Suche:hard as funk

After their brilliant label debut with "Grow Yes Yes" in 2017, Professor Wouassa now returns with their brand new third album on Matasuna Records.

The Swiss band's career spans more than 15 years, where they have played at many major festivals in Switzerland and abroad. The 11 members of the band have perfected their musical qualities over the years and captivate as a well-rehearsed live band with their energetic and rousing shows. So it isn't surprising that they supported concerts of Afrobeat legends like Ebo Taylor or Seun 'Anikulapo' Kuti.

Their still exuberant creativity can also be heard on their new work entitled Yobale Ma!, which in Wolof's language can be translated as "take me" or "get me". With their new album they take the listener to their musical island to explore the borders of Afrobeat and beyond.

The song Fallou Fall opens the album in a jazzy & big band way, and quickly switches to an afrobeat theme and solo. In the middle the song breaks into an Afro-style pattern, which is performed by Thaïs Diarra in Bambara (Malian dialect) in a traditional Mandingo way of singing. The track ends with a Sabar percussion part - a traditional Senegalese drum.

Yobale Ma is the single of the album, which is inspired by the funky guitars of a Nile Rodger and some typical fast Ghanaian highlife of Ebo Taylor.

The track Thiaroye Gare is about the Tirailleurs sénégalais, a unit of the French army who fought for France in WWII. After returning from captivity they were taken in Camp Thiaroye northeast of Dakar. Corrupt and racist colonial officials led to a revolt, which was bloodily suppressed by French troops.
From the musical point of view the song shows a link between afrobeat and funky James Brown rhythms, which ends in a fast afrobeat style with baritone saxophone and trombone solos.

Beguente Len in the middle of the album is a kind of interlude that represents Wouassa's own way of interpreting traditional afro beats and rhythms.

With the two songs Djongoma and Sama Yone Professor Wouassa leaves his usual afrobeat path to explore the "sound of the islands" (Mauritius, La Réunion, Cape Verde or Cuba) and blend it with their personal and unmistakable style.

With Iba Niawoulo the professors investigate a kind of Ghanaian highlife medium tempo with a chord progression from Serge Gainsbourg's song "Initial BB". The tracks change in the middle to a fast Rhythm'n'Blues beat, which is accompanied by afro guitars. The singer "Mamadou Diagne" talks about his alter ego in Dakar.

In Djougoudja typical afro rhythms are mixed with pure Ethiopian 70's brass sounds and funk guitars. As heard several times in other songs, the track breaks into a very personal and hard to describe Wouassa beat in it's middle. At this time, Mamadou Diagne recites a big slam about the spiritual ideas and the history of the famous senegalese theologian and poet Serigne Touba (Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba). Under his flow some sabar percussions (typical senegalese percussions) build a strong and intense musical rug.

Kraak & Smaak's 6th studio album - 'Pleasure Centre' is the culmination of two years hard work since their critically acclaimed 'Juicy Fruit' LP and their first Kraak & Smaak LP released on their own label – Boogie Angst. As expected it's a glorious record packed with future classics, flitting between funky dancefloor focused jams and more relaxed downtempo affairs.

The album has a definite US West Coast vibe to it and sees them fuse classic 70's and 80's yacht rock, dream pop, and indie influences in with their signature electronic funk sound. And this result is no mere accident or emulation… Working on the demos in their own studio before travelling to LA for a month last year to meet and work with featured artists, they stayed in Echo Park and recorded in local studios and sometimes even in the homes or backyards garages of their collaborators.

Hand- picking the best of the local talent: dance diva - Gavin Turek, indie upstarts - The Palms and dream pop dealer – Satchmode all contribute their talents to the cause.

The Dutchmen have earned a deserved reputation in particular for the A&R side of the industry, with both the discovery and collaboration of new rising acts high on their agenda. Previous successes include working with Parcels, Alxndr London (championed by Annie Mac) Eric Biddines (6Music playlisted) and Cleopold (signed to Nick Murphy fka Chet Faker's own label). And they continue to uncover hidden gems outside of LA on this record too...

Moon Boots collaborator – Nic Hanson, Jalapeno Records' gospel/soul powerhouse - Izo FitzRoy and soul man Wolfgang Valbrun (Ephemerals/Kungs), New Zealand's imugi and previous collaborator and soul songstress - Sanguita are accompanied by regular members of the Kraak & Smaak live band - IVAR and Berenice Van Leer across 15 fantastic new tracks.

'Pleasure Centre' is everything you'd want in an album and everything we've come to expect from these dance stalwarts – innovative, relevant, and modern tracks with great production and exciting guest features that are guaranteed to fire up your own pleasure centre!











k 11 Sweet Time (feat. Izo FitzRoy) clip

Vinyl Only

Jack On Black consists of Jib Rafill and Joe Le Groove, the pair met 6 years ago when Joe was djing in Malta. Their love electronic music, machines and old school sampling techniques sparked a desire to collaborate and organically work towards writing various genres of music, including Dub, House, Techno, Downtempo and even Film Scores.

Their music is made from passion, a love of technology and Roland outboard gear. Both have been on the scene for many years and separately have their own unique journeys and projects. Joe Le Groove started producing in the mid-nineties and was taught the basics by Darren White aka D-Bridge. He currently has projects on labels such as Desolat, Defected, Moon Habour,Snatch, Defected, Heidi's Jackathon

The pair also have released music on Cesare vs Disorders Serialism and written scores for forthcoming independant films.Their sets are performed live using outboard gear, mics, turntables and EFX. Expect the unexpected from this unlikely duo...

Plutonian Funk is an EP that has been crafted for lovers of House & Techno. It has been destroying dance floors across the world by a handful of the scenes elite, such as Seth Troxler, Quenum Richy Ahmed, tINI, Cesare vs Disorder, Carlo Lio, Victor Calderone, Marco Carola, Audiofly, Dubfire and more.

The EP is split across vinyl and digital, all the tracks on vinyl will never be released on digital format.

The boys have been working hard over the past few years to develop their sound and forthcoming live performances with visuals

Enter Jack On Black…

Cologne’s resident conjurer Hodini steps up for his second solo EP on WOLF Music Recordings. Bringing elements from his hip hop background into this unique five tracker, Hodini dusts off long forgotten cuts, sampled with that MPC chopped graininess, blending lo-fi vocal sound bites with deft jazz loops, all adding a distinct, textured edge to his work.

‘Velved Groove’ and ‘Special Shoutout’ kick things off, snapping in funk fills and skipping guitar riffs behind a concoction of hazy spirals that transfix from the off. The former is an uptempo, twisted, jazz club house jam and the latter a bubbling voyage through the afterhours, bourbons flowing and faces flying from every corner.

A master of misdirection, Hodini also moonlights as one of Germany’s leading underground hip hop producers HulkHodn, proving he can flip styles and meld genres with ease. Featuring his alter ego, ‘Doggo Content’ is his nod to this - a crackling slo-mo trip through the intoxicated mind, soundtracked by stretched vocal snippets, wading bass notes and a crunching snare.

Two of the harder-hitting club tracks close out the EP, both focused around hypnotic bassline carousels and looping layers. ‘Where’s The Wine’ interjects Rhodes flickers with bongo rhythms and unsettling laughes, as ‘One4Fries’ marries off-kilter, piano stabs alongside jazzy flourishes and fizzing percussion.

Singer, lyricist and composer Nirox Romão aka Diron Animal was born and raised in Cazenga, Angola. Diron Animal's involvement in the music world began early: he was part of a traditional Angolan music band and capoeira group, followed by a hip hop project. 12 years ago he moved to Portugal to study, but music became more than just a passion when he landed in kuduro.

For over 6 years, he sang, danced and traveled the world with Afro Portuguese act Thoes + The Shine, mixing rock and kuduro, becoming an explosive ensemble. At one moment, Diron wanted to record a solo album to show a bit more of his own personality and in late 2017 his debut album ‘Alone’ appeared on Soundway Records, where he himself worked out the melodies, rhythm, vocals and even the guitar parts between classic funk to afrohouse and kuduro bass. Through that album he explored major festivals in Europe during 2018, such as at Paléo Festival Nyon, Trans Musicales Festival, Amsterdam Dance Event and others.

On ‘Pair’, his 2nd album and released on Brussels outernational label Rebel Up Records, he has worked hard to enhance his special formula. Inspired by the cruel death his nephew, it became a testament against oppression via the mixed sounds of afro boogie, disco, funk, afrohouse, coupé décalé and kuduro, with English and Portuguese lyrics.

The first single of the album, ‘You and Me’, is an English sung afro boogie disco song and produced by Diron with the support of musician and producer Moullinex, actor André Cabral and video made by director Vasco Mendes. In the video, featuring dancer and actor André Cabral, Diron Animal takes on the role of a gay man to express that a homosexual is a normal person who loves, feels desire, dreams, conquers, wants to be loved and desired, wants to live next to a being that completes him. With “You and Me”, Diron Animal above all wants to appeal to society, respect for the choice of people and non-discrimination of sexual choices. For in life we all deserve to be happy regardless of our sexual choice.

Inner space centurion and local star command operative Tommy Walker III returns with a new mission directive this DATE...
Hardwiring to the Red Laser network and initiating an advanced, beta-tested programme of futuro-manctalo cybernetics, TWIII's meta-level hybridisation of Italian synth disco & northern English rave styles, combined with an expert deciphering of modernised club dynamics has resulted in a faultless system capable of withstanding the most extreme sonic test environments. RL30's eight tracks are RL Corp. operation-certified to work alongside Human2.0's electrostatic discharge profile. Universally approved usage for sentient earth dwellers offering portals into dancefloor ecstasy and inter-dimensional transcendence. This programme begins with 'Pocsy', and sees euphoric holograms burst through galloping Italo mechanics, fusing retro-tinged optimism with a nu-age release. 'Shoiab' (named after a fellow starship captain tasked to MCR and in alliance with RL Corp...) unleashes red shifted synths and carnal cowbells for the cyberotic lap-dancers to get jizzy too. 'Autopilot' allows the on-board crew to reassemble, a well automated array of arpeggios guiding the shuttle during the first phase, until reconsolidating in the latter stages for full-on interdimensional 5-D funk jam. 'Lightwork' is pure RL endorsed synth-jizz, erupting out of Tommy's arsenal like a mis-timed giant alien cumshot; minus any Manga references.
'Astral Projectile Vomit' address a common problem endemic to protectors of our star cluster; then channels a shiny, serpentine chrome sequence and thrusts it down the rainbow road for maximum belly aches.
More hydraulic collisions between electronic disc-boogie and newly mined atomic particles from passing asteroids ensures Srg. Walker has enough mainroom material to keep the Sharons and Traceys of the main hub dancing in between injections of dimethyltryptamine. Closing with a trio of humanoid hits that'll have Jonny5 ordering kryptonite margaritas for the entire ship, Tommy Walker celebrates with the cosmic conge, 'Gary Blast'.
RL Corp is confident RL30's internal algorithm is a future-proofed, cross-species platform for auditory excitement, and will continue to stimulate listeners across a multitude of environments.

Matasuna Records once again dug deep for its latest release and comes up with probably one of the best Latinfunk tunes. It was recorded by US band "Los Sobrinos del Juez" and released on their debut album in 1974. Matasuna Records is delighted to officially reissue two cuts from the album on 7inch single.

Founder, producer and singer of the band is Carlos Oliva, who was born in Cuba. He moved to Miami, Florida in 1961, where he had his first engagements. There he linked to other Cuban musicians and decided to move to New York with them to make music.

Some time later Oliva returned to Miami and founded his own band "Los Sobrinos del Juez (The Judge's Nephews)" in 1967. The group is regarded as one of the pioneers of musical fusion, which developed in Miami in the late 1960s and became known as the "Miami Sound". The music styles rock, blues, funk and soul that were popular at that time had an influence on their own compositions, which were enriched and spiced with Cuban/Latin American sounds. The band's first album was released in 1974 on an independent label in Miami and is a good example of this new sound. The album is much sought after and hard to find.

Oliva has released several albums with the band and toured Latin America and Europe. In the early eighties he also founded his own label. In the course of time he and his eight-man band got deeply rooted in the cultural life of Miami and enjoy attention and recognition. They are still on stage as "Los Sobrinos del Juez".

"Harina de Maiz" is the name of the song on the A-side - an uptempo latin funk monster driven by the characteristic wah wah guitar and a psychedelic sounding organ. Listening to it reveals why the song is one of the most funky Latinfunk tunes.

On the flip side it's quite different: "Corned Beef Hash" is a vibrant easy Latinjazz tune, where the talent of the musicians is audible. The perfect interaction of the piano player, the vibraphonist, the flute player and the rest of the band is a musical delicacy for its connoisseur.


a A1 Harina de Maiz clip

“A genius” - Nai Palm
“One of the most incredible live performances I’ve seen” - Gilles Peterson
“He's like a human centipede sewn out of all the greatest musicians from the past 80 years” - Liam Pieper

Emerging from Brisbane’s music-art bohemian West End in 2008, self-taught, prodigious musician Lachlan Mitchell aka Laneous, began his eclectic and colourful journey in music as the leading member of funk band KAFKA, stamping his trademark falsetto croon on an Australian music landscape that wasn’t quite ready for an artist whose standout influence was D’Angelo’s ‘Voodoo’. Word of their talent soon reached UK’s perennial tastemaker Gilles Peterson who featured the band on his compilation, Brownswood Bubblers Four alongside other breakthrough acts at the time, Mayer Hawthorne, Floating Points and Lone. A world-class guitarist, vocalist, composer, visual artist and – significantly - muse, Mitchell’s unique ability to shine, create and inspire across genres was his obvious forte, even then. Regularly sought after to provide features for other bands and cover art for Hiatus Kaiyote albums Tawk Tomahawk and Choose Your Weapon, he worked diligently to support his community. But while Hiatus’ Nai Palm told media Laneous was “a genius” he often credited music and drawings to pseudonyms.

In 2016, after 8 years of humbly dominating the Australian underground art, soul and jazz scene [with ‘mutant-soul/croon punk’ cult group Laneous & The Family Yah, reggae band Kooii and improv-jazz-beat trio, Vulture Street Tape Gang] Mitchell relocated to Melbourne - a move that would instigate and inspire the long-awaited debut solo LANEOUS record that fans and peers had been craving for nearly a decade. Excited to create new music with an artist they’d previously referenced as an inspiration, Paul Bender and Simon Mavin (Hiatus Kaiyote) came on board swiftly, joined by Hudson Whitlock (Cactus Channel) on drums and Donny Stewart (Jazz Party) on vibraphone and flugelhorn - a key element in bringing Mitchell’s vision of an exotica/soul infused album to life. In classic Laneous fashion, the musical references for the record run deep, winding through an eclectic array of artists from Martin Denny, Burt Bacharach and The Beach Boys to Shuggie Otis, Wild Cookie and Wu-Tang.

The debut single Modern Romance was unleashed in October 2018 with a kinky, captivating visual accompaniment that marked the return of the Laneous legacy. After selling out the Melbourne launch of the single, the band was invited to headline Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM x Northside Records live Melbourne broadcast, teasing exclusive album cuts and drawing high praise from Peterson, stating it was “..one of the most incredible live performances I’ve seen’.

Out May 10 via Soul Has No Tempo, Mitchell’s MONSTERA DELICIOSA stands as a sublime genre work, peerless in Australia - his magnum opus bears the name that’s backed him from day one:

Maybe the best Alessandroni's album ever. A true holy-grail for any collector and worldwide music lover, which we can consider nowadays as the most sought-after record of the whole legendary RCA SP 10000 series, and as the rarest album from the king of Italian libraries.

Jazz, mellow-funk, downtempo breaks, and incredible rock blends, make this record a refined portrait of the 70's American way of life, viewed through the fully Italian lens of Alessandroni's sensitivity.

The magic around Spontaneous is that this album is not only beautiful and astonishing, but is certainly on of those amazing records to which time gives new life and freshness, making it sounds unbelievably contemporary.

After five years of exhausting research, finally Four Flies can give a light to this obscure and fascinating mystery, rescuing it from the darkness. It's not just another piece of Alessandroni's legacy that is finally put back in the right place. This should be considered as the definitive act to re-estabilsh Alessandroni's leadership into the library music scene, and beyond.

Available again from July 19, coming in 180gr black vinyl, housed in a hard tip-on sleeve cover.

Limited Edition 500 copies, don't sleep!

This year, First Word Records celebrates its fifteenth year in the game. The year commenced triumphantly with First Word being named "record label of the year" at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards 2019. Over the past six months, we've seen new music from 14KT, Souleance, Myele Manzanza, Teotima, Don Leisure, Children of Zeus and a range of artists across Europe, on the 'Music! Musik! Musique!' compilation.

To commemorate the 15th anniversary, First Word has a series of releases in the works for the second half of the year which see collaborations by artists from the label's current roster. To kick off, we have this special double-AA sided 7" single featuring Darkhouse Family, Kaidi Tatham & Tyler Daley.

Darkhouse Family consists of two Cardiff beatmakers & musicians, Earl Jeffers - founder of Melange Records and producer of 'A Library Excursion' from 2018, and Don Leisure, who recently provided us with 'Halal Cool J', the beat-tape sequel to 2017's 'Shaboo'. Over the years they've had releases, solo & individually, on Fat City, Metalheadz & Earnest Endeavors to name a few, bridging the gaps between various strains of dance music, beats and hip hop, with the organics of jazz and funk. Recently making noise across the UK with their new live band, and production work for the likes of Kamaal Williams, this is their first new release since their highly-acclaimed 2017 debut album 'The Offering' & subsequent remix project which also featured DJ Spinna, and one Kaidi Tatham.

Kaidi Tatham is one of the most revered multi-instrumentalists in the game. His endless contributions have included Bugz In The Attic, Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler and loads more. Dubbed by Benji B last year as "the UK's Herbie Hancock", his versatility as a musician is actually more akin to Prince. He can play most things, and play them well. Providing flute duties on this track, he also graces the flipside with a full "flutestrumental" version. Aside from numerous other projects, Kaidi released three EPs on First Word to date, 'Changing Times', 'Hard Times' and 'Serious Times', and an album last year, entitled 'It's A World Before You', which featured daddy of 2000 Black, Dego, son of Jazzy Jeff, Uhmeer and Children of Zeus, Konny Kon & Tyler Daley.

Tyler Daley hails from Manchester, alongside son of Zeus, MC / DJ / beatmaker, Konny Kon. Somewhat of a veteran in the game, Tyler is currently one of the most-recognisable talents in the British soul scene, also lending his talents to dance music royalty along the way, including the likes of Goldie, Zed Bias, DJ Marky & Lenzman. With Children of Zeus, the duo have had a whirlwind 12 months since the release of their debut album 'Travel Light', performing shows across the globe & gaining new fans daily. The record was named "album of the year" by Complex magazine and BBC 6 Music's Huey Morgan, amongst a number of other notable tastemakers & selectors. Hot on the heels of the 'Excess Baggage' EP, Tyler laces this one with his inimitable brand of bars and soul.

A veritable super-group amongst the First Word stable, this low-slung slinky joint sees the guys work up a unique blend of jazz, soul, beats and hip hop - guaranteed to go 'All The Way'…

'All The Way' is released on First Word Records on July 26th 2019, limited 7" vinyl & digital.

Produced & mixed by Darkhouse Family

Vocals by Tyler Daley (Children of Zeus)


b B1. All the Way (Flutestrumental) [feat. Tyler Daley & Kaidi Tatham]


[b] B1 | All the Way (Flutestrumental) [feat. Tyler Daley & Kaidi Tatham]


[b] B1 | All the Way (Flutestrumental) [feat. Tyler Daley & Kaidi Tatham]

A year on from the highly-acclaimed album 'It's A World Before You', Kaidi Tatham brings more new music to First Word Records - a continuation of his previous EP's for the label (2017's 'Changing Times' & 'Hard Times'), here we enter 'Serious Times'.

Kaidi Tatham is one of the most revered multi-instrumentalists in the game. Dubbed by Radio 1's Benji B last year as "the UK's Herbie Hancock", his versatility as a musician is actually more akin to Prince in the sense that he can play most instruments, and play them well. His contributions as a musician, composer & producer have included work with Bugz In The Attic, Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler and loads more over the years, additionally to being a key player on Jazzy Jeff's PLAYlist album 'Chasing Goosebumps' along with Masego, Stro Elliot, 14KT, Tall Black Guy, Rich Medina and the like, and various projects alongside Dego (2000 Black) and First Word label-mates Eric Lau, Darkhouse Family & Children of Zeus.

'Serious Times' is another 4-track set comprised of Kaidi's unmistakable style, encompassing broken beat, jazz, boogie and hip hop. The EP starts off with the hype jazz-funk bruk of 'Cost of Living', maintaining the tempo into 'Don't Cry Now' which leads with a sweet latin-tinged piano riff. Onto the flipside, and we're treated to the slinky synth-boogie of 'Sugar' before dropping the tempo down & closing the selection with a warped but jazzy instrumental boom bap piece entitled 'Zallom'.

Kaidi is a national treasure quite frankly, and this EP is another mere taster of this man's endless talents and unique vibes. Some grown folk music, perfect for these 'Serious Times'…

Vinyl & digital released on Friday 19th July 2019 on First Word Records (Worldwide Awards 'Label of the Year 2019').

Running and pushing the boundaries with his versatile musical skills, Giovanni Damico aka Ron Juan tends to be a hard worker. The fact that his musical journey started well about 15 years ago, Giovanni has released top notch records on labels that bring resonance in today's industry such as Star Creature, Lumberjacks in Hell, Bordello A Parigi and swiss boutique label deepArtSounds. His latest piece of work is a five track,afro funk influenced mini Album entitled "Express Yourself". It's an eclectic journey thru Giovanni's deep mind and thru his huge collection of synths and instruments.

Aggelos Baltas is a veteran of the global electronic music scene, responsible for a handful of celebrated EBM 12”s as Dream Weapons, and a particularly heady and open-ended brand of krautrock as Fantastikoi Hxoi. His newest project, Anatolian Weapons, was conceived as a way to bring together these two seemingly mismatched concepts, with the polyrhythmic percussion and wailing tones of Greek folk music serving as their unlikely bonding agent. His output garners praise particularly around the Golden Pudel scene, such as Vladimir Ivkovic, and Phuong Dan. Lena Willikens, from the same circle, included Baltas’ track “Disillusioned” on her Dekmantel Selectors compilation in 2018.

But where much of what Baltas has released as Anatolian Weapons is instantly recognizable as dance music, To The Mother Of Gods—Baltas’ debut album for Beats In Space—is something else entirely. Created in tandem with Greek folk musician Seirios Savvaidis, it is a work of simultaneous collaboration and subtraction whose meticulous construction becomes more apparent with every listen. An album-length exploration of what happens when the principles of dance music are applied to pre-digital musical modalities. It is a record of psychedelic folk music that has more in common with Kikagaku Moyo, Minami Deutsch, and the Habibi Funk label than it does with anything else Baltas has produced under any alias. It’s difficult to imagine this music in any kind of club setting.

And yet, it’s very much the work of a DJ. Baltas initially heard Savvaidis’ music through a friend, and was absolutely amazed. “It was his very esoteric, pagan [music and] beautiful lyrics that grabbed me,” he writes. Seirios is a composer and performer of traditional Greek folk music with a growing discography of regional psych-rock gems. Baltas reached out to collaborate and the seeds of To The Mother Of Gods were sown.

Savvidis contributed stems of ten songs, which Baltas deconstructs and rearranges with appreciation of the ancestry of their lineage and of the deceptively ancient eerie, droning qualities inherent in the style. Occasionally augmenting Savvaidis’ recordings with his own, Baltas treats these elements as if raw materials for an architectural process.

To The Mother Of Gods showcases Baltas’ arrangement skills. He treats Savvaidis’ songs as landscapes, filling them with slanted, droning light and setting the singer’s vocals in dead center. His years behind the decks have given him an intuitive understanding of dynamics—drums crest and recede like tides, snippets of bassline repeat and swirl. He knows how to entrance, and when to push the music from the head to the body. Opener “Taratchi Katarratchi” (“Stormy Cataract”) is sung as a spell to ward off the fear of death, but Baltas’ orchestration demonstrates that dancing is an equally effective way of dispelling the darkness. The beat he assembles from Savvaidis’ playing recalls the late-night ecstasies of Primal Scream circa Screamadelica.

To The Mother Of Gods is a reminder that folk music and dance music are both powered by their audience as much as the musicians themselves. Savvaidis’ lyrics echo pagan Greek themes, touching on what Baltas calls “the magic of nature.” At times, as on “Kalesma” (“Invitation”), this can feel incantatory. Savvaidis chisels his vocal melodies into hard, clipped syllables, their cadence recalling Gregorian chant, and yet Baltas cloaks these details in washes of distortion. “Ston Stavraito” (“In Stavraithos”) is delivered with a lamentive tenderness that Baltas swells into a prideful stomp, immersing Savvaidis in marching drums and distant vocals that form a resilient protest-song. To The Mother Of Gods is a testament to the ongoing and innate truth that music can take us beyond ourselves. That repetition and drone can shepherd us to a liminal space beyond thought and rationality, where the wall between perception and reality does not exist. Call it spirit, if you want, and watch as it courses its way through modern-day dance music, mid-century psych, and the ancient sounds of the anatol.

Anatolian Weapons’ To The Mother Of Gods will be available from Beats In Space on June 14, 2019 in limited vinyl and unlimited digital forms.

Artist Highlights
• Aggelos Baltas is an Athenian music producer creating and Djing under the monikers of Anatolian Weapons, Fantastikoi Hxoi, and Dream Weapons.
• The Anatolian Weapons moniker is an outlet for Baltas to explore global music—from African to Anatolian and Middle Eastern, while also incorporating sounds from his home country of Greece.

After many years the long lost Apocalyptic Disco Funk offering has been unearthed and re-released for the world to hear. Rob's prophetic pre-apocalypse disco message, Hellfire, was originally released as a promotional LP by Nigerian label Taretone. Though a seminal work by Rob, disco stylings had fallen from vogue on the Nigerian dance floors. With the local airwaves dominated by artists like Félix Lebarty, Rob's promotional release was shelved, and never got to see a full-scale commercial issue. Ultimately the master tapes were lost by Taretone and the album was doomed to obscurity for decades until its recent rediscovery by Tambourine Party Records.

Hellfire is both a disco burner and a frantic warning about the impending end of the world. From the downtempo title track Hellfire to the floor-filling Glory be to Jesus, Rob will be sure to get his message across. Once the needle is dropped it is hard to deny that even if the world is coming to and end you can die happy listening to this album.

“Ta Da” is the debut full length from J. McFarlane Reality Guest, the collective name for the trio headed by the eponymous McFarlane. As a member of the group Twerps, McFarlane has traversed guitar-centric, melodic pop music for some years while honing a highly unique, personal musical language. Ta Da is the first recorded unveiling of McFarlane’s affecting, oblique songwriting panache. Originally released in her native Australia on Hobbies Galore, Ta Da will be released worldwide by Night School in June 2019.

Wheezing into view with a troubled reed instrument set against a s of whoozy synth lines, Human Tissue Act is a foggy curtain the listener is invited to peel back. The dissonant notes are left to dance entwined, with clarinet heralding a Harry Partch-esque mallet percussion interlude. It’s a mood. With no resolution in sight, an audience dragged closer into uncertainty is suddenly drenched with the light of inter-weaving wah wah synth and saxophone. I Am A Toy introduces us to McFarlane’s vocal, an effortless and matter-of-fact, accented statement that quietly takes the reins. While McFarlane’s previous work in Twerps might reference 80s UK and antipodean guitar pop, Ta Da showcases a different influences immersed in psychedelic music and synths. It’s a brilliant, deft concoction swimming in Young Marble Giants-type minimalism washed with bare pop and harmony similar to Kevin Ayers making sense of a Melbourne suburb full of faces half-recognised in the blanching sun.

What Has He Bought begins with a Casio-keyboard rhythm pattern, palm-muted guitars and immaculately enunciated vocal give way to a burnt melodica part that elevates the spirits. Simple patterns repeated, like a well-tempered pop song that does what it needs to do and no more, build into the sound of summer leaking orange juice. They’re moments of joy, layered on top of each other like a melting cake. Do You Like What I’m Sayin’ recalls Marine Girls covering a classic ‘66 Garage nugget, organ lines fighting funk with guitar chords played just behind the percussion. “In a talking world, meanings are the same. Words want to hold on to the people they contain. Do you like what I’m sayin’?” We’re in a Beckett play perhaps, obtuse absurdities rendered pretty. Alien Ceremony is a heart-melter, given a melancholic timbre by bowed double bass it’s a tragi-comic piece that almost reeks of Robert Wyatt at his mid-whimsical twisting a fugue completely out of shape. Beneath the layers of harmony and twinkling instrumentation you sense there’s a genuine sadness somewhere even if it remains veiled.

Through out Ta Da, McFarlane plays with counterpoint and contrast to sometimes delirious effect. On Your Torturer, a simple, upbeat chord progression is hard panned, underpinning a flute solo which seems out of place, hence making it completely in place on this warmly surreal album. My Enemy is a slowly swinging eulogy to a failed relationship punctuated by analogue synth burbles, with our protagonist simply asking, in the aftermath, “can we be nice?” Here McFarlane’s vocal is straight forward, lyrically conversational but still not completely in focus, a surreal kitchen sink drama filtered through a dream where everything is in the wrong place. It’s a fine precursor to Heartburn, which similarly borrows BBC Radiophonic Workshop-style noise synths and the use of space to carve up the simple “You Will Make My Heart Burn” line. At this point, the listener has been in such close proximity to McFarlane’s show, the reality guest in a performance where they’re the sole audience member, that when Where Are You My Love rises on the horizon as a sleepy, psychedelic send off it’s uplifting. The vocal drifts away into the sunset, simple and direct. It leaves the listener slightly confused, perhaps, but grateful for the gentle surprise.

WAREHOUSE FIND

Nick The Record & Dan Tyler return with the fifth mission...

Hardly surprising these celebrated EPs are consistent best-sellers and enduring staples in any expertly packed crate.
Always built for the floor, and assembled from the finest secret ingredients, not to mention thoroughly road-tested - Record Mission drops another essential EP !

Sprung Disco bass work, dubbed out arrangements, tough rhythm sections and more funk than George Clinton's sparkly tour socks.

Enjoy! .

Hard-to-obtain, vintage highlife from three true giants of the sound; Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas & Uhuru Yenzu. Originally released in 1982.
In 'Hitsville Re-Visited', the mighty trio add a dose of uptempo funk into traditional highlife grooves.
The legendary Ebo Taylor was involved in many funk and highlife records to emerge from Ghana in the 70's and 80's. He worked with bands such as Apagya Show Band, C.K. Mann as well as Pat Thomas, on this, and several other records.
Taylor recorded another album with Uhuru Yenzu in 1980 – 'Conflict' – which is also available on Mr Bongo.
Pat Thomas career began in 1969 with the ‘Broadway Dance Band’, leaving a year later to join the ‘Uhuru Dance Band’. He then played with Ebo Taylor’s ‘Blue Monks’ and finally formed the ‘Sweet Beans’ in 1973 where he really made his name.
Thomas and Taylor's careers span more than 50 years now and they both still tour to play around the world.

Hard Fist comes back stronger than ever with a sixth release, this time from Pletnev with a remix from Sascha Funke.

Extra prolific Russian born Alex Pletnev has been making music under various aliases and in a number of live bands. Now settled in Vilnius he explores stellar chugging rhythms, afro and oriental vibes for labels like Media Fury and Bahnsteig23 and more atmospheric, dark and industrial EPs on Le Temps Perdu records. This new one is “the tale of an imaginary world, a babel myth of when human beings were together as one because they spoke a single language. It is an allusion of No Border movement supporting freedom of mobility and fighting human immigration control.”

This fantastic release is the most club focussed music Pletnev has ever produced with instrumental, heady opener ‘Guest from Bangkok’ really locking you in a groove. Loose percussion and churning drums make for dark disco of the highest order. Then comes ‘Peep of Dawn,’ an almost frightening, long and slow ceremony of menacing electronic music. A voice resonates while powerful bass sends shivers down your spine and the whole atmospheric and absorbing affair really casts a spell.

Excellent punchy guitar riffs and shamanic rhythms on ‘Red Shoes’ reminds you of a run to catch the setting sun. It’s another spellbinding and rock-laced disco track that oozes grit and rawness. With the closing track, BPitch Control man Sascha Funke remixes ‘My Word Against Yours' into a cosmic and jerky affair that alludes to a journey into outer space. It’s sparse and creepy and brilliantly evocative.

Once again here, the Hard Fist label—which has its own residency at Paris’s mighty Rex Club—tells its unique story with forward thinking club music full of a wide array of influences.

2019 re-issue, 180g vinyl, remastered from the original tapes

Be With have raided the KPM archives to re-issue another of our favourites from the KPM 1000 series. They say: Hard Afro Pop featuring large percussive rhythm section and front line. We say: One of the best-loved of all the KPM LPs. Afro Rock was recorded at Morgan Studios by John Cameron and Alan Parker in London in 1973 as a collection of stripped-down African rhythms, virtuoso jazz instrumentation, fuzzed up wah wah guitars and spaced out library breaks. The percussion is effortlessly funky, and those flutes so melodic, it’s as if the LP was crafted with the beat lovers of the future firmly in mind. As Cameron himself described it in Unusual Sounds, this is “heavy duty drum-and-bass salsa music”. As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for The Road Forward comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity. And don’t worry! Those KPM stickers aren’t stuck directly on the sleeves!

Schmer Schmer has been looking for the next Prototype 909 since 1995. While they may never be found, we have instead found a few artists that with the same spirit of adventure have taken electronic music to new frontiers of unimaginable creativity. Primary among them is Lena aka Galcid aka Lenacid.

Lena's electrifying live performances utilizing eurorack modular synths with vintage and modern machines follow three simple 3 rules:

NO PCs, NO Presets, NO Preparation!

She has been called Jeanne d'Arc of modular because her style her appearance and her fearlessness.

For Schmer, Lena has created an EP made for the melting of your mind, if it doesn't first melt your speakers.

Lena uses her electronics in the most effective way possible. The classic acid machines are deployed to establish the themes the modular synths bring in sounds that take these tracks to another level. The eponymous track will hypnotize you into the state of focus necessary to allow you to go deep inside. Then the Acid Police show up! A funky drum machine rocker sure wake you out of your trance. Steel Vein has the intensity to rewire your modular mind. bpmf provides an hard driving aggressive take on Melting to help us turn on the switch.
Legendary DJ and producer Hisashi Saito has been making acid and techno since the early 90s. Using his unique
skills this EP has a rare clarity of sound not often heard on such ambitious recordings. Lenacid “Melting EP” opens up a new frontier for acid, for Schmer and for Lena that you are invited to explore with us this spring.

As Galcid, she has played alongside world renowned artists such as Nina Kraviz, Daniel Miller, Oval, DJ Nobu, Isao Tomita, Takkyu Ishino, Ken Ishii, G-man (LFO) among others. In 2016, she was invited by the Japan Media Art Festival to play at the special exhibition, held at the Eyemyth Media Arts Festival in Mumbai, India. Her 1st album “Hertz" received a worldwide release in digital format on the Detroit Underground label. The release attracted the attention of Karl Hyde (Underworld), Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle) among other well-known musicians the world over. Shortly thereafter, Galcid played at "Boiler Room Tokyo". In July 2017, she embarked on her first EU tour playing shows in Barcelona, London, and Madrid, after she came back, she participated in Iron Island Festival and Mutek Japan garnering high praise in the media. In December 2017, she was invited to headline Future Mix's 20th Anniversary event and workshop in Shenzhen where she performed and held a talk with techno pioneer Mijk Van Dijk.