12" vinyl available from www.sofrito.co.uk

A1: Dionisio Maio – Corpim Sabe (Alma Negra Edit)
B1: Bulimundo – Santo Antòni La Belèm (Hide & Smile Edit)
B2: Os Kings – Minino Na Tchora

Musical collisions in the Atlantic!
Sofrito kicks off the new Island Series with a celebration of the vital dancefloor sounds of Cape Verde – a mixture of local Funana and Coladeira rhythms, Batuque percussion and psychedelic disco synths.

Musical collisions in the Atlantic!
Sofrito kicks off the new Island Series with a celebration of the vital dancefloor sounds of Cape Verde – a mixture of local Funana and Coladeira rhythms, Batuque percussion and psychedelic disco synths.

Hailing from the island of Sao Vicente and originally released in the early 80s, Dionisio Maio’s anthemic Corpim Sabe is stretched into a 12” mix by the Alma Negra collective – bringing the thumping bassline to the fore and tweaking the piano-led groove into a slice of cosmic Coladeira-disco perfection.

On the flip the dynamic Hide & Smile duo (aka Frankie Francis & Miles Cleret) splice an early track from trailblazing Santiago-based group Bulimundo into a percussive workout that prefigures the sounds of Kuduro and Coupé Decalé.
Os Kings (from the island of Sao Vicente) complete the EP with an ode to struggling youth, anchored by sweet guitars and a slick bassline.

Fact fans:
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island chain situated 500 km off the coast of Senegal. Uninhabited before Portuguese colonization in the 15th century, the country was a staging post for the transatlantic slave trade and occupies a unique cultural position between Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.
There are large Cape Verdean communities in Paris, Lisbon, Rotterdam and Boston and as a result the music of the French Caribbean (in particualr zouk) is extremely influential.
Extra fact:
One of the most popular drinks in Cape Verde is a pint of gin and tonic.

Sofrito Island Series: Sound of Cape Verde // O Som de Cabo Verde EP

i'm actually very open to djing this stuff. lemme know if you have an event that might fit..

https://soundcloud.com/habibifunk

check out part one of the mix here:
https://soundcloud.com/jakarta-records/jakarta-radio-001-jannis-of

i got to travel a lot in north africa in the last years thru touring with blitz the ambassador and the studio session with oddisee for sawtuha in tunisia. while being there i did some digging and found some incredible music from the 60s and 70s. some of the music in this mix has zero info on the net, was never sold on ebay and has not been "rediscovered" yet. others are somewhat classics in the field of „arabic groove“. the music in this mix comes from morocco, libya, eggpt, algeria, lebanon and syria. 

photo by robert winter.

"Habibi Funk 002 Mix" by Jannis of Jakarta Records (Mix of Arabic 60s & 70s vinyl)

Space Echo - The mystery behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde finally revealed!

In the spring of 1968 a cargo ship was getting ready to leave the port of Baltimore with an important shipment of musical instruments. Its final destination was Rio De Janeiro, where the EMSE Exhibition (Exposição Mundial Do Son Eletrônico) was going to be held. 

It was the first expo of its kind to take place in the southern hemisphere and many of the leading companies in the field of electronic music were involved. Rhodes, Moog, Farfisa, Hammond and Korg, just to name a few, were all eager to present their newest synthesisers and other gadgets to a growing and promising South American market, spearheaded by Brazil and Colombia.

The ship with the goods set sail on the 20th of March on a very calm morning and disappeared from the radar on the very same day.

One can only imagine the surprise of the villagers of Cachaço, on the Sao Nicolau island of Cabo Verde, when a few months later they woke up and found a ship stranded in their fields, in the middle of nowhere, 8 km from the sea. 
After consulting with the village elders, the locals had decided to open the containers to see what was inside but the news had travelled fast and before they knew it, colonial police had already arrived and secured the area. 

Portuguese scientists and physicians were ordered to the scene; and after weeks of thorough studies and research, it was concluded that the ship had fallen from the sky. One of the less plausible theories was that it might have fallen from a Russian military air carrier. The locals joked that the government had wasted their tax money again on a useless exercise, as a simple look at the crater generated by the impact could explain the phenomena. “No need for Portuguese rocket science to explain this!” they laughed. 

What the villagers didn’t know, was that traces of cosmic particles were discovered on the boat. The bow of the ship showed traces of extreme heat, very similar to traces found on meteors, suggesting that the ship had penetrated the hemisphere at high speed. That theory also didn't make sense as such an impact would have reduced the ship to dust. Mystery penetrated the event.  

Finally, a team of welders arrived to open the containers and the whole village waited impatiently. The atmosphere, which had been filled with joy and excitement, quickly gave way to astonishment. Hundreds of boxes conjured, all containing keyboards and other instruments which they had never seen before: and all useless in an area devoid of electricity. Disappointment was palpable. The goods were temporarily stored in the local church and the women of the village had insisted a solution be found before Sunday mass. 

It is said that charismatic anti-colonial leader Amílcar Cabral had ordered for the instruments to be distributed equally in places that had access to electricity, which placed them mainly in schools.
This distribution was best thing that could have happened - keyboards found fertile grounds in the hands of curious children, born with an innate sense of rhythm and these children picked up instruments that were easy to use and would become instrumental for modernising local rhythms such as Mornas, Coladeras and the highly danceable music style called Funaná, banned by the Portuguese colonial rulers until 1975 probably due to the fact that it was too sexy!

Observation was made that the children who came into contact with the instruments found on the ship had prodigious capabilities to understand music and learn instruments. One of them was the musical genius Paulino Vieira who by the end of the 70s would become the country´s most important music arranger. 

8 out of the 15 songs presented in this compilation had been recorded with the backing of the band Voz de Cabo Verde lead by Paulino Vieira, the mastermind behind the creation and the promulgation of what is known today as “The Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde”. 




GET THE RECORD

Dia Ja Manche  - Dionisio Maio (Leave a comment for Dionisio, tell him how much you love his song !)

Copyright: Bella Blakemore
Basic Live One Take Home Recording done my myself using a USB mic and GarageBand. 



Phosphorescence - Original Demo

Love by The Sea - Orignal Demo

Internationally acclaimed Seychelles songstress Grace Barbé has teamed up with the pioneer of Afrobeat from Fela Kuti, Nigerian drummer, composer and songwriter Tony Allen (dubbed by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest drummers of all time) to remix ‘Afro Sega’ lead track from Grace’s latest album ‘Welele!’.
 
Coupling the signature Afro-Kreol sound and fusion of tropical island rhythms in Grace Barbé’s vocals with a typically masterful live drumming take, Tony Allen completely rerecorded the single with his band all while retaining Grace's vocals from the original track.
 
Grace explains “After meeting at Perth International Festival a few years back I had a friend hand deliver Tony a copy of Welele! in his home city of Paris. I was gobsmacked when he reached out with interest to remix Afro Sega. To have a world class artist of his calibre and a pioneer of Afrobeat music remix one of our tracks is a dream come true. He is one of the most humble human beings I’ve ever met, an amazing musician, producer and a master drummer.”

Grace Barbe - Afro - Sega (Tony Allen Remix)

A collection of 12 taarab songs from 1960s coastal Kenya by Yaseen Mohamed (Mac & Party). Musically rich and unique for its time and place, this compilation is a treasure trove of songs and a feast for your ear.

Yaseen’s arrangements drew influences from Indian and Egyptian film music, rhythm and blues, jazz and Latin music. Sung with a characteristic, dark voice, Yaseen’s Swahili poetry was layered over rich percussion patterns, accompanied by the distinctive sound of the Clavioline (a proto-synth) and amplified taishokoto, a novelty harp instrument of Japanese origin that Yaseen helped popularise in Kenya in the 1940s. On many songs he is accompanied by his wife Mimi on vocals.

Compiled from the elusive Mzuri catalogue, originally released in Kenya in the 60’s, the LP comes with extensive liner-notes describing the life of Yaseen,
his musical background and the early days of the Kenyan record industry.

Yaseen & Party

Yaseen & Party - New Afro7 compilation LP - Snippets

Tou Lannwit

Grace Barbe hails from the sunburnt Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles, where a colourful history of slavery, pirates, coups d'etat and coconuts have produced a unique Kreol rhythm, language and culture. 
Drawing from the diverse cultural melange of the islands, Grace's music fuses the tropical rhythms and dances of the slaves with psychedelic rock, afrobeat, reggae and pop. 
Get ready to shake your coconuts!

Grace Barbe - Afro - Sega (Tony Allen Remix)

Grace Barbe

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