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Grill by Gbubemi Amas is as smooth as the red cardigan artfully slung around his shoulders on the cover. Whether he is running through the scales on a cover version of 'Fire and Rain', or trying on his calypso highlife moves on 'Ereyon', you know Amas is a man with a smooth line for every occasion. He is also a man with impeccable enunciation. Listen to 'Slow Down'. It features one of the most cultured sound checks you will ever hear in your life - Willy, keep the bass a little bit tighter'. That Amas is now a theatre producer and writer in Cardiff in Wales will come as no surprise. 'Slow Down' is a stone cold class, and an undoubted highlight, just as it was on the excellent Comb & Razor compilation, Brand New Wayo. 'Children' is a bright dancefloor filler. So is 'For You'. And 'Listen' showcases Amas's disco ball cassanova moves. Articulate, cultured and classy, Grill is proof that in 80s Nigeria was producing a class of boogie funk that was as sophisticated as anywhere in the world.

CD Version

Fresh and new, but rough, layered and head-nodding like classic UK street soul, this is the fifth and for us the best-yet installment in Londoner EYE's excellent, under-the-radar series.

Slinkily slippery and hard-to-pin-down as usual, but rooted in funk and soul connoisseurship.

Two-sided this time — boozier, dizzier and more spaced-out on the flip, smudged with echo and effects, and scraps of horns and singing.

Beautifully hand-decorated sleeves as per.

Without sampling any breaks or loops, Funky DL has created the perfect audio tribute to arguably the best group in Hip-Hop history by remaking the beautiful sounds of A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 classic album "Midnight Marauders". This is a beautifully presented piece for keen vinyl collectors.

Without sampling any breaks or loops, Funky DL has created the perfect audio tribute to arguably the best group in Hip-Hop history by remaking the beautiful sounds of A Tribe Called Quest's 1993 classic album "Midnight Marauders". This is a beautifully presented piece for keen vinyl collectors.

Jungle Juice is a paean to the redemptive powers of boogie - a slab of New York ghetto grooves getting its freak on in the jungles of Africa. Joe Kemfa promises a magical party and that's what you get - from the straight-ahead party grooves of 'Jungle Magic Music' to the more slinky and sinuous 'Jungle Juice.' Hailing from Warra in Nigeria's Delta region, Joe Kemfa made his name with The Junkers and the Don Bruce Band. He recorded a few singles with Larry Ifedioranma from Ofo The Rock Company before disappearing to Europe. He returned in 1978 with two Germans in tow and, together with Cameroonian drummer Ali Ringo, they formed Aura, Joe's backing band on Jungle Juice. The best tracks are the freakiest. 'I Got To Make It' bemoans the cost of living, before becoming a stoned plea to the Lenleys, Joe's very own Lijadu Sisters, to boogie it on a Saturday night. Freaky and funky, Jungle Juice is the sound of James Brown and Parliament jamming after a night on some nasty Delta home brew. One listen and you'll want to get your hands on some Jungle Juice too

CD Version

For the past four decades, a growing cult of soul music collectors have sought two obscure LPs and a handful of extremely rare 45s released on the vanity record label LAD Productions, Inc. between the late seventies and the mid eighties by the mysterious South Side Chicago singer/song writer Larry Dixon. Larry's raw songs capture the transition from R&B to boogie-down as disco was rapidly becoming extinct. They also perfectly illustrate Larry's ability to overcome his environment and discrimination, transcended by his determination to write and produce music. With the support of his faithful musicians, Larry's success was only hindered by lack of airplay and promotion, but his talent shines through. This is the story of Larry Dixon, his label LAD Productions, Inc., and his friends and family throughout four decades of music in Chicago's toughest neighborhoods.
Jerome Derradji is proud to reactivate Past Due Records - the boogie funk division of Still Music to release this fantastic archive - what many consider to be the Holy Grail - of Chicago Funk, Boogie and Soul: 'Star Time' will be released in a limited 500 copies 10 X 7" Box Set, a limited 500 copies 4 LP Box Set, DCD and Digitally - all faithfully reproducing the vision of LAD Productions, Inc. It features each and every Larry Dixon's releases from 1971 to 1987, including the ultra rare 'I'am So In Love' LP recorded live at the Copherbox Club in 1980 and the ultra rare boogie funk 'Can't Price Love' LP, each carefully re-mastered from the original tapes and a lot more!
Many unreleased songs (some mixed by Jerome Derradji) are also featured. Each format includes a unique booklet with the story of Larry Dixon and his friends, written by Jacob Arnold, along with numerous pictures and documents previously never published. Artwork is by Al Kent from Million Dollar Disco.



















[] 3A4 | Star Time

The Mighty Flames were a crack bunch of Cameroonian musicians, drawn to Nigeria by the heavy funk sounds booming across the border like musical moths. For a short time in the late sentries they 'owned' Port Harcourt, destroying dancefloors with an incendiary sound that burned so heavily that it was phosphorescent. Metalik Funk Band is the band at their most deadly. Willy 'Pazz' Nfor is on bass, Nfrackie 'Jazz' Song on synth, Didi Lead on lead guitar, Emma 'Wah Wah' Baloka on rhythm and Stormy 'Booga' Jimmy on percussion. There is not a single dud track. 'Music Is The Answer' is a psychedelic head spin. 'Funky Child' is an irresistible call to the dancefloor. And I guarantee you'll need a good lie down after listening to 'Search Out! Watch Out!'. Sadly, things did not end well for the Mighty Flames. Their manager was a tyrant and when they tried to escape to Lagos with all the band's gear he promptly had then arrested. Metallik Funk Band was their last album, but what a way to go out: with an incendiary batch of Afro Funk monsters that need to be in every funk lover's collection.

CD Version

This is lovely. Brand-new, rambunctious, rootsy, spiritual brass-band music from Lagos, with singing, drums and home-made percussion.
Obadikah is a group of old friends who play together in the Cherubim & Seraphim and Baptist churches of the Ikeja and Isale Eko districts. A couple of them were founder-members of the Eko Brass Band; they've played with pretty much all the key Nigerian reggae artists. The tunes are mostly traditional Yoruban melodies, often sung at bed-time. The songs are mostly original, sung in Yoruba (though Jomido is an Egun song from the Badagry area of Lagos state).

Pat Thomas and Ebo Taylor are the Jagger and Richards of Nigerian Highlife. Drawn together by a mutual love of the genre - and an equally intense desire to stop it becoming moribund and bereft of ideas - Ghana's two most progressive musicians added a western twist to this traditional form of African music and gave it relevance again. It was by no means a continuous process. Pat Thomas and Ebo Taylor first came together in 1966. Over the decades they'd venture off to play in different bands and even different countries. Periodically they'd get back together and implement the new ideas and skills they'd developed. In 1980, they met up in London and recorded Sweeter Than Honey, Calypso Mahuno. Composed and arranged by Taylor, burnished by Pat Thomas's honeyed vocals, the album is a mix of highlife, calypso, funk, jazz, soul and pop. From the title track to 'Ma Huno', the album's undisputed highlight, the ambition - and musicianship - is breathtaking. Sweeter Than Honey, Calypso Mahuno is arguably the purest example of this extraordinary musical partnership. And what Highlife, unshackled, can be.

CD Version

There was a time in the 1970s when the best band in the Nigeria was actually from Cameroon. Rock Town Express, formed out of the ashes of Wrinkar Experience by Yaoundé boys Edjo'o Jacques Racine and Ginger Forcha, hit it hard, hit it loud and hit it funky. Racine and Forcha had been recruited from Cameroon by Dan Ian and after only six months, left them stranded in Nigeria's troubled east. Their first album as Rock Town Express was released on Ginger Baker's ARC label in 1974. This, their second eponymous album, features a more subdued sepia toned cover but rocks even harder. The horror of the Biafran War weighs heavily on Rock Town Express. The guitars wail, the horns parp and the synths swirls in a maelstrom of pain and anger. 'Peaceful Solution' implores people to live in peace and harmony. 'Spaceville Rape' bemoans the wanton destruction that comes with war. And 'Nobody's Man' is the defiant cry of an ex-soldier determined to make his own way in the world. Rock Town Express is an angry and dark transmission from Nigeria's east that the war may have been over, but the scars were still yet to heal.

CD Version

I appreciate the artistic expression expressed by this guy! Bil Basmala, Abstract Futuristic and Neo-Visionary Emcee, Writer, Sound and Print Designer. Over 50 projects from 1998 to present. Each purposefully aimed at elevating the human condition and concentrating on spiritual methods within an artistic design.' Bill Basmala is releasing his self-titled album in March. Silicon Circles' is the first track off it. I have to say, its different. Its dark and eerie but at the same time it has a lot of light in it. His flow is cool too, he kinda reminds me of Method Man on this song, just his flow, not what he's saying (and not in a biting way, more of a he's different who can I compare him too way). I like the ending where they discuss the ego. Dope.

CD Version

Limited to 500 copies only! Emma Ogosi has worn a lot of different hats in his career: former air force officer, guitarist with Benin-based Pogo Limited, and husband and manager of Nigerian reggae superstar, Evi-Edna Ogholi. In 1981, he donned a sequined cowboy hat and released Nobody Knows. Nobody Knows is arguably the Nigeria's best - and perhaps only - Disco Country album. Country music has always been influential in the country and Ogosi managed to channel Jim Reeves via the bright lights of Lagos' burgeoning disco scene to produce an album of sparkling mournfulness. The album starts brightly with 'You And I' and ends with 'Orindo,' a horn-driven dance floor filler. 'Nobody Knows' and 'A Lonely Child' venture into 'you done me wrong' territory. And you can imagine Kenny Rogers covering 'Give A Little', albeit wearing flares and platforms and a moustache instead of a beard. Overall, though, Nobody Knows is as disco as the sharp suit and gull-wing collar Emma is wearing on the cover. But don't be fooled - there are rhinestones on that there glitter ball

CD Version

Check it out, its a reworking the "Dilla Donuts" album on live instruments!
Way down in picturesque Auckland, New Zealand, tucked inside a small basement studio, musician Leonard Charles and his friends secretly paid the ultimate tribute to the seminal release by re-recording the entire 31-track album on live instruments. Charles gives a funky reinterpretation of the tracks on live bass, drums, Hohnor clavinet, Fender Rhodes and Roland synths, but sans any sampling of the original source nor sourced material. Featuring vocals by Ruby Walsh, Anji Toy and Very Special Guest Georgia Anne Muldrow on the emotional tribute "Airworks (Forever)".

Leonard Charles "Basement Donuts" will be released in two Volumes...

Featuring Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke, Craig Gannon and original drummer Simon Wolstencroft, the original pre Morrissey line up recording has been augmented with the incredible vocal talent of Soul and House legend Angie Brown.The full story: Thirty-five years ago three enthusiastic teenagers put together a band called Freak Party. The musicians in question were the legendary Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Simon Wolstencroft, who was previously in an early incarnation of The Stone Roses then called The Patrol, before joining The Fall where he remained for 11 years.The inspirational first recording of the newly created songs Firefly and Don't Push Your Luck, under the Freak Party name was captured on a studio cassette all that time ago. Unfortunately the tape got lost for many years only to turn up in a drum case that Wolstencroft had mislaid during a house move.
 The recordings have never been heard apart from a different section being used as an underscore in an audiovisual advert for Simon's autobiography 'You Can Drum But You Can't Hide'. Wolstencroft drafted in Mike Bennett, the producer he had worked with on both The Fall, and Ian Brown. Mike and Simon  had co-written the smash hit Golden Gaze with Ian Brown. The enthusiastic Wolstencroft easily convinced Bennett that this original tape was worthy of a reworking. Bennett gathered together a team to work with him on getting rid of the hiss on the tape and blending in new parts, having learnt from fellow Jet Records muse Jeff Lynne , who had used a similar technique on the Beatles archive recording ' As Free As A Bird ' .Bennett was able to add brass and Hammond organ to augment and invigorate the original recordings. The band members were delighted with the results. Instead of asking Morrissey Simon Wolstencroft and Mike Bennett recruited soul and house legend Angie Brown who added new inspiring vocals culminating in truly amazing results. Further intrigue was added by Craig Gannon of the Smiths, who put additional guitars on the two superb tracks Firefly and Don't Push Your Luck These revisited recordings have never been heard in the public domain but at long last will be released on 25th November. A documentary and movie are part of the plans to promote this magnificent slice of Mancunian history.

Turkish ancient melodies get an 80s electro-funk treatment on this obscure album, originally released on the Diskotür label in 1985.



Probably the work of an ad-hoc' studio band (nothing is known about the musicians), this is a delirious mix of exotic melodies and lots of analog synths, cheap Atari-styled electronic effects, distorted guitar and 80s beatboxes.

1x each customer !

Another demo tape recently discovered by Family Groove Records. **Hand Stamped limited edition of 300 copies.
Hall & Floyd's previously unreleased 1981 session is a nice slice of Disco Funk & R&B that didn't make the major label cut. Sunrise is the stand-out song featuring a nice blend of Earth Wind & Fire style harmonies, funky horns, spaced-out Moog Synth and a righteous groove good enough to properly fuel your next Roller Skating party.

CD Version

In 1977 Jake Sollo returned to Nigeria to record his first solo album, Coming Home. His long-term band, The Funkees, had imploded in London. And his big break with the Afro super band, Osibisa, was cut short when he went on strike with Kiki Gyan and promptly got sacked. Rather than sit at a bar and feel sorry for himself, Jake returned to Nigeria and got his mates together - including the aforementioned Mr. Gyan - and headed into the EMI studios in Lagos. The result was Coming Home, a triumphant album that combined the raw power of The Funkees with the slick tricks he learned in London. The opening instrumental, '404', is the track Carlos Santana would have recorded if he'd been born in Nigeria rather than Mexico. 'Raise Your Hands' and 'I Just Wanna Dance' are slick boogie monsters and 'Deiyo Deiyo' sees Jake displaying some mad synth skills on Africa's only Prophet-5, a hot piece of hardware that was transforming music in Europe and America. Coming Home is the sound of an artist at the heights of his power. And a precursor of the skills and sounds that would make Sollo the most sought after producer in Nigeria

Debuting on Adult Swim, two of the most conceptual and unusual alternative artists in underground hip-hop have joined forces to tell an absurdist story of culture, art and oppression, set in a light-hearted dystopian future.

As adventurous as the concept sounds, the album is musically grounded in hip-hop fundamentals and off the wall lyricism. Joining the duo are artists like DJ QBert, Gonjasufi and Akrobatik. Wyatt Cenac (Daily Show, Bojack Horseman) lends his voice as the narrator of our story.

A collaborative album from Boston MC Mr. Lif (Jedi Mind Tricks, Aesop Rock, Definitive Jux) and North Carolina-born producer L'Orange (Kool Keith, Jeremiah Jae, Blu). The album features guest vocals from Akrobatik, Chester Watson, Insight, & Gonjasufi and narrated by Wyatt Cenac (Daily Show, Bojack Horseman)

7' release featuring the previously unreleased Can't Nobody' featuring K-Maxx on vocals and a remix of Gotta Get Out' not released on The Pendletons Gotta Get Out' EP.

Two Modern Soul Masterpieces restored from the Master Tapes.
Family Groove pairs these solid dancers by The Pretenders back to back on 7' vinyl. Whether it be the roaring Funk Bass intro of 'It's Everything About You' or the Sultry Jazz vocals of Madam Pat Tandy on 'Just Be Yourself'' that suits you, it's no wonder the original Carnival label pressings of both tunes are in big demand.