Soundway Records present a special summer tribute double a-side 12" with two tracks from African musicians that both passed away within a couple of months of each other at the end of 2013 / start of 2014. Both tracks are perfect summer tropical DJ fodder for the dancefloor.

On the first side South African singer Shaluza Max's massive Mashkandi / house anthem from 2002 gets a first release on vinyl. This track was a huge hit in South Africa and around the world on its release. With a soaring Zulu vocal and big sound it's a fitting reminder of a very talented musician who worked as a very well respected producer, composer and arranger. He died tragically young at the age of 47 in January of 2014.

On the flip we drop a fairly unknown track from the mid 1980s from one of the biggest names in African music, Tabu Ley Rochereau. A kind of almost balearic proto-house congolese pop cut with drum machines and trademark sweet congo horn section, Hafi Deo is a beautiful track that fell into obscurity outside The Congo by perhaps being too smooth for the 'world music' crowd in the mid 80s. Tabu Ley passed away in November 2013 in his late 70s with over 250 albums and 3000 songs to his name. A true pioneer of the congolese soukous sound, he was also one of the most influential African musicians of his generation.

Pre-order

Tabu Ley Rochereau - Hafi Deo (Extract)

Invisible Escape

Fuga Ronto - L'uomo Invisibile

Say You Love Me wasn’t “Om” Alec Khaoli’s first solo recording but the 1985 EP solidified the bass player and songwriter’s standing as one of South Africa’s most consistently innovative pop auteurs. He built a career on ubiquitous rock, pop and soul hits with groundbreaking bands like the Beaters, Harari and Umoja. But Khaoli’s seemingly endless fountain of music continued outside these ensembles, where he usually played bass and contributed songwriting and vocals.

Khaoli released several successful solo works while he made records with Umoja and worked on other productions with friends. This creativity was aided by Khaoli’s own recording studio. He was the first South African to have a privately-owned studio. As black artists were forced to record during lunch breaks and didn’t get sufficient access and time in the white-owned studios, having his studio allowed Khaoli to develop in his own way. Hence his productive output during the 80’s and early 90’s, releasing 5 LPs with Umoja and 5 solo LPs, along with numerous singles and EPs.

There’s something broad and dynamic about the almost epic pop sound Khaoli creates on Say You Love Me. Being the first South African to take control his recording process and thereby free himself from one of apartheid’s many strictures, he took his vision of music to new realms and made timeless music for the dance floor in the process.

Say You Love Me

"Om" Alec Khaoli — Say You Love Me

Edited by Tales of Voodoo. Mastered by George Kefala

Letta Mbulu - Normalizo (Tales of Voodoo Edit)

Smooth, Italo boogie from @nu-guinea taken from their new album Nuova Napoli, the result of extensive research into the funk and disco sound of their Neapolitan hometown.

Read more & buy: http://www.stampthewax.com/2018/03/02/premiere-nu-guinea-ddoje-facce/
Listen on Youtube: http://bit.ly/ddoje-facce

Nuova Napoli

Nu Guinea - Ddoje Facce (STW Premiere)

Australian synth-pop-boogie, remixed by Growing Bin's latest album signing @shelter-188736395. Reissued and reimagined by @strangelovemusic. 

Read more & buy: http://www.stampthewax.com/2018/07/09/premiere-arvo-bikini-extended-mix-by-shelter/
Listen on Youtube: http://bit.ly/arvo-shelter

Listen on Youtube

ARVO - Bikini (Extended Mix by Shelter) (STW Premiere)

@rushhourrecords is back with some dope news on its reissue series. Heat in two flavors ; check out the Zaïrian electronic dancefloor banger “Nakombe Nga” from 1989 by "Les Choc Stars" here. Comes with the dope, unheard Belgium new beat version on the flipside… The record is co-curated with renowned record fiend John Gomez. Get it there : http://rushhourmusic.com/?p=4335

PREMIERE : Les Choc Stars Du Zaire - Nakombe Nga

Sweet Sweet Dreams

shadow-Let's Make It Up

Pre-Order:
http://www.earlysoundsrecordings.com/?product=ed-longo-the-applied-arts-ensemble-the-other-fantasy

We welcome Ed Longo and his studio project The Applied Arts Ensemble debut on Early Sounds with “The Other Fantasy”, the result of many recording sessions that took place in different places around Europe with an array of musicians from a predominantly jazz background.
Conceived with a strong jazz-funk, fusion and boogie approach, the record is conceptualized around the quest for Otherness in the schizophrenia of the digital age, and the resulting exotic dystopias which we are confronted with every day.

Ed Longo:
https://soundcloud.com/edlongo

Applied Arts Ensemble:
https://soundcloud.com/applied_arts

Early Sounds Recordings:
www.facebook.com/EarlySoundsRec/
@earlysoundsrecordings

The Other Fantasy

Listen on YouTube

PREMIERE: Ed Longo & Applied Arts Ensemble - Love On the Line [Early Sounds Recordings]

Soundway Records present ’24 Hours in A Disco 1978 - 82’, 7 cuts of relentless disco grooves from the sublimely gifted Kiki Gyan. Hailed as Africa’s answer to Stevie Wonder, Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist Kiki Gyan was a musical wunderkind who by 1975 had risen from the lowly status of high school dropout to being ranked eighth in a poll of the greatest keyboardists in the world (occupying the rarefied air of the top ten with heavyweights like Steve Winwood, Billy Preston, and Stevie Wonder) as well as becoming an in-demand session player in the top recording studios of London - all before his twenty-first birthday. 

Out on his own, he produced a series of highly ambitious disco records aimed at positioning him as an international star, but weighed down by the excesses of the era, Gyan saw his meteoric rise matched by an equally swift fall back into obscurity. 

Loved dearly by his contemporaries and sorely missed since his death in 2005 the story of the life of Kofi Kwarko ‘Kiki’ Gyan is one often told with warning by his friends to the new generation of aspiring Ghanaian popstars.

Soundway Records now collects the best of Gyan’s work as a frontman and solo artist, featuring an array of electrifying disco grooves that still sound contemporary (and in some cases futuristic) decades after their initial release.

Released on CD and 2xLP both formats are accompanied with detailed liner notes written by Uchenna Ikonne. LP version comes with a free MP3 download of the release. 

Kiki Gyan - Disco Dancer

Talking Drums-Courage

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"Om" Alec Khaoli — Say You Love Me

Awesome Tapes From Africa

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