Le monde c'est grand

mood

just groove

Viva Disco

tropicalsoul playlist: the man from c&a

Creative Source - Migration

From the liner notes of our 2-disc Ebo Taylor retrospective, Life Stories:

Ebo acknowledges the influence of US jazz rockers Blood Sweat & Tears and
– less obviously, perhaps – Deep Purple on this easy going mid-tempo
piece, written a few years before it was recorded, when Osibisa and
various ‘blaxploitation’ themes were hip. “I was trying to fuse rock and jazz together with highlife,” Ebo recalls. “This kind of music was ahead of its time – not very popular when we recorded it!”

Life Stories

Peace On Earth

Ebo Taylor- Peace On Earth

From the self-titled album 'Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band,' out June 15th on Strut. 

iTunes: http://geni.us/PatThomasKwashibu
Strut Store: http://bit.ly/PatThomasStrut

From the album liner notes:
‘Gyae Su’ is a rearrangement of an older song, with a guitar concept typical of the classic Kwa or Kumasi bands and an overall tropical style. Ebo Taylor’s horn arrangements evoke the classic Afro-funk vibe that he originally made famous. The lyrics are as catchy as they are plaintive, with Thomas comforting the listener, “Don’t cry! Life has its ups and downs. Just take it easy and don’t shed any tears.”

More from Strut:
https://www.facebook.com/StrutRecords
http://www.strut-records.com

Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band

Gyae Su

Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band - Gyae Su

A2 ONYE ORIRI - Imo Brothers International Band Of Iwerri

From the 2008 album "Sun People" remixed by Tal M Klein... Getting Ismael Kouyate back in the studio soon! 

https://wonderwheelrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/wonderworld-10-years-of-painting-outside-the-lines-mix

Buy direct on Bandcamp

N'Dini by Nickodemus feat Ismael Kouyate (Tal M Klein Remix)

"This Egyptian jazz funk hidden treasure from Magdy El Hossainy called 'Music De Carnaval' was officially repress by our our friends from Pépite records in France on 7"
We decided to turn this 1972 gem into a dance-floor nugget. Hope you enjoy!"

https://soundcloud.com/discothequefantastique
https://www.facebook.com/discothequefantastique

Download

Music De Carnaval (Discotheque Fantastique Rework)

Mulatu Astatké - Yèkatit

Hotmood bringing that funky feelgood stuff we've come to love so much!

Grab yourself some Solar Cuts: https://goo.gl/EHavLb

Hotmood:
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FB: https://goo.gl/UWLPkz
SC: https://goo.gl/1Ub3Mt
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PREMIERE: Hotmood - Feeling Good

French producer Yann Polewka makes his debut on Roots For Bloom with his 'Toute La Vie' EP. Blending funky basslines with carefree vocal samples, the title track had us drifting off to a sunny setting in no time.

Yann Polewka:
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FB: https://goo.gl/Es9qSw
SC: https://goo.gl/zxtyFT
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Roots For Bloom:
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FB: https://goo.gl/3zkTtG
SC: https://goo.gl/4m3b6R
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Follow Listen Closely on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/listencloselycollective
or drop us a line at listencloselycollective@gmail.com

<3

PREMIERE: Yann Polewka - Toute La Vie Pour S'Aimer [Roots For Bloom]

He's been making waves together with Black Loops lately,  after releasing their recent EP for Toy Tonics, and now Italian DJ & producer Innocent Soul is launching his new Strictly Street Sound imprint.
'Jelosy' get's the first release going, and it will certainly do the same to your weekend.

This one is expected to hit the record stores soon.

Strictly Street Sound
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FB: https://goo.gl/96YPUZ
SC: https://goo.gl/tgLq9F
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Innocent Soul
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FB: https://goo.gl/9HWFkr
SC: https://goo.gl/KLXL3V
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Get in touch with us at listencloselycollective@gmail.com

<3

PREMIERE: Innocent Soul - Jelosy [Strictly Street Sound]

from the album Chris Orrick "Portraits"
available May 4, 2018 on Mello Music Group

production by Exile, Nolan The Ninja, L'Orange, Onra, Bruce Wain, Samarei, Calvin Valentine, and Apollo Brown.

featuring Fashawn & Verbal Kent (of Ugly Heroes)

photography by Jeremy Deputat
graphic design by Linda Fung
mixed by Magnetic
mastered by Joe Hutchinson

Sounds Beautiful Like The Truth
Mello Music Group, 2018

Portraits

Bottom Feeders (feat. Fashawn)

Chris Orrick - Bottom Feeders (feat. Fashawn / prod. Exile)

Enjoy this premiere with @dummymag 
http://www.dummymag.com/new-music/premiere-fahrland-5-4

Fahrland - Mixtape Vol. 1 is out friday, April 13: https://KompaktRecords.lnk.to/FahrlandMixtapeVol1SD

Mixtape Vol. 1

Fahrland - 5/4

out now: https://KompaktRecords.lnk.to/FahrlandMixtapeVol1SD

To those familiar with the output of Cologne-based imprint Firm from back in the early ‘00s, the name of Geiger, alias Nass, shall undoubtedly ring a bell. Herald of an hedonistic melange of funk- soaked electro pop and guitar-riddled synth music, sitting somewhere close to acts like Ween and Junior Boys, Alexander Geiger is about to break a eight-year hiatus with the drop of his debut album under the newly-founded moniker of Fahrland. A release that both encompasses a healthy dose of the discoid tropes from the Firm era but also aspires to split with a segment of it, geared towards exploring further undisclosed fringes of his shape-shifting sound universe, ‘Mixtape Vol.1’ is the fruit of a decisive move from the sleepless Berlin to the peaceful countryside landscapes of Fahrland – a lushly forested area near Potsdam which you’ll have understood played an essential role in Geiger’s longed-for return. Versatile and inclusive, the album sweeps a polyamorous gamut of styles and tempos like an answer to the virtual prisons that inhibit us on a daily basis, straying away from normative standards and classic full-length calibration as a result. Instead weaving a singular narrative course, clear from all type of shackles and chains, Geiger navigates on sight, reflecting on notions as wide and universal as freedom, friendship and love across a multiversal patchwork of sounds and feels. From the languid sexy vibe of ‘Beggin’, ‘Plastic People’ and ‘Yesterday’ – all three featuring the sensual whispers of multi-talented vocalist and artist MZ Sunday Luv, through the heavily vocodized, chip- implemented groove of I AM ROBOT - reminiscent of Telex and Space Art, balearic jazz & rap shine of ‘Sky So High’, smokey lounge ambience of ‘L AND H’ onto broader ambient-friendly spans such as ‘Suspension’, ‘Windshield Gently Wipers’ and the smooth, sun-basking closer ‘Get Down’, each track holds a fragile cocooned world at its heart.

Fahrland - Yesterday Feat Mz Sunday Luv

No one confronts the abyss better than Chris Orrick. The Michigan ex-factory worker formerly known as Red Pill has spent the last half-decade documenting industrial decay, familial pain, and struggles with addiction better than almost anyone inhabiting this poisoned soil. It’s somewhere between Charles Bukowski and Michael Moore, or maybe Atmosphere if he couldn’t ignore the arsenic in the air. 

As Orrick tells it, “Portraits,” his latest album for Mello Music Group is a return to form. 

“I tried to strip everything down to what I think I'm best at: simple, concise portraits of who I am,” Orrick says. “Whether that be finding myself through self-portraits, portraits of everyday workers, portraits of the current political moment or portraits of myself told through the eyes of people I encounter daily.” 

From the corroded arteries of the blue-collar heartland, Orrick emerges as one of the most incisive and savage critics of Trump’s America. If the American dream is dead, he unflinchingly lays the blame on avaricious corporations, crude demagogues, and structural racism. There’s nothing polemical about it: just warm-hearted, sad-eyed, gin-flooded depictions of a life where there are few right answers but a litany of wrong ones. 

The Michigan native is an acerbic poet, but too unpretentious and sarcastic to ever call himself that. In his love letter to his long-time girlfriend (“Lazy Buddies”), Orrick fantasizes about the pair decamping to a town an hour outside of Paris, where they can blissfully split a bottle of cheap wine. Then he mocks himself for being a little corny. But that’s part of its charm—through his ruthless honesty, we can see ourselves as we actually are—prone to idle delusions, indolence, and self-obsessed. 

“Portraits can often be overlooked, but there are so many details in the face that tell innumerable stories about what the person portrayed might have been feeling or going through,” Orrick continues. “I'm trying to find those details, within myself and within America today." 

On “Anywhere Instead,” he grouses about how most days he doesn’t want to leave his bed until noon, staring at his phone, wishing for imminent death. It’s a nothing matters, gallows humor that anoints him a laureate of existential dread. He captures the terror of the void, the ambiguity of not knowing where or when your next direct deposit will hit. He’s wise enough to understand how little he understands, allergic to cheap irony or forced symbolism. As he points out on stories, “not every story has a meaning, not every moment has a reason, sometimes you just let the music play and tell you what to say.” 

It’s obvious how loudly the music speaks to Orrick, who is rarely short of opinions or serrated observation. The somber piano-based melancholy and rugged drums of “Portraits” thump via a gifted arsenal of producers including Nolan the Ninja, L’Orange, Exile, Apollo Brown, and Onra. Only two guest rappers appear, Fashawn and Orrick’s partner in Ugly Heroes, Verbal Kent. Orrick carries the rest of the weight and you sense the Atlas burden he shoulders. 

But for the all the poignant complaints, there’s a soulful profundity at the core of the album. It goes further than stress over bills, nicotine and liquor compulsions, and a search for deeper revelation. If you can hear a song like “Mom” without slightly crumbling, you might be iron-born. It’s a eulogy for Orrick’s late mother, dead at 45 without seeing her children grow up, without the opportunity to take pride in her son’s ability to realize his dream—however flawed it can occasionally seem. It’s here where you sense the power of these Portraits. They capture the pain that too many of us feel, that manifests itself in so many distinct ways. For a little while, we understand the raw f&cked up complexity of what it means to be a human being in a lunatic world. The portrait is personal, but it’s all of us too. 
credits

Portraits Mp3

The Rubric

Chris Orrick - The Rubric (feat. Verbal Kent) (prod. Calvin Valentine)

Italian imprint Dusky Adriatic celebrating the birth of a new sub-label dedicated to those summery feelgood vibes with the 'Dancing Tramonto Vol. 1 V/A'. This one immediately caught our ear, Scottish producer William Lindsay getting us all worked up for the weekend with 'Rue De Vazon'. Pure disco-infused and filtered fun.

Artist: William Lindsay
Title: Dancing Tramonto Vol. 1 V/A
Label: Dancing Tramonto
Cat#: DTR001
Release Date: 06-2018

* Subscribe for more music: https://goo.gl/tCNU1N
* Listen on Youtube: https://youtu.be/GZ_q70RyNjA
* Buy Release: http://duskyadriatic.com/album/dancing-tramonto-vol-1

William Lindsay:
https://soundcloud.com/williamlindsay

Dancing Tramonto:
https://soundcloud.com/dancingtramonto
https://www.facebook.com/dancingtramonto


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Listen Closely is all about spreading love and good vibrations through music and dance, from house and disco to funk and soul. Cruising through life, supporting upcoming artists and labels while we're at it.

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Dancing Tramonto Vol. 1

Rue De Vazon

Buy on Bandcamp

PREMIERE: William Lindsay - Rue De Vazon [Dancing Tramonto]

A1! The Best Of Acid Jazz

Rassalas

Available on vinyl LP, CD and stream/download https://www.mrbongo.com/products/viva-disco-vinyl-lp-cd

Official Mr Bongo reissue of the ultra-rare Nigerian disco-boogie, ‘Viva Disco’, album from 1980. Originally released on the Afrodisia label, this one is unknown to even the most knowledgable collectors out there.

Tunde Mabadu recorded two albums in the 70’s – ‘Viva Disco’ and ‘Bisu’ as Tunde Mabadu & His Sunrise. Perfect examples of golden-era Nigerian disco & boogie, that still hold their own today.

Licensed from Tunde Mabadu and PMG.

Angelina - Sugar Daddy

African Parowo

Amupara Ko Ma Dara

Disco Press Funk

Alabosi

Beat$tape

Miles Bonny - Donald Byrd

Illvester - Feel Reel (Kon edit)

A musician since the age of six, Ebo Taylor is one of the most achingly honest voices in African music.  His songs have a timeless quality to them, and continue to reach new audiences worldwide.  His album Love And Death on Strut will be his first internationally distributed solo album.  Backed by Berlin's Afrobeat Academy, the album is packed with pure fire from a true original.  Enjoy the title track.  More info at http://www.ebotaylor-loveanddeath.com