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Voodoo Funk

afro electro, funk & disco

funky

ATFA

We managed to track down Los Issifu himself in Kumasi, Ghana and are releasing this killer 45 licensed directly from the artist himself. This clip has not been restored, the 45 will sound much, much better!

Los Issifu & His Moslems - Idarga Bidi

One of the hottest and most consistent Funk albums ever to be recorded in Nigeria. The whole album is just one killer track after the other and the liner notes are a piece of cultural history that's not to be missed. Vinyl Lp comes with free digital download.

The Freedom Family -Ayentsoo

PURCHASE 'September' by The Claudia Quintet @
AMAZON (digital & physical): http://amzn.com/B00E334JAW
WAYSIDE MUSIC (physical - ships worldwide): http://www.waysidemusic.com/Music-Products/Claudia-Quintet---September__Rune-spc-377.aspx
ITUNES (digital): https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/september/id689003704
BANDCAMP (hi-fi digital): http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/september

Led by Acclaimed Drummer-Composer John Hollenbeck, The Group Offers Brilliant New Pieces Written During & Inspired By The Month of September

Drummer-percussionist and three-time Grammy nominee John Hollenbeck, one of the most distinctive and respected composers in jazz and new music, has created an estimable body of work since the late ’90s with his Claudia Quintet. Hailed by Nate Chinen of the New York Times for their “clockwork intricacy and crisp premeditation ... [striking an] accord between the factions of progressive jazz, classical Minimalism and low-glare experimental rock,” the Claudia Quintet tackles Hollenbeck’s highly demanding works with a wry improvising spirit and a backbone of surging, mesmerizing rhythm.

Following up earlier celebrated releases including What Is The Beautiful?, Royal Toast, FOR, Semi-Formal, and I, Claudia the Claudia Quintet returns with September. In the lineup are two newer players: accordionist Red Wierenga, like Hollenbeck an alum of the Eastman School of Music; and (on four tracks) bassist Chris Tordini, a frequent sub for Claudia’s original bassist Drew Gress. Hugely in-demand as a sideman and an inspired bandleader in his own right, Gress appears on six of the 10 tracks that make up September.

Clarinetist/tenor saxophonist Chris Speed and vibraphonist Matt Moran, both Claudia members from the start, play with stirring virtuosity and give Hollenbeck’s writing a sonorous warmth, balancing its more technical and rocking side. Unorthodox textures, fragmented beats and “bright tones filled with folky allusions and plaintive undercurrents” (Siddhartha Mitter, Boston Globe) continue to define the Claudia Quintet’s unclassifiable output.

The new album, September, pays homage to a time of year when Hollenbeck seeks the isolation and creative focus of artist residencies. In the last dozen years — often in September — he’s spent invaluable time at retreats in places as far afield as Italy, New Mexico and upstate New York. Writes Hollenbeck in the liner notes: “September is a wonderful month and, for me, the equivalent of Thursday, my favorite day of the week which I celebrated in song on the first Claudia Quintet CD!”

Each piece on September has a date followed by a title, and the oldest of them, “12th: Coping Song,” harks back to the nightmarish events of 9/11/2001. The experience “has stuck with me,” writes Hollenbeck, “so much so that I realized I cannot think or see or write down a date in September without those memories coming back to me.” It took years but Hollenbeck finally got the idea “to write music that was somehow tied to other days in September in the hope of trying to rework and transform the traumatic residue through composition. I am especially interested in how, through the simple non-violent act of composition, one can help oneself become a better person, deepen one’s connection to humanity, and create work that can soothe and heal.”

September marks another departure in that Hollenbeck chose “to create music for the Claudia Quintet that could be communicated and performed without the use of written music.” The fact that Hollenbeck taught these labyrinthine pieces to the band largely by ear makes the polish and cohesion all the more astonishing.

About the spirited opener “20th: Soterius Lakshmi” — a reference to WNYC morning reporter Soterius Johnson and NPR midday reporter Lakshmi Singh — Hollenbeck says: “It started out as a rhythm piece, and it sounded to me a little like 1010 WINS (AM New York news radio) or other news themes.” Following that, “9th: Wayne Phases” is named for Wayne Shorter, and inspired initially by “those beautiful short phrases that Wayne plays on Joni Mitchell albums and others, then some of his later abstract tunes,” Hollenbeck explains. “It started out as ‘Wayne Phrases,’ and then thinking of ‘wane’ it became ‘Wane Phases,’ and then it evolved recently to "Wayne Phases." In the end I don’t want the music to sound anything like Wayne [Shorter].”

One particular surprise on September is “29th: 1936 ‘Me Warn You,’” with music written to follow the voice patterns of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as he delivers a historic speech on partisan trickery in Washington. “The FDR speech was passed on to me in September,” says Hollenbeck, “and I immediately loved the message and then the melody. I transcribed it and only later even thought about writing a piece for it. In the end it’s sometimes a setting of the speech and sometimes it uses the speech as part of the band.” Hollenbeck employs the human voice a few tracks later as well, in very different form, on “17th: Loop Piece.” His political and aesthetic aim on “Me Warn You” harks back to his 2000 landmark “The Drum Major Instinct,” inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and intended to be performed entirely in the dark.

The group enters a quieter, contemplative space on pieces like “22nd: Love Is Its Own Eternity,” which Hollenbeck explains as “the end of a long Krishnamurti statement that I found written in a phone booth at the Blue Mountain Center. The tune came from this vibe.” In contrast, with “24th: Interval Dig” we hear the Claudia Quintet firing on every possible cylinder, giving ample room for Wierenga, Moran and Gress to work out as soloists. “The piece was originally called ‘Interval DiG,’” Hollenbeck says. “Using a combo of capital and lowercase letters is something Drew does a lot, and this piece is a feature for him. It’s a written-out feature that is meant to sound like an improvised feature.”

John Hollenbeck maintains many other projects in addition to the Claudia Quintet, including the innovative John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble that has garnered Grammy nominations for its albums eternal interlude (2009) and A Blessing (2005). Hollenbeck also received a Grammy nomination as a composer for the piece “Falling Men,” which appeared on 2010’s Shut Up and Dance, a two-disc collaboration with the Paris-based Orchestre National de Jazz. Hollenbeck took part as a drummer on two other Grammy-nominated albums as well: his mentor Bob Brookmeyer’s Spirit Music (2006) and pianist/composer Jim McNeely’s Group Therapy (2001). His 2009 release Rainbow Jimmies, a marvelous and varied collection of chamber music, features Matt Moran and the entire Claudia Quintet as well, plus guests.

For more information on The Claudia Quintet, see:
www.johnhollenbeck.com - www.theclaudiaquintet.com 

The Claudia Quintet, "September 12th: Coping Song" from 'September' (Cuneiform Records)

Soundway present a very limited vinyl-only re-issue of an obscure LP by the enigmatic Nigerian artist Easy Kabaka Brown. The LP was originally released and recorded by Philips / Phonogram in 1976 and only sold in very small numbers. Musically it's a intriguing mix of mostly Nigerian highlife with a bit of afro-jazz sung in the language of Kalabari from the Delta region of Southern Nigeria.  From the bouncy good times of Belema to the deeper extended afro workout of Agboho this unique album stands out from thousands of others of it's time with a sound of its own that draws on many influences, with Congolese and latin touches to jazz trumpet and psychedelic organ lines.

Easy Kabaka Brown (Opotopo was his nickname) was a versatile and eccentric musician who recorded two full length albums (this is the first) and only a couple of 45s. We at Soundway have deemed this record way too sweet  to be forgotten, only to gradually ebb away and disappear with time. It's a record that will give you a golden, warm feeling. Your toes will tap, your face should smile and it certainly deserves to be heard by far more than only the few hundred people who bought it nearly 40 years ago. Strictly limited to 1000 x 180g vinyl copies and released in a rigid paste-on sleeve, these will not last long so don't sleep!

Pre-order

Easy Kabaka Brown - Belema

Ibibio Sound Machine are set to release their debut LP through Soundway Records. Fronted by British / Nigerian vocalist Eno Williams, they combine elements of West African highlife, disco, post-punk & psychedelic electro soul. Preceded by the pulsating first single 'Let's Dance', ‘Ibibio Sound Machine’ will be released 17th March.

Folk stories, recounted to Eno by her family as a child in her mother's South-Eastern Nigerian Ibibio language form the creative lyrical fabric of the album. A large dose of electronic elements and an approach as influenced by London as much as by West Africa, give the vocals and guitar lines space to breath without being overwhelmed.

From the banging sub-bass of 'Lets Dance' to the spiritual, gospel-tinged notes of the album's opening track 'Voice of the Bird', the band have turned in a dynamic and, at times, beautiful take on modern afro-soul music.

The 8-piece live band made their official live debut at this year's Transmusicales in France and will be a name to look out for in 2014.

PRE-ORDER IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE - OUT 17th MARCH

iTunes: smarturl.it/y860kf
Piccadilly Records: ow.ly/sPLXP 
Amazon UK: ow.ly/sPLtn 
FNAC: ow.ly/sPMdz 
Norman Records: ow.ly/sPMrg
www.soundwayrecords.com/
www.facebook.com/IbibioSoundMachine?fref=ts

Let's Dance (Yak Inek Unek)

from the album "Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument" (ATFA006), out now.
LP/CD/Tape: bit.ly/11HYiSv
MP3: bit.ly/H2pffa
HAILU MERGIA w/ Tony Buck & Mike Majkowski
EUROPE DATES!

03.06. DE Berlin Urban Spree
05.06. PL Warsaw Pardon, To Tu
06.06. UK London Café OTO
07.06. FR Paris Villette Sonique

Hailu Mergia — Ambasel

Follow @edoheart @batida

About the EP: http://www.akwaabamusic.com/countries/nigeria-countries/edoheart-sosomoneycockplease-ep/

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/album/sosomoneycockplease-ep/id717276799
Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/7bWR3AxSiWQoqqaTaMuFWM
Beatport: https://pro.beatport.com/release/sosomoneycockplease/1169315
Deezer: http://www.deezer.com/album/6983905
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FGSJC4G/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp
Traxsource: http://www.traxsource.com/title/249267/sosomoneycockplease

iTunes

Edoheart - Sosomoneycockplease (Mpula's Cuca And Castrol Oil Can Remix)

Milá Melo & Conjunto Dipanda
Kwacha/UNITA
date unknown 
no ref# 
seconda track from the b-side
(a-side is "Kapalandanda" & "Ouo";
first track from b-side is 'Lomué Ondendela')
Composer: Milá Melo

angola45.wordpress.com

Quem Quer a Paz? (Milá Melo & Conjunto Dipanda)

"Teya Teya"
Tchinina feat. Os Bongos
Rebita
1975
Ref# R. 1250
(b-side; a-side is the heart wrenching "Mãe Angola", both tracks written by Tchinina)

angola45.wordpress.com

Teya Teya (Tchinina feat. Os Bongos, Rebita, 1975)

Knock Madness available November 26th

“The whole thing that got me here was controversy,” admits Hopsin. In 2010, the Panorama City, California native’s back was against the wall. He was unhappily signed to Eazy-E’s former label with a debut ('Gazing at the Moonlight') failing to meet his artistic and commercial expectations after years of acting on a major network and a feature film. Hardly a “kiddie rapper,” the emcee took to the Internet and released, “Sag My Pants,” an instant rewind. “I lashed out against Ruthless Records. I knew that would have some shock value. But at the time, I had to do whatever I could do.” Hopsin’s survival mechanisms have guided him through life. As a youth placed in special education classes, Hop overcame the obstacles to become a video editor, music producer in addition to rapper. He is also co-founder of the low profile indie-powerhouse Funk Volume, currently with 600,000 Youtube subscribers and 1.2 Million Facebook Likes. This 2012 XXL Freshman is at the top of his class.
In the three years since 'Raw', Hopsin has steadily supplied his thousands of album-buying fans with free music, notably his “Ill Mind of Hopsin” series. The artist is still fearless in maintaining the spirit of lunchroom battles with SwizZz years ago; “I don’t care to burn a bridge if I didn’t want to cross it anyway.” In the meantime, he appeared on Tech N9ne’s video single “Am I a Psycho?” as well as a top 3 album by Insane Clown Posse, the Mighty Death Pop. “The key thing is I don’t hang around bullshit artists who convince me to make bullshit songs. I just hang in my basement with the same people I’ve always hanged with. I’m the same guy; I haven’t changed.”
With cover stories and a plethora of seven-figure Youtube content, the self-made talent is sticking to his formula on his third LP, Knock Madness. “It’s gonna be hard to top—I’m calling it right now,” he boasts, claiming it’s just “an enhancement” of his work. Moreover, he wants to punctuate his career. “this will probably be my last album for a long time.” elaborating, the recluse promises “the biggest tour I’ve ever done, and I’m leavin’ for a while” as devotes his attention to Funk Volume.
While controversy may have made Hopsin a star, skill and courage made him a fan favorite. Hopsin has the attitude and charisma that makes hip hop unpredictable again.

Who's There ft. Jarren Benton

Diggin' this release? Your word spreading 'Comment', or '❤', and/or click of the 'Repost ↻ Button' are all warmly welcomed. Many thanks in advance. SR HQ. :)

It’s Scour Records’ one year anniversary! Twelve months ago we released Scour Cream Volume 01, so to mark the occasion we thought we’d hold a Hunger Games-type celebration, unfortunately none of us are very good with weapons or murder or being murdered. An Olympics style celebration seemed a little over the top, It’s A Knock Out was on the cards but our budget ran out after making one large shoe for the Bulgarians. So we’ve scaled it down, come round to ours and have a proper party, old school fancy dress styleeee!

All the party games are prepped - pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, kiss chase, naked twister, finger the angry fox, trampoline darts on poppers, all the big ones! The party sideboard is prepared! Vimto for the gents, cherryade for the ladies, Babycham for the hardcore fetishists. Bombay mix, cocktail sausages, cheese and pineapple, vol-au-vants (hopefully filled with whatever made Kerry Katona go all fruity) Anything missing, hmmmm….of course! An assortment of nuts and some party tunes! All wrapped up in a free 4 track goody bag for each and every one of you to take home!

Father Funk rocks out the bubble perm and comes strutting through the front door like a funky white brother. Who’s he come as? Mika? Kevin Keegan? No silly! He’s come as Leo Sayer!

Leo fires a bazooka in through the porch and shoots two AK47’s like he’s trying to kill every mother in the room. Apparently he likes his men like he likes his coffee (with milk and two sugars) Pimpin’!

Is that Prince tucking into the Jelly and Ice Cream? ha! Yes! It’s Warp9! Top costume!, really would prefer it if you didn’t try and make our doves cry though…they really don’t like to see your starfish impression…

The Phunk Junkies need no encouragement to crack the pearls out, before you can say ’Sir Very Elton of John’ they’ll be in a wig and heels, have the lippy on and be sashaying down the hall towards the toilet. RuPaul? Lilly Savage? Oh hell no, those legs can only belong to Dame Shirley Bassey.

Hang on a sec, sorry about this….LEO! GET YOUR FINGER OUT OF THE FOX!! it’s not time yet! Father! Leave the Phunk Junkies alone, it’s not that kind of party! Put the guns down! Oh for God’s sake!
 
Take your goody bag and go! We need a plunger, a SWAT team and a vet, pronto!

Father Funk
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/father-funk
Facebook: http://facebook.com/fatherfunk
YouTube: http://youtube.com/user/fatherfunkmusic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/fatherfunkmusic

Leo
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/leoproductions
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/oleomusico
Twitter: http://twitter.com/leo_sounds

Warp9
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/warp99
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/warp999
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/warp9funk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/warp9music

The Phunk Junkies
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/thephunkjunkies
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thephunkjunkiesofficial

Scour Records
Website: http://scourrecords.com
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/scourrecords
Facebook: http://facebook.com/scourrecords
Twitter: http://twitter.com/scourrecords
YouTube: http://youtube.com/scourrecords

Scour Archives: http://ghettofunk.co.uk/category/scour 

Artwork by Morphosis: http://www.facebook.com/morph0515 
Promo blurb by Fat Harry: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fat-Harry/216117141875072
Mastering by Warp9: http://www.facebook.com/warp999

Free Download

The Phunk Junkies - Big Spender [FREE DOWNLOAD]

My remix of the original Beatles song. It was released in 2010 as part of the compilation The Icons Vol.1 on Ghetto Funk label. 
Free download here: http://goo.gl/acYnGf 

Grab the whole compilation @ Ghettofunk like this>

1- head over to the website: ghettofunk.co.uk 
2- register (if you haven't already) it's free! 
3- log in and download the Icons Vol1! 

Check out the clips here: http://goo.gl/nYrb6f

www.facebook.com/TheCaptain.it
www.twitter.com/TheCaptainMusik
www.thecaptain.it

FREE DOWNLOAD

The Beetels - Word (The Captain Remix)

Us guys, at team Second Hand Audio are really excited to be lacing you all with another freebie this month... Ghetto Funk asked us to get involved with this year's Icons project and remix another track from our good buddy B-Side.  Best of all... you guys get to download it absolutely gratis!
 
It's been an interesting year for us...  from conception, to working on tracks with our heroes, being remixed by some of our favourite producers as well as returning the favour and flipping s**t back to some true school realness.  We're grateful for everyone's support so far, so here's a little something back.
 
2014 could be quite interesting...
 
------------------------------------------
 
Icons of Ghetto Funk [FREE DOWNLOAD ALBUM]
 
------------------------------------------
 
Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Lend us your ears!

It’s that time of year again when we invite some of our favourite producers to have a crack at remixing iconic tracks of their choice. We’ve put a bit of a twist on it this year. Being quite proud of the body of original Ghetto Funk tunes we’ve released to date, we’ve thrown open our own vaults to some of our in-house producers to have their wicked way with us. The results are astounding…it certainly takes the breath away!

It’s our way of saying thank you to you for following and supporting what we do, we’d be nothing without you and it makes us proud to have your love, we hope this year’s Icons destroy your dance floors all over the world!

Big love,

Ghetto Funk HQ xx

Find all 8 tracks here: http://ghettofunk.co.uk/?p=16575
Check out Second Hand Audio's Facebook!  http://www.facebook.com/secondhandaudio
Buy the original: http://vibedeck.com/ghettofunk/bside-mc-kyla-throwing-it-wild

Free Download!

B - Side & MC Kyla - Throwing It Wild (Second Hand Audio Remix)

Nice Person

ASS-001 Limited Edition 45 1.000 copies only

Stoneface & Life Everlasting -Agawalam Mba

@djjulienlebrun, co-boss du label Hot Casa Records toutes les 2 semaines, le mardi à 19h00 en direct du 6 rue Beaurepaire, Paris 10ème et sur le www.lemellotron.com

Tracklist › www.lemellotron.com/show/hot-casa-radio-show-73
Archives › www.lemellotron.com/hot-casa-radio-show/

Julien Lebrun - Hot Casa Radio Show #73

Sunny Grooves

ASS-003 Limited Edition 45 1.000 copies only

The Apostles -Onye Akpa

ASS-004 Limited Edition 45 1.000 copies only

Tex Soul & The Bayonets -uto nwa

African music featuring musicians from West, Central and East Africa! Many of these rare tracks can only be found digitally via the blog http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/

Awesome Tapes from Africa

Beck.  NYC  73 - 78.   from the album REWORK_Philip Glass remixed

Soundway Records present ’24 Hours in A Disco 1978 - 82’, 7 cuts of relentless disco grooves from the sublimely gifted Kiki Gyan. Hailed as Africa’s answer to Stevie Wonder, Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist Kiki Gyan was a musical wunderkind who by 1975 had risen from the lowly status of high school dropout to being ranked eighth in a poll of the greatest keyboardists in the world (occupying the rarefied air of the top ten with heavyweights like Steve Winwood, Billy Preston, and Stevie Wonder) as well as becoming an in-demand session player in the top recording studios of London - all before his twenty-first birthday. 

Out on his own, he produced a series of highly ambitious disco records aimed at positioning him as an international star, but weighed down by the excesses of the era, Gyan saw his meteoric rise matched by an equally swift fall back into obscurity. 

Loved dearly by his contemporaries and sorely missed since his death in 2005 the story of the life of Kofi Kwarko ‘Kiki’ Gyan is one often told with warning by his friends to the new generation of aspiring Ghanaian popstars.

Soundway Records now collects the best of Gyan’s work as a frontman and solo artist, featuring an array of electrifying disco grooves that still sound contemporary (and in some cases futuristic) decades after their initial release.

Released on CD and 2xLP both formats are accompanied with detailed liner notes written by Uchenna Ikonne. LP version comes with a free MP3 download of the release. 

Kiki Gyan - Disco Dancer

This song was covered by Air Supply And Lulu

When the time Is Right

Basement Bhangra Anthem(radio edit)

Dur-Dur Band "Volume 5" (ATFA004), out March 19, 2013

Buy album https://dur-durband.bandcamp.com/album/volume-5

Vol. 5

Dur-Dur Band - Dooyo

Soundway Records present Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings from the 1970s & ‘80s - a treasure-trove of rare and unusual recordings from East Africa. Spread out over two CDs and one triple LP, Kenya Special is accompanied by detailed liner notes, original artwork and photographs.It follows on from Soundway’s much acclaimed African ‘Special’ series that to date has focused on the highlife and afrobeat output from 1970s Nigeria and Ghana.

Kenya Special is a collection of 32 recordings (most of which were only ever released on small-run 45rpm 7" singles) that stand out as being different or unique as well as some classic genre standards. From Kikuyu language ‘liquid soul’, Luo benga and Swahili afrobeat to genre-bending Congolese and Tanzanian tracks recorded in Nairobi, Kenya Special sees Soundway yet again taking the less trodden path. Many of the tracks featured here are peppered with innovation and experimentation highlighting how diverse the music scene in Kenya was at the time. 

In 1970s Kenya the two threads of rumba and benga loosely dominated the music scene. Benga quickly became Kenya’s unique contribution to afro-pop; spreading like wildfire through the interior countryside with it’s fast, 4/4 machine-gun beat and intricate electric guitar layers. The Congolese take on Afro-Cuban rumba was introduced by touring bands many of whom settled in East Africa - influencing bands from Kenya and Tanzania to come up with their own take on this popular style. Alongside these styles were small ensembles and hotel-sponsored bands, playing a blend of music that often included rock ‘n’ roll riffs, elements of ‘afro’ music (influenced by West African musicians like Fela Kuti), and multiple other combinations from South African and Zambian guitar styles to disco, funk and Swahili coastal rhythms like chakacha.

Painstakingly compiled, assembled and researched over two years by a team of five people from five countries (Kenya included), Kenya Special is a collection that looks beyond the mainstream and brings new life and recognition to some little known gems and forgotten classics of Kenya’s past. 