Fresh reissued magic of Funky Stuff, formerly a rare exquisite by jazzmaster Jiro Inagaki, originally released in 1975. An enduring, pioneering fusion of jazz, funk, soul and rock – with influences from Herbie Hancock, James Brown and Santana – the album features some of the best and most acclaimed Japanese musicians of the time, enlisting the talent-wares of Hiromasa Suzuki on keyboards, Akira Ishikawa on drums and Takeru Muraoka on sax.
All the songs are the highlights, such as Painted Paradise which is full of dynamism and sprinting, Breeze where funkness and mellowness coexist, and a cover of Cool & The Gang Funky Stuff which has a low center of gravity and sharpness. It is now a definitive masterpiece of wants from all over the world.
TRACKLISTING
A1. Painted Paradise A2. Funky Motion A3. Breeze A4. Scratch B1. Funky Stuff B2. One For Jiro B3. Gentle Wave B4. Four Up
8 tracks of genuine mid-90s acid, techno, and ambient for fans of AGE, Spacetime Continuum, Caustic Window & Air Liquide.
Reissue of A3000 Magnetic Gliding album, produced by Swiss musicians Marco Repetto and Stefan Riesen, also known as Synectics on Rephlex and founders of Axodya Records. Originally released in 1995 on the Italian Disturbance label, it has now been remastered and proudly reissued for 3023 in a limited edition of 300 copies by Musique Pour La Danse. Enjoy this trip.
Marco Repetto was a member of the world-famous wave/punk band Grauzone. In the late ’80s, he delved into techno, ambient, and psychedelic music, drawing inspiration from nature and shamanic knowledge. His performances are described as colorful, playful, and mind-opening experiences. His main project now is Bigeneric, which he releases on his label, Inzec Records.
Stefan Riesen has been a prominent figure in the Swiss techno scene since 1995. He is the founder-manager of Phont Music, SuperBra, Morris/Audio, Floppy Funk, and Speaker Attack. He has (co-)produced numerous tracks under various aliases on different labels, including Box Blaze, Flaptrack, Hooper, Nylon, Sonic Tourism, Spin, A3000, Box Blaze & Deetron, Dialogue, Lausen, R.B.R., Sidestepper, Silver Zone, Skank Burner, Synectics, and more.
Listen to ‘Sonic Stripes’
TRACKLISTING
A1. A3000 – Sonic Stripes A2. A3000 – Flow B1. A3000 – Rise B2. A3000 – Phantome Of House
C1. A3000 – Shelloid C2. A3000 – P.S.E. D1. A3000 – Part Of The Planet D2. A3000 – Destination Underwood
Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is the accumulative efforts of talented musicians and their visions about what makes the art form of music so special.
A theory initiated and put into action by late Afro Beat creator and Nigerian DrummerTony Allenand Detroit Techno’s Jeff Mills. Each belonging to a long tradition of using music to reach higher levels of consciousness, along with veteran keyboardistJean-Phi Dary, the three toured internationally until the untimely death of Tony Allen in 2020. However, the foundation of the concept was cemented and ready for continuation.
Mills reconfigures the concept to function as trio once again and invites Tabla virtuosoPrabhu Edouard to join the concept.
Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is about exploring the unknown, transcending by the way of intersecting sounds and rhythm through an array of improvisational movements.
Listen to snippets of Evolution just below
Axis Records will release Evolution on September 8th, 2023.
Sdban Records delve into the Dutch jazz scene of the 1950s and 1960s with a selection of classic and rare hard bop and cool jazz tracks from artists like Herman Schoonderwalt, The Diamond Five, Wessel Ilcken and Tony Vos. Holland never sounded this hip before!
“Jazz is garbage and a caricature of the modern orchestra; it is garbage arranged by half-grown musicians for the benefit of common entertainment.” In spite of the Dutch cultural establishment’s attempts to preclude jazz – as illustrated by this citation from the October 1926 issue of music magazine De Muziek – The Netherlands was one of the earliest adopters of the new music style as it came over to the Old Continent at the end of World War I.
Kwartet Leo MeyerSo Why
Originally drawn to the clarinet under the influence of the Dutch Swing College Band as a teenager in the mid-1950s, Leo Meyer converted to bebop after befriending pianist Rob Madna. He then switched to the alto saxophone and learned the ins and the outs of the instrument by listening to records of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Phil Woods and Stan Getz. In the early 1960s, Meyer was playing with the cream of Dutch jazz (Madna, Herman Schoonderwalt, Frans Elsen, Cees Smal) in clubs in Haarlem, Amsterdam or Rotterdam (where he played the warm-up of Eric Dolphy’s concert in jazz club B-14).
The Jacobs Brothers Two Brothers
It’s difficult to imagine Dutch jazz history without the Jacobs brothers from Hilversum. To the mainstream audience, pianist Pim became the face of the post-war jazz scene thanks to his work as the fixed accompanist of his wife, star singer Rita Reys, as the host of thousands of ‘schoolconcerten’ (educational concerts in schools throughout the country explaining the principles of jazz to the youth) or as the host of his TV show Djes Zien. In all of these activitities he formed a partnership with his brother, Ruud, who was also the most in demand bass player of the Dutch jazz scene and played or recorded with Johnny Griffin, Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley, Don Byas and Sonny Rollins. The song Two Brothers captures them at the dawn of their long and rich careers – Ruud, who makes a rare appearance on saxophone, was merely 20 years of age here.
TRACKLISTING
A1. Herbie Mann with the Wessel Ilcken Combo – Afro Blues A2. The Diamond Five – Amsterdam Blues A3. Kwartet Leo Meyer – So Why A4. The Jacobs Brothers – Two Brothers A5. Kwartet Martin Verlinden – Four On Six B1. The Rhythme All Stars – Relaxin’ With Rhythme B2. Martien Beenen and the Orchestra featuring Sandy Fort – Golden Earrings B3. Tony Vos Quartet – Lady Elisabeth B4. Herman Schoonderwalt – Theme from the movie ‘Mensen Van Morgen’
C1. The Diamond Five – Les Halles C2. The Red and Brown Brothers – Blues For Eddy C3. Frans Elsen Quintet – Sem C4. Leddy Wessel with Jack van Poll and his Tree-oh – Sing Sing Sing C5. Boy’s Big Band – Blues Minor D1. The Frans Wieringa Trio featuring Eduard Ninck Blok – Work Song D2. Rita Reys and Oliver Nelson – Wives And Lovers D3. Herman Schoonderwalt Septet – My Plea D4. Trio Tony Vos – Comin’ Home Baby
Sdban Records will release Hip Holland Hip: Modern Jazz In The Netherlands 1950 – 1970 on June 16th, 2023.
Music Man presents the ultimate compilation of the seminal B-Sides project by Frank De Wulf, originally released on the label in 1990. He is considered one of the pioneers of the Belgian new beat and techno scene, and also became a driving force in the European techno circuit of the nineties.
While still at school in the mid-eighties he already ran his own radio show while keeping two residencies in Ghent. He soon started to produce his own tracks and remixes, inspired by the rising new beat movement in Belgium. One of his first releases was Acid Rock under his Rhythm Device moniker on Music Man, which instantly became an underground hit at famous night club Boccaccio – one of the Belgian clubs where new beat really took off – and over the years developed into one of the classics of the first European dance wave.
Frank De Wulf’s real breakthrough came with the infamous B-Sides 12″ series on Music Man Records. All four volumes charted in several European countries becoming a firm favourite among leading techno DJs worldwide. As a result of this success Frank traveled the world as a DJ and live act, playing all major raves and clubs at the time, meeting like-minded techno pioneers like Derrick May, Joey Beltram or Sven Väth as well as R&S Records founder Renaat Vandepapeliere, whose energy and strong belief in the success of quality dance music had a major influence on Frank’s career.
The list of artists he was asked to remix is an impressive one, including names such as Model 500, The Orb, The Shamen, Orbital, Jam & Spoon, N-Joi or Biosphere, just to name a few. Frank later released a great body of work on his own labels H.P.F., Mikki House, Tribal Sun or Growth in order to gain more creative freedom to release his tracks and do production work for other artists. At the end of the nineties Frank decided to concentrate on another great love of his: the world of film and post-production. He founded GRID, a post-production company specialised in visual effects and motion design, while still doing the odd remix or occasional DJ set.
This box set includes all music originally released on The B-Sides volume I, II, III, IV, ‘The B Sides Remixed’ & ‘Beyond The B-Sides’, pressed onto 4 x 180 grams heavy weight vinyl records including a 8-page booklet with liner notes.
Limited to 500 numbered copies.
TRACKLIST
A1. Frank De Wulf – Compression A2. Frank De Wulf – Reforced A3. Frank De Wulf – Just Another Beat B1. Frank De Wulf – There Ain’t Nobody B2. Frank De Wulf – Electrain B3. Frank De Wulf – Compression (Remix)
C1. Frank De Wulf – Magic Orchestra C2. Frank De Wulf – Freestyle 909 C3. Frank De Wulf – Magic Orchestra (CJ Bolland Remix) D1. Frank De Wulf – Latino D2. Frank De Wulf – The Heat of The Moment D3. Frank De Wulf – Butterfly
E1. Frank De Wulf – The Tape (Remix) E2. Frank De Wulf – The Darkness Revisited E3. Frank De Wulf – Foreign Trips F1. Frank De Wulf – Orbital Ways F2. Frank De Wulf – The Original F3. Frank De Wulf – The Tape
G1. Frank De Wulf – Moribund G2. Frank De Wulf – Imagination G3. Frank De Wulf – Raise H1. Frank De Wulf – Traffic H2. Frank De Wulf – Moral Soundabuse H3. Frank De Wulf – I Love You
From the two towering pillars of the Arab World’s Tarab, Om Kalsoum & Mohamed Abdel Wahab, comes another cult classic of Wa Maret El Ayam
Umm Kulthum needs no introduction – along with the call to prayer, her magnanimous voice has reliably been one of the few daily constants across the Arab worlds’ sonic landscapes over the past century. From Aleppo to Alexandria, Baghdad to Beirut and Cairo to Casablanca, in 1934 and for the following forty years her live broadcasts on the first Thursday of each month would see streets and workplaces deserted as millions rushed home to tune in; Umm Kulthum triumphantly became the beating pulse of a new post-colonial Arab world order, and the embodiment of Egypt’s cultural renaissance. Perhaps most remarkably, she spearheaded the remoulding of gender norms across the Middle East by setting an example of what dignified, perseverant and unabashedly Arab women can go onto achieve – she was incredibly business-savvy, actively engaged in public circles at the highest levels, and firmly devoted to her career over traditional family life. Her formidable presence extended to her fervent voice – being a contralto and in all her glory, she would stand at least three feet away from a microphone when singing. Her exalted tone and mastery of Maqaamat (Arabic melodic scales) allowed her to sing intricately layered Arabic poetry while evoking in listeners, be they peasants or aristocrats, a trance-like state of Tarab or rapturous enchantment where time and space dissolved into the music. Egyptian novelist and Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz aptly compares her to a “preacher who becomes inspired by his congregation…..when he sees what reaches them he gives them more of it, he works it, he refines it, he embellishes it” – perhaps this is why she was said to have never sung a line the same way twice! Though many have attempted over the years, Umm Kulthum’s voice has proven to be simply inimitable.
Her long-awaited and blessed union with the godfather of contemporary Arabic music, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, finally came in circa 1965 under the auspices and repeated urging of the widely adored Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
Egyptian King Baligh Hamdy and “The Lady” Om Kalsoum meet for the final time in her parting ode, Hakam Aleena El Hawa
There is no Western counterpart to Umm Kulthum, that much is clear. She was once described as having had “the virtuosity of Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis”, and the likes of Bob Dylan and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin count her among their ultimate sources of inspiration. Charles De Gaulle adorned her with the title of “the Lady” and to the Arab world, she was simply known as the “Voice of Egypt” or “Egypt’s Fourth Pyramid”. What Umm Kulthum achieved over the course of her sixty-year trailblazing career is nothing short of legendary; renowned for her ability to gracefully rise above the grandeur of instrumentation, she would reincarnate melody by deftly colouring her tone depending on each piece’s deep emotional context. Adding to her gravitas, she had perfected the diction and pronunciation of Classical Arabic, having committed the entire Quran to memory aged 12 – a feat that remains to this day unmatched by any other prominent artist. Her five-hour long performances would rapture her listeners into feeling wistful melancholy, warming jubilation and fierce trans-nationalistic pride, all at once.
Throughout Umm Kulthum’s illustrious years in the limelight, there were persistent rumours of a romantic relationship between her and prolific Egyptian composer, Baligh Hamdy. The true depths of their relationship remain a mystery, however, their collaboration as artists brought the world some of its most prized & collectible pieces in the Arabic musical canon.
Hamdy was a powerhouse who epitomised the parlance between avant-garde oriental and occidental arrangements with vigour and tenacity, and Umm Kulthum herself was deeply compelled by his compositions. After delivering her the sensation that is Alf Leila we Leila and other timeless classics, Baligh Hamdy for the final time composes Hakam Aleena El Hawa in Umm Kulthum’s parting ode before her death. In a hauntingly beautiful ballad, she speaks of the overwhelming nature of love and sincere affection, over a delicately formulated Maqam Nahawand on the Arabic melodic scale. With an intro featuring the rhythmic fireworks of Hany Mehanna, Egyptian King of the Farfisa organ and pioneer of the oriental synth, Souma Records proudly present a remastering of the original studio version for The Voice of Egypt to live on. High-quality pressing housed in delicately handmade natural paper jackets.
Musing, beckoning and triumphant as always…
Muhammad Al-Najjar, Cairo, April 2023
Wa Maret El Ayam, and Hakam Aleena El Hawa are out now on Souma Records
