William Onyeabor - Ride On Baby

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Cool Hand

Pre-order:  https://habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/releases

Habibi Funk will be a new sub label of Jakarta Records, dedicated to re-releasing arabic music from the 1970s and 1980s. It's a label and platform for funky/soulful and/or psych influenced music from the Arab world of the 70s and 80s.

https://www.facebook.com/habibifunk

Dalton was a band from Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. They came together as a band around 1968 when most of the members studied together at the University of Tunis. The band had five members. Faouzi Chekili on guitar, piano and vocals, Ridha Kouhen on bass guitar, Mustapha Rehouma and sax and percussion, Sadok Gharbi on trumpet and vocals and Skaner Alim on drums and vocals. They were active in the local scene, playing music that was heavily influenced by American soul and funk and at the same time regional musical traditions. In the early 70s the band got a regular gig at a beach hotel called Sahara Beach Resort on the coastline of Tunisia. They had six month contracts for a couple of years in the early 70s and during that time they would play every single night of the tourist season. While the hotel gig required the band to play sets leaning      towards tourist entertainment, the regular work helped put some money into the band's accounts. Using those funds the band was able to travel to Rome to record their one and only 7“ single release "Alech" around 1971/1972. The band eventually dismantled in the mid 70s and returned briefly as a new group with new members in the late 1970s under the name Carthago but that is a different story…… 

"That "Soul Brother" is my jam…. !!!!" 
Lefto 

The single itself impressed us heavily when we first stumbled upon it through French collector Victor Kiswell. While the b-side "Soul Brother“ sounds like a Tunisian version of modern soul / AOR with it’s English lyrics and lush arrangements, the title track "Alech“ is the one that will get every party started. An infectious 3/4 rhythm, a great horn arrangement and brillantly layered vocals that made us think of Brazillian music or the Georgian groove band Gaya. Luckily Faouzi Chekili, the former band leader and composer uses social media communication so he was easy to track down. He is still active as a renowned musician in the Tunisian jazz scene and remains active recording and playing concerts both in Tunisia and internationally.

Restored and mastered by Roskow at Audiomoto Studios.


Habibi Funk 001: Dalton - Alech (Tunisia, 1972, pre-order link in description)

Crazy and wrong

Jean Pierre Mirouze - Sexopolis

pre-order: https://habibifunkrecords.bandcamp.com/album/habibi-funk-007-modern-music

Al Massrieen was one of the first bands I learned about once I discovered the tape format. They were really popular in Egypt in the 1970s and the more of their music I found on either tapes or Arabic pirate mp3 sites, the more I was becoming a fan. Only very few bands from the region can match the band’s versatility as well as their strive for innovation. Hany Shenoda is the man behind the Al Massrieen band. He is a reknown figure of the Egyptian music scene and has worked with everyone from Abdel Halim Hafez to Mohamed Mounir. Al Massrieen was his attempt to introduce his ideas of modernizing Egyptian music, heavily encouraged by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt's only winner of the Nobel Price for literature) after discussing his ideas with him.

Al Massrieen - Sah (pre-order now)

Samir & Abboud - Games

I heard about Seif Abu Bakr and The Scorpions for the first time maybe 3-4 years ago. Their album “Jazz, Jazz Jazz” ended up on my radar because of an eBay auction; it might have been the first auction for this particular album on the platform. While the bids kept on rising daily up to a staggering 1000$, if I recall correctly, I was intrigued about the snippet preview bits of the music on this album as well as by the impressive artwork. This album happens to be my first conscious connection with Sudanese music. Habibi Funk must have already existed for a year or so but I had not yet come across any recording from Sudan that I felt fitting in the context we set for our self. I remember I did some quick research in the aftermath of the auction (which I obviously did not win) to gather some information about the band but apart from some vague bits and pieces I could not find anything. In most encyclopedic overviews of the Sudanese music scene of the 1970s the band appeared as a mere footnote. How come? I really do not know. To me the music is a unique combination of incredible horn arrangements powerfully performed, a vigorous drummer contributing a funky backbone and Seif's uniting those elements. The results range from instrumental tracks awaking memories of 1970s crime thriller soundtracks to more Sudanese-rooted tracks, a lot of them modernized versions of traditional tribal rhythms and even an excursion into Soukouss. While all of our reissues so far have been compilations in the sense that we put together our favorite selection of tracks by one artist, this album will be our first 1:1 re-release, simply because the quality of the albums does not fall off on a single track. With its eclectic influences it birthed a one-of-a-kind new mixture and serves as a blueprint for what we are looking for when we release music on Habibi Funk.

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Saif Abu Bakr & The Scorpions - Nile Waves

Footsteps In The Dark

Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Guebrou - The Homeless Wanderer

‘New Ferrari’ is the first single to be taken from Surprise Chef’s forthcoming album, ‘Daylight Savings’. The album is released on October 16th and is up for pre-order / pre-save now. Choose from black vinyl, Indie Edition creamy white coloured vinyl, CD, digital, and special vinyl presses courtesy of our friends at HHV Records and DINKED.

Daylight Savings

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Surprise Chef - New Ferrari

label, dj and platform for a wide range of underappreciated music from north africa and west asia

Habibi Funk 001: Dalton - Alech (Tunisia, 1972, pre-order link in description)

habibi funk - حبيبي فنك