Hip-Hop Vinyl New Releases - News

Strictly hush-hush bootleg remix action here, as Russian turntablist-turned-producer Paul Sitter delivers two more hand crafted gems based around vocals and samples from a wide variety of sonic sources. We're particularly enjoying A-side 'Galvanize', which adds Q-Tip's vocals from the Chemical Brothers tune of the same name to MPC tapped-out hip-hop beats and the horns, bass, guitars and organs from what sounds like an old psych-funk instrumental. He ups the tempo on 'Chewtacca', opting for a cheery, sample-heavy blend of boom-bap hip-hop and 1960s mod madness featuring snippets of the Ohio Express's 'Chewy Chewy' and a 2010 jam from rap duo Das Racist. It's very silly, but also very entertaining - the kind of thing guaranteed to put smiles on faces

Premier League Pressings returns with another top of the table seven inch 45 beauty.
It's a game of two halves!

SIDE A
THE CHOPPER - CHOP UP THE PIECES
Picking up an above average classic, the Chopper takes the ball into leftfield and sends it spinning into the stratosphere with some deft cut and paste action.
Dancefloor disco funk with an edge. Back of the net!

SIDE B
LADY SMILEY - QUEEN OF FREAK DANCE
A forgotten disco rap classic of yesteryear is is given a new formation, completely re-arranged and beefed up to bring the funky drums to the fore and the make the dope verses sound even better.
Disco rap for modern dance floors. A premiership title contender!

Also known as The Three Pieces and The 3 Pieces, we’ve gone for Three Pieces as this group from Washington, DC originally appeared on the Fantasy label 7” single in 1975. Members are Andre Richardson, Jerry Wilder and Lincoln Ross, both songs here from their one album “Vibes Of Truth” released that same year.

“If Only I Could Prove To You” and “I Need You Girl” are their biggest ‘rare grooves’ across the decades, produced by Donald Byrd at the time he was working with The Blakbyrds at Fantasy.

Bass player Jerry Wilder played with Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers and Will Lester/Rodney Brown productions for Sharon Redd & Bobby Thurston. He is also lead vocalist with Three Pieces. Wade Marcus arranged the strings and is co-producer.

Khaliphonic 15 is the first full length release from Japanese experimental dub duo Undefined. Well-established as a live act since 2014, and releasing on their own Newdubhall label as well as ZamZam Sounds since 2017, it’s well-past time that their expansive and immersive sound be allowed to span the length of an LP, and this set is nothing short of a triumph.

The powerhouse duo of keyboardist/programmer Sahara (formerly of Heavymanners) and drummer Ohkuma (formerly of Soul Dimension) create an absolutely unique form of dubwise firmly grounded and rooted in rockstone reggae principles, while focusing intently on expansive spaces, subtle inflections, and exploratory minimalism and abstraction - deep dives into the heart of rootical riddim and space. Luminary vocalists Paul St. Hilaire, Rider Shafique, and Ras Dasher were invited on the journey, and the resulting set is absolutely timeless, a crowning achievement in the rich history of reggae, dub, and dub techno in Japan, and the world.

With “Defined Riddim” the two-man band has created something ruff & rugged while somehow delicate and utterly elegant throughout. Undefined honors the roots while taking them in an deeply personal, unconventional and unique direction unburdened by cliches, follow-fashion or any other concerns beyond creating an honest music - dub from the heart. Words fail when trying to describe the richly saturated color and tones of Sahara’s keys & bass; Ohkuma’s drumming is muscular, lithe, incredibly tight & subtle. The two together are nothing short of a force, a single spirit of riddim moving through two individuals with a fully-unified vision, the vision magnified by E-Mura’s (Bim One Production) masterfully restrained mix.

It’s an absolute honor to release this album in physical form, including a bonus 7” featuring the heartfelt vocals of Ras Dasher, who passed away suddenly before he could celebrate the release with us. Undefined and Khaliphonic/ZamZam Sounds dedicate this set to him, and to dearly-departed Naoki E-Jima, whose Disc Shop Zero was the heart of the scene in Japan until he left this plane in 2020. Naoki was also an early, enthusiastic, and steadfast supporter of ZamZam Sounds & Khaliphonic, and we are forever grateful to him and his family for the love they showed us and so many others.

Killer new offering from French roots reggae label Abendigo featuring Robert Dallas, King Alpha, & Wellette Seyon.

Mighty Eye Records is proud to present its debut release, the self-titled album by 10th Street. Comprised of some of the best NYC musicians to grace the music scene in the past 20 plus years, this ode to late ’70s disco, funk and boogie is sure to be a future classic!

Recorded at Soul Fire Studios (Williamsburg, Bklyn) over the course of two years, over two dozen musicians were involved in the making of this album, including members of El Michels Affair, Lee Fields & The Expressions, The Dap-Kings, Antibalas and more.

This eight track LP was produced and engineered by Jeff ‘Dynamite’ Silverman (Soul Fire Records, Truth & Soul Records, Aloe Blacc), assistant engineered by Lucas Goodman (Lion Babe), mixed by Chris Connors (Liam Bailey, Holy Hive) and mastered by Ryan Schwabe.

Notable contributions on 10th Street include Horn Arrangements by Michael Leonhart and String Arrangements by Leon Michels. Also including the ever talented Terri Walker (Lady) and Camille Sledge (Sister Sledge, Phoenix Afrobeat Orchestra) on vocals.

Featuring some of his earliest recordings out of Detroit with The Falcons, and very early solo material, this collection shows the legend of soul music when he was just getting started. Though these are early recordings, Pickett's voice is fully formed and some of these tracks are the equals of later hits like 'In The Midnight Hour', and 'Ninety-Nine and a Half'. If you're a fan of American soul music, this collection is absolutely necessary!

Stone Free was the only album to be released by funk and soul specialist Cecil Lyde in 1980, and its sumptuous body of songs immediately takes hold upon first spin. Originally released with the short-lived Californian label Aladdin Records, Chicago-native Lyde created an album of uncompromising modern soul and boogie that has an urgency to entertain.

Amerza's ICON is a 12-minute exploration of krautrock wormholes with saturated percussion and lurid vocal interventions. The B-side is shared by a downtempo "33 1⁄3 rpm-versions' acidic jam and a Rubber Johnny-esque concrète sound piece.

Area21’s Debütalbum ”Greatest Hits Vol. 1” ist nun auch auf Vinyl erhältlich! Das Album enthält die Veröffentlichungen ”La La La”, ”Pogo”, ”Mona Lisa”, ihre Singles ”Lovin’ Every Minute” und ”Followers”.

Dabei spricht das Duo bestehend aus Martin Garrix und Maejor mit dem Song ”Followers” über den Vorteil das Leben in Echtzeit zu leben, anstatt sich von ihren Geräten hypnotisieren zu lassen. Seit der
Veröffentlichung hat AREA21 über 55 Millionen Streams gesammelt. Garrix sagt über das Album: ”Als wenn Gorillaz auf Outkast trifft und dann noch ein bisschen Daft Punk, es ist sehr verspielt.”

Possibly less obscure but definitely deeper. Made up of tracks that were started in Wyoming for Kanye/Sunday Service and then finished in LA and transposed to this project…

Includes 7 tracks exclusive to the vinyl release.

Possibly less obscure but definitely deeper. Made up of tracks that were started in Wyoming for Kanye/Sunday Service and then finished in LA and transposed to this project…

Includes 7 tracks exclusive to the vinyl release.

Trust is a testament to resilience. The past two years have been tough for just about everyone, and while it would have been easy for Catnapp to let feelings of despair soak into her creative process, she refused to succumb to darkness. The Berlin-based Argentinian was determined to make something bright, energetic and uplifting, and nothing—not even a global catastrophe—was going to stop her from rallying people to the dancefloor.

Her new LP is loaded with futuristic pop hooks, yet Trust offers so much more than a simple sugar rush. This a record that defiantly smashes through genre boundaries, hoovering up high-octane bits of hip-hop, R&B, rave and even numetal along the way. Catnapp—an accomplished shapeshifter who’s never been afraid to get weird—is just as comfortable throwing down brash rhymes as she is singing dreamy ballads or unleashing a primal scream, and on Trust, all of those things (and more) frequently happen within the confines of a single song. Call it hyperpop if you must, but pop concentrate might be a more accurate term.

Imagine a sound that merges Berlin School into the 4th World or a „kraut-groovy, afro-beat from a jungle far from the bush“, as The Guardian once described the sound of Circuit Diagram, a Hamburg/Berlin based electroacoustic-trance duo. Ursumpf marks the duo’s first solo physical release, apart from the collaboration with Richard Fearless, also known as Death In Vegas, on Hamburg’s Golden Pudel Pudel Produkte label in 2020.

MF93LP (original artwork) in a standard black pressing. Comes Bundled With An 18 X 24” Poster Of The Original Cover Art!!
Back again on vinyl where it belongs, MF DOOM's 1999 classic Operation: Doomsday is now presented on a premium grade LP, with audio re-mastered from the original Fondle'Em Records release, and a poster of the album cover art!

Underneath his mysterious metal mask, MF DOOM hides the cachet underground legends are made of. After KMD (his first group)’s 1994 sophomore album Bl_ck B_st_rds was shelved by Elektra in 1994 and his blood brother Subroc (one half of the sibling rap duo) passed away, surviving frontman Zev Love X mutated into the MC Avenger known as MF DOOM and the Rap world is better for it. This 19-cut deep album is ridiculously dope, in a bizarro Ol’ Dirty Bastard kind of way. Doom sounds either high or drunk on most of the tracks, his self-produced beats are gritty, and his rhyme styles are almost indecipherable. On arguably the best track, “Rhymes Like Dimes,” Doom weaves some pointed lyrics through his abstract wordplay, spitting ‘only in America could you find a way to earn a healthy buck / And still keep your attitude on self-destruct.’ Who You Think I Am? features DOOM‘s crew M.onster I.sland C.zars, while on “?” he trades hot verses with former Columbia artist Kurious Jorge. Doom’s avant-garde ghetto-rhyme philosophies take even more intentionally weird twists on “Tick, Tick...” where he and guest MC MF Grimm’s flows warble over a rhythm track whose tempo speeds up and slows down continually. The comic-book themed skits, will help take you deep into the mind of an MC who is as otherworldly as they come. And in today’s bland commercial Rap universe, Operation: Doomsday’s left-of-center beats and rhymes are the perfect remedy.

From 1977, originally on Well Charge 7", now with extra previously unreleased version

New album by pioneering German beatmaker FloFilz. On Close Distance, the lofiturned-hifi producer blends hip-hop inspired beats with contemporary jazz, alt r&b and a little rap. Featuring Alfa Mist, Blue Lab Beats, Jerome Thomas,

KeepVibesNear, Summers Sons & C.Tappin, Dal & Hunter Rose. Close Distance is his fourth album for Melting Pot Music. Since 2013, the self-taught bedroom producer and classically trained violinist has sold more than 10k LPs and gained 200 million streams.

Close Distance literally means “near in space or time” (or “nah dran”, as we say in German). The 16 songs on Close Distance came to life over the past two years. Many sketches were birthed at FloFilz's old home studio in Aachen. Some songs were made from scratch in London, where Flo did sessions with UK jazz supremos Alfa Mist and Blue Lab Beats at their studios. One was recorded in a kitchen in Streatham, where rap duo Summers Sons and pianist C.Tappin reside.
More sessions were already in planning when lockdown kicked in and travelling was no longer an option. Around the same time, Flo was about to move from Aachen to Berlin which he eventually did in November 2020. Once installed, he started sharing beats and files out of his makeshift studio in Moabit. Beat folders were sent to
London where two of our favourite new alt R&B vocalists – Jerome Thomas and KeepVibesNear – live. Another one went to Dartmoor where the jazz/hip-hop trio Dal added their magic touch while Hunter Rose processed her sultry vocals in Cape Town - 12 flying hours away from Berlin.

The album artwork has been created by Indonesian illustrator Fatchurofi, who caught FloFilz's attention through his work for everybody’s favourite band Khruangbin. Taking influences from Japanese Ukiyo-e art, Fatchurofi is adding a zen-like clarity (and tranquility) that resonates very well with the album.

It is no exaggeration to say that FloFilz has not only created another inspiring album with Close Distance but one that demonstrates how music can close the distance which we all have experienced (and still do) in a beautiful way.

Jon K & Elle Andrews' MAL imprint returns with its second release - a long rumoured excursion from Equiknoxx skippers Gavin “Gavsborg” Blair and Jordan “Time Cow” Chung operating under the Gav & Jord masthead for the first time. It’s their most probing x tight set of productions thus far - showcasing that naturally wild rhythmic mutability that’s earned them followers in every corner of the experimental paradigm over the last few years.

‘Writings Ov Tomato’ ties off a loop between Equiknoxx and their early supporter Jon K, who was pivotal in bringing their productions to the attention of Sean Canty at DDS, who went on to release their by-now seminal ‘Bird Sound Power’ album a good half-decade ago. This new set of tracks came about after MAL urged to the duo to explore any under-excavated musical territory they’d been thinking about since they began to tour the world, and the result is this incredible, purely instrumental LP that romps between Autechrian mutations, avant R&B swangers, Jersey-style sluggers and proper, wig-flipping club missiles.

Who else would boot off a new LP with a track titled ‘Childish House Mafia’? The fact it sounds like Actress formulating an industrial noise tape using ritual chants just makes it all the more screwy. The title track returns the duo to more familiar ground, with prickly “Bird Sound Power” drums notched up a few BPM and spliced with whirring trap hats and disorienting synths. ‘A Yow Jon K’ is a Kingston-fried take on sun-bleached Miami electro, with a rolling beat filled out by Gav & Jord’s hard boiled soundboard x foley crunches, before ‘Pig Pilot’, the record’s most substantial cut, loops JBC Radiophonic Workshop convulsions around a booming 4/4 that wouldn’t sound completely out of place at Berghain’s Klubnacht. Saturating the hook and allowing ferric hats to fill in the gaps, the pair manage to fabricate a sound closer to 1970s library music than Villalobos, and we’d wager you ain’t ever heard owt like it.

Combine all this with lower-key slithering industrial-ambient moments like the plughole-wonked outro ‘Brent Bird’ (named after Gav’s producer brother), the tuned tinkle of ‘No Sweat in my Sweatpants’ and the airborne elegance of ‘Appinness’, and you’ve got another Equiknoxx joint that draws from the syncretic mosaic of Afro-Latin-Sino-US influences and re-contextualises them into remarkably odd and effective structures that dance in the integers of a myriad styles.

In 2020 Brooklyn's Holy Hive introduced us all to something we didn't know we needed. Homer Steinweiss' thickly pocketed drumming paired with Paul Spring's floaty falsetto vocal produces a sound that's like a salve. It's been dubbed Folk Soul and Holy Hive not only expertly overlay the more apparent musical aspects of folk and soul-but they also draw from the more profound: being able to pull traditions from the past and make them their own. When Homer wasn't playing drums for Lady Gaga or Adele or Bruno Mars, he'd produce Paul's solo folk records. Along with original bassist and frequent collaborator Joe Harrison, these sessions proved to be Holy Hive's foundation. And their fi rst record, Float Back to You, expertly combined what each musician does best: Paul's heady, reflective approach to folk with Homer's universal classic soul sound. With their new record released on Big Crown, Holy Hive's beautifully simple-and-sparse Folk Soul sound is back-but updated. With new influences and the challenge of creating and capturing music during a global pandemic, this new self-titled album, is more personal, more reflective. They describe three distinct phases when piecing together Holy Hive: this first stage was pre-pandemic in California while traveling as a group, then-like the rest of us-they were separated, creating together but apart, and lastly an explosion of output once they reunited in New York. There is a natural but subtle evolution for Holy Hive on this record. Homer and Paul drew from new and maybe more obscure-yet-honest influences. It's still very much Folk Soul-how could it not be. But, like all artists, they've taken in what they've made and how they've made it, only to push it into new places. We know of Holy Hive's ability to lyrically convey the abstract and complex in poetic and palatable ways. But where the first record was soulfully silver-tongued with chill songs about love and affection, Holy Hive widens the lens with these novel influences, reflecting the points both Homer and Paul are in their own lives.

Jemek was never easy to read: Is he serious or is it all a
joke
With his new album »Jemek Jemowit is Doktor Dres« the one-man
band, DJ and conceptual artist that is Jemek Jemowit moves
between old-school rap, Southern trap and EBM, skillfully
mixed by the infamous hardcore techno legend Marc Acardipane.
Jemowit's anarchistic-dadaistic and often quite explicit
lyrics (there is a sticker on the front of the vinyl record
warning the listener of »swear words«) the, to quote the
artist, »post-patriotic« Jemek sings in Polish, the language
of his parents and in German, the language of the country he
grew up in, he studied in and in which he lives today.
On his last »hyper-patriotic« (Jemowit) EP »Tekkno Polo«
which came out on the Polish Label Oficyna Biedota in 2012,
Jemowit focused on Polish culture in Poland. On the Polish
market the Pole with a German passport, presenting music that
was recorded in Italy and which had used the Polish sub-genre
»Disco Polo«, the Polish equivalent to »Euro Dance«, as
template was an exotic. Subjects Jemowit touched were
national dishes like bigos or bizarre figures of Polish pop
culture. Was he serious or was it all a joke
Until today Jemowit finds it »remarkable«, without taking
sides, that Poles in Germany »so easily adapt, they seem to
merge into German culture so quickly«. On his new album
»Jemek Jemowit is Doktor Dres« which is released on the
Berlin-based label »Martin Hossbach« Jemek embraces the role
of the Pole in Berlin. In Polish, peppered with new word
creations and grammatical mistakes, he states that his alter
ego »Doktor Dres« (Dres is the Polish word for tracksuit)
leads a better live in Berlin that he used to do in Poland.
He often switches into the German language, too. In an
interview with label founder Martin Hossbach Jemowit said:
»I'm the perfect Pole in Germany who goes shopping at the
most expensive warehouse in West-Berlin, the KaDeWe, without
reproach and my German is pretty good, too!« He has now
become the person that »Tekkno Polo« reacted against with its
»hyper-patriotic« approach. Germany is now the sacred land
and on album track »Oryginalne Adidasy« he invites his fellow
Poles to come and visit him, he who »grew up between The Wall
and Moschino«, in Berlin and have Polish dumplings (pierogi),
made by Gucci at KaDeWe. »Endlessly bragging / Style without
class / Deutsche Mark / Oryginalne Adidasy« - this is Doktor
Dres' slogan and the read threat for Jemek Jemowit's new
album.

Actress and singer Julie London is best remembered in pop terms for her much-covered classic ‘Cry Me A River’, a Number 9 US hit in 1955 and a Number 22 UK success two years later. But as this compilation shows, there was much more to the girl than one impressive song

Ndikho Xaba was born in 1934 in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. For thirty-four years — 1964 -1998 — he lived in exile in the US, Canada and Tanzania. Originally issued by Trilyte Records out of Oakland, California, this 1970 recording is bracing, freewheeling Now Thing, suffused with SA idioms, and focussed by a political urgency wiring together US Black Power, Black Aesthetics and the anti-apartheid front-line like nothing else. You can hear Trane from the off — 'a spiritual offering to my ancestors' — and plenty of Sun Ra, with whom The Natives several times shared double-bills. (Xaba was to become close with Phil Cohran and the AACM.) Freedom is a gutbucket-soul rendition of the people's anthem; Nomusa is dedicated to Xaba's new wife, a poet and CORE activist from Chicago. The thunderous finale Makhosi features drummer Keita from the West Indies, and Baba Duru, who studied percussion in India, before winding up with Xaba blowing eerily through a horn made from a giant piece of tubular seaweed. Hats off to Matsuli for this outstanding reissue.

THEME reshapes Arp Frique & Mariseya with their third release
THEME drives us further into their experimental/electronic mission with their third release, a remix of Arp Frique & Mariseya’s "Nyame Ye". Pulling its soulful vocal into a looping playground of crafted grubby synths that fill all the right spaces, it dials down the tempo effortlessly whilst leaving just enough feeling from the original in its wake, THEME slowly sucks you deep into this downtempo gem

Compiled by Sean Marquand and Greg Caz, 2 DJs well-known for their epic parties at Williamsburg’s legendary Black Betty club, that sadly closed in 2009. The duo played a deep variety of strictly vintage samba, samba-rock, Tropicalia, and Brazilian funk under the banner of ‘Brazilian Beats Brooklyn’.

Sean is known as half of Embassy Sound Productions. He took his team to Brazil to help resurrect Black Rio legends Uniao Black for a new release. Greg has DJ'd at some of the hottest Brazilian parties around the globe and presents a monthly radio show ‘Warm Wave’ on Soho Radio NYC.

Featuring Noriel Vilela’s singular “16 Toneladas,” a sublime cover of the Tennessee Ernie Ford smash “16 Tons” with a spare samba groove and unbelievable baritone vocals and hot jams from Tim Maia, Erasmo Carlos, Joao Bosco, Toni Tornado.

Included in this compilation of original 60's and 70's Brazilian gems are some of Greg and Sean's favourite tracks that have been filling dancefloors for years.

From Yasmine's rare 2nd album "A Scent Of Flowers", which was released in just Netherland and left behind the one of the masterpieces ofA90s R&B "Wanna Dance" that has been compiled into numerous mixtapes and dance hit compilations, the popular cover songs Roy Ayers "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" and Ray Charles "Let Me Take Over" are finally single-cut with a superb cover that reproduces freshly with R&B manners!

FIRST-EVER VINYL RELEASE OF LANDMARK ZIAD RAHBANI ALBUM RECORDED IN 1985 AND ONLY RELEASED ON CASSETTE AND CD IN 1991. MIXING FUNK, JAZZ, BOOGIE, IT IS RELEASED FOR THE FIRST TIME ON VINYL WITH REMASTERED AUDIO AND NEW LINER NOTES BY LEBANESE DJ AND CURATOR ERNESTO CHAHOUD

Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of Ziad Rahbani's cult classic "Houdou Nisbi," one of his most praised albums, released on the sought-after Lebanese label Relax-in. This release is an event as the album, recorded in 1984-85 at Rahbani's By-Pass studio, was only released in 1991 on cassette and CD and missed out on the vinyl format. Mixing arabic music with Funk, Jazz, Boogie and a touch of Brazilian music, it is considered a classic among Oriental groove fans, DJs and collectors around the world. Curated by Lebanese DJ and Journalist Ernesto Chahoud, the album is making its vinyl debut with original cassette artwork, audio remastered by Colorsound Studio in Paris and also a 2 page insert with a new introduction by Chahoud in English/French.
Ziad Rahbani is one of the giants of Arabic music and a cultural icon in the Middle East. The musician, pianist and producer is also a celebrated playwright and a political activist. Coming out of an illustrious artistic dynasty (his father, famous composer and musician Assi Rahbani, was in The Rahbani Brothers and his mother is the legendary Lebanese Diva, Fairuz), Ziad Rahbani released a string of key albums in the 70s that have since become cult among DJs and collectors.

Heavily influenced by Western music, Rahbani brought these influences to traditional Arabic music early one. 1978 saw the release of two key Rahbani albums, the Disco 12-inch ‘Abu Ali,’ one of the most sought-after Arabic albums on the international DJ scene and ‘Bennesbeh Labokra... Chou?’ also featured in many diggers' want-list.

Serving as musical director to his mother Fairuz, he produced some of her best albums including 'Maarifti Feek' recorded in 1984 at his Beirut studio, By Pass, bringing his blend of modern influences to her traditional sound. At the very same time, Rahbani started recording his own album at By Pass with the cream of Lebanese musicians including saxophonist Tewfic Farroukh, Guitarist Paul Dawani and percussionist Emile Boustani.

Bringing Funk, Boogie, Jazz Funk fusion and Brazilian music to the mix, Rahbani created a landmark album, 'Houdou Nisbi' now considered one of the best jazz funk albums from the Middle East. Featuring such cult tracks as 'Rouh Khabbir', a remake of the Crusaders' 'Soul Shadow' sung by Rahbani himself, the Modern Soul of 'Bisaraha' and the Brazilian flavoured 'For Sure', the album is both effortlessly groovy and steeped in Oriental music. Held as "one of Lebanon's best kept Musical treasures' by Ernesto Chahoud in his notes, the album is a certified Rahbani cult classic.

"Houdou Nisbi," which means "relatively calm", an expression used by news anchors on Lebanese TV to describe the mood during cease-fire in the civil war that went on between 1975 and 1990 - has been remastered for vinyl from the original masters by David Hachour at Coloursound Studio in Paris. The cassette artwork has faithfully been reproduced for vinyl release with an iconic woman supposedly going to party with her high-heel shoes during cease-fire in a war-battered beirut (an agit-prop cover in line with the political stances of Rahbani, a self proclaimed non-religious leftist). Wewantsounds is delighted to bring the first-ever vinyl release of this iconic album to the world, an event for all Middle Eastern music vinyl collectors and 80s funk & boogie lovers.

'AGAMA' is the music project and alter ego of singer, composer, producer and multi instrumentalist Cassandra Gurling. Born and raised in Birmingham and now based in London, Cassandra is a classically trained vocalist and choir director.

Her sound is classic yet contemporary, a dense mix of styles in which her operatic and earthy voice is simultaneously rooted and floating above - soulful, jazzy, slightly psychedelic with touches of electronics and a dramatic twist. Think a mix of Rotary Connection and Four Hero with a touch of musical theatre and you'll be approaching the range and depth of these 4 amazingly fully-formed, exploratory songs.

This rare fusion of musical and cultural influences within a socio-political context mirrors Cassandra’s mixed Anglo-Jamaican upbringing, where she learned to sing within the Church and Musical Theatre schools in multi-cultural Birmingham.

Jon Dobyns and Lonn Bologna make up Alone in the Woods. Their instrumental debut features downtempo beats, ambient production and takes cues from orchestral music as well as hip hop. Alone in the Woods capture a unique sound that only a multitude of influences blended can produce. Warm 80's synth tones are melded with modern day techniques and experimentation that Depeche Mode and Bjork would be proud of.

Instant classics like 'Digging Holes' and 'Ripples' push the listener into the stratosphere and then you are pulled back by the intimacy of tracks such as 'woods funeral' and 'New roots, old growth' which will fully absorb you into the woods...

Aris & User 1201 impose a risky EP for this smoking 8th release of CAF?
1201 leaves no choice.

Recorded at ‘The House of IMIZWA’ studios, reggae artist and Asian Dub Foundation frontman Ghetto Priest teams up with Carlton ‘Bubbler’ Ogilvie to produce and unleash his fresh reggae take of the mighty Aaron Neville’s iconic 1973 rare groove classic ‘Hercules’. With Mr Ogilvie on keyboards, Ital Horns on brass duties Greg Blackman on backing vocals and Crucial Tony on guitar, Ghetto’s beautifully executed, deft vocals ride over a rock solid riddim - the original version taken from Ghetto’s forthcoming ‘Big People Music’ LP. You’ll hear this blasting out of low rider windows rolled down in the summer heat and radios across the globe in 2021 and beyond.

Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris take the North Street West ‘HOLYVOODOU’ remix on a musical detour through hidden Louisiana backwaters to visit a ‘vaudou’ priestess to collect some gris gris and onward to New Orleans to meet Doctor John at the Mardi Gras. Leaning heavily towards the Meters school of phrasing, the North Street West version is infused with layers of eloquent keyboards, righteous handclapping, chicken bones and a generous helping of Bayou Funk, making a connection to the Aaron Neville original. A North Street West Dub and Radio Edit are available as part of the digital package.