Jamil Rashad, who performs under the name Boulevards, loves the word brother. For him it’s a greeting, a spoken handshake, a verbal high five with his listener. “Growing up, I would see my father interacting with other African American men, using that word as a greeting. What’s up, brother? Brother, let me talk to you. That’s what they said a lot in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but you don’t hear it as much now. It’s such a great word.” That word inspired a new song simply called “Brother!” a slow-motion funk groove with the gravity of the blues, the ebullience of gospel, and the socially conscious sentiments of Sly Stone singing “Stand!” or James Brown saying it loud, “I’m black and I’m proud.” It’s a song that draws on pop history but speaks to our troubled present. “It’s smooth,” says the Raleigh, North Carolina, artist, “but it’s rough around the edges. Smooth but raw—that’s what Boulevards is.”

When it came time to find a title for his new EP—about race and reckoning in America, about broken hearts and self-inflicted suffering—Rashad couldn’t get those two syllables out of his head. That word became his way of getting your attention and addressing his songs to you specifically, and he added an exclamation point to make his message sound all the more urgent and excited. “I wanted people to listen to these songs and think, He’s speaking directly to me. When you’re a fan of music, you want that feeling. You want the performer to talk to you.”

Brother! represents a pivotal moment for Rashad. It’s his first release for the New West Records imprint Normaltown Records, for one thing. It’s also his first time working with Blake Rhein, guitarist for the midwestern soul revival outfit Durand Jones & the Indications. More than any of that, however, it’s a culmination of several years of writing and playing and touring and recording as Boulevards. During that time he has earned a reputation as an eclectic synthesist of sounds and styles as well as an electric performer whose set at the 2015 Hopscotch Festival cemented his status as one of North Carolina’s most thrilling young artists. He followed it up with a string of adventurous albums that drew on old soul and funk sounds but sounded fresh. 

“I had to make those other records to get to this point,” he says, noting that Brother! signals a shift toward a heavier, funkier, but no less idiosyncratic sound. It’s not a reinvention, but something like an expansion of what Rashad can say and do as Boulevards. To help make his ideas a reality, he reached out to Rhein on social media after being impressed with the Chicago-based instrumentalist’s mastery of different musical forms. The pandemic made it impossible to travel or work together in person, but they traded ideas and recordings over email. “He understands the funk,” says Rashad, “and he’s a music nerd like me. He immediately understood the sound I was going for and what I wanted to do, and he pushed me to do some things that I’ve never really done on a record.”

The songs they created draw on the albums Rashad heard growing up. His father was a radio DJ at 88.9 WSHA in Raleigh, which meant there were always records spinning at home: early Funkadelic, Sly Stone, Rick James, Curtis Mayfield, and Shuggie Otis, among others. “My dad put me on to that music, and I’ve always been attracted to those artists. Not just the sounds, but the styles—how those Black men dressed, how they presented themselves onstage, how they posed in photos, the whole aesthetic. That’s who I was inspired by, but I wanted to make it my own, make it Boulevards.”

I am a musician, i love what i do, music  is my life...🥰🎶

https://soundcloud.com/darrenbartlett For more.

~ A friendly late night hi-fi party ~
Audiophile party | Sound system | Record label
DJ duo of @joilafrique + @nonnafab
Bookings: will@thefinaagency.com

PROGRESSIVE AIN’T PROGRESS....
AND PROGRESSIVE AIN’T HOUSE! 

I’ve been into the music scene and dj'ing for almost 25 years now and have a great love of all things House & Disco and everything in between!

Collecting vinyl started as a hobby at a very young age and over the years developed into a real passion.  The opportunity to share this passion for the first time came in the early 2000's at a local club called Jaks Bar which I played regularly.

Experiencing many events around the world, such as Soul Heaven, Hard Times, Southport Weekender, SunceBeat, The Manor Born and early Shindig events amongst other local gigs. 
Inspired by some of the best DJ’s such as Tony Humphries, Frankie Knuckles, Masters At Work, Kerri Chandler and Spen & Karizma this helped build a solid foundation of musical knowledge.

Throughout my career I have played at various bars, clubs, festivals, boat parties and exhibitions around the North East and the UK and also played a couple of times overseas in Berlin.

Within this time I’ve had the honour to play alongside some of my favourite artists and producers such as Joey Negro, Dimitri from Paris, Dj Spen, Kenny Carpenter, CJ Mackintosh, John Morales, Danny Rampling and Brandon Block as well as live artists such as Tortured Soul, Angie Brown, Alison Limerick and Lovely Laura.

DJ Master Said is always looking for perfection when it come to mix tracks flawlessly, avoiding "easy" beats on beats mixing and looking for melody, harmony and creativity in the mix which can take a lot of time for preparation/realization. You may notice that some of the tracks in the sets are edited to avoid unnecessary repetitive parts and some have an added beat to give it more energy...

DJ Master Saïd entered the world of DJing in 1978 with his then best friend, Marco Capitani, in the middle of the disco era...In the summer of 1983 he entered the Club Mediterannée, the French corporation of vacation resorts, as a teacher of computer programming/gaming (on Atari) and that's where he got the name "Master Saïd". Spending all his nights at the discotheque he soon switched his job to DJ and the name remained...
Till 1990 he performed around sunny and snowy Europe and Africa (Dakar) seven nights a week ! He then lived for 2 years in Marrakech, spinning records at The Byblos and The Diamant Noir...
It was then time to settle down and he then became a records shop manager back home in Brussels. 
He now mix at home with Traktor and his computer or on his two Denon SC5000 Prime for his own pleasure and the one to share it all around the world thanks to the web.

He now work in a Hi-Fi shop in Brussels 
https://www.hdfullconcept.be

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