Format: Vinyl LP, CD, Digital
Web: www.hopestreetrecordings.com/woodenboy

It’s soul music, baby, but not as we know it. The backbeat and the handclaps are still there and the horns still sound. The bass bumps, the organ screams and the guitars still twang, but the singer has left the room. Everything is shades of blue. This is soul music for the after hours. For the solitary dancers and the lonely hearts. The soundtrack to solitary headlights on a midnight highway. What to call it? Who cares! Can you dance to it? Just try not to. No one’s telling you to throw your hands up in the air, but no one would be surprised if you did. It’s dark here, so you can do your own thing.

Wooden Boy was recorded by The Cactus Channel -- a ten piece band from Melbourne, Australia -- all born in the 90s and raised on the internet. Yet somehow, this astonishing follow up to last year's rave-reviewed debut, Haptics, sounds like it could have been recorded in the 1970s, or possibly in the distant future. A timeless, placeless cinematic odyssey, Wooden Boy could have been an alternate soundtrack to Ghost Dog -- if Lalo Schifrin and the Meters were collaborating on the RZA's score. Or maybe Wooden Boy was what happened when Lars Von Trier got invited to direct an episode of Soul Train. What any of it may actually mean is left to the listener's imagination.

Funk aficionados will hear shades of New York on this record, echoes of El Michel’s taking on Wu Tang, the influence of Budos and Menehan et al. But this is the Generation Z version; both more tempestuous and more introverted. Recorded analog in the digital era, presented faceless in the celebrity era, inexplicably ambiguous in the soundbite era, is this the album the world needs right now? Undoubtedly yes. In a world where the NSA can read the text message that dumped you, what does a person need more than sad soul music from the future? Wooden Boy, baby, Wooden Boy.

PRAISE FOR HAPTICS by THE CACTUS CHANNEL (debut 2012 album):

•	"Hot-to-trot... an embryonic version of the Meters or the Dap Kings" - THE AUSTRALIAN (four stars)
•	"Tightly raw soul, rambling deep-funk jams and organ-driven party mash-ups" - THE AGE
•	"Infectiously funky sounds... a horn-fuelled, butt-shaking affair" - TRIPLE J HOME & HOSED
•	"Old-fashioned, gritty soul music – by a bunch of white teenagers from Melbourne" - THE MONTHLY
•	"Album Of The Week" - RTR PERTH, PBS-FM, SYN-FM, 2SER + EASTSIDE RADIO, RTR PERTH

FREE Single Download

The Cactus Channel - Black Flag and Lady Bountiful

As heard in episode 6, season 2 of AMC's Better Call Saul!

Buy on vinyl/CD from hopest.re/drelectrico or on iTunes from hopest.re/1uSkY3o

Introducing “The Island of Dr Electrico”, the second soundtrack album from The Bombay Royale, originators of vintage Bollywood-inspired surf, spy, disco and funk. Building on the worldwide success of their debut album ''You Me Bullets Love", the band has unleashed its trademark sound and set off on an extraordinary musical safari.

“The Island of Dr Electrico” is a varied musical landscape, at times lush and tropical, at other times an impenetrable swamp teeming with all manner of surprises. Migrating seabirds have long flown thousands of extra miles avoid Dr Electrico's blighted isle, leaving him alone to experiment with dark beats, primitive synthesizers and the raw emotion of kidnapped souls. The resulting sounds are a rich palette of classic cinema, from lonesome spaghetti to surf-rock, from psychedelia to spine-bending space disco, overlaid with the voices of our protagonists The Tiger and The Mysterious Lady.

From their unlikely beginnings in the suburban wilds of Melbourne Australia, The Bombay Royale have taken their unique sound to audiences throughout Europe, UK and the USA, where their performances have been met with astonishment and critical acclaim.

Buy LP/CD/Digital

The Bombay Royale - Henna Henna

Buy on vinyl/CD from hopest.re/drelectrico or on iTunes from hopest.re/1uSkY3o

Introducing “The Island of Dr Electrico”, the second soundtrack album from The Bombay Royale, originators of vintage Bollywood-inspired surf, spy, disco and funk. Building on the worldwide success of their debut album ''You Me Bullets Love", the band has unleashed its trademark sound and set off on an extraordinary musical safari.

“The Island of Dr Electrico” is a varied musical landscape, at times lush and tropical, at other times an impenetrable swamp teeming with all manner of surprises. Migrating seabirds have long flown thousands of extra miles avoid Dr Electrico's blighted isle, leaving him alone to experiment with dark beats, primitive synthesizers and the raw emotion of kidnapped souls. The resulting sounds are a rich palette of classic cinema, from lonesome spaghetti to surf-rock, from psychedelia to spine-bending space disco, overlaid with the voices of our protagonists The Tiger and The Mysterious Lady.

From their unlikely beginnings in the suburban wilds of Melbourne Australia, The Bombay Royale have taken their unique sound to audiences throughout Europe, UK and the USA, where their performances have been met with astonishment and critical acclaim.

The Bombay Royale - The Bombay Twist

The Bombay Royale - The River

Ella Thompson - To Light The Lantern

Free Download: hopestreetrecordings.com/dawn

Artist: Emma Donovan & The PutBacks
Album: Dawn
Format: LP/CD/Digital
AU Release Date: Nov 7 2014
UK Release Date: Nov 10 2014
US Release Date: Nov 11 2014

Acclaimed indigenous vocalist Emma Donovan and Melbourne rhythm combo The PutBacks come together to bring you Dawn, an LP of hard hitting and heartfelt soul songs telling stories of grief, struggle and redemption. Dawn is a gritty, uniquely Australian record, simultaneously classic and contemporary. The songwriting is in turns optimistic, angry and melancholic, and on occasions bruisingly honest. The music is fluid, live and raw, recorded in one room on eight channels of analog tape and the electric connection between Emma and the band comes through in every beat.

Emma grew up singing church songs with her maternal grandparents on the North coast of New South Wales. Her first secular gigs were singing in The Donovans, a band comprised of her mother and five uncles. With her mother, Emma sang country for years, and in her youth was a fixture at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, but she always yearned for the bluesier tones of her Father’s record collection, full of American artists like Laverne Baker and Etta James and Indigenous Australian artists like No Fixed Address and Archie Roach.

Years later, after touring and recording with many of the mainstays of Indigenous music and developing as a solo artist in her own right, Emma met members of The PutBacks, and finally she found a band with the gritty blues soaked tones she had been looking for. She also found, in PutBacks bassist Mick Meagher, a co-writer and collaborator on the the soul songs she had been waiting a lifetime to write and sing. The results are well worth the wait and hopefully, only mark the beginning of this oh-so-right collaboration.

Buy Vinyl/CD/Digital

Emma Donovan & The PutBacks - Voodoo

Emma Donovan & The PutBacks - My Goodness

Emma Donovan & The PutBacks - Black Woman

Ella Thompson - Sleep Walking

The Meltdown. It’s a bold, brassy, twangy steam train of bumping backbeats and swinging shuffles. Then there’s that voice. Sweet as honey. The voice is soul, but it’s country too and something else indefinable; like you heard it before but don’t know where… Introducing Better Days, The Meltdown’s first release on HopeStreet Recordings.

There’s a fair chance you haven’t heard that voice before, because for the last few years Simon Burke has been flying small planes out of small airfields in the dusty backcountry and taking refuge from the hustle and grind of the music business to raise a young family. The time off has been fruitful. A lifetime of writing and experience is condensed into a golden set of songs and a killer new band, The Meltdown, which Simon formed in collaboration with saxophonist and arranger Lachlan McLean. Great vibe, great players, great sound, but it’s the songs that are king here.

There are a lot of soul revival bands around, but the Meltdown’s angle is different  – Simon and Lachlan are both pretty country and The Meltdown has more than a bit of that Ray Charles country via gospel thing, and a taste of dirty blues in it too. Echoes of towns like Euroa and Avenel, where the boys blew in from, or just artistic license? Either way, if there’s one thing that soul and country can both do for you, it’s songs about heartbreak, so here’s some rippers. Ladies and gentlemen, let us introduce to you the inimitable voice and songwriting of Mr Simon Burke. And yes, in advance, you’re welcome.

BUY VINYL/DIGITAL

The Meltdown - Such A Fool

As heard in season 1, episode 14 of FOX'S ROSEWOOD!

The Meltdown. It’s a bold, brassy, twangy steam train of bumping backbeats and swinging shuffles. Then there’s that voice. Sweet as honey. The voice is soul, but it’s country too and something else indefinable; like you heard it before but don’t know where… Introducing Better Days, The Meltdown’s first release on HopeStreet Recordings.

There’s a fair chance you haven’t heard that voice before, because for the last few years Simon Burke has been flying small planes out of small airfields in the dusty backcountry and taking refuge from the hustle and grind of the music business to raise a young family. The time off has been fruitful. A lifetime of writing and experience is condensed into a golden set of songs and a killer new band, The Meltdown, which Simon formed in collaboration with saxophonist and arranger Lachlan McLean. Great vibe, great players, great sound, but it’s the songs that are king here.

There are a lot of soul revival bands around, but the Meltdown’s angle is different  – Simon and Lachlan are both pretty country and The Meltdown has more than a bit of that Ray Charles country via gospel thing, and a taste of dirty blues in it too. Echoes of towns like Euroa and Avenel, where the boys blew in from, or just artistic license? Either way, if there’s one thing that soul and country can both do for you, it’s songs about heartbreak, so here’s some rippers. Ladies and gentlemen, let us introduce to you the inimitable voice and songwriting of Mr Simon Burke. And yes, in advance, you’re welcome.

The Meltdown - Better Days

The Meltdown - Sweet Water

Immy Owusu's new track Curly Hair captures the rebellious energy of being the ‘weird, troublesome neighbour’ in an otherwise quiet Australian suburb. The song channels the frustration of being misunderstood and judged, and in this case is a direct response to years of nosy neighbors who viewed the artist’s lifestyle and music with suspicion - skewed by sensationalized portrayals of African youth in Australian media. Musically, juxtaposing the message are vibrant highlife melodies and crunchy flavoured rhythmic production by Sensible J (Sampa The Great, Cool Out Sun). Curly Hair is released on Thursday 20th February.

The title is a playful nod to a comment one of Immy’s neighbors made, referring to him as “the curly-haired one”, even though his caucasian housemate had far curlier hair. The song references the neighbor’s complaints about band practices and music, which they described as a fusion of 'Bob Marley, Hip-hop, and heavy metal’, being taken as disruptive to the delicate balance of suburban life. Meanwhile, these same neighbors were perfectly fine revving chainsaws at the crack of dawn on a Sunday.
Immy also recounts various strange moments from his young life, such as the local pastor accusing him of stealing items from the church for 'black magic' or people snooping around his backyard for illicit substances. Ultimately, Curly Hair serves as a kind of break up song, signaling the artist’s departure from his coastal hometown, where the weird and the unconventional felt unwelcome. It’s a call for freedom and self-expression, and a reminder that sometimes leaving is the only way forward.

Immy aka Immanuel Kwabena Dreessens-Owusu grew up in two worlds: the sea bleached lifestyle of the Australian Surf Coast with its rock n roll soundtrack, and the musical heritage of his Ghanaian / Dutch family. Immy’s father Kojo Noah Owusu is one of Australia’s best regarded West African musicians and his grandfather Koo Nimo is a legend of Ghanaian Highlife and Palm Wine music active since the 1960s. From them Immy learned Ashanti music and its instruments, added a fuzz pedal and began to experiment, coining the sound ‘Afrodelik’ or ‘Lo-Fi Highlife'. 

The accompanying music video was created by Swedish animator Freddy Wallin and features Ghanaian rollerblader Samuel Tuffour @arrest_them rollerblading through Immy's family hometown Kumasi.

Immy Owusu - Curly Hair

Immy Owusu - Spiritual War

Born in Kashima, a coastal town in Japan, OjiAji aka Ryotaro Noshiro grew up surrounded by the wisdom and resilience of the women in his family. Now based in Naarm/Melbourne, OjiAji finds his creative voice through music and writing, reflecting on his powerful journey as a Japanese man living life in Australia. Having carved out his space within the scene as a deft jazz/soul guitarist and songwriter in the raw RnB three piece Izy, OjiAji is also an in demand session musician. Today he shares his debut solo single ‘Diamonds’; an understated, soulful, jazzy song which calls to embrace challenges, honor truth, and recognize the brilliance within, proving that with time and pressure we all have the potential to shine. Diamonds is released via Hopestreet Recordings on Thursday 3rd April.

Warm, hollow-body guitar plucked chords open Diamonds, as OjiAji’s relaxed vocals pick out an easily hummable tune. Every verse is punctuated with additional melodies executed by some of Naarm’s leading instrumental practitioners, Hudson Whitlock (Suprise Chef, Karate Boogaloo, The Pro-Teens, Frollen Music Library) on drums, Darvid Thor (Karate Boogaloo, The Pro-Teens, Frollen Music Library) on bass and soaring flute from Nikodimos. Slightly leftfield in nature, there are a handful of sections within the song that will keep you guessing, yet all seem to fit purposely and perfectly. The honeyed vocals of renowned wordsmith Cazeau Oslo (So.Crates) finally make their entrance, wrapping the track up on a funked out jam. With themes of perseverance, cultural unity, and personal growth, the lyrics celebrate the beauty of enduring hardship and staying true to oneself. Accompanying the single is a live video with the band featuring backing vocals by Tiana Khasi and Kee’ahn, filmed by Jamie Barry.

Of the debut single, OjiAji comments, “This song serves as a reflective anthem on authenticity, resilience, and self-discovery, using diamonds as a powerful metaphor for truth and strength under pressure. It explores the contrast between empty promises and genuine integrity, urging listeners to dig deep beneath surface-level allure to uncover what is real and meaningful.”

OjiAji - Love And Company

Owelu Dreamhouse - Oluwasam

Owelu Dreamhouse - Daughters Always Listening II

Owelu Dreamhouse - Okra 4 Bilali

Owelu Dreamhouse - Kellen

Owelu Dreamhouse - Struggle For Kasawa

Owelu Dreamhouse - Realised

Owelu Dreamhouse - Daughters Always Listening I

Owelu Dreamhouse - Owerri Disco

Owelu Dreamhouse - Yellow Trumpet

From sharehouse, to rave space, to studio, the cavernous 7-9 Hope Street, Brunswick is one of the few creative warehouses to remain in an inner city suburb rising sky high. In 2009 a recording experiment began which was the seedling of Hopestreet Recordings, who survive there to this day. The label was founded by Bob Knob of The Bombay Royale, Tristan Ludowyk of The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra and Tom Martin of The Putbacks. In the early days, everyone who worked in the office was also making the records. Early 7” singles with ‘a super nice vibe’ became record box staples owned by those who loved crusty instrumental funk, soulful vocals and that unmistakable sound of a band in a room making music. The label has been a home and a launchpad for luminaries including The Bombay Royale, Emma Donovan & The Putbacks, The Meltdown and Ella Thompson among many others. Fast forward to 2025 and the project’s catalogue is now 50 records deep, nurturing the wider community who make soul/RnB/funk/ Latin/Bollywood psychedelia and more. 

This year Hopestreet Recordings turns ‘sweet’ sixteen, a milestone for an artist-run micro label. In what was once the truest statement of young love, Hopestreet presents the world with a mixtape of hits and deep cuts and brand new edits and remixes from the vault: crunchy MPC reimaginings by beat maker/producer Sensible J on one side, and a seamless all-vinyl DJ mix from musician and record connoisseur Lachlan Stuckey of Surprise Chef and College of Knowledge.

The ‘Sensible Side’ of the mixtape opens with a boom bap MPC edit of the original 7” ‘Suicide’ released by Zillanova in 2013. Ella Thompson’s haunting vocals from album title track ‘Domino’ are cut up and looped as a bed for verses from Nfa and young Melbourne up and comer Billali.  RnB duo Zretro’s ‘Superpower’ is turned into a stripped back guitar focused jam with J’s live drum kit flair. Emma Donovan and The Putbacks’ ‘Voodoo’ from the debut ‘Dawn’ is given the same stripped back treatment, allowing Emma’s vocals to permeate. 

“Most of the project was done in the late hours of the night, listening through my collection of Hopestreet Records, chopping with the MPC 2500. A lot of it was spur of the moment, with no rules or formal song structures. I really had fun.” Sensible J reflects. “Today we give thanks for 16 years of this great church of funk called Hopestreet. If it weren't for the lessons I learnt from those most learned professors The Putbacks, The Cactus Channel, Karate Boogaloo and the rest, I might be today hopelessly trapped in the clutches of outright unfunkiness.” from Stuckey.

Zillanova, Sensible J - Welcome Home

Zretro, Sensible J - Superpower (Sensible J Remix)

BUY LP/CD http://www.hopestreetrecordings.com/releases/the-meltdown-lp/

The Meltdown announce the release of their self titled debut albumOUT 7th APRIL, 2017 The Meltdown, Melbourne’s purveyors of the finest country soul, are delighted to announce the release of their self-titled debut album on 7th April, 2017 through HopeStreet Recordings. Blending country, gospel and 60s soul, the result is a unique take on Australian soul music and a record full of life, energy and deeply felt storytelling.  

With influences ranging from Father John Misty, Tedeschi Trucks Band and Alabama Shakes built above a steady foundation of southern soul music, this collection of stellar players have created a mesh of Stax and Motown with a healthy dose of the Nashville songwriting tradition. Making the song the focus, The Meltdown stay true to the common goal of the story and keep your attention on the honey soaked tones of Simon Burke's incredible voice.  

After the success of the first two singles, ‘Colours In The Sky’ and ‘Don’t Hesitate’ the debut album is now highly anticipated. Since the release of the 2015 EP, 'Better Days', the band have been honing their songs and sound on the Australian festival circuit, with appearances at Queenscliff Music Festival, Mullum Music festival, Caloundra Music Festival, AWME and Summer of Soul. They have clocked hundreds of thousands of streaming hits worldwide and are featured in the soundtrack of US cable show Rosewood. Recorded at Sing Sing, the album will be released digitally as well as on CD and vinyl LP and celebrated with an East Coast Tour in May 2017. 

“These songs have elegance and grace but also grit under their nails. Clothed in classic soul but accessorized by unique flourishes that thrill. Breaks my black heart.” - Tim Rogers 

“Simon Burke has always known how to write a great tune!” - Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos/Double J)

“Dial back the tempo and let The Meltdown soothe you like only Sam Cooke or Solomon Burke could. This Melbourne ensemble has the sound and the conviction to help you reconcile your ways - softly and sweetly.” - Nick Rodwell (4ZZZ)

“I’ve followed The Meltdown’s career over the last few years, both as a dynamic live act and as a recording ensemble and they never fail to deliver! They swing, they groove, they rock and they roll, filling dance floors and spreading an irresistible vibe.” - Brian Nankervis (Rockwiz/ABC Local)

Simon Burke - Vocals/Keyboard
Lachlan Mclean - Sax 
Eamon Mcnellis - Trumpet 
Anton Dellecca - Sax  
Hugh Harvey - Drums  
Mick Meagher - Bass 
Tom Martin - Guitar 
Chantal Mitvalsky & Hailey Cramer - BVs

The Meltdown

BUY LP/CD

Slow Fever

Better Days

Buy LP/CD

Crooked Country

STREAM FULL ALBUM / BUY LP & CD / TOUR DATES http://hopest.re/StayAWhileLP

The Cactus Channel’s new single “Leech” takes the orchestrated soul futurism that has become their signature sound and adds silvery vocal dimensions, as the band’s own Lewis Coleman steps up to the mic. The song’s emotionally potent lyrics evoke the wrestling that arises internally with the feelings that linger after a breakup. As Lewis elucidates, “Leech” is about “those feelings that don’t go away, and pop up at unexpected times. When something shifts inside, but even your best friends wouldn’t know; your mood is instantly altered, even if you can walk back into the room and nobody notices it externally.” The band has recently shared the video for their first single “Storefront” and announced a huge national tour and an October residency at Melbourne’s The Night Cat.

Stay A While

Leech

Pre-Order LP

The Cactus Channel - Leech

Three is the magic number for The Cactus Channel. The ever-evolving Melbourne collective’s third album represents a new consciousness and a decisive turning point. Unloosed from their earlier incarnation as an instrumental soul and funk band into something wilder, a little darker and heavier, the new album sees The Cactus Channel diving in deep to dreamlike soundtracks, electrifying wig-outs and woozy meditations.

There were signifiers along the road; a boundary-splintering EP with  Ball Park Music  singer Sam Cromack last year, following a 7” single collab with Nick Murphy, released as  The Cactus Channel feat. Chet Faker . These outings were a glimpse of the alchemy of adding vocals to the band’s typically intuitive, instrumental arrangements. And now with the band’s own Lewis Coleman stepping up to the mic, a vocal dimension has become part of The Cactus Channel’s fully formed, signature sound.

This new embodiment of The Cactus Channel is of the cultural moment, akin to the vibrational path-crossing of fellow travellers such as Badbadnotgood, Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Menahan Street Band. The band flexes their classic soul and funk influences whilst expanding their own songwriting along psychedelic paths, adding weight and substance to their melodic and rhythmic axis.

Looking back to when The Cactus Channel formed in high school, united by shared interests and a shared sense of humour, they were always set to walk this new path. A love of soul music and the kind of hip hop, jazz, and alternative releases that spring from it, meant that from the beginning The Cactus Channel have prided themselves not just on eclecticism, but on the constant sharing of influences among their members; exploring new influences and sonic territories.

The Cactus Channel - Stay A While

STREAM FULL ALBUM / BUY LP & CD / TOUR DATES http://hopest.re/StayAWhileLP

Three is the magic number for The Cactus Channel. The ever-evolving Melbourne collective’s third album represents a new consciousness and a decisive turning point. Unloosed from their earlier incarnation as an instrumental soul and funk band into something wilder, a little darker and heavier, the new album sees The Cactus Channel diving in deep to dreamlike soundtracks, electrifying wig-outs and woozy meditations.

There were signifiers along the road; a boundary-splintering EP with  Ball Park Music  singer Sam Cromack last year, following a 7” single collab with Nick Murphy, released as  The Cactus Channel feat. Chet Faker . These outings were a glimpse of the alchemy of adding vocals to the band’s typically intuitive, instrumental arrangements. And now with the band’s own Lewis Coleman stepping up to the mic, a vocal dimension has become part of The Cactus Channel’s fully formed, signature sound.

This new embodiment of The Cactus Channel is of the cultural moment, akin to the vibrational path-crossing of fellow travellers such as Badbadnotgood, Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Menahan Street Band. The band flexes their classic soul and funk influences whilst expanding their own songwriting along psychedelic paths, adding weight and substance to their melodic and rhythmic axis.

Looking back to when The Cactus Channel formed in high school, united by shared interests and a shared sense of humour, they were always set to walk this new path. A love of soul music and the kind of hip hop, jazz, and alternative releases that spring from it, meant that from the beginning The Cactus Channel have prided themselves not just on eclecticism, but on the constant sharing of influences among their members; exploring new influences and sonic territories.

Storefront

Pre-order LP/CD

The Cactus Channel - Storefront

Artist: The Cactus Channel
Release: Emanuel Ciccolini / Budokan
Formats: 7” vinyl record (45rpm) / digital
Cat: HS006
Release Date: March 2012

The kids from The Cactus Channel are finally Legal! One year after their debut vinyl release turned funk and breaks lovers worldwide on their heads, Australia’s baddest High School band have come of age. Recorded under maximum pressure in the final months of their secondary education, the new release is cooking with all kinds of gas. The musicianship, and writing on this record is superior, the production ruffer and tuffer, and with a full length LP only a few months away, Emanuel Ciccolini/Budokan is just a taste of the badness to come.

Emanuel Ciccolini - Named for guitarist Lewis Coleman’s Italian Grandfather, you can imagine the original Emanuel was a very bad man. This is some sinister, high-octane car chase funk. Think of the getaway scene in a heist movie set in Napoli circa 1974 and you get the idea. Ciao!

Budokan – Let’s not beat around the bush, this is makeout music. This B side is as smooth as the A-side is tuff. If teenage pimping on a waterbed was a song, it would be this song. The lowdown tempo and fat drums take it where it needs to go. Who knew teenagers could do it this slow?

The Cactus Channel - Emanuel Ciccolini

Cat: HS007
CD/Digital Released: April 2012 (AU/NZ), May 2012 (Worldwide)
Gatefold LP Released: May 2012 (Worldwide)
Format: 12" Vinyl, CD, Digital
Label: HopeStreet Recordings
Web: www.hopestreetrecordings.com

The Bombay Royale are dedicated to bringing music and mayhem of vintage Indian cinema back to the future, where it belongs. Their debut album You Me Bullets Love is a blend of haunting Hindi and Bengali vocals, pulsing deep funk and disco breaks and shimmering surf-a-delica. Expect huge horn riffs, wild spaghetti guitar, bustling tabla, screaming organs and all the synthesizers, sitars and strings that made the music of 1960s and 1970s Bollywood so electrifying. Starring vocalists Parvyn Kaur Singh as "The Mysterious Lady" and Shourov Bhattacharya as "The Tiger," You Me Bullets Love is the soundtrack to a story of espionage, excitement, extended dance sequences and the eternal power of true love. 

The golden age of Bollywood was a riot of saturated color and dramatic excess and the music that accompanied it was unmatched in bizarre experimentation, deep sophistication and outright funky badness: a treasure trove for sample hungry hiphop heads and secretive, vinyl-obsessed funk collectors.  Musical director Andy Williamson ("The Skipper") formed The Bombay Royale to bring the hidden musical gems of that lost era out into the light.  The originators, people like R.D Burman, Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi are still household names in India, but largely unknown in the outside world. The Bombay Royale is here to rectify that situation. You Me Bullets Love is for the neophytes and enthusiasts alike, a combination of vibrant original material and vintage Hindi superhits. Available on Gatefold LP, CD and digital worldwide, You Me Bullets Love sounds like no other record you will buy this year. 

Download the title track for free from www.hopestreetrecordings.com/ymbl

Buy on iTunes

The Bombay Royale - You Me Bullets Love

The Bombay Royale - Jaan Pehechan Ho

The Putbacks - Little Flower

Pre-order album ~ https://hopest.re/NamingAndBlaming

The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra (The POAO) release ‘Fight So Hard’, the first single from their long-awaited second album ‘Naming & Blaming’. Recorded with the full POAO 17 piece ensemble, Fight So Hard is a simmering slow burn with MC One Sixth trading rap verses with singers Kuukua and Lydia Acquah, Fem Belling and Lamine Sonko. In true afrobeat tradition the album version clocks in at a trance-inducing nine minutes long! (Radio edit supplied for those on a tighter schedule). The vocals are broken up with heavy brass sections and extended instrumental improvisations while the understated rhythm section bubbles away without pause or deviation.

Available everywhere on all formats on November 30th, the ‘Naming & Blaming’ album is a pulsing, percussive journey into classic afrobeat led by fierce vocals and a howling horn section. It’s a fitting 21st-century response to the world-shaking music of 1970s Nigeria defined by Fela Kuti. The result is true to the afrobeat blueprint of hypnotising rhythm, extended improvisation and political comment, but adds to the formula a host of pan-African and local influences as well as hip-hop elements that reflect the deep ranging roots of the band. This balance is what The POAO is all about, paying respects to the culture while keeping their feet planted in the 21st century.

Naming & Blaming

Pre-order Album

The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra - Fight So Hard

"Tightly thundering funk from the Oz scene" - DUSTY GROOVES, USA
"Infectiously funky sounds... Haptics is destined to be a horn-fuelled, butt-shaking affair" - triple j HOME & HOSED
"Dangerously funky" - INPRESS
"Super dope instrumental funk" - Chris Gill, NORTHSIDE RECORDS / 3RRR
"The soul revival is alive & well in Melbourne & The Cactus Channel are its newest, youngest champions" - BEAT

Hear that sound? Raw, loose and nasty funk, recorded straight to analog tape. It’s just like the old days, but so new it’s sporting a badass teenage moustache. Now that Melbourne funk sensation The Cactus Channel have graduated high school, they’re taking their own brand of high-octane, instrumental car chase funk and smooth soundtrack soul to the people with their debut, Haptics. On the road and on the airwaves, 2012 is the year The Cactus Channel come of age. 

Back in 2009, the founding members of The Cactus Channel were already jamming on some classic soul feels, tripping on Eddie Bo, James Brown and their contemporaries, and using words like “Boss” and “Cat” while trying make it through year 10 in 21st Century Australia. What began as experimentation in Junior Stage Band developed into outright insubordination in Senior Jazz Ensemble and by 2011 The Cactus Channel were an out of control ten piece funk orchestra with the momentum of a runaway train who could count The Dap Kings’ Tom Brenneck and soul legend Charles Walker as fans. 

How did members of the iTunes generation get on to those rare and deep seventies sounds at the age of 14? The internet, of course! Also, who really cares? It works! No matter what year it is, or sounds like it is, these records are great. From triple j Unearthed to FatBeats Records in NYC, people all over the place love this band.  

The Cactus Channel deliver on all their precocious promise with this super heavy full length debut LP. Haptics is chock full of deep funk, jazzed-up soul and boogaloo hits, all informed by a canny sense of soundtrack-ready drama, loaded with tight, hard grooves and one strong track after another. The Cactus Channel is ready to roll! 

Melbourne launch party: Saturday Aug 4 @ The Toff w/ The PutBacks + DJ Chris Gill. Tickets $12+BF.
The Cactus Channel touring nationally September / October.


The Cactus Channel - The Colour of Don Don

Off the back of their Meredith Music Festival 2019 lineup announcement, Melbourne wonky soul four-piece Karate Boogaloo have shared the second piece from their upcoming ‘KB’s Mixtape No. 2’.

This time KB gives us their flip on Mtume’s disco/R&B slow-jam “Juicy Fruit”. It’s a mid-tempo bounce, mellow and light to the touch with sprinkles of oozy synth and slide-guitar throughout.

Composed around a Linn LM-1 drum machine and recorded in under two hours, Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit” has had a lasting impact on the R&B and hip-hop scene with over 100 listed sample uses of the track. Most famously used in Notorious B.I.G’s 1994 hit “Juicy”, Keyshia Cole’s “Let It Go”,  Warren G’s “This D.J” & in Grand Theft Auto’s radio shows.

Following on from the cult success of ‘KB’s Mixtape No. 1’ - songs that were sampled into your favourite hits -, ‘Mixtape No. 2’ expands this theme with songs from the 80s that were sampled into your favourite hits! Out September 27 via Hopestreet Recordings.

Making up the rhythm section of long-time Melbourne soul favourites The Cactus Channel, KB consistently sit in their own lane – the combination of raw musicianship and sheer time on the clock in the studio and on stage gives them a glowing connection rarely seen. Making records, they follow their own rules; recording and mixing on tape with no plugins and no edits, releasing exclusively in mono. It’s not about anachronism, it’s about the KB manifesto: a chosen set of limitations forcing a specific outcome, an outcome best appreciated through their “KB’s Mixtape” series of LPs.

KB's Mixtape No. 2

Karate Boogaloo - Juicy Fruit

OFFICIAL URL - ​https://hopest.re/LookAround

DANIELLE PONDER &
KARATE BOOGALOO

“Look Around” ​out July 24, 2020 via ​Hopestreet Recordings​.

New York singer and activist ​Danielle Ponder pairs up with Melbourne cinematic soul outfit ​Karate Boogaloo to deliver ​“Look Around,” a haunting reflection on the times we live in. ​“Look Around” was written in the studio with the band in the first days of 2020 when Danielle was in Melbourne, and at the time was conceived as a cry for help in the literal firestorm that was engulfing Australia. As 2020 progressed, the words that came in that moment of inspiration seemed to reflect each of the multiplying calamities this year has presented. When the death of George Floyd ignited indignation across the USA and the world, the lyrics to Look Around could not have been more apropos.

In Danielle’s words: “fires were raging through Australia and smoke covered the sky. It felt like all of our human sins had gotten the best of us and we were paying a price. I didn’t know that when I arrived back home in the U.S, the world would only get darker. I feel like my past self wrote this song for my future self knowing what was to come.” ​This song would help Danielle through what has been one of the most painful times to be Black in America.

Coming from different continents and different backgrounds was no obstacle to Danielle Ponder and Karate Boogaloo forming an immediate musical connection in the studio. Karate Boogaloo is a formidable studio band with years of studious focus learning soul music and its history. The instant connection is obvious on ​“Look Around”, ​as the band and Danielle sound like they’d been playing together for years rather than hours. Black Lives Matter, while being a US based movement, has a strong resonance in Australia where Indigenous people are massively over-represented in prison populations and in fatal interactions with the police. Thus, sales in July and August are going to be donated to the Equal Justice Initiative in the USA and Warriors Of The Aboriginal Resistance in Australia.

Danielle Ponder & Karate Boogaloo - Look Around

Crossover

Emma Donovan & The Putbacks - Yarian Mitji

Emma Donovan & The Putbacks - Hold On

Buy all our vinyl direct from www.hopestreetrecordings.com 
OR https://hopestreetrecordings.bandcamp.com/follow_me

Hopestreet Recordings is an artist-run record label based in Brunswick since 2009. From the humblest of DIY beginnings, this community of musicians, producers and writers has carved out a global niche for their old-school inspired crusty analogue creations. Hopestreet represents the diversity, quality of musicianship and originality of Melbourne’s inner Northern music community, and keeps developing their distinct sound, production approach year to year, and audiences all over are responding.

Hopestreet Recordings

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