“Align”, the standout collaboration between Àbáse and Wayne Snow from the LP “Invocation” gets a stunning rework by LA based producer / mixing engineer Benjamin Frederick Vukelić and Cuban - Ethiopian singer, songrwriter / producer Arema Arega  

Benjamin Frederick Vukelić - drums, percussion, DX7, FX, production 
Arema Arega - vocals, percussion, additional production  
Wayne Snow - vocals Szabolcs Bognar - Rhodes 
Emily Steinwall - flute 
Carlos Niño - additional percussion

Mixed & Mastered by Benjamin Frederick Vukelić  
Cover art by Mark Fridvalszki

Àbáse - Align (Energy) (Benjamin Frederick Vukelic Remix)

Great music is often about chance meetings and impromptu creative sessions and so it is that Hell Yeah proudly serves up Sensory Blending, a new collaborative album from Italian collective Aura Safari and Finnish musician Jimi Tenor. The nine-track record arrives on 26th April 2024 and is a lush and luxurious fusion of jazz-funk styles.

This glorious record came about after Tenor was playing a Hell Yeah party at Tangram in Perugia. Aura Safari were local and, in some free time the day before the gig, everyone jumped in the studio together. They had never met before but soon found plenty of free-flowing common ground and the result of that one-off session is now served up on this vibrant new album that brims with musicality, indelible melodies and subtly uplifting vibrations.

Tenor has toured the world and previously collaborated with the likes of Japanese master Calm. He is a psychedelic space-jazz-funk king, skilled musician, composer and producer who, since the mid-nineties, has released more than 25 albums and 45 EPs. Aura Safari is made up of bass, synth, guitar and keys players Lorenzo Francioli, Ruggero Bonucci, Nicola Pitassio Andrea Moretti, Lorenzo Lavoratori, Daniele Melloni and Nicholas Iammatteo, and they are label regulars who served up their sublime Island Dreams album here last year.

Says Jimi, who enjoyed his time in Perugia and adds that "the studio session was 100% efficient. I showed up and we started to play. Almost all that was made was material that we could use for the album. I love to work fast. Quick brushstrokes. Finish! I was amazed at how intuitively the Aura Safari guys could come up with new parts for songs. I mentioned some feeling or approach and they seemed to find it just like that.”

'Bodily Synesthesia' is the seductive opener with steamy sax notes and gentle grooves that are topped by aloof vocal whispers. 'Lunar Wind' is another slow and steamy mix of jazzy keys and soulful vocal hooks, 'Bewitched By The Sea' is a more tropical and percussive number with majestic melodies and 'My Bluebell' picks up the pace with jazz-funk grooves and hustling chords. 'Last Waltz In Perugia' has freeform sax lines soaring over meticulous drums that ebb and flow and 'Gimlet' brings a playful, samba-tinged rhythm and sunny flute leads straight from South America. There's a laidback, carefree mood to 'It's Too Easy To Love You' while 'Your Magic Touch' is a dancey number that exudes melodic joy, and 'Indigo' closes in dramatic fashion with a conversational sax that sticks long in the memory.  

Sensory Blending is a seamless fusion of collaborative minds from Aura Safari and Jimi Tenor and it could well be performed live at some special select shows later in the year.

Sensory Blending

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Aura Safari & Jimi Tenor - My Bluebell (feat. Toimi Tytti)

BANG! @southernvangard radio Ep397! We’re back from Spring Break with a vengeance, Vangardians. Doe and Meeks kick things off with a 10 song set, and also brought two, count ‘em TWO, WORLD EXCLUSIVES courtesy of MATICULOUS, HUS KINGPIN, BHRAMABULL, REEK OSAMA & BIG TWINS. We also announced the date for Episode 400, so mark ya little calendars - MAY 5, 2024 - yep, you read it right…EPISODE 400 on CINCO DE MAYO now known as CINCO DOECINO! It doesn’t get any more poetic and it doesn’t get any more YOU WAAAAALCOME!!!!! #SmithsonianGrade #WeAreTheGard // southernvangard.com // @southernvangard on all platforms #hiphop #undergroundhiphop #boombap
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Recorded live April 10, 2024 @ Dirty Blanket Studios, Marietta, GA
southernvangard.com
@southernvangard on all platforms
#SmithsonianGrade #WeAreTheGard
twitter/IG: @southernvangard @jondoeatl @cappuccinomeeks
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Pre-Game Beats - Thee Sacred Souls / Magic In Threes	
Talk Break Inst. - "Muff Shuffle" - The Doppelgangaz
"Foot Clan Party" - Mickey Diamond
"Uptown Fly Sh*t" - Termanology ft. Lord Sko & Nim K.
"Say You Love Me" - Cookin Soul & The Musalini ft. Hus Kingpin & Reuben Vincent
"Legend Has It" - Tha God Fahim
"In Living Color" - Blu & Shafiq Husayn ft. Skye Louise
"Chess Not Checkers" - Q-Unique, DJ Presto One & Jake Palumbo
"The Grimy Life" - Supreme Cerebral & Swab ft. Big Twin
"Halal Food" - FastLife, Madhattan & Wino Willy
"Justified" - Waterr & The Standouts
"Higher Self" - Roc Marciano ft. T.F & Flee Lord (prod. The Alchemist)
Talk Break Inst. - "Harem Uptown" - The Doppelgangaz
"The Servicemen" - Real Bad Man & Lukah
"Cartoon Car Tunes" - Mickey Diamond
"Roll Call" - GUTTR (Havoc, RJ Payne, Ras Kass) ft. Method Man, Fame & Sway
"Mav x Mooch x Times" - DJ Muggs & Mooch ft. M.A.V. & Times Change
"Terrance Trent d'Arby" - Sankofa
"Tyson" - Ekundayo
"Around The Planet" - Apathy
Talk Break Inst. - "Stupid Idiot" - The Doppelgangaz
"The Expanse" - maticulous ft. Hus Kingpin ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE **
"Barrio Logan" - Bhrmabull ft. Reek Osama x Big Twins ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE **
"Malandro" - Reek Osama X Hus Kingpin
"Curbside Service" - Jalen Frazier And Foul Mouth
"Sammy On Balco" - Waterr & The Standouts ft. Chubs
"Twin Turbos" - Money Mogly ft. Starz Coleman
"Measuring Stick" - Marv Won ft. Fatt Father & Elzhi
Talk Break Inst. - "Up Good" - The Doppelgangaz

Southern Vangard Radio

Episode 397 - Southern Vangard Radio

Aerials live, dials tuned, Transmission Towers broadcasting. On either side of the river Mersey, transcendental communications are traded back and forth. Two late-night revellers, one firing messages filled with music, the other returning them laced with lyrics. The result, a dopamine hit of oddball machine soul, melded with a highlife, Afrofuturist touch. Wonky and murky yet deeply emotional, Transmission One, is a debut album that also marks the first release on Luke Una’s É Soul Cultura label, encompassing expertly the off-kilter atmosphere the label sets to orbit. 

A synthesised landscape with a Northern charm, Transmission Towers marry the musical worlds of two artists that last collaborated over a decade ago. 10 years have passed, lives have been led, but a gravitational pull has placed Mark Kyriacou and Eleanor Mante back in each other’s spheres on opposite sides of the city of Liverpool. Energised with a newfound desire to strip it all back to the sounds that influenced their formative years in the late ‘80s and ‘90s - astral travelling, intoxicated on Motor City techno, Black Dog IDM and mystical Sun Ra. 
 
Mark half Irish, half Greek Cypriot, Eleanor half Nigerian, half Ghanian, the music contained within is an alchemy of those roots and the pivotal acts that buried deep into their minds. A cosmic contrast, part machine-made, part distinctly human. Take the opener ‘UP’, an ESG-channelling, sci-fi punk beatdown or the polychromatic hyperspace anthem ‘Roller Skater 23’. 
 
Transportive throughout, you ride the solar waves, pace and emotion ebbing and flowing. Tracks like ‘Go Slow Heart’ and ‘Cosmic Trigger’ step to a slower beat but hit with a punch. The former, a slo-mo blast of celestial tenderness, the latter an otherworldly, chugged-out lunar excursion, micro-dosing on whacked-out Wah Wah and Eleanor’s ethereal vocals. Beaming love letters to space and back, ‘Sparse’ marries the organic with the artificial, pianos and percussion circling around synth pads and broadcasting bleeps.
 
Elsewhere, vibrations move faster. ‘Mega’ strikes, fusing sonic tribalism with psychedelic swirls, as ‘Everything’ sweeps you up in its extra-terrestrial new wave grip. Synth stabs and basslines fizzing from every angle.  
 
Demos of Transmission Towers music surfaced on Luke Una’s radar, making him stop in his tracks. Something magical was emerging, perfectly aligned with the E Soul guardian’s tastes. Guidance followed, quickly turning into conversations about Transmission One becoming the first release on Luke’s own label. 
 
Escapist and futurist yet grounded and relatable. Transmission One is synthesis meets sentiment with a deep, spine-tingling soul at its core.

Transmission Towers - Everything

Transmission Tower - Mega

Download/Stream - fanlink.to/FusionMovesKTI
Subscribe - @reelpeoplemusic

Reel People Music breathes new life into its gleaming vault of back catalogue classics with brand new series Fusion Moves. The series will offer talented music-makers the opportunity to remix and reinterpret label releases of their choosing, kicking off with soulful progressive Kaidi Tatham in the hot seat.

Tatham’s modus operandi is clear from the get-go. Opening selection Sebb Junior feat. Paula’s All Of My Life flows dreamily upon that trademark Tatham mix of organic beats, polished horns and immersive keys. As Paula rightly sings, “the beautiful can happen.” And keep happening…. Reel People feat. Mica Paris’ reworked I Want To Thank You gains elegant funk and boogie bounce, a bubblin b-line and those upweighted backing vocals adding new urgency and depth, whilst some extended bass-end manoeuvrings on the collective’s 2020 hit Save a Lil Love provide a hugely effective counterpoint to Eric Roberson’s super-smooth vocals.

Tatham switches things up for his re-take of The Realm x Atjazz x Kelli Sae’s deep afro-house burner On The Road, adding wonderfully carefree jazz-funk flow ‘n’ feeling replete with sweet synth solos and guitar licks. The snappy syncopated rhythms propelling Daz-I-Kue feat. Hadiya George’s Pedigree and Monkey Brothers feat. Sean Escoffery’s stunning Losin’ My Head align to the rich broken beat heritage for which most admirers associate him but, true to form, he continues to glide compellingly between mood and moves….

From the loose bass-guitar groove of Eric Ericksson & Reel People feat. Debra Debs’ Don’t Hold Back On Love and sultry strut and swagger of AAries’ Don’t Give It Up to Sebb Junior feat. Muhsinah’s infectiously jammin’ Special – lovingly framed by nimble jazz-piano play – and the liberatingly upbeat dressing applied to Tony Momrelle’s seminal Fly, Tatham’s sonic upholstery right across Fusion Moves is as skilful as it is impactful. One expert body of work built upon another.

“I know Reel People Music’s discography so well that I had a pretty immediate sense of the tracks I wanted to work with once they gave me the keys to their kingdom,” Tatham explains. “For each song I closed my eyes, imagined playing them live on stage and let the chords and musicality fire from there. My sound incorporates so many different styles, from hip-hop and broken beat to soul and disco. It’s a perfect fit for Fusion Moves. The Reel People team share my mission statement to make people dance, smile and think.”

Based in Belfast, Kaidi Tatham is the multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ who helped to define West London’s iconic broken beat sound during the late Nineties but who has continued to operate beyond genres and pigeonholes – be that via albums including In Search Of Hope, Bandana and Don’t Rush The Process, his dance music-focused pseudonym Agent K and a raft of collaborations including those with Bugz In The Attic, 4Hero, Amp Fiddler, Amy Winehouse and Slum Village.

Reel People Music is a label borne out of the soulful success of acclaimed collective Reel People but representing so much more. Launched in late 2009, the imprint has built a fiercely loyal international fanbase through its passion for artist development, musicianship, song-craft and soulful groove. Label alumni include Tony Momrelle, Portia Monique, The Layabouts, Kelli Sae, Sebb Junior, Opolopo, Angela Johnson, Emmaculate and Mothers Favorite Child.

Expect to hear further Fusion Moves in the coming months. Fresh twists on quality songs and sounds. Always with soulful authenticity at the heart.

Àbáse - Align (Energy) (Benjamin Frederick Vukelic Remix)

Àbáse

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