind reels at the possibilities his muse might have pursued.
 

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Jimmy Smith : Root Down (Shanti Edit)

Toward the end of his stint with Blue Note, Jimmy Smith's albums became predictable. Moving to Verve in the mid-'60s helped matters considerably, since he started playing with new musicians (most notably nice duets with Wes Montgomery) and new settings. Not coincidentally, the title track is the song the Beasties sampled on their 1994 song of the same name, since this is one of the only sessions that Smith cut where his playing his raw, vital, and earthy. Recorded live in Los Angeles in February 1972, the album captures a performance Smith gave with a relatively young supporting band who were clearly influenced by modern funk and rock. They push Smith to playing low-down grooves that truly cook: "Sagg Shootin' His Arrow" and "Root Down (And Get It)" are among the hottest tracks he ever cut, especially in the restored full-length versions showcased on the 2000 Verve By Request reissue. There are times where the pace slows, but the tension never sags, and the result is one of the finest, most exciting records in Smith's catalog.
 

Reuben Wilson : Got To Get Your Own

Reuben Wilson was one of many soul-jazz organists to emerge in the late '60s, but he was one of only a handful of new organists from that era to be signed to Blue Note. Between 1968 and 1971, he recorded five sessions for the label. None of his records received much acknowledgment at the time, but they were later rediscovered by a new generation of soul-jazz fans, becoming collector's items within acid jazz and soul-jazz revivalist circles.
  On his only album for Chess' Cadet imprint, B-3 organist Reuben Wilson pulled the second of his now classic career change-ups. On that date Wilson and producer George Butler brought in a female backing chorus, a large soul band, and arranger Wade Marcus for a driving set of psychedelic soul, hard funk, and rockist B-3 workouts.  Chess was in dire financial straits by this time and was soon to close its doors; the album became a cutout almost immediately. It languished in the bins and in record stores and distribution warehouse basements until beatsamplers and British DJs picked up on it in the late 1980s.
 

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Roy Ayers Ubiquity : Fire Weaver

"He's Coming" captures Roy Ayers at the absolute top of his game, masterminding jazz-funk grooves as taut as a tightrope. Profoundly inspired by the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar (and including a reading of the soundtrack's "I Don't Know How to Love Him"), the album is a deeply felt exploration of Ayers' spiritual and social beliefs, celebrating the life and rebirth of Jesus with "He's a Superstar" and its follow-up title cut before delivering the equally impassioned political manifesto "Ain't Got Time to Be Tired," a wake-up call for slumbering revolutionaries.
Aided by an exemplary backing unit featuring saxophonist Sonny Fortune, bassist John Williams, keyboardist Harry Whitaker, and drummer Billy Cobham, Ayers channels the intensity of his message into his music, creating the most vibrant and textured music of his career to date.
 

Los Dinamicos Exciters : Let Me Do My Thing (Jack Frost Edit)

Growing out of the combos nacionales scene, one of the most successful funk and soul groups of 60s and 70s Panama, Los Dinamicos Exciters (later The Exciters) was led by drummer Horacio ‘Ray’ Adams. Legendary in their day, the band were booked solid for years. Their core sound was Latin soul and funk (heavily influenced by James Brown) but they also played boogaloo, calypso and ska. The US Black Power movement struck a chord, especially in the Canal Zone, where Afro-Panamanians had long suffered discrimination. Co-founders of the Instituto Soul, the Exciters were the first to invite an African-American ‘soul queen’ to lead their carnival parade in 1971.
 

Verckys et l´Orchestre Vévé : Bassala Hot

Notorious for being one of Congo´s most ruthless business men, the legendary musician had build a whole imperium in Kinshasa, the capital city of the central african power house (arguably one of the toughest places in the world) and has a whole building with his name, in the very heart of the city.
 

Levy O'Donel : Bad Bad Simba

Titel track of the album "Simba" which is a killer album full of funky soul-jazz. O'Donel Levy had played with Richard "Groove" Holmes and Jimmy McGriff on other albums for producer Sonny Lester's Groove Merchant label, and even had one released under his own name (Black Velvet), but this was something different. Black Velvet had a couple Levy originals, but relied heavily on cover tunes. For Simba, Lester brought in Manny Albam to supply both the tunes and the arrangements, and it makes all the difference in the world. The songs are catchy and funky, and play to Levy's strengths as a player. The arrangements are fantastic, played by a who's who list of '70s session men (including a young David Sanborn and Tony Levin, who throws down throughout).
 

Monday, February 9, 2015

The Mighty Mocambos with Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Funk & Deejay Snoop : Hot Stuff

An outstanding exclusive 45 from the ongoing killer collaboration of The Mighty Mocambos and Afrika Bambaataa, who deliver surprising cover of Rolling Stones’ 1976 single “Hot Stuff”. While the Jagger/Richards-penned original vaguely flirts with the disco-funk sound of the era, the rework outfunks it in true and inventive Mocambo style, bringing the song closer to its initial inspiration and stretching it further out into a banging street funk jam.
 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Byron Morris : Kitty Bay (Soulmotion Dj Edit)

Much of the modal jazz that was recorded in the 1960s and '70s paralleled Middle Eastern music in a number of ways. First, post-bop explorers like John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk were playing the same modes and scales heard in traditional Arabic, Indian, Egyptian, Armenian, Turkish, and Jewish music. And second, a lot of post-bop had a very spiritual outlook, often inspiring comparisons to devotional Islamic, Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish forms. Spirituality is a key element of Vibrations in Time, a CD that spans 1973-1978 and reissues recordings that Byron Morris and his group Unity had recorded for their LPs Blow Thru Your Mind and Vibrations, Themes and Serenades (both of which had long since gone out of print). Underscoring the richness of modal jazz, gems like "Transcendental Lullaby" and "Ether" reflect the spiritual concerns that many post-bop groups had at the time. Saxman Morris and trumpeter Vincent McEwan both take their share of inspired solos, and female singer Jay Clayton brings an ethereal quality to much of the material. These recordings are quite obscure, but if you're seriously into modal jazz, Vibrations in Time is well worth the search.
 

Gene Chandler : In My Body's House

B-side of the "Go Back Home" 45 in 1969 on Checker Records. This track was written and recorded by Curtis Mayfield, originally titled "Hard Times." Chandler's success became more fitful after Mayfield stopped penning material for him, although he enjoyed some late-'60s hits and had a monster pop and soul smash in 1970 with "Groovy Situation."
 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Aphex Twin : Diskhat ALL Prepared1mixed 13

More "new goodies" from Richard David James (born 18 August 1971 in Limerick, Ireland), best known by his stage name Aphex Twin, an electronic musician and composer. He has been described by The Guardian as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music", and is the co-founder of Rephlex Records with Grant Wilson-Claridge. Aphex Twin's album Selected Ambient Works 85-92 was called the best album of the 1990s by FACT Magazine.
 

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Tropics : Blame

The new album from Tropics, aka 27 year old Chris Ward, looks outwards, armed with a newfound confidence that foregrounds his vocal performance and songwriting. It’s a musical progression that mirrors a personal one: the early Tropics output was all made in the idyllic, if isolated setting of Ward’s grandmother’s empty house in the seaside town of Southsea, which he moved into after graduating from university to focus on writing and recording. Having moved to London in 2013, Ward now splits his time between the city and the road, having played in America, Mexico and across Europe throughout the past year with his live band Keith Vaz and Morgan Hislop. Tropics’ new full-length Rapture, set for release on the 16th of February, is the culmination of this journey. Taking influence from Beach Boys, Max Roach and Arthur Russell, Ward has crafted an album that fuses his love of avant-garde percussion, 70s and 80s singer-songwriters such as Peter Gabriel known for pop-leaning hooks, and deep production that takes cues from ambient music.
 

Rhye : 3 Days

Rhye is the collaborative project behind Quadron music maker Robin Hannibal and ethereal singer Mike Milosh. Milosh’s voice soars and swoops like a bird playing an updraft. He croons and coos, and sings in a range few men have dared to go. “I have been compared to Sade so many times in the last six years it’s kind of lost an effect on me,” Milosh says. “I have always had more of an attraction to female vocals, as I like music to have a soothing quality.” Rhye is a quiet explosion, a joyful contradiction of bittersweetness and hope, a soundtrack for all things left unsaid, and unfelt. Rhye captures lightning in a bottle, and sets it free again.
 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Oh Wonder : All We Do

Writing duo, releasing one song a month for the next year. Next release: 1st February 2015
 

Florian Pellissier Quintet : Blue Nuit

Founded in 2001 in Brooklyn and imported in France "Florian Pellissier Quintet" has established themselves a great live reputation. "Blue Nuit" is the opening track of their first album "Le Diable et Son Train" which came out in 2012. Their latest album "Biches bleues" was released in October 2014.
 

Friday, January 2, 2015

Orgone : Bacano

Los Angeles based band Orgone is many souls with a cosmic connection, a natural creative force and musicians who have played together for years. Most of the group can be heard on recent major recordings by Alicia Keys, Estelle, Anthony Hamilton, Jennifer Hudson, Solange Knowles and many other R&B/Soul artists. Orgone continues to tour, impressing audiences and winning new fans at festivals & clubs nationally and overseas. 2009 saw the release of their second fully independent CD "bacano", a collection of all original cold-blooded funk gems representing what's always been going down in Orgone's retro, sweaty home-grown recording spot.