Yearly Archives: 2007

Musicians from 17 countries including Italy (Amycanbe) Brazil (New Samba Jazz) and Malta (Tribali!) uniting to support the ongoing struggle for independence for the people of West Papua. There’s a good old mix of styles going on here with tracks from Romania’s superb Shukar Collective through to tribal recordings from the Illaga Village People. Very good Check out www.freewestpapua.org.

Graham Radley

Originally issued in 1972 on Cotillion Records, ‘Prelude To’ was Barbara Massey and Ernie Calabria’s one and only album together. Due to the growing interest in the folk-funk sound this has become much sought after piece in recent years so top marks to Fallout for this timely reissue. Orchestrated by Eumir Deodato and featuring players such as Grady Tate, Ralph MacDonald, Joe Beck, Keith Jarrett and Richard Tee, it effortlessly fuses elements of psychedelic pop, folk, funk and jazz to create an outstanding collection. It includes the in demand ‘Play With Fire’ and ‘Somebody To Love’ but equally as good are ‘Searching The Circle’, and ‘My Love & I.

Andy Allen

It’s been a long time coming but Dalindeo’s debut album is now finally with us. The Brazilian influenced Finnish jazz sextet impressed with their first 12" ‘Poseidon/Solifer-Lento’ and their follow up ‘Go Ahead, Float/Voodoo’. Sadly though ‘Go Ahead, Float’ hasn’t made it on to the album at all and ‘Poseidon’ and ‘Voodoo’ only appear on the CD version. There is however plenty here to keep your attention such as the beautifully orchestrated ‘Samba Da-Li’ and ‘Non-Stop Flight’, a gorgeous bossa cut featuring Japanese vocalist Michiko. Michiko also graces ‘Tsunami’ and the immaculate waltz ‘Empty Fruits’, which for me is the album’s finest moment.

Andy Allen

The latest release from Japanese jazzers Sleep Walker is essentially a compilation featuring tracks which haven’t made it on their albums plus their remixes of other artists’ material. It kicks off with two tracks from the new 12" released on Especial, ‘Quiet Dawn’ and the amazing ‘Wind’ featuring Yukimi Nagano. The Bembe Segue fronted ‘River Of Love’ is also included along with their rework of Kyoto Jazz Massive’s ‘Eclipse’ and a new take on ‘Waltz For Moe’, the original of which appeared on ‘The Room – 10th Anniversary’, a four track EP released in 2003. Their re-work of Jazzinho’s ‘Sim Ou Nao’ is a worthy inclusion but check their blissful remix of Victor Davies ‘Don’t Believe A Word’ from his recent ‘Hear The Sound – Remixed’ set.

Andy Allen

The second installment of ‘Underground Hits & Exclusive Bits’ includes recent highlights from the Wah Wah 45s label like the bright and breezy soul/jazz swinger ‘Love Untold’ by Sesong, Speeka’s ‘Bend’ featuring Ben Parker, PTH Projects’ ‘What The Sun Brings’ and ‘It’s Only Perfect by Man/Boy (Talc) featuring Girl. Of the exclusive bits there’s another offering from Talc who serve up the Steely Dan inspired ‘Wonder Bar’. ‘Melancholic (Your Love Blinds Me)’ by Luna & Bazis, is a solid bass heavy jazzy groove, as is Jamie Finlay’s ‘Any Given Sunday’ featuring a powerful spoken word message from Dwayne Morgan. The highlights for me though are the tech-soul of Landslide’s ‘Solitary’ featuring the delightful vocals of Ernesto, ‘Blow The Man Down’, an acoustic folk outing from London based singer/songwriter Rosie Brown and Scrimshire’s ‘Warm Sound’ featuring Inga Lill Aker, a stunning orchestrated soul/jazz piece reminiscent of 4hero.

Andy Allen

Compiled by Rainer Truby, Theo Thoennessen and Roland Appel, the hosts of Munich’s long standing club night Maiden Voyage, this set focuses on some of the classic soul and boogie cuts which have been favourites at the night. It kicks off with ‘Lihue’ a tropical 2 stepper from Hawaiian songstress Nohelani Cypriano, before moving through gems such as Raw Soul Express’ ‘The Way We Live’, Diana Ross’ ‘Tenderness, Cameo’s ‘Love You Anyway’, ‘She’s Gone’ from Norman Connors, ‘Very Special’ by Debra Laws and her brother, Hubert Laws’ ‘Land Of Passion’. As if that wasn’t enough there’s also James Mason’s ‘I Want Your Love’, Alicia Myers’ ‘I Want To Thank You’, the original and best version of ‘Georgy Porgy’ from Toto, and the irresistible ‘Love Is On The One’ by Xavier’. Many of these tracks are what got me into the scene initially and it’s an absolute pleasure to hear them put together on this excellent compilation.

Andy Allen

In less than a decade Osunlade’s become something of a phenomena to those that resolutely support the underground house scene. To be frank before 1999 I didn’t really know anything about the deep house, Afro, broken beat, soul spirited producer, DJ and musician native of New York. Setting up Yoruba Records over seven years ago, opened up many doors for him, namely acquiring himself a record and distribution deal with UK independent Soul Jazz records, which definitely helped to put him on the map following his ‘Paradigm’ debut offering for the said label. Offloading many LP, DJ mix compilations and singles for any credible label worth its salt both in England, Japan and Europe, it’s a wonder how the Nigerian ordained priest of his Ifa faith, who lived for a while in Puerto Rico and now presently resides in Greece manages to find the time come up with any fresh material as he has done on his latest ‘Elements Beyond’ magnificent project. Its shortly due for release on the new repackaged, rebranded Strictly Rhythm label – thanks to Simon Dunmore of Defected. For fans of his work expect no real surprises in terms of genres; from the minimalist approaches of dreamy techno on “139th Street”, the rather hauntingly demure ripplings of “A Monk’s Tale”, the middle eastern subtleties of “Frequencies” to the appealing disco funk homage of the seventies on “Momma’s Groove” which sit alongside each other with the greatest of ease. Other highlights include the rap timing monologue of Lotus A on the “Cream” love ballad, whereas the beats per minute drive full throttle but not manically on the Afro house musing called “April”. The one and only disappointing feature “Queen’s Battle” has a horde of foul language that totally ruins the track’s production of what could have been adopted by today’s funk devotees. As far a comebacks go Strictly have made a good move showing that they have moved with the times in the sounds of house. Kicking off with a class name as Osunlade should prove a solid investment on all sides, be you a DJ or a collector, you’ll dig this for sure.

Marcia Carr

There’s a lot to be said for home grown talent, even if this Camberwell born dancer, spitter and diva of all trades, who’s also Nigerian (because she’s lived there for more than a decade it therefore entitles her to have dual nationality)has her foot in many territories – including the US. As confusing as it may seem, this girl’s no rolling stone. Wumni’s journey through music on her debut album entitled ‘A.L.A, meaning Africans Living Abroad, is very clear in what it encompasses. Defined as a combinative reflection of where she’s been and what her experiences have birthed, by spending time in all of these places, has proved very favourable and made her a hot commodity in the dance arena. Since leaving behind her Soul II Soul days as the infamous silhouetted dancer of that ‘Back To Life’ video and being the mainstay of their crew, she then headed to New York, hooked up with the MAW boys Kenny and Louie, as well as helping out the likes of King Britt, Roy Ayers, Osunlade but became most notably a lot more recognised for her work on the Fela Kuti tributes back in the mid-late nineties. It’s some of those same Afro house rhythms along with today’s broken beat sounds and her unique Nigerian twang and broken English quirkism which her album captures with eloquent expression. Getting you on your feet there’s broken beat aplenty to be found in the presence of the politics of "Greedy Body", "Crossover (Commercialism)", while they funky fusions of the Bugz In The Attic’s Seiji was responsible for the effervescent percussion and drum production of "Good Foot Charlie". The comical lyrics of "Talk, Talk, Talk" wonderfully marries jazz and hi life as she gets to expressing the nature of man . Deep house tasters "Fanaticals" and "Sweet Lullaby" and the smooth acoustic displays on "Illegal Alien" and a few other choice selections complete this discography of inviting and tasteful collection that’s surely been a long time coming.

Marcia Carr

After breaking onto the scene in 2005 with ‘Put It Out’ featuring Eska and following up with the excellent ‘Searching’ last year the duo of Rob Mullarkey and Anna Stubbs now come with their debut long player. As with the singles, both of which are included here, the album is a broken-soul affair and features guests Ty on the title track and Earl Zinger who graces ‘Elevate’ with his distinctive spoken word delivery. Although there’s nothing here to quite top ‘Searching’ the set has some strong moments such as ‘True’, ‘A Little Trouble’, the funky ‘DTs’, and the blissful ‘Raindown’. Well worth investigating.

Andy Allen

Hot on the heels of the DJ Hell volume comes this collection of 21 tracks, compiled and mixed by Radio Slave, undoubtedly one of the UK’s most in demand producers and DJs. As we have come to expect from the Misch Masch series, which is inspired by the massively successful club night of the same name (run by Germany’s Tiefschwarz), the fare is House music of a tough, minimal, bleepy variety, a la Ricardo Villalobos, Get Physical, and Radio Slave himself. Vocals are few and far between, but squelching synth stabs and growling bass lines are in abundance, so if that’s to your liking, then this CD is definitely for you. As ever with this series, the quality is high, and they even throw in a bonus CD of unreleased or ‘hard to come by’ Radio Slave remixes for your trouble.

Tom Breslin

Daughter of a South African father and a German mother, Denalane was born and raised in Berlin, and yet her singing voice is as American as they come. In the Mary J. Blige mould, she has a big, powerful sound that is just bursting with soul and which straddles perfectly the line between genuine R&B and a more commercially minded approach. With only three guest vocalists on the album, the spotlight is well and truly focused on Denalane’s talent, but the fact that one of those guests is Lupe Fiasco and another is Raekwon shows that there was no messing around here. Undoubtedly, the label/production team hoped and fully intended for ‘Born And Raised’ to achieve global success, and a couple of flaky ballads and fluffy fillers notwithstanding, it seems that they may just get their wish.

Tom Breslin

2007 is turning out to be the year of the cover song, with numerous raggae, jazz, funk and house versions doing the rounds on radio stations and dancefloors. One track I’ve not played for many years is Roni Size’s “Brown Paper Bag”: a classic, yes, but every time a certain Mr Peterson plays in Leeds, he plays this track without fail. I’ve never worked out why but maybe he’ll explain one day. You&Me aka co-owner of Tru Thoughts Rob Luis and TM Juke have produced a reggae verison that has bought life back into “Brown Paper Bag”. “Floating Heavy” is a cracking album that really mixes up the styles. From drum & bass, soul, broken beat, jazz, raggae, disco, dubstep through to break beats, this will keep me happy with anthems for the rest of 2007 and beyond.

Simon Harrison

Even though Myspace gets bad press at times, it is still a great way to get your music out there to the masses and I know that was how Simon S, the man behind Futuristica, found Kira Neris aka Herve Poudoulec. Herve is based in Strasbourg and was brought up musically on radio and had a passion for many styles of music including jazz, rock and house. In 1999 Cinematic Orchestra’s “Motion” album was released, which affected us all but caused a radical change in Herve’s productions. He has so far compiled a vast library of samples, and “Behind Closed Doors” is the beautiful result of his work. This is simply a stunning album based around exceptional arrangements, samples and beats. This might just be 2007’s summer soundtrack.

Simon Harrison

Kindred Spirits is an exceptional record label, who always release quality but on ocasions can be quite difficult to hunt down, but with their easy to use website, we’ve got no excuse now. Volume Two of this series gives you more insight into their diversity and great artists based around the world. Included are Rednose Distrikt with a track from their forthcoming album with ace vocals from U-Gene. There’s the understated Jazzanova remix of Heavy’s “Wonderlove”, Kid Sublime with Heavy’s vocalists Nicky Guiland and broken business from Meikbar. Beat fanatics get a preview of Kindred’s sub-label Nod Navigator with tracks from I.N.T, Tom Trago and Mwesles. Plus there’s tracks from Build an Ark, Chico Mann, Rich Media, Jneiro Jarel and Nomo.

Simon Harrison

The Bamboos are back with more of the same i.e. good quality funk for the 21st centuary. Vocalists this time include Alice Russell, Tyra Hammond, Kylie Auldist, Fallan Williams and Ohmega Watts who sound perfect with the deep organ based funk productions. "Get In The Scene" should already be an anthem on the clued-up dancefloors. If you enjoyed "Step It Up", you’ll love this. If you missed that, well it’s time to wake up.

Simon Harrison