HopeStreet Recordings and Zillanova are proud to present a brand new vocal soul 45 starring two of Melbourne’s finest: Cisco Tavares and Jess Harlen. Two very distinct sides showcase the amazing talents of these two guest vocalists as well as the production and songwriting skills of HopeStreet impresarios Bob Knob and Tom Martin and the heavy duty sounds of The Zillanova Rhythm Combination.

On the A side – Cisco sings Suicide. Sweet, sweet sadness shimmers over low slung syncopation and builds to a climactic peak before dropping back to the whisper from which it came. It’s a story of collective rather than individual suicide. Something to tap our toes to while we watch the human race run headlong for self destruction. Do we care? Sure. Enough to change our ways? It seems unlikely. What’s Going On? You might ask, as Marvin once did. Truth is no one knows, or has, or will.

On the flip, Maori/Australian mistress of neo soul magic Jess Harlen gets down but plays it cool over a rocky rhythm track that owes as much to Led Zeppelin as it does to the Meters. The Time It Takes is a song about that moment in a relationship when one person has given all they can and still doesn’t know where they stand. Ouch. It’s a familiar story but delivered with the unshakeable conviction we’ve come to expect from Miss Harlen, the old tale takes on new life.

Zillanova is a studio based project led by bassist and producer Bob Knob. The Zillanova Rhythm Combination, the mighty rhythm section behind hiphoppers Illzilla and Bollywood heart starters The Bombay Royale are joined by reggae don Jake Savona on organ, San Lazaro’s Sebastian Orellana on percussion and The Bombay Royale horn section. Recorded and mixed by Bob Knob and Tristan Ludowyk at the Hope Street Studios in Brunswick, this record is a family affair for the HopeStreet crew. Many hands make light work apparently, but this record is super heavy regardless.

Buy Vinyl/Digital

Zillanova - Suicide (feat. Cisco Tavares)

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

Buy 7" and download "In The Dirt" free from: hopestreetrecordings.com/spanishharlem 

Stop what you’re doing. Lovers of soul, funk, and all the other good grease need to get on this 45 real quick. HopeStreet Recordings brings you a collaboration between Australia’s hottest soul voice, Nai Palm, and Australia’s heaviest rhythm section, The PutBacks, on that classic, classic joint Spanish Harlem. The Worm, a typically heavy PutBacks instrumental on the flip rounds out two smokin’ sides of Burn City soul.  

Jerry Leiber and Phil Spector wrote Spanish Harlem for Ben E King in 1960, but it was Aretha Franklin took it to number one in 1970. In 2013, The PutBacks and Nai put it down one more time on 8 tracks of tape with the production team at HopeStreet Recordings and you sure can take that sucker home on wax, but you’d better be quick. After all – this release has been 50 years in the making. 

The B side on this record is for the B boys. The Worm baby. Lots of songs fade out, but how many fade in? Yeah. That’s real. This kind of lowdown funky break is what the PutBacks really love to put the back in. Ouch. Will someone sample this already so it can go for longer than three and a half minutes?

This record is raucous and rich in the rawness. The drums, bass, and percussion gallop through Spanish Harlem and swagger through The Worm. The guitar and organ howl and huff. Simple production lets the musicians do the talking, and boy, Nai Palm can shout. Sweet layered harmonies over a dirty minimal rhythm track. It’s a new thing, it’s an old thing, it’s a limited pressing and it’s yours at www.hopestreetrecordings.com. 

Also, we do know what year it is so yes, the vinyl does come with a download code for both sides plus a digital version of another PutBacks instrumental – In The Dirt. Value added. Special funky bonus. Get yours. 

FREE Download

The Putbacks - In The Dirt

Izy release They Don’t Care (Yoruba Soul Extended Mix) a raw, deep house reimagining of their 2021 track by legendary producer and DJ Osunlade. Osunlade takes They Don’t Care on a sparse, minimal house journey, clearing the arrangement right out to give bassist and vocalist Warrigo Tyrrell’s vocals room to breathe and float over the pulse. 

One of the world's longest established deep house producers, Osunlade’s touch is minimal and masterful. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri but a lifetime nomad, Osunlade is the founder of Yoruba Records and has worked with and remixed for artists including Patti Labelle, Freddie Jackson, Roy Ayers, Nkemdi, Salif Keita, and Cesária Évora. Osunlade's music has a deep spiritual root in Yoruba traditions that are also reflected in the name of his record label, album covers, and approach to life. 

They Don’t Care (Yoruba Soul Extended Mix) is the first single from Irene - Remixes (Vol I), a collection of dancefloor focused re-workings of Izy’s 2021 album Irene. The remixes take Izy’s raw, soulful vocals and analog production and reconstitutes them in pulsing new arrangements. Vol I of remixes launches as Izy head back into the studio to work on album number two. 

They Don’t Care (Yoruba Soul Extended Mix) is available everywhere on September 29th on Hopestreet Recordings.

Izy, Osunlade - They Don't Care (Yoruba Soul Extended Mix)

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 - Gyara 59

The Bombay Royale - The Bombay Twist

The Bombay Royale - The River

Ella Thompson - To Light The Lantern

Ella Thompson’s Domino is a spooky, bittersweet collection of cinematic soul cuts influenced by 1970s Italian 'Giallo' film scores, with luminous vocals that draw a line between 60s icons like Nancy Sinatra and contemporary soul artists like Kadhja Bonet. Ella’s effortless singing and haunting lyrics paint angular pictures in the moody darkness. In her words: “The original instrumental of the song ‘Domino’ is titled ‘Swimming in a cold lake at night’ this kind of sums up the feeling of many of the songs on the record….seeing light in dark places, freedom and anxiety of the unknown, curiosity, never regretting a swim and the euphoria you get when you come out the other end.”

The sparse production is intentionally cinematic, deeply influenced by the music of Italian ‘Giallo’ film scores of the 1970s, particularly by composers like Piero Piccioni but comparable to current artists like Adrian Younge or Bad Bad Not Good in a meditative mood. Minimal but propulsive bass and drums know when to hang back, as they do in the title track and when to step forward as they do in the chugging, deep and funky rhythm section work on the single Never Fight The Way You Feel. Choral vocal textures by Ella’s backing vocalists Rita Stach and Hailey Cramer create deep harmonic backgrounds, sometimes sounding like an epic ensemble of voices, sometimes laying down ethereal and delicate parts, almost imperceptible. Nylon string guitar features prominently, creating hypnotic chordal beds as sparse piano and tuned percussion pick out minimal, evocative melodies. 

All the instrumentation used in Domino was created by Frollen Music Library, a library music project by the musicians behind Karate Boogaloo, Henry Jenkins, Hudson Whitlock and Darvid Thor, all long term collaborators and friends of Ella’s. When she heard their take on 1960s and 1970s soundtracks, Ella had an immediate creative response: “My ears lit up when I heard these cinematic melodies, and I couldn’t help but turn them into something else for words and voices.” She recorded all her vocals, and those of her backing singers, with Frollen engineer Henry Jenkins in a two day whirlwind, eschewing perfectionism and striking before the magic of the moment faded. The result is sublime. In Henry’s words: “When I first heard what she had written I was floored. She completely reimagined the instrumental pieces of music we had composed and took them to new heights”. 

Ella has returned to making music under her own name in 2023 after years releasing music with her electro pop duo GL and cult indie band Dorsal Fins. One of Australia’s truly accomplished singers, Ella’s range reaches from art music to cinematic soul, jazz and pop. In addition to her solo project and bands she has been a featured artist for numerous acts most notably, deep funk pioneers The Bamboos and Mark Ronson. Domino is available November 3rd through Hopestreet Recordings on Vinyl LP & digital formats.

Ella Thompson - When The Cold Wind Blows

Ella Thompson - Wouldn't It Be Easy

Ella Thompson - Can't Take Back

Ella Thompson - Never Fight The Way You Feel

Ella Thompson - Lotus And The Lily

Ella Thompson - Domino

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

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

Super Limited Edition Vinyl - http://www.hopestreetrecordings.com/kfp

After stealing the hearts of soul fans everywhere through their ongoing collaboration with Emma Donovan, The PutBacks return to instrumental music with a brand new 7inch, Kung Fu Pyramids b/w Snake Eyes. For the fighters, Kung Fu Pyramids is a slice of dark, guitar-driven, psychedelic, martial arts funk. For the gamblers, the brooding downtempo minimalism of Snake Eyes is an ode to the joys of Mia, dice game of champions.

This 45 is only available in a limited, hand-numbered run of 150 copies, exclusive to the HopeStreet Recordings website. Released to coincide with Emma Donovan & The PutBacks AWME showcase and independent record label week, copies sell and ship in numbered order from 9am on Tuesday November 10th. No preorders, no holds, no favors and no exceptions. Get yours.

Buy Vinyl / Digital

The PutBacks - Kung Fu Pyramids

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 - Over And Over

The Cactus Channel - Look Behind You

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

The Cactus Channel - Stop Me

The Cactus Channel - And Then They Rubbed Their Tired Eyes

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

Buy LP / CD / Digital album ~ http://hopest.re/LeisureCentre

Melbourne R&B slow jammers (and heart throbbers) Leisure Centre (FKA The Do Yo Thangs) are proud to release ‘Sucka’, the second cut taken from their long-awaited debut album, Mind Full. Sucka’s bouncy 90s synth-funk meets new jack era R&B sound is the perfect end to the 2018 Australian summer. 

Drummer, songwriter and producer Hugh Rabinovici says, “It’s about those super fun/exciting early stages of falling for someone - The kind of sitch where it’s out of your control and you’re just dumb in love”. Audrey Powne delivers a storming lead vocal supported by silky harmonies and a pumping rhythm section.

Out 20 July, the Mind Full album sits on a darker and more electronic plane to their previous EP, taking their staple of 808 kick drums and tight vocal harmonies into almost Little Dragon-esque territory. Mind Full is a tour of extremes, from the sparse minimalism of title track to the exuberant maximalism of ‘Sucka’. 

‘Sucka’ is out March 1st on all digital platforms (except here!) through HopeStreet Recordings, with album pre-sales open now! Expect more sweet lead vocals, more stacked harmonies, more live instrumentation, more electronica, more digital, more analogue, more bump, more grind and more vibe.

Mind Full

Sucka

Buy / Pre-Order Album

Leisure Centre - Sucka

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 - No Bench

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

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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.

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