Incredible Bongo Band was formed by MGM A&R Michael Viner in 1972 to record the soundtrack to a now virtually anonymous B-Movie entitled 'The Thing With Two Heads'. "The IBB" transformed from a loose studio collective to an instrumental pop covers consortium, interpreting classics of the day in their inimitable percussive fashion. Viner recorded them at MGM studios during downtime, assembling line-ups from whichever musicians were available at the time, leading to a unique blend of multi-talented musicians that included Jim Gordon, King Errisson, Jerry Scheff, and Perry Botkin Jr. The full bands' line-up is shrouded in mystery, but their legacy is undeniable. They spawned cult-classic records that would become a goldmine for hip hop breaks and attain sampling immortality.
'Apache', which was written and made famous by the British band The Shadows, is legendary in the worlds of dance music and hip hop. It was a staple for DJs such as Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash as they invented their world-shaking take on the art of DJing at the Bronx block parties of the ‘70s. Over the years it has become a hip hop and breakers anthem and is revered as 'the break' of all time (at least in the top three) with the rhythms of this LP even helping to coin the term 'breakbeat'.
“Bongo Rock” is significant, for being one of the musical cornerstones of rap ... it is certainly one of the most sampled LP’s in history, if not the most sampled. Almost every history-minded hip-hop DJ has a copy, and the first few bars of “Apache,” can send crowds into overdrive.” According to Kool Herc, the stylistic pioneer many people consider to be the father of hip-hop music, the Bongo’s “Apache” is “the national anthem of hip-hop.” NY Times.
Sampled over 600 times, including... Nas, Beastie Boys, Moby, Mick Jagger, Kanye West, Sugarhill Gang, Jay-Z, Aphex Twin, DJ Shadow, Massive Attack, Ultramagnetic MC’s, Unkle, LL Cool J, 2 Live Crew, 4 Hero, Fatboy Slim, to name a few…
The real story of “The IBB” is far greater than the recordings themselves and ultimately shows how a distinctly powerful musical performance can get the recognition it deserves, no matter how anonymous its origins.
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Athlete Whippet join the Toy Tonics family! The London/Berlin-based duo make a sound that is based on futuristic breakbeats combined with deep, jazz chord progressions and a kind of funk that sounds more like it was made in 2100 then in a year behind us. Definitely not a retro record the Vesta EP is further proof that the connection between London and Berlin that has been build by several Toy Tonics artists (Cody Currie the latest in the gang) is becoming a strong one. The combination of the Berlin dancefloor sound and the UK jazz fusion soul is changing the scene and creating new moods. Neo soul and house, broken beats and disco.. there are lot of things happening in that new world and Athlete Whippet could be a strong player in that new sound.
The 2 guys already achieved great support by UK radio DJs such as Annie Mac and Jamz Supernova for their their first collaborative EP Touch (with Metronomy’s Olugbenga), followed by their 2020 solo EP 'Your Love Is Lifting Me', an ode to compassion and solidarity, and remixes for labels including Rhythm Section.
‘Vesta’ is not just the title track of the EP but also the name of the South London Road where they shared an apartment, built a studio in their living room, and put together the first ideas for this EP.
Both Robin and Avi come from a live performance background, played in bands since their early teenage years before they met studying music at Goldsmiths in London. You can hear a playful live quality throughout the EP. It’s not your average house productions with the usual formalistic patterns, but a very original, very fresh style - hard to copy (but easy to dance to).
Now based between Berlin and London, they collaborate with their friend, Athens-born, Berlin-based artist Aphty Khéa on Yesterday and Can’t Make My Mind Up.
Avi and Robin their label squareglass and a London-residency inviting guests such as Seb Wildblood, Will Saul, Asquith, Anu and also have a monthly show on Rinse FM.
A unique new album of poetry and music featuring Marianne Faithfull set to the music of Warren Ellis, and featuring Nick Cave, Brian Eno and Vincent Ségal
With She Walks in Beauty, Marianne Faithfull with composer and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis releases one of the most distinctive and singular albums of her long, extraordinary life and career. It was recorded just before and during the first Covid-19 lockdown – during which the singer herself became infected and almost died of the disease – with musical friends and family including not only composer Warren Ellis but Nick Cave, Brian Eno, cellist Vincent Ségal and producer-engineer Head. She Walks in Beauty fulfils Faithfull’s long-held ambition to record an album of poetry with music.
It’s a record that draws on her passion for the English Romantic poets, a passion she fostered in her A Level studies with one Mrs Simpson at St Joseph's Convent School in Reading. From there she entered the world of As Tears Go By, of Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, Top of the Pops and the left-hand path of pop and stage stardom. Sixties iconography and outrage followed, as did her subsequent battles with addiction before her 1979 return to powerful female and artistic autonomy with Broken English, an album which featured her setting to music Heathcote Williams’ poem of eviscerating rage, Why D’Ya Do It?
Drawing deep on the poetry of Shelley, Keats, Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Thomas Hood, Faithfull’s vocal performances set to Ellis’s subtle collages of sound draw out the heart, the quick, the vibrant living matter in all these great poems, making them fresh, renewing them with the complex, lived-in timbres of her voice, and set to a subtle palette of ambient musical settings. It’s both a radical departure and a return to her original inspirations as an artist and performer.
The greatest poetry is best heard, and Faithfull’s accounts of some of the greatest lyric poetry in our language – Keats’ Ode To A Nightingale and Ode To Autumn – are spine-tingling in their deep understanding of the poetry’s powerful currents of meaning and identification. On Nightingale, her voice opens up like an epic landscape, while in Shelley’s miniature masterpiece, To The Moon, she sounds otherworldly, as if calling down from another medium, and the atonal, otherworldly sound textures provided by Eno on Bridge of Sighs and La Belle Dame Sans Merci become a compelling foil for Faithfull’s haunting interpretations of these rich, dark poems.
“They’ve have been with her her whole life,” says Ellis. “She believes in these texts. That world, she inhabits it, embodies it, and that really comes through. There’s just something about the way she can deliver that is incredibly affecting.”
“Eventually I always end up where I was meant to be,” says Faithfull. “I’ve noticed that. It may take a long time, but I get there. I never forget these things. After all these years, I’ve drawn the strands back and they still mean something and they resonate more, actually, because I now have life experience. Life and near-death experience. Many times! Not just once.” She Walks in Beauty is scheduled for release April 30th, with artwork created for the album by British artist and lifelong friend, Colin Self, and with the full texts of the poems, and commentary, included in the liner notes. While Faithfull continues to recover from the after-effects of Covid-19, and the world around us continues to struggle with the impact of the worldwide pandemic, these are poems and performances to steady and lift the spirit.
A vital moment in the resurgence of the London Jazz scene. This epoch-defining set captures all the power, energy and deftness of touch that became the thrilling, visceral experience of Binker and Moses' breakthrough performance at the now-legendary (and much missed) East London venue Total Refreshment Centre. Recorded on a sweltering night in the Summer of 2017. The palpable excitement of the crowd and its energetic, liberated response to the action on stage adds extra levels to the atmospherics, and elevates the pioneering duo's performance to a new high.
Tibor Szemző is not only a skillful and experienced Hungarian musician but also a media artist with a vast imagination. His last LP, ARBO X – Csoma Grooves, refers to his full-length film A Guest of Life released in 2006, for which he not only directed but also composed all the music. The film is inspired by the life of Alexander Csoma de Körös, a remarkable polyglot from the 19th century who set out from his native Transylvania to central Asia on foot to look for the roots of the Hungarian language. He reached Tibet, dedicated the rest of his life to study of Tibetan manuscripts and finally became the founder of tibetology. After 14 years Tibor Szemző decided to explore the theme further and composed the cinematic performance, Silverbird and the Cyclist, where he as narrator presented the story of Csoma from a different perspective.
ARBO X is the music from this performance and it is based on the soundtrack of the original movie but the material has been restructured and enhanced by new layers. There are fourteen relatively short tracks on the album and each of them has a very specific character, sometimes mysterious as the titles of the tracks themselves. Their arrangement is ingeniously composed. Szemző’s typical bass flute and voice with percussion accompaniment on the first track Axis is a very impressive introduction to the whole album. The following tracks build up a series of colorful sound parables, which are in no way descriptive. Every element, whether it’s a double bass, viola, soprano voice, vocal trio or electronics, fits perfectly within the overall sound fabric with effective timing. Listening to ARBO X one unwittingly concentrates on interweaving details without loosing the sense of the whole. It’s certainly a great benefit, as in previous recordings, that most of the musicians participating in the recording of ARBO X are very familiar with Szemző’s music and his collaboration with some of them goes back to Group 180, a new music ensemble he founded in 1978 and soon earned international acclaim. This most recent album belongs among a long line of recordings that Tibor Szemző has released during his musical career and displays great compositional complexity and a keen sense of a perfectly balanced sound spectrum.
Alexandr Krestovský
Outside Ludlow / Desert Disco is the first major solo release from Australian performer-composer Sam Dunscombe, now based in Berlin after residing for the past decade in San Diego and Tokyo. A virtuoso clarinettist who has performed in composed and improvised settings with artists such as Klaus Lang and Taku Sugimoto, their practice also embraces computer music, lo-fi electronics and field recordings, in addition to their long-term commitment to archiving, studying and performing the work of Romanian spectralist composer Horatiu Radulescu.
The two side-long pieces presented on this LP began from a chance encounter in a specific geographic location (documented in the photographs that grace the record’s sleeve). Exploring California’s Mojave desert with a friend, Dunscombe made the unlikely discovery of a tangle of quarter-inch tape snared on a cactus. The digitised version of this tape, variously edited and processed, as well as Dunscombe’s own transcription and embellished performance of some of its material on Hammond organ, makes up one of the main ingredients of the LP’s first side. The other is a field recording of the area outside the ghost town of Ludlow, where the tape was found, where haunted silence is punctuated by freight trains and clusters of explosions from gold mines and the local marine corps. Far from any kind of documentary approach, the resulting composition reaches back to the smeared atmospherics and overdriven tape crunch of Hands To, Small Cruel Party or Joe Colley, before the Hammond organ rises up to cast a spectral shimmer reminiscent of 1960s tape music classics like Arne Nordheim’s ‘Warszawa’.
On ‘Desert Disco’ (its title perhaps a clue to the content of the mysterious tape), Dunscombe zeroes in on a single fragment of the tape, accompanying it with analogue synthesis to craft an immersive work based on a single chord. Throughout the course of this work, the monolithic opening sonority gradually splits apart, revealing an infinity of rhythmically phasing lines that swarm like a cloud of insects and patter like falling rain, placing Dunscombe’s piece in a lineage of patient electronic exploration that includes landmarks like Costin Miereanu’s Derives and the contemporary work of Jim O’Rourke.
Limited edition vinyl with images by Sam Dunscombe and design by Lasse Marhaug. Mastered by Joe Talia at Good Mixture, Berlin.
First-ever career-spanning retrospective (1956–1980) – 5 CDs with repertoire from the Riverside, Fantasy, Verve, and Warner years. Includes the previously unreleased concert ‘On A Friday Evening’ recorded live at Oil Can Harry’s in Vancouver, BC on June 20, 1975, featuring Jazz legends Eddie Gomez on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums. Craft Recordings proudly honors the pioneering jazz artist Bill Evans, and his enduring musical contributions, with two new titles. The first—a deluxe, five-CD box set and digital album, titled Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980)—marks the first-ever career-spanning collection of music from the pianist, featuring over 60 tracks that spotlight Evans’ exceptional work as a leader and co-leader. The expansive set also includes a previously unreleased live performance from 1975, captured at Oil Can Harry’s in Vancouver, B.C. This recently unearthed concert recording will also be issued as a standalone album titled On a Friday Evening, which will be available on 2-LP, CD and digital formats, including hi-res 192/24 and 96/24.
- 01-01: Jiu Yue Noge _ September Song
- 01-02: Jia _ A House
- 01-03: Jian Wei Inoshi _ The Fruit Of Errata
- 01-04: Qiang Ifeng _ Storm
- 01-05: Keki _ Cake
- 01-06: Samishii _ Lonely
- 01-07: Aruri Yi Jiang , Sonota _ Since A Certain Day, Others
- 01-08: Gan Ikuai _ The Sweetest Mass
- 01-09: Shibuyakun _ Shibuya-Kun (Vinyl Bonus Track)
- 02-01: Sahuin _ Surfin (Vinyl Bonus Track)
- 02-02: Koregaxian Shi Da _ Thats Reality
- 02-02: Koregaxian Shi Da _ Thats Reality
- 02-03: Lai Tare, Si Yo _ Come Away, Death
- 02-04: Shi Gajiang Ru _ Raining Stones
- 02-05: Gui Huo _ Onibi
- 02-06: E Mo Noge _ The Devil Song (12_ Edit)
- 02-07: Shi Bai Wobao Kishimeyou _ Lets Hug Failure (Vinyl Bonus Track)
- 02-08: Ren _Nosan _ Umbrella People
- 02-09: Shi Zai Surushi Nozhong _ The World Exists
Following in the footsteps of the pathbreaking Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie music, Morr Music and Alien Transistor have again joined forces to release The Fruit Of Errata, a compilation introducing the world to the intimate DIY pop of yumbo. Led by songwriter, pianist, and occasional vocalist Koji Shibuya, the Japanese band has released four albums since forming in 1998. This compilation draws fifteen songs (eighteen on vinyl) from those albums, and some ancillary releases, to uncover a biographical narrative of yumbo, showing how Shibuya’s songwriting, and the group’s limber, sensitive playing, has developed over the decades. It also places them squarely within a tradition of home-spun but ambitious Japanese pop that takes in Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tenniscoats, Nagisa Ni Te, Yuzo Iwata, Kazumi Nikaido and more.
yumbo is very much the vision of Shibuya, an amiable iconoclast whose songs seem informed by some of his early listening – there’s the playful seriousness of Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s Tori Kudo here, an avowed long-time hero for Shibuya, but also the flexibility of freely improvised music. You can also hear Shibuya’s fondness for Mayo Thompson and The Red Crayola in both the idiosyncracies of the writing and the egalitarian looseness of the playing. Shibuya also carries those energies into the group’s membership – there are fantastic stories of him having a conversation at a record shop, or overhearing someone speaking, and asking the person in question to join yumbo as one of their various singers. He seems open to chance as a driving force, as a way to make space for unexpected possibilities to blossom.
The great achievement of yumbo and Shibuya, though, is translating all of this into beautiful, unpredictable pop songs. There’s a gorgeous soul-inflected lilt to “A House” that makes it delightfully affecting; the swaying brass on “Storm” propels its melody to a moody, dreamlike conclusion; the nakedness of “The Sweetest Mass” is slightly reminiscent of Carla Bley’s more pop-focused writing, crossed with the classicism of the songs that spilled from the Brill Building in the ‘60s. Throughout, Shibuya renders pop a deeply personal experience; you can hear musings here on friendship, family, intimacy, the complexity of relationships, mortality, and imbalances of power. These musings are also shadowed by real-life events: the effects and impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 are captured in songs like “Umbrella People” from Onibi.
Throughout the performances on The Fruit Of Errata, Shibuya and the group play with tenderness; they also often draw on other players to flesh out the music even further, two such guests being the aforementioned Tori Kudo (on “Umbrella People”) and Olympia, Washington’s LAKE (on “The Devil Song”). Community-minded and generous in approach, the writing of Shibuya and the music of yumbo is never less than lovely, and The Fruit Of Errata is a welcome introduction to their world. Open and gentle, confident and generous, these pop songs are filled with charm and spirit.
- A1: Enola Holmes (Wild Child)
- A2: Gifts From Mother
- A3: Mycroft & Sherlock Holmes
- A4: Cracking The Chrysanthemums Cypher
- A5: The Game Is Afoot
- A6: Train Escape
- A7: Nincompoop
- A8: Marquis
- B1: Fields Of London
- B2: London Arrival
- B3: Dressing Up Box
- B4: Messages For Mother
- B5: The Limehouse Puzzle
- B6: Limehouse Lane
- B7: Fight Combat
- B8: Edge Of A Cliff
- C1: Basilwether Hall
- C2: Forest Clues
- C3: Tewkesbury’s Trail
- C4: Escaping Lestrade
- C5: Making A Lady
- C6: School Escape
- C7: Tick Tock
- D1: For England
- D2: Ha!
- D3: Enola & Tewkesbury Farewell
- D4: An Old Friend
- D5: Mother
- D6: Enola Holmes (The Future Is Up To Us)
England, 1884 - a world on the brink of change. On the morning of her 16th birthday, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) wakes to find that her mother (Helena Bonham Carter) has disappeared, leaving behind an odd assortment of gifts but no apparent clue as to where she’s gone or why. After a free-spirited childhood, Enola suddenly finds herself under the care of her brothers Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin), both set on sending her away to a finishing school for “proper” young ladies. Refusing to follow their wishes, Enola escapes to search for her mother in London. But when her journey finds her entangled in a mystery surrounding a young runaway Lord (Louis Partridge), Enola becomes a super-sleuth in her own right, outwitting her famous brother as she unravels a conspiracy that threatens to set back the course of history.
Enola Holmes was released on September 23, 2020. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised Brown’s performance. Daniel Pemberton composed the film’s score. Pemberton described it as “unashamedly melodic and emotional orchestral music” with some “messy quirky oddness thrown in as well”.
RELEASE: 4-6-2021
• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• PVC PROTECTIVE SLEEVE
• CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED 2020 MOVIE ABOUT THE TEENAGE SISTER OF THE ALREADY-FAMOUS SHERLOCK HOLMES
• STARRING MILLIE BOBBY BROWN (STRANGER THINGS “ELEVEN”), HENRY CAVILL, SAM CLAFLIN & HELENA BONHAM CARTER
• MUSIC BY DANIEL PEMBERTON
• INCLUDES INSERT WITH PICTURES AND LINER NOTES BY DIRECTOR HARRY BRADBEER (KILLING EVE)
• LIMITED EDITION OF 500 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES ON SOLID TURQUOISE VINYL
This is a limited edition contains of 500 individually numbered copies on solid turquoise vinyl. The package includes an insert with pictures and liner notes by director Harry Bradbeer (Killing Eve).
- A1: Sea Cruise
- A2: The Girl From New York City
- A3: Multiplication
- A4: Johnny Remember Me
- A5: Who Put The Bomp (In The Bomp-A-Bomp-A-Bomp)
- A6: Chain Gang
- A7: Footsteps
- A8: Hey Girl Don't Bother Me
- B1: (You've Got) Personality
- B2: A Night At Daddy Gees
- B3: Ally-Oop
- B4: Blue Moon
- B5: Bony Moronie
- B6: Doo Wah Diddy
- B7: Jungle Rock
- B8: Good Times
• Showaddywaddy eventually had more UK hits in the 1970s than any other act…including Abba!
• From their winning appearance on an edition of ‘New Faces’, the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ of the day, to become runners-up in
the series’ ‘All Winners Final’, it took just a matter of months until Showaddywaddy released, ‘Hey Rock And Roll’.
• The single reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.
• The band are still lauded as one of the hardest working live bands in the UK, usually with more than 250 shows a year.
• This vinyl LP collection, showcases the band’s professionalism, in this no-nonsense 16 track rock ‘n’ roll set.
• The album includes their versions of ‘Sea Cruise’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘The Girl From New York City’, ‘Multiplication’, ‘Doo Wah
Diddy’ and a blistering performance of the Vanda/Young classic, ‘Good Times’, taken from Showaddywadddy’s 1981 album
of the same name.
• The album is pressed on heavyweight 180g pink colour vinyl.
The group Magizter formed in Malmö, Sweden in the early 90s, and mainly consisted of former members of the Hungarian industrial band Das Kapital, of which some managed to flee to Sweden from the communist regime before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Gyula Szilagyi, who was the first to make his escape via train through Berlin in 1987, recalls: “it was a few weeks before mandatory military service would begin, and our passports should have been turned over to the authorities”. Risking deportation and prison, he was granted asylum in Sweden after some months in Stockholm.
Szilagyi and the rest of the band were all part of the underground scene in Budapest, of which some had been under surveillance by the secret police since their teens. It was a tight knit community where anti-communist and illegal literature was distributed, and many bands shared mutual members.
The track “Das Kapital” was produced in Malmö in 1993 by Szilagyi and fellow Magizter member Zoltan Lengyel, in a home studio overlooking the Möllevång Square, were Szilagyi had moved after some years working at the glass factory in Orrefors. He had managed to save a few performances by Das Kapital recorded on cassette, of which one served as sample material for the Magizter track; an homage of sorts to a group involuntarily disbanded.
The cassette sampled here was recorded in 1986 during a live concert at the university-affiliated venue Ráday Klub, where Das Kapital performed alongside the British industrial act Left Hand Right Hand (who had formed from the Sheffield band Zahgurim).
On the eve in question, Szilagyi remarks: “we used a guitar that we had made ourselves to resemble a Kalachnikov rifle. During the concert at Ráday Klub the guitar was destroyed using a drill machine. It made a powerful sound effect”
A remix of the remix is offered by Vienna-based Heap, who with his own productions as well as his work with the Neubau label is building a bridge towards the new era of European industrial music.
Brand new Barcelona imprint Balearic Ensemble hit the ground running with their premier plastic disc drop, BE001. We’re over (and under, and around) the moon to present the Painting Of The Day EP, the first i n a series of extended plays l ined up from the baddest crew of balearic samurais for your aural i ndulgence. Leading the charge i s the one and only Max Essa, a man some may know as botanist-in-chief at the sublime Jardin Jansen l abel, others as the shadow behind a string of l ush productions sounded out by the l ikes of the Guv’nor Andrew Weatherall or a one David Mancuso. Painting Of The Day i s the l atest i n Max’s deeply inventive output, with Joe Morris, Lukkas and Ibicenco duo Reisdentes Balearicos serving up three wondrously lush revamps for the heads . First up i s ‘ Matinee’, which takes that l aid-back 80s sound and washes i t through reverb racks and cascading arpeggiatic tones. Soft, subtle and brilliant, the result i s an emotional Essa performance, akin to a soft caress of the waves, or a brush stroke on a canvas i n the afternoon sun. ‘Tempo Babadoh’ i s another massive balearic number, promenading and pirouetting i ts way across a vista of club congas, wah guitar and deluxe synth sounds. Sliding nylon strings evoke memories of a l ate-night Mandy Smith anthem as agogo bells i nterweave among the flora and fauna of Max Essa’s balearic vision. A l ofty, virtuosic affair that’s sure to be a staple when the good times come. On the flip we have Joe Morris’s ‘ Paraiso’ version of Tempo Badaboh. It’s a(n) NY hymn, a dusty psalm, a stellar reimagining of the original which brings an 80s Chicago feel with all the savoir faire and finesse that the Clandestino man has come to be revered for. Sizzling b l ines, crickets at dusk and time-tested balearic motifs presented i n a new, slightly angular l ight. Over on B2 (?) we get Lukkas’ Club Mix of Matinee, a dangerous dance weapon with a dose of l ow frequencies bubbling through the sp
Comet Records presents the Tony Allen & Afrika 70 reissue series with the classic late seventies first four solo albums of Tony Allen remastered and restored: Jealousy, Progress, No Accomodation for Lagos & No Discrimination, all coming in an heavy Deluxe Tip-On Jacket.
1978's No Accommodation for Lagos, Tony Allen's third solo album, is an effortless Afrobeat masterpiece. The Afrika 70 band floats through two of Tony's heaviest and most churning compositions.
With this album, we start to hear Tony Allen's unique style of Afro-Funk that he would explore for decades to come as a solo artist - it is groove-focused, a rolling meditation on rhythm.
The first track, "No Accommodation for Lagos" is one of Tony's most pointed and churning songs, recorded in a chaotic period following the army raid of Fela's compound. There is a seriousness to the funk, a real burning purpose in the performance of every instrument, from the horns to the shekere. Tony's performance is supercharged - he clearly showed up to the studio that day with a fire in his heart. The followup track, "African Message," is an Afrobeat compositional staple. Tony sits back in the cut through most of the supremely funky track until about seven minutes in, when he steps into the spotlight to express himself fully - his emotions, his frustrations, his convictions - in a fiery duet between his drumkit and his voice. The percussionists coalesce around him in support, lifting Tony up as he gives it his all.
Tony Allen was a musical and compositional visionary, and this album finds him beginning to explore that vision outside of Fela's immense gravitational pull. They are the start of a new era in Tony's fruitful career as a solo artist, opening the floodgates for his distinctive Afro-Funk sound and laying the foundation for the next generation of Afrobeat musicians to come.
It all starts with a great song and “You Baby” has it all! Penned by husband and wife team Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil with the magic touch of Phil Spector – what an awesome trio – and the bedrock of a future classic.
The song was originally produced by Spector for the Ronettes, signed to his Philles label, and appeared on their 1964 breakthrough album ‘Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes’ featuring, of course, his wife to be Veronica Bennett. The song was also recorded in the U.S. by pop/rock band the Lovin’ Spoonful for their 1965 debut album ‘Do You Believe In Magic’.
However, in January 1966 Pye Records unleashed JACKIE TRENT’s epic Northern Soul version produced by her husband Tony Hatch. Heralded by a pounding drum beat and trumpet blast it is no wonder that Jackie’s definitive cover shook the walls at Wigan Casino a decade later. And its popularity has never gone away, hence its current price tag of £300-400! Check out Jackie’s performance on the Morecambe and Wise Show on YouTube, what an intro!
“You Baby” was also recorded in May ’66 by Cameo Parkway’s Lovenotes in a very similar vein and in November ’66 by the legendary Len Barry. Other notable cover’s include Sonny & Cher, the Bubblegum pop group Salt Water Taffy and, in 1975, John Holt’s reggae version.
“Lost Summer Love” was originally recorded in 1964 by U.S. actress Shelley Fabares known for her long-running role as Mary Stone in the sitcom ‘The Donna Reed Show’ and as Elvis Presley’s leading lady in ‘Girl Happy’, ‘Spinout’ and ‘Clambake’. She also scored a No.1 pop hit in 1962 with the teen anthem “Johnny Angel”. But, as with our ‘A-side’, it was reborn as a Northern Soul classic when Pye Records picked the song up in 1965 and recorded it on their latest signing, teenager LORRIANE SILVER. Once again the stomping drum track, percussion and handclaps propel you to the dancefloor where you’re greated with an unforgettably catchy tune, a bevvy of backing vocals and Lorraine’s effervescent vocal.
Two fabulous reasons to make this one of the top reissue 45s of 2020!
Social Joy records is very pleased to present Burkina Azza's debut Album Wari bo - a musical tale that covers every aspect of Burkina Azza's values and world view. The album takes us to the very soul of Burkina Faso, giving us a taste of the deep connection of the artists to the beauty and culture of this country.
The Burkinabe collective, from Nayerina in the Djibasso region, was born from a lineage of Balafonist and Percussionist musicians called "The Griots", often referred to as a "living archive of the people's traditions". Wari bo was Produced in January 2020 on the brink of the coronavirus pandemic in Ouagadougou, after Label owner Guilhem Monin discovered an outstanding street performance via the African Drumming Facebook group. Two years later, this release is the result of a friendship and love of music that connects two continents and travels across borders, space and time.
Music in Exile announce their forthcoming remix EP, featuring reworkings of Music Yared by Melbourne cult hero, Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Green Child). SINDAYO - MIKEY YOUNG REMIXES features remixes of an original track from Music Yared’s self titled debut EP, released last year through Music in Exile. In addition to today’s announcement, we’re delighted to also share the first single, Sindayo (Mikey Young’s Masinko Remix - Radio Edit), out March 26 via Music in Exile.
Mikey Young’s legacy is well known throughout the Australian music scene, most notably as part of garage punk band Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and synth-driven outfit, Total Control. However, the talents of Young extend well beyond the performance setting to the world of engineering and mastering with his name appearing in the liner notes of an incredible number of releases, becoming something of a trademark of quality. In this release, Young showcases his skill and nuance, creating a remix where tradition and sonic exploration co-exist.
Anbessa Gebrehiwot and Haftu Reda are masterful players of krar and masinko, traditional string instruments from Eritrea and Ethiopia. Now based in Melbourne, Australia, the pair collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Dale Gorfinkel to create an innovative ensemble sound that celebrates their East African culture. The band's seemingly endless repertoire ranges from modern takes on folk songs to new, original compositions with Anbessa’s strong vocal presence a perfect match to Haftu’s sweet lyrical modesty.
Music Yared’s compositions are inspired by traditional Etheopian and Eritrean folk songs and they sing about love, distance, separation and culture. Their songs also feature virtuosic mastery of traditional instruments - the krar, (a 5 string lyre style instrument), and the masinko (a single string violin-like instrument that is played using a bow.) Although inspired by tradition, Music Yared’s compositions embrace the notion that music is always developing and changing with the times. Taking influence from traditional folk songs, Music Yared finds newness and originality through their personal approach to their lyrics, their treatment of rhythm, and the creation of new beats. This change and openness to new sounds is also apparent in their instrumentation, as they pair their traditional instruments with drums, as well as samples of bass lines and percussion.
Given their openness to new musical approaches and experimentation, it only seems fitting for the songs of Music Yared to be remixed, allowing further exploration of their inherent musical attitudes towards change and development. The first single from the EP, Sindayo (Mikey Young’s Masinko Remix - Radio Edit) traverses new sonic territory, pairing the traditional character of Music Yared with contrasting ideas from different sonic landscapes. Beginning with a musical acknowledgement to the original song, Young’s remix then changes direction into a new sonic world; synth pads and melodies swell and intertwine, samples interject, whilst grooving electronic beats underpin a new approach to texture and song structure.
Recorded by Dale Gorfinkel in Thornbury. Mixed and mastered by John Lee at Phaedra Studios.
Remixed & additional production by Mikey Young in Rye.
Spindle Ensemble’s highly anticipated sophomore album is scheduled for a release on Thursday 27th May 2021 on vinyl, CD and digital download via Hidden Notes Records. The vinyl version will be accompanied by a special 12 page booklet which also includes liner notes written by celebrated DJ and Broadcaster Nick Luscombe (BBC3’s Late Junction/Musicity/Flomotion Radio).
In conjunction with the announcement a brand new single Caligo - with B side Menilmontant - was released via Bandcamp on Friday 5th February 2021 together with a unique music video that combines super 8 footage and scratched 16mm film visual artist Narna Hue (watch the video below).
A special socially distanced album launch concert is due to take place at St George’s Bristol on Thursday 27th May depending on COVID guidelines and restrictions at that time.
Since their formation in Bristol in 2016 contemporary chamber quartet Spindle Ensemble led by composer and pianist Daniel Inzani (Yola, Alabaster dePlume, Tezeta) which also features tuned percussionist Harriet Riley (Charles Hazelwood’s Paraorchestra, Bristol Symphony Orchestra), cellist Jo Silverston (Mesadorm) and violinist Caelia Lunniss (Edward Penfold) have garnered much praise for their innovative take on contemporary classical music, rooted in spontaneity and improvisation performed with deft musicianship and unique instrumental pairing all resulting in truly captivating sonic soundscapes.
Equally at home performing in concert halls such as the Union Chapel, Southbank Centre, Bristol Beacon, St George’s Bristol and festivals including Shambala and Hidden Notes to churches, art centres, record shops and independent venues across the UK they continue to bring their music to a diverse and ever growing audience.
Listeners may hear influences from composers such as Satie, Pärt, Ravel, Reich, Glass and Moondog in their music but might also find the soundtracks of Morricone and the minimalist aesthetics of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra nestled alongside the more experimental leanings of groups such as Rachel’s, Esmerine, Bell Orchestre and Amiina.
The quartet’s forthcoming album Inkling was recorded at various venues across Bristol, capturing their performances as unique 3D sound images enabling the listener to hear each instruments position mimicking the audible experience as a live audience member. Unlike their debut BEA, some of the compositions on Inkling also features a collection of guest musicians expanding their sound to an orchestral scale, featuring the addition of brass and percussion instruments.
In September 2019 the group released a double A-side single of Chase and Okemah Sundown from the album with accompanying videos by acclaimed Director/Cinematographer Fred Reed and stop-motion animator Marie Lechevallier.
Spindle Ensemble’s highly anticipated sophomore album is scheduled for a release on Thursday 27th May 2021 on vinyl, CD and digital download via Hidden Notes Records. The vinyl version will be accompanied by a special 12 page booklet which also includes liner notes written by celebrated DJ and Broadcaster Nick Luscombe (BBC3’s Late Junction/Musicity/Flomotion Radio).
In conjunction with the announcement a brand new single Caligo - with B side Menilmontant - was released via Bandcamp on Friday 5th February 2021 together with a unique music video that combines super 8 footage and scratched 16mm film visual artist Narna Hue (watch the video below).
A special socially distanced album launch concert is due to take place at St George’s Bristol on Thursday 27th May depending on COVID guidelines and restrictions at that time.
Since their formation in Bristol in 2016 contemporary chamber quartet Spindle Ensemble led by composer and pianist Daniel Inzani (Yola, Alabaster dePlume, Tezeta) which also features tuned percussionist Harriet Riley (Charles Hazelwood’s Paraorchestra, Bristol Symphony Orchestra), cellist Jo Silverston (Mesadorm) and violinist Caelia Lunniss (Edward Penfold) have garnered much praise for their innovative take on contemporary classical music, rooted in spontaneity and improvisation performed with deft musicianship and unique instrumental pairing all resulting in truly captivating sonic soundscapes.
Equally at home performing in concert halls such as the Union Chapel, Southbank Centre, Bristol Beacon, St George’s Bristol and festivals including Shambala and Hidden Notes to churches, art centres, record shops and independent venues across the UK they continue to bring their music to a diverse and ever growing audience.
Listeners may hear influences from composers such as Satie, Pärt, Ravel, Reich, Glass and Moondog in their music but might also find the soundtracks of Morricone and the minimalist aesthetics of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra nestled alongside the more experimental leanings of groups such as Rachel’s, Esmerine, Bell Orchestre and Amiina.
The quartet’s forthcoming album Inkling was recorded at various venues across Bristol, capturing their performances as unique 3D sound images enabling the listener to hear each instruments position mimicking the audible experience as a live audience member. Unlike their debut BEA, some of the compositions on Inkling also features a collection of guest musicians expanding their sound to an orchestral scale, featuring the addition of brass and percussion instruments.
In September 2019 the group released a double A-side single of Chase and Okemah Sundown from the album with accompanying videos by acclaimed Director/Cinematographer Fred Reed and stop-motion animator Marie Lechevallier.
- Peter Gunn
- Sweet Soulful Music
- La Booga Rooga / Something You Got
- Spider Jiving
- Hymn 4 My Soul
- Got Love If You Want It
- The Ship Titanic
- High In The Sky/Bend
- Me Shape Me
- Blood Toys
- So Glad You’re Mine
- Tv Mama
- Lightnin’s Boogie
- When A Man Loves A Woman
- If I Ever Get Lucky
- Wide Eyed And Legless
- If Paradise Is Half As Nice
- Route 66
All recordings made during Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders’ featuring the Hi Riders Soul Revue “Live In Lockdown” live performance at the Hideaway Club, London on 9th September 2020 and streamed live to a virtual audience.
Featuring the hit singles High In The Sky, Bend Me Shape Me, Wide Eyed And Legless and If Paradise Is Half As Nice, plus extensive sleeve notes.
The trio of fiddle player Erlend Apneseth with guitarist Stephan Meidell and drummer Oyvind Hegg-Lunde follows up their Nordic Prize-nominated album of 2019, ‘Salika, Molika’, with a remarkable suite of tunes inspired by the rhythms and physicality of the human body in motion.
Originally commissioned by FRIKAR Dance Company to accompany the performance of a new work, ‘Skaut’, dealing with the covering of the body in different cultures, the music of ‘Lokk’ takes the trio further than ever before into completely fresh areas of electro-acoustic improvisation.
The sounds of their original instruments are integrated with electronic beats and treated textures to form a kind of enhanced digital-folk style whose influences stretch from traditional south Asian ragas to contemporary dance culture from around the globe.
The result is intense, and intensely rhythmic, music where the normally separate realms of the cerebral and the corporeal can appear to fuse into one irresistible groove.
As the trio rocks on - in a dream of perfect interplay between instruments and players, soloists and ensemble - deep, trembling sub-bass intersects with ethereal ambient soundscapes. Elsewhere, the twittering of birdsong - from both real bird-calls and the uncanny imitation of them by Apneseth’s Hardanger fiddle - meets archival recordings of Norwegian herdswomen.
“Our musical idea for this project was to unite different extremes, connections that felt “forbidden” in one form or another”, says Stephan Meidell. “For example, by using the sampled recording of traditional herd-calling, blended together with aesthetics from more contemporary music styles. This exploration has led us further into a rhythmic and danceable landscape than in previous releases. We also wanted to use this opportunity to deliberately make more dance-related music. As regards the original commission, were pretty free to do what we wanted, but there was one specific dance in mind, ‘Valdresspringar’, for which Erlend wrote the melody. It’s a traditional, asymmetrical dance and has a very particular form. The melody is on the track called ‘Springar’, which we then messed around with.”
This “messing around with” element is key to the sound of ‘Lokk’, whose playful experimentation over the nine separate tracks creates a beguiling, constantly surprising sense of adventure and intrigue that both draws the listener in, and then keeps them on their toes as to where the next stage of the journey will take them. It also becomes inescapably obvious that this is a group of three equals.
The contributions of Stephan Meidell and Oyvind Hegg-Lunde, as musicians, co-composers and producers, appear every bit as important as that of Erlend Apneseth, who performs superbly throughout. “Even though the trio carries Erlend’s name, it’s a band in every sense of the word”, says Stephan Meidell. “We make the music together, where everyone brings their ideas and we build on each other’s input and output. This is not our “coming out” as a band, but the group is sometimes interpreted as having a hierarchical structure, as a soloist and accompaniment.”
As is evident from the trio’s live performances, where each member seamlessly integrates the acoustic and the electronic elements in their respective sounds through constant monitoring and tweaking, Apneseth, Meidell and Hegg-Lunde are also pioneers,
creating real-time effects that in the past were only available through post-production or the intervention of a sympathetic engineer and a truck-load of kit. ‘Lokk’ translates this fleet-footed improvisational approach, and the players’ lightning-speed reaction times, back into the environment of the recording studio, where the music composed for the original FRIKAR dance piece was further embellished and adapted. Played live, it will continue to change again, as improvised music always does.




















