The Coastal Invasion highlights the golden age of big band cumbia and the maestro who is often seen as Colombia’s most influential composer, Lucho Bermudez.
Bermudez was a key figure who modernised the tropical music of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. At the beginning of the 20th century, this music was largely looked down on. Bermudez changed all that by injecting a modern, jazzy big band sound to the Afro-Colombian sounds from his native region.
The infectious Afro-Amerindian dance rhythms of Lucho Bermudez y su Orquesta took over the elite nightclubs of Bogota and Medellin and from there, his music spread all over Latin America. For many Colombians, the songs of Lucho Bermudez and his wife and starlet singer Matilde Diaz represent the sound of their nation.
This compilation contains a selection of the music of Lucho Bermúdez y su Orquesta recorded during the years that they lived and worked in Medellín, probably the best work the orchestra ever recorded.
Cumbia, Porro, Gaita & Mapalé From Colombia’s Caribbean Coast 1946-1961 is out now on Radio Martiko
Out July 1st, the LP includes music by Rare Silk, Suzanne Ciani and Special Request.
Mark Barrott and Pete Gooding have put together the fourth compilation in their La Torre Ibiza series.
Out July 1st on Hostal La Torre Recordings, La Torre Ibiza Volumen Cuatro is the first instalment since 2019. The LP spans 15 tracks, with music by the likes of Rare Silk, Suzanne Ciani, Special Request, the late Pauline Anna Strom, Lola Perrin and Barrott himself, whose “Travelling Music (La Torre Reprise)” is the only previously unreleased track.
Launched in 2016, the series captures the sound of White Isle venue Hostal La Torre, which is known for its eclectic music policy and laid-back vibe.
TRACKLIST
01. Golden Girls – Kinetic (David Morley Remix) 02. NO ZU – Ui Yia UIa 03. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba – Bala feat Zoumana Tereta 04. Rare Silk – Storm 05. Synergetic Voice Orchestra – Zebra 06. Special Request – Family Doggo 07. Margaret Wakeley – Hard To Leave The Island 08. Pauline Anna Strom – Equatorial Sunrise 09. The Vendetta Suite – Warehouse Rock (Timmy Stewart’s Six Minutes To Sunrise Mix) 10. Mark Barrott – Travelling Music (La Torre Reprise) 11. Lola Perrin – Cloud Sky Fade 12. Suzanne Ciani – The Eighth Wave 13. JIM – Phoenix 14. GEOFFREY O’CONNOR – Her Name on Every Tongue 15. John Foxx & Robin Guthrie – Estrellita
Hostal La Torre Recordings will release La Torre Ibiza Volumen Cuatro on July 1st, 2022
Stavroz have released their debut album Mindibu on Moodfamily record label. Stream the album in full.
Hailing from the land of compromise in the heart of Europe, the four friends of Stavroz found each other in the east of Flanders. In its inception, IJsbrand De Wilde & Gert Beazar focussed mainly on playing DJ sets and creating music in which they loved colliding worlds. Only a few years later they hooked up with Maxim Helincks & Pieter De Meester to expand their DJ activities to a performing band and continued to try and find an unbeaten path in electronic music. This culminated in their delicately acoustic, organic and cinematic approach to electronic music. As a result they were awarded second place for ‘best producer’ and ‘best breakthrough artist’ in national awards for Belgium’s electronic scene.
In the years that followed, the four kept expanding their catalogue and continued to develop that uniquely own style. Their EP The Ginning resulted in an early breakthrough for the four-some. It reached gold status in France, dominated the nr. 1 spot on the Hype Machine and was chosen as vinyl of the month by Germany’s Faze Magazine, mainly thanks to the B-side The Finishing starring a compelling solo on the tenor saxophone.
In order to keep freedom in their music production and to be able to support other artists with a likeminded vision, they started their record label Moodfamily. It was on this label that their second hit single Gold Town was released. It kept the nr. 1 spot on Beatport’s ‘Electronic Top 100’ for several months and was picked up by Rockstar Entertainment and added to GTA 5’s (already) excellent in-game music. Although Stavroz is now 11 years old, many of their songs are still relevant and are quietly nudging towards timelessness. Over half million monthly listeners and over 100.000 followers on Spotify alone will concur and 100 million plays across the major streaming platforms speaks volumes.
Their intimate live performance grew more dramatic and their unique dj sets spread like wildfire as they started frequenting many international stages. Coachella (US), Fusion Festival (DE), Wonderfruit (THA), Pukkelpop (BE), Strawberry Fields (AUS), Tropico (MX), Three Points Festival (FL, USA) all fell victim to Stavroz’s unusual dramatic, melancholic yet determined approach. The band was quickly invited by the acclaimed Youtube channel Cercle to perform a streaming concert at Fort Saint-Eynard in France where once again, they managed to create a wholesome, comforting soundtrack for a place, which no words can describe.
Mindibu is out now on Moodfamily.
Summer Tour Dates
17/6 Scorpios, Mykonos 19/6 The Yard Open Air, Vilvoorde (DJ set) 2/7 Hangar Y, Paris 3/7 Fusion Festival, Larz 17/7 Boomtown, Gent 17/7 Funke, Gent (DJ set) 21/7 Xuma village, Bodrum, Turkey 22/7 Beatgate x Suma, Cesme, Turkey 6/8 Wecandance, Zeebrugge 17/8 Waking Life, Portugal 10/9 Voodoo Village, Grimbergen 28/9 Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld, Cologne 30/9 Mojo Club, Hamburg 1/10 Halle D, Leipzig 5/10 Plaza, Zürich 8/10 Strom, Munich
Mind Power Mind Control is a collection of conceptual films extracted from the Universe of the Iconic musician and artist Jeff Mills. Consisting of various styles of segments that relate to the idea and theme behind his newest and forthcoming album Mind Power Mind Control.
Like in the methodical process Mills navigates his work and creations that span back decades, the film runs uninhabited and compiled in a manner that suggests you’re in a dream-like state. Some segments are recognizable in terms of colors, shapes and textures, while other are fragmental – elusive in objectivity.
Created over the course of the past six years, many years before the Pandemic, surprisingly, but emblematic of Mills and his infamous level of consistency, the theme of self-power using the mind, self-defense/reliance and the subject of special human abilities had been consistent throughout.
(Film length: approx 60 min)
Watch the trailer: Feat. the track ‘Scarlet’ from ‘Mind Power Mind Control’
Breakthrough single Nightcall may have boxed its creator in, but his first album in nearly nine years offers new avenues to explore
Turn down the lights and put your sunglasses on. It’s time to don your best red leather jacket and get in a neon mood, because everyone’s favorite late-night dance super hero is back. Kavinsky is the neo-noir French touch master who gave the world the 2010 classic Nightcall, and he’s back from an extended hiatus with a slew of sensual sounds. Reborn is recorded at the famous Motorbass studio in Paris and contributions from Cautious Clay, Victor Le Masne and Justice’s Gaspard Augé. On Reborn, Kavinsky amplifies these sounds without deviating from his relentless trajectory.
Sdban Records is delighted to announce the reissue of this genre-defying jazz album originally released on library label Selection Records in 1972.
An American pianist, who played with Charlie Parker, a mainstay of the bebop scene in the 50s who moved to Belgium in the 60s where he spun jazz genres with theatre and opera. This record reissued by Sdban is unlikely few records we’ve heard, it’s a bop record, it’s a piano record with elements of a dark European jazz funk but it’s also a spiritual operatic album and theatrical without being overwrought or stuffy.
For those who dig: European dark jazz with an operatic spirituality but also a late night piano jazz sound.
Delving into the story of the American pianist and composer Phil Raphaël reveals more questions than answers. He was born in New York where he played with Charlie Parker, Jon Eardley and Howard McGhee, but a 1951 recording with Red Rodney for Prestige Records is the single remaining trace of his bebop days. Raphaël appeared under unknown circumstances in Belgium in the 1960s, playing among others at the 1966 Jazz Bilzen festival, and he eventually settled in Brussels. A multifaceted musician, he did not limit himself to jazz and also worked in pop groups, directed the music for the spectacle Hair, and even had a brief residency at Pol’s Jazz Club where he played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach four nights per week.
His album Stop, Look, Listen, which was recorded with the rhythm section of Babs Robert’s group, consists of four long genre-defying tracks colored by the dreamlike vocals of opera singer Rose Thompson. A surreal blend of genres, hard to pin down. It’s highly imaginative jazz, that much is sure. Raphaël shifts from serene late night piano jazz to more free or even spiritual passages, magnificently paired with the otherworldly vocals of Rose Thompson. The LP was put out by Selection Records, a label that primarily issued library music at the time, and thus went largely unnoticed upon release. The recording makes clear that Phil Raphaël was a highly gifted artist whose talent will forever remain undervalued, since it was his only effort as a leader. Raphaël’s passage through the Belgian nightlife was just as mysterious as his music, and few people seem to remember him. Drummer Bruno Castellucci describes him as remarkable, both as a musician and as a person: “He was a hippie before there were hippies. He wasn’t part of the system but he had a system of his own.”
Sdban Records will release Stop, Look, Listen on May 20th, 2022
