Album now available on itunes https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-button-band/id882206634

Clock Or Candle (sample)

Various Events (sample)

Album now available on itunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-button-band/id882206634

It Will Happen To You (sample)

You can buy the Album on Itunes!
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-button-band/id882206634

Half Cal Half Hippo (Sample)

All Animals Are Beautiful (Ruth Goller)

OUT NOW! 

Buy here (Vinyl/CD/Digital) - http://www.thehaggishorns.com/music

The UK’s favourite funk/soul brothers release their long awaited third album “What Comes To Mind” worldwide on October 2nd. This one drops on their own new independent record label Haggis Records and features a host of special guest artists including vocalists Lucinda Slim (Zap Mama), John McCallum (Corinne Bailey Rae band) and John Turrell (Smoove & Turrell), plus New Mastersounds bass player Pete Shand and UK conga/percussion legend Snowboy 

Leeds based Haggis Horns first hit the music scene in 1999 as both a band and brass section, the Horns making their first recorded appearance on The New Mastersounds debut album that year. Featuring some of the finest brass and rhythm section players in the UK, Haggis Horns musicians have played live and recorded with a host of major music artists including Mark Ronson, Corinne Bailey Rae, Lou Donaldson, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Martha Reeves, Jamiroquai, John Legend, Cinematic Orchestra, Morcheeba, Roots Manuva, Finley Quaye and Nightmares On Wax. 

With five singles on UK independent label First Word Records plus two albums (“Hot Damn!” in 2007 and “Keep On Movin’” in 2010), they released their first title on their own Haggis Records in summer 2015, the aptly titled “Return Of The Haggis EP”. 

“What Comes To Mind” is packed full of feelgood funk, soul and boogie that pays homage to the band’s musical heroes of the 1970s - Kool & The Gang, Donald Byrd, The Blackbyrds, The Mizell Brothers, Earth Wind & Fire and of course, the Average White Band. There’s plenty of dancefloor-filling funk for the clubs – “Out Of My Head”, “It Ain’t What You Got”, “I Can’t Stop The Feeling” - plus jazz funk instrumentals like “Return Of The Haggis” where the band get the chance to stretch out and cut loose on the solo sections. For deep soul heads, check the slower tempo gospel tinged vocal track “Give Me Something Better”. British soul past or present doesn’t come much better than this! 

New label. New album. The Haggis Horns have well and truly returned.... 



Craig Charles (BBC 6) - “I love the Haggis Horns. No-one plays funk the way that they do and this album yet again keeps them up there right at the very top. Superb!” 

Greg Boraman (Free Style Records) - "I wish they had signed this to Freestyle" 

Brian J. (Pimps Of Joytime) 

Oliver Korthals (Byte FM - Germany) - "Killer! Will set the dancefloor on fire!" 

Bill Laurance (Snarky Puppy) - "You can always rely on The Haggis Horns to get the party started! Funk at its tightest!" 

Dan Hastie (Orgone) - "The grooves are tight and in the pocket, reminiscent of mid 70's funk and they nailed the production. Sounds like it could be a soundtrack to a period piece film" 

Simon Bartholomew (The Brand New Heavies) - "Superb Production. Pedigree stuff from pedigree musicians. Refreshing the soul, keeping the new soul alive...All power to The Haggis Horns!" 

Corinne Bailey Rae - "Sounds amazing! Some of my favourite musicians are playing on this record and every single one I've learnt something from. Raging grooves!" 

Snowboy - "World class funk from the real Mccoy...Every track a future classic!" 

Eddie Roberts (The New Mastersounds) - "Sounds great, sounds like a party!" 

Keb Darge - "Beautifully crafted, sounding like a lost Roy Ayers/Donald Byrd production, very nice!"

releases 02 October 2015



"What Comes To Mind" - Album Taster

Hey! This is our first single, 'Pioneer'. We really hope you like it! :) 
Have a great day
xx

Pioneer

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Alex Bonney at Coda-Cola studios. Hoxton, London. June 2016

Dallas '68 ---STUDIO DEMO---

When it came out in 1984 the far-out album Sweet Sweet Dreams by Trinidad & Tobago’s Shadow (aka Winston Bailey) was described as “way ahead of its time”. Undeservedly it was panned by critics and, unable to reach markets, disappeared into the dusty record collections of a few music aficionados. Now, more than three decades later that cosmic dance-floor UFO is about to take off again, change all that and set the record straight. Remastered and cut by Frank Meritt at The Carvery the album is truly a masterpiece.

But who is this Shadow behind Sweet Sweet Dreams? Shadow is a man of understated magnitude. A truly enigmatic artist, he first emerged in Trinidad and Tobago during the 1970s, becoming a part of the tapestry of Caribbean music and reinvigorating calypso at the time. Calypso, the indigenous folk music of Trinidad and Tobago, has roots in West African kaiso rhythms, French Creole influences, and the hardships endured by the African slaves brought to Trinbago, whose descendants still use it as a tool for satire, self-expression,  and social commentary. Calypso has also given birth to several other music genres, including soca, with its uptempo beats and festival context. Shadow effortlessly moves between both.

Accoring to Carl "Beaver" Henderson, one of Trinidad's veteran producers; “Shadow broke all the traditional musical rules and made his own and that made him a musical giant. He changed the face of Calypso music in 1974 with the release of "Bassman" a tune in which Bass and magnificent horn line took central stage changing Soca music for ever. What Shadow did with his music was to put calypso on the International Dance circuit, giving it a totally different groove. You could take his music and swing it in any direction; Disco, Pop, Calypso, you name it. His music was different from anything that existed before”. 

This inert creativeness culminated in Sweet Sweet Dreams which was arranged by Shadow and deals with burning and ever-relevant themes like love and the ups and downs of relationships. a surprising fact for someone mainly known for his satirical and political lyrics. It prompted his manager to wonder if Shadow had written the lyrics while in a state of ‘tabanca’ (a word used in Trinidad and Tobago to describe lovesickness). 

Sweet Sweet Dreams was recorded at the legendary SHARC studios, located on a hill in Chaguaramas (near Port of Spain) and despite a fantastic sound and monster Soca-boogie tunes like “Lets get it together”, “Lets Make it Up” and “Way, Way Out” the album was a commercial flop, probably due to the fact that it didn’t sound like anything else coming out of Trinidad & Tobago at the time: It fused a range of different rhythms and new sounds, primarily heavy synth riffs.

Shadow took the album’s lack of success in his stride with usual aplomb:
“When I did Sweet Dreams I expect something could happen. But nothing big happen because I have no big market and no distribution and all this thing now. So I just cool myself and move on to another song. I wasn’t doing just one song. I used to always have plenty songs at the one time. And be writing music”.

What Shadow didn’t realise back then was that the proto-electronic cocktail he had mixed in 1984 would only find the recognition it deserved three decades later. Life has swung full circle: Sweet Sweet Dreams has come true and been elevated to holy grail status becoming one of the most sought-after Caribbean disco records in existence. Asked about this turn around Shadow mused  “I’m trying to understand that part. A lot of people ask me for it over a few years now. But I never give anybody it. That music wasn’t for then. It’s for now”.

Sweet Sweet Dreams

Get the Record

LETS GET IT TOGETHER - SHADOW

recorded at House of Strange. inspired by eddie harris

Krait - organ trio funk

I play and write for my organ trio, and Senegalese/UK collaborators FOFOULAH. * philastevenson@gmail.com *

Krait - organ trio funk

philstevenson