Hip-Hop Vinyl New Releases - News

Off the back of the inescapably addictive funk rattle 'n' romp 'Felony', an A-list playlist choice of BBC Radio 6 Music spun by Craig Charles, Lauren Laverne and Mary Anne Hobbs as well as BBC Radio 2 hosts Jo Whiley and Rylan, The Allergies are out to provide the soundtrack to your summer with 'Say The Word'. The Bristol duo of Rackabeat and DJ Moneyshot continue their patent blend of fat laced hip-hop and funk for the hip bone, ready and waiting to tear the ring pull off so the party can flood out.

In succession to 'As We Do Our Thing', 'Push On' and 'Steal The Show' ("An action-packed funk workout that delivers dancefloor A-bombs time and time again" – Clash magazine), 'Say The Word' packs a killer punch of chunky breaks, finger licking throwdowns and soft-shoe steppers to ensure the boogie will never leave your body. The Allergies' latest dancefloor crusade lines up serial collaborator Andy Cooper of Ugly Duckling (now officially seeking official Allergies citizenship, and reaching a new astral plain on 'I Just Got That Feeling'); the honey-dipped, no-nonsense soul of Marietta Smith, of Smith and The Honey Badgers; Dynamite MC holding down the uber true skool cool of 'Hot Sensation'; and the funster Mardi Gras free for all involving The Cuban Brothers that will definitely 'Let Them Know'.

A fixture on Jalapeno Records since 2015, The Allergies all-in party performance has gained Album of the Day status on 6 Music, become a bestseller on the iTunes and Juno hip-hop album charts, and received Tune of the Month gongs in Mixmag. The Allergies have also stopped by shows on Radio 2 with Dermot O'Leary and Radio 4 with Clive Anderson, and headlined the BBC 6 Music Festival in their native Bristol; all in addition to an ever energetic European itinerary, and teaming with Dr Syntax (whose dulcet tones are back to affirm 'I'm On It'), Izo FitzRoy and Uncle Frank of the group, the Fun Lovin' Criminals.

In tandem with 'Felony' flying across springtime airwaves, Rackabeat and Moneyshot helmed a triumphant Trunk of Funk mix for Craig Charles' celebrated Funk and Soul show in April. It got pulses racing, as per usual, and whet the listeners' appetites for album number four. When it drops, trust us, 'Say The Word' will be on everyone's lips.

On this new opus, the music of Tribeqa is tinted with new Experiments.
The balafon and the acoustic guitar are next to the turntables and the electronic loops of the remixers PARRAD (ATOM from C2C), SCRATCH BANDITS CREW (Chinese Man Records), SORG (new selection of Printemps de Bourges), BLANKA (La Fine Equipe),
LAWKYZ, DAWATILE, STRAYBIRD and more… offering a new sensory journey, a powerful, modern and innovative groove that does not turn its back on traditions.
This album of remixes is a special edition planned for the Disquaire Day, a vibrant homage of the electronic hip-hop scene to this UFO group that bears the colors of the experiment and is already considered cult by some.

“Just as Picasso said “I do not search, I find”, Tribeqa has this grace that cannot be commanded: the grace of finding. Their music is a gift. It is fresh and spontaneous, like all musical approaches based on emotional and intellectual honesty. I have been following this band for nearly 3 years. The encounter was extremely rewarding for me. I am calling upon all audiences to listen to their music and receive those vitamins of which they have the secret”
– Magic Malik

Star Wax, the famous French magazine, invites Diggers Factory
for its 3rd compilation on vinyl. And what a compilation!
We are proud to offer you exclusive tracks and quality music with
this funk / hip-hop / oriental compilation, with tracks from 1976 to
2016 by artists such as Geraldo Pino, Chayeb Chbab, Janko Nilovic, 47Soul, Quiet Dawn, Sa'Bat Machine & Tam Ly, Ahmed Malek, Last Bongo In Paris, or Doc Strange.

Freshly signed artist named Ian Ash (also know as “H” and Sunny G) delivers a massive filtered boogie house track. So What U Want will also come with a Lord Funk remix which sound a bit more electro funk to blast the dancefloor.

This track is a radio killer and should be loved by many musiclovers including DJs, producers or simply people who like to listen to mainstream vocal house as French touch production. A bunch of samples and played instruments make it efficient and support the
sweet voice of the singer Djemaïli. He is known first as an R’n’B singer, but he liked to perform on this future classic – and you can hear it! Ian Ash is known as a resident DJ of the World-famous Montreux Jazz Festival where he has spun records yearly between 2001 and 2019. Including 1st and 2nd parts of George Clinton Parliament Funkadelic, Spearhead feat. Michael Franti, Doctor L, Tony Allen,Jean Grae, Raphael Saadiq, Will Calhoun, Common,Dj Cam, Mister Mike, Benji B, Souljazz, Andy Smith,Buddah Monk, Jimmy Cliff back band, Jamie Lidell, and Claude Nobs himself! He spun also at Cargo (London), SPACE (Ibiza), NL (Amsterdam), Divans du Monde
(Paris), etc. He surely is in the top 10 Funk DJs in Europe. He also has been stage and studio audio engineer for 2 decades and has mixed a couple of live artists such as Joe Sample, Mandrill or even AIR. He has mixed more than 90 concerts at Montreux Jazz Festival 2002 and deeply participated in producing 4 Days in Geneva by Ohmega Watts
more recently.

New 2LP instalment from Ministry Of Sound’s ‘Origins Of’ series.

After 20+ years with psych legends Yura Yura Teikoku, Shintaro Sakamoto's third solo album is a bonafide masterpiece of warped steel guitar, ambient disco and AOR soul.
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Like a language of Sakamoto's own...made with a ship-in-the-bottle-like focus.' Pitchfork
Love If Possible is the pay-attention-moment. Not enough know. More should know.' Under The Radar
Perfectionist pop for the extraterrestrial bachelor pad.' Spin

Killer funk from the Henry Stone's Miami vaults...
1972 classic repressed and remastered for 2014 in original artwork as a dinked 7". Heavy duty dancefloor nugget! Official re issue.

Official Mr Bongo coloured vinyl re-issue for Record Store Day 2020

Asha's debut self-titled album is a wonderful fusion of jazz, soul, blues, and disco. It includes an outstanding cover version of J.J. Cale's ‘Right Down Here’; a track which Asha has made very much her own by flipping it into a deep-funk groove with sultry ethereal vocals and a drumbeat almost ready-made for samplers of the future.

The record was produced in the UK by Del Newman, who had worked with Carly Simon, Cat Stevens, and Elton John to name a few. It was released on London CBS records in 1973. Shortly after the release of the record, Asha (who was born in Mumbai), was banned by the Home Office from working in the UK for a period of time due to visa issues. These obstacles along with problems with her recording contract did not hold her back. Asha moved on and continued her musical journey elsewhere. This resulted in further astounding creative works that Mr Bongo will also be presenting soon.

For this special RSD special edition we have pressed on sky blue vinyl to bring out the colours of Asha's stunning dress that she wears for the cover portrait.

Hot on the heels of his recent Eddie Kendricks/Q Tip outing on the 2Dogs imprint, Redmo once again comes up trumps with this 2 tracker on the newly formed Felt Tip label.
The all time Bob Marley classic 'Is This Love' get's stripped back to it's absolute bare bones then strung back together resulting in a majestic dubbed out acoustic masterpiece.
All the original parts...horns, guitar, piano and of course the vocals (both lead & backing) are brought back to life in an arrangement and version that's sure to raise pulses and eyebrows alike. On the flip we have 'Sadi Soul'.....A double bass led jazz-funk groover which we believe is based on a rather rare 70's Belgium jazzer that's worth a pretty penny or two! Redmo get's us instantly locked in with the drums underpinned by that walking bass line, vibes slip n slide effortlessly over the top resulting in mightily cheeky little dance floor gem.Keep 'em peeled.....Redmo is one to look out for!

When we are talking deepunk classics, there are a few top records that come to mind, Salt, Soul Heart Transplant, Carleen & The Groovers, Eddie Bo.. Here we have one of those top echelon soul/funk masterpieces. Recorded at the legendary True Soul studios in Little Rock, AR in 1971 by the Leaders and written by Donell Edwards. The Leaders B side was played in the Early 2000s by DJs like Keb Darge and Ian Wright, weirdly the vocal never quite touched the northern scene probably due to rarity or being too funky for the ears at the time. The is funk royalty though, rare as can be and an excellent 2 sider. Essential.

In the 1960’s when Atlantic, Stax and Motown were at their peak; a little-known label in Norfolk, VA headed up by Noah H. Biggs, called Shiptown, was also giving young kids a chance to perform. Mr Biggs owned many labels locally and viewed many of the releases as a chance to showcase young, talented artists and performers in order to get them placed at larger national record companies. As a result, many of Shiptown’s releases can be extremely hard to track down with most pressings limited to 200 or less.

One of the last releases on Shiptown came in the mid 1970s by The Grooms, a few years before the passing of Mr Biggs. The only single the band ever released consisted of a phenomenal A Side, a mid-tempo funk track with amazing vocals and a killer horn arrangement called ‘Slow Down’. This is a track that’s hard to define - it takes inspiration from so many soulful genres. On the flip is a devastating beat ballad called ‘I Deserve A Little Bit More’. This track builds to a spine tingling crescendo. Raw soul at its best, with a wonderfully gritty mix of tight harmonies and unhinged emotion.

If this one doesn’t move you, check your pulse.

• Busi Mhlongo’s chart-topping, award-winning 1999 album
• Heavyweight 180g vinyl with remastered audio, inner sleeve with photographs and new notes by Kwanele Sosibo

Urban Zulu changed South Africa’s music forever, rewiring Zulu migrant roots music for the 21st Century. Busi Mhlongo’s powerful voice and challenging lyrics soar over driving bass lines and glittering guitars of an all-star South African maskanda line-up, backed by a multi-national cast including Lokua Kanza, Brice Wassy, Jacques Djeyim and Will Mowatt.

With this album Busi Mhlongo subverted and then claimed Maskanda music’s previously patriarchal space, voicing a new social blues narrative. Her songs cut to the essence of simple joys, unrequited love, abuse in the name of love, and month-end money blues.

Topping charts in Europe and South Africa, Urban Zulu struck critical and commercial success.

Yehlisan'umoya Ma-Afrika “creates a sensation of being inevitable because the riffs are so organic, it feels like it would be a crime against nature if they fell together any other way” (AllMusic).

'We Baba Omncane' became the sound track for a global Adidas campaign, while a later re-mix became a smash hit for Black Coffee.

Harlem Pop Trotters is one of the best jazzfunk albums in the French library, and one of the grooviest too. Written & produced by Jean Claude Pierric & François Rolland for Les Tréteaux in the mid ‘70s, this real masterpiece is now reissued on Underdog Records (Janko Nilovic, Martial Solal) in a rare colored edition!

Repress coming!

High Focus Records is proud to present 'Put That Soul On Me' a brand new 3 track offering from arguably one of the best voices to emerge from these shores in recent years : Rag N Bone Man.
Since having been introduced to the world via High Focus Records in early 2013, Rag N Bone Man's career has flourished in an incredible way and it has become a widely known fact that, as cliche as it may sound, he is the next big thing. From gathering attention from the likes of tastemakers Zane Lowe, Rob Da Bank, Mistajam & getting daytime radio play on BBC Radio 1 among others to working with Hip Hop legend DJ Premier and touring all over the country with chart toppers Bastille, it is a proven fact that Rag N Bone Man's voice has the power to touch the hearts of millions no matter what genre of music you are into. With such a universally recognised talent, its going to be hard for nay sayers to deny the infectious flute grooves of 'Put That Soul On Me' or the slow pounding bass of 'Across The Sky'.
Dirty Dike, normally known for his outlandish lyrics and larger than life provocative character takes the back seat on this release, allowing his signature crunchy production to do the talking. Dirty Dike's instrumentals provide the perfect back drop for the smooth rumblings of Rag N Bone Man, the pair complement each other perfectly as the beat and the voice are just as heavy as one another, both putting on a fantastic display of skill and raw talent which has been synonymous with all High Focus Releases.
The title track, 'Put That Soul On Me' is a catchy celebration song, a festive underground tune praising 'that neat sweet soul' whilst denigrating those 'wack ass drums and played out synths' over swirling flutes. Following the festivities we have 'Across The Sky', a bass heavy downtempo number which explores the side effects of different drugs, upon which our protagonist asks for a helping hand before the heart wrenching saxophone kicks in. High Focus Records fans will be pleased to see that the infamous Rag N Bone Man 'exclusive Bars' from the HFTV channel is finally seeing an official release. 'My Business', which set the internet on fire upon its release on the channel, getting retweeted by the likes of super producers DJ Premier and 9th Wonder, is the third track on this project and features a guest verse from Contact Play legend Ronnie Bosh. With these three unmissable tracks on one piece of wax, The 'Put That Soul On Me' 12'' is going to be the soundtrack to your summer.

Caiphus Semenya, AKA Mr Letta Mbulu, is a South African legend, and Listen To The Wind, his iconic debut album, is simply a superb modern-soul/boogie album. It’s also incredibly rare, especially in good condition, so Be With is delighted to present this reissue.

Now a revered composer, musician, and arranger, Caiphus left apartheid South Africa in the 60s for self-imposed exile in Southern California together with his wife, Letta Mbulu. Settling in Los Angeles he started working with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba and other exiled and semi-exiled South african artists, as well as, of course, his wife Letta.

Caiphus also found himself working with and composing for a broad range of jazz and pop artists, including Lou Rawls, Nina Simone and Cannonball Adderley. His facility with both jazz and African forms served him well. His LA stay was also the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with Quincy Jones, the fruits of which can be tasted in Caiphus’s African compositions for the scores to Roots and Spielberg’s adaptation of The Color Purple.

Given his decades of work behind the scenes, it’s no surprise that it took until 1982 for Caiphus to get around to putting out the first album of his own. But all that experience shows. Listen To The Wind is a deeply impressive synthesis of early 80s US production and instrumentation together with his traditional South African musical roots.

It’s stylistically diverse but the ingredients are never diluted. There are elements of boogie, soul, funk and jazz, all shot through with pan-African flavour, and moving effortlessly from uptempo floor fillers to more meditative, slower soulful tracks. Produced by Caiphus himself, he makes full use of a stellar line up of session musicians including Nathan East, Michael Stanton, Sonny Burke and Paulinho DaCosta. And of course, there are Letta’s show-stopping vocals. To our ears, Listen To The Wind is just one big party, and lord knows we need that more than ever right now.

Opener “Angelina” is one of Caiphus’s most beloved tracks at Be With HQ. It’s a breezy, feel-good SA boogie-funk classic. Harmonic and horn heavy, it sounds as fresh today as it would’ve done in the early 80s. If this one doesn’t make you move, you may need your pulse taking. The drum breakdown alone, a little over halfway through, is sensational.

It’s followed by the gentle reggae lilt of “Play With Fire”. A real melodic slo-mo delight, carried by the tropical vibes and, above all else, by the extraordinary performance of Caiphus himself and his backing singers.

Closing out side one, the spectacular “Umoya” is driven by triumphant horns and slick bass. With its proto-Graceland vibes, we reckon Paul Simon must’ve been listening. Hard. Caiphus trades verses with the unmistakable tones of Letta, and it sounds divine. Yes, it’s as good as anything on Letta’s canonical In The Music… The Village Never Ends. A wide-eyed wonder, made for unity and togetherness, it’s all infectious, smiling faces for nearly nine minutes. But never mind nine, we could party to this for ninety minutes and “Umoya” would leave us re-energised for ninety more.

Elegantly firing up side two is perhaps the album’s best known track. “Without You” is a heavenly slice of modern soul, an end-of-nighter to end them all. Smooth strutting, disco-fied funk with that unmistakably South African sound, it’s just sublime, with those lyrics that keep coming back to smiling faces and community, “without You the sun won’t shine”. Big with the likes of Rush Hour’s Antal, this is aural perfection.

“Ziph’inkomo” is a soul-soothing, swooning epic. Gently building throughout, its final few minutes are genuinely stirring as the backing vocals and instrumentation swell. Jaw-dropping. The irresistible groove of frantic, percussive workout “Gumba Boogie” closes out what must surely be one of the greatest artistic statements of the 1980s. If his friend Quincy wasn’t feverishly taking notes for Thriller, then you could’ve fooled us.

With Simon Francis handling the mastering of this Be With edition, you know it sounds as fantastic as ever. The cover art, as breezy as the music, has been faithfully restored. All that’s missing is you.

Top drawer cosmic-tinged, timeless jazz funk from Elixia, "Soho Phaze-/Soho Nights",
gets the remastered reissue treatment on "Record Shack".

"Soho Phaze" wasn’t going to be light on the effects was it? "Going heavy on the phaser" would have been an understatement, but what could have sounded like an endlessly swirling soup of effects turned into a breathtaking, intergalactic, early ‘80s jazz funk dream.

On the flip ‘Soho Nights’ keeps the effects subdued letting the squelching synth lines, feverish stabs and pure funk bass do the strutting. Both Sides still do the damage to this day, with DJs such as Nick The Record, Joey Negro, Mark Grusane, Medlar & Faze Action all regularly drawing for the mystique and mastery of this 12" big tip!

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Record Kicks presents a limited edition 45 with two deep soul winners from the enfant prodige Alexis Evans. On the A side the northern soul cut "She Took Me Back". On the flipside the rnb/soul floorshaker "It's All Over Now".

Heading from Bordeaux, the Anglo-French Alexis Evans is not a newcomer in the music scene. He discovered Afro-American music as a child and learnt to play guitar thanks to his father, an English musician. At the age of 17 he debuted with his first project "Jumping to the Westside", with which he was awarded the "Cognac Blues Passion" prize and flew to the "International Blues Challenge" in Memphis, Tennessee. Soon after in 2016 he exploded onto the French scene with "Girl Bait", his astonishing debut album that hit the airwaves of FIP, France Bleu, and Jazz Radio amongst the others. Despite his young age Alexis Evans has already built a household name, touring extensively his country with explosive live sets at RDV Erdre Nantes, Rhino Jazz St-Etienne, Lyon Ninkasi, Club Nubia Paris, Festivals Relâche Bordeaux, Jazz à Vienne as well as Festivals in England, Estonia, Switzerland and Wales.

A must have 45 for every soul djs and lovers. Watch out the 45 is limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Aww yes, ain’t that fresh! Dusty Donuts coming correct with another batch of dope edits that will no doubt be rocking dance floors and accelerating the art of moving butts if you know what we mean. The A side, “Just A Touch Of Faith (Naughty NMX x Marc Hype) gives you the best of that Bob James/ De La/ Slave edits for your ear hole by revisiting Slave’s Just A Touch Of Love and applying the same breakbeat leverage that De La Soul gave to their Slave sample on Keepin’ The Faith. On the flip, NMX, this time in the company of Doc Flex, applies the same process to RAMPs’s Daylight, famously sampled by ATCQ on Bonita Applebum thus continuing their services to DJs everywhere with a perfect set opener or closer.

Music history is full of miracles and wonders. OFEGE is certainly one of them. It's quite easy to imagine this band's story turning into a movie. In 1973, a bunch of teenagers with an abundance of passion for music got their hands on the official school band's instruments and jammed away. Inspired by the psychedelic rock sounds and guitar wizardry of Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck or Led Zeppelin they wrote an album worth of songs and decided to have them recorded. The goal was to press them on vinyl - one copy for each band member - as a souvenir of the fun times they had together before their school careers would rip them apart. Shortly after, they found themselves with a major record label contract in their pockets, propelled to stardom in their hometown of Lagos/Nigeria and soon across the whole country. Three studio albums followed in the years to come. The unavoidable enviousness and bickering over "who's the true band leader, who's gets the most love letters" and such led to alterations of OFEGE's line-up and subsequently to its decay in 1978. With the turn of the century, OFEGE's coming-of-age drama has fortunately found a new generation of fans across the globe and will certainly continue to do so with this dearly needed reissue. OFEGE's debut album "Try And Love" will now be available digitally for the very first time since its inception 47 years ago.

It's true what they say: Life's writing the best stories.

‘Is Love Enough?’ is the band’s sixth studio album and was recorded at Paul Weller’s Black Barn Studios in Surrey and produced by Stone Foundation’s founding members Neil Jones and Neil Sheasby. It continues their fruitful collaboration with Paul Weller who produced 2017’s Street Rituals and played on 2018’s ‘Everybody Anyone’ both of which have streaming figures in the millions. Paul contributes lead vocals to ‘Deeper Love’ and also prominent backing vocals on ‘Picture A Life’. He also joins the band and plays guitar on three other tracks (‘Af-Ri-Ka’, ‘Help Me’, ‘Love’s Interlude (II)’).
Stone Foundation are renowned for their collaborative approach and this time is no exception. Legendary actor Peter Capaldi provides a spoken word coda to the album, reading words by Vincent Van Gogh written about love. Additionally, two rising stars of the soul scene feature on the record. Durand Jones joins for a lead vocal on ‘Hold On To Love’ and Laville sings lead on ‘The Light In Us’.

The new 7'' on Delights is a vinyl debut for two groove-heavy, retro-futuristic remixes from Markey Funk's vaults: "Magic" by Men of North Country - on the A-side, and "Sparks" by 3421 - on the flip. Both cuts, previously available only on streaming platforms, are a kaleidoscopic homage to the 1960's space age romance, sci-fi psychedelia and cinematic funk.

Limited to 300 copies worldwide.

Limited one of pressing. 250 circulating.. we only have a small amount of that.

To mark their 25th release, Left Ear revisits the work of singular Japanese musician Minoru ‘Hoodoo’ Fushimi. In 1983, a young Minoru was working from his home studio in Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture and determined his first release would be an ode to Japan’s musical heritage. Minoru had noticed the younger generation become increasingly disillusioned with traditional Enka songs and decided to breathe new life into the sentimental ballads of old. The multi-talented artist laid down the beat using a TR-606 and played all the additional instruments himself.

The resulting tracks are two mutations from the energetic style of the originals into much darker and abstract versions, albeit managing to maintain the passion and spirit of the Enka genre. Minoru utilised a number of vocal distortions to honour the original vibrato singing style, executing the tracks in a way that was more of a mesh between early punk squelching of the late 70’s and Troutman’s funk-fuelled voice-box of the early 80’s. In true Minoru style, his vision overshadowed the accessibility and ironically the tracks fell short of their appeal to the younger generation he was aiming to inspire, yet resulted in two timeless renditions.

CARIBBEAN DISCO-FUNK DANCEFLOOR BOMB by the great RICHARD 'NAPPY' MAYERS, the man behind some of the best Soca, Disco and Funk sounds ever produced in Trinidad.

Somewhere between electro soul and melodramatic pop. Music focused towards the youth set in some strange dream. Not sugarcoating anything.
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Aset was a collective founded by a group of individuals deeply involved in community improvement initiatives and the struggle for justice and equality. A project that would link motivated adults with talented young people in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

The compilation takes songs from three released projects of Aset, and one semi-unreleased single. Latonya, a spunky 11 year old kid singing about divorce, love, and dancing. The poster child of Aset. Treo, a trio of high school gals in harmony singing about love and relationships. Whax, the high school boys who were a bit stranger, the silly side of Aset. All backed by The Aset Players.

Release comes housed in a newly designed jacket with inner sleeve containing info on the label/artists and an interview with the label director, Mba Mbulu.

Follow up to their debut Liquid Deep, Dreamcast Davon and Sasac are back for another PPUPRODUCT.

The wildly-talented keys player returns with a luminous jazz-funk masterstroke

Tipping a hat to Herbie Hancock and Mad Scientist alike!



Bass-heavy dub and contemporary club culture are the foundations for Joe Armon-Jones’ phenomenal second album. “Turn to Clear View” builds on the celebrated keys player’s singular vision, exhibiting a sound with flourishes of R&B, hip-hop and p-funk, and featuring regular bandmates Oscar Jerome, Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia. He builds on his close-knit core personnel with guest spots from artists he’s long admired, including Georgia Anne Muldrow (Brainfeeder, Stones Throw), Obongjayar (XL) and Jehst.

From character-fuelled raps to Afrobeat-influenced jams, Armon-Jones channels the diversity of the ascendant scene that surrounds him. Co-produced with longtime collaborator Maxwell Owin, the record has a carefully plotted feel that reflects their meticulous approach. The duo carefully perfected every touch, with Armon-Jones ever-present throughout the mixing and mastering processes. Between his highly acclaimed solo career and his work with the influential Ezra Collective, Armon-Jones is building on a rush of acclaim – winning Session of the Year at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards and being nominated for UK Act of the Year at the Jazz FM Awards. His electric, open-ended live shows have brought him to Glastonbury, SXSW, Boiler Room and a sold-out headline show at London’s Village Underground.

Insanely popular across the Maghreb, name-checked in international spy novels and beloved of music adventurers like David Byrne, Libyan superstar Ahmed Fakroun is the most astounding raï-disco-electronica pioneer you never heard of. His 1983 album, Mots D'Amour, recently reissued by PMG, is regarded as a global fusion classic. This self-titled anthology of songs from the late 70's is an altogether mellower affair. The grooves are slower and sweeter, and Fakroun's multi-instrumentalist chops on the saz, mandol and darbouka drum really come to the fore. The album includes tracks from two of Ahmed's rarest and most sought-after 7's. 'Nysan' has an almost West Coast vibe: think Ned Doheny via Benghazi. Balearic-minded collectors will love the haunting flute runs in 'Awedny', produced by Tommy Vance, and 'Njoom Al Leyel'. There's even a touch of lilting reggae on 'Falah' and 'Yu Hussad.' Ahmend Fakroun is the perfect late night, come-down album. Especially after a hot and sweaty evening in a raï club, somewhere in North Africa. - Peter Moore,

FF45 are back in effect with Canadian’s Redbull 3style champ Nick Bike, who returns with another sure shot double-sider. ‘Atomic Kenny’, while previously only seeing very limited digital release, has been championed by some of the lands top DJs. An in-demand remix that finally comes forth. On the B, a nod to the late legend Stezo – as always don’t sleep, snooze you lose!

The original, the inspirational, the bombastic, the never bettered, the one.
'Don't make me wait' is all of the above and so much more. Classic to the core. Huge earth shattering record right here.
OK, so the scoop, for the uninitiated is this - the Peech Boys were Larry Levan's group, we're talking early 80's NYC here, 1982 to be precise, around the height of the Paradise Garage as Larry was making the transition from superstar DJ to producer. He brought a sparse, dubbed out, narcotic late night feel to the overall sound of this record. This was a short-lived project, but the influence is still felt today, the Peech Boys DNA is inside the veins of modern dance music, as is Larry's. There is no underestimating what an impact this record had. 7+ minutes of electronic bliss, trailblazing stuff, and don't get us started on the dub. Do yourself a favour, BUY this classic if you don't own it already, you'll keep coming back to it time and time again. Guaranteed. This essential 12" is repressed here in it's original 1979 glory, an essential classic that has stood the test of time for the last 30+ years & is now available again, remastered & repressed for 2017 in conjunction with West End Records, NYC.

Pure heat is the result when Bosq gets his mitts on Kaleta & Super Yamba Band's track "Jibiti", transforming the mid-tempo original into a bonafide Afro-Disco dancefloor burner rife with psychedelic vibes and punchy horns.The band is currently riding high revelling in their short yet scene-stealing turn rocking the stage on Hulu's series remake of cult-classic film High Fidelity

After a first edition acclaimed internationally, Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice finally follows-up to their French Disco Boogie Sounds compilation with a second volume!!
Pursuing his fine work at digging rare music from around the world, DJ and collector Charles Maurice presents another brilliant selection of great music linked to France and French West-Indies: 12 hidden and forgotten titles, all produced between 1978 and 1985, whether in France, or by French artists abroad. This time again, he perfectly browse and defines the great energy and quality of this specific Disco/Funk scene at that time, both in the underground market, or through bigger labels.
On one hand, tracks by Crystal, Jackie Esam, Ideku Dynasty or Marc Ashy, were produced by small artists and labels from the French Caribbean and African community and also filled with a raw spirit and some Tropical influences. On the other hand, tracks by Claude Morgan, Greg Smaha, Roots, or Black Bells Group, were released by major labels such as Phonogram, RCA, Derby, or Carrere, thanks to confirmed independent producers, acting not only in France, but also in Canada and the US.
Today, Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice are very proud to unearth these 12 gems, with amongst them some very hard to find and almost unknown titles.

Killer 1975 Gospel version of Marlena Shaw's 1969 sister Soul standard, a deep, socially conscious 45 asking some heavy questions about ghetto life set against a beautifully arranged, string heavy backdrop of low slung Funk. A truly sought after rare groove, produced by the UK's John Abbey, the man who set up the legendary "Blues & Soul" magazine as well as the Contempo, Mojo and Ichiban labels who worked with countless Soul and Funk artists throughout his lengthly career. Quite tough to track down on 45, "Woman Of The Ghetto" is now available again, dug out from the mighty SAM Records catalogue, the first release in their impressive discography now made available again on dinked 45 as it was presented in 1975, legitimately licensed, remastered and reissued in conjunction with SAM Records New York City.