Ocote Soul Sounds – Taurus (ESL)
This is an album with a very definite feel and mood – the Latin and African beats are paced and deliberate (clearly influenced by the Thievery Corporation production) with the vocal contributions (from label-mates Natalia Clavier, Sitali, Verny Varela and Chico Mann) having to share centre stage with them.
VA – Seven Heven Compiled by Mark Webster (BBE)
We absolutely love this album. Using the seven inch as its ‘hook’, is a great idea but it is the quality of the tracks that are featured that makes this record worth spending your pocket money on. Right from the very beginning, with the James Taylor Quartet’s hammond-heavy ‘Senouci Part 1′, to the very last (‘Get Carter’ by The Filthy Six) each of the songs is a corker.
Miles Bonny – Lumberjack Soul (MPM)
Although this is essentially a collection of previous and new songs, rather than a ‘whole’ album, it does not suffer as a result of that. The first track, which gives its name to the LP, sets things out well, and is probably the best track on the record: telling the story of a country boy wooing a city girl, it is soulful, romantic, danceable and even humorous, all at once. The beats, for us, are pretty magical, and a perfect foundation for Miles’s laid back vocals
VA – Philly Re-Grooved 2: The Tom Moulton Remixes (Harmless)
Seeing a couple of tracks each from three bands, we were wondering if this was just going to be a bit of barrel-scraping after the success of Volume 1 (which we loved by the way). It only takes a few listens though to dispel that nasty rumour and realise that this collection is just as good as its predecessor, which isn’t surprising considering the sheer volume of work produced by Tom Moulton during his hey day.
VA – All School Flavor Vol.1 (Laid Back)
You cannot help but admire Julien Mourlon, the founder of Laid Back Radio, for building what is fast becoming a mini media empire, with this compilation being his latest achievement. The ‘74 Miles Away‘ project was interesting enough, but ‘All School Flavour’ breaks more ground by being ‘crowd funded’ and using a wide selection of musicians, all with some Laid Back heritage (and the cover’s pretty cool too).
Nick Pride and the Pimptones – Midnight Feast of Jazz (Record Kicks)
With a name like The Pimptones, you would expect something big and brassy to come
The Rhythmagic Orchestra – ‘The Rhythmagic Orchestra’ (Impossible Ark)
You will not find a better pedigree of current jazz and afro-cuban musicians together than on this record. Right from the opening track of ‘African Mailman’ the mood is set for a jubilant journey through traditional and new arrangements, expertly led by Ben Lamdin. There is not one duff track on the whole album, with that opener and ‘Afreaka’ being two of our absolute favourites.
Smoove & Turrell – Eccentric Audio (Jalapeno)
Another case of instant love from the prolific soulsters. Smoother and more focused than ‘Antique Soul’, this album will push this pair to the forefront of modern soul music and well-deserved popularity, even if it is on the trendier fringes of Radio 2. The production on the album is, as you would expect from Smoove (who has just curated an excellent compilation of funk, soul, reggae and afro-beat for Record Kicks), pretty-much faultless
VA – Smoove presents Mo’ Recordkicks Act II (Record Kicks)
You definitely shouldn’t be put off by the sub-stitle of this LP, ‘B-Sides, Remixes and Exclusive Cuts’, which is usually record label speak for ‘flogging a dead horse’. On ‘Mo Record Kicks Act 2′ the DJ and producer Smoove has compiled a varied selection of funk, soul, reggae and afro-beat from the Record Kicks library, [...]
Ebo Taylor – Life Stories (Strut)
After the relative success of the comeback-LP ‘Love And Death‘ that was released toward the end of last year, Strut have compiled a double CD of the Ghanian guitarist’s tracks from his heyday, focusing on his solo albums and some of his lesser-known side projects such as the Apagya Show Band. The genre of music [...]
The Beekeepers – Apiculture (Jalapeno)
The Beekeepers are DJ Parker and Scott ‘Boca 45‘ Hendy, two of Bristol’s musical play-makers, and ‘Apiculture’ is their first full-length LP – a study in sweeping, epic sounds over hip hop beats. A couple of the instrumental tracks were released earlier this year as an extremely impressive taster, and the album continues the with [...]
Benny Tones – Chrysalis (BBE)
We gave you the heads up on Benny Tones last January when he released the title-track first single from this LP. Benny is part of the burgeoning New Zealand scene which includes Ladi6, Karlmarx and, notably, Electric Wire Hustle, of whom he mixed their eponymous album and has managed all of that band’s live sound. [...]
The Liberators – Afrofunk (Record Kicks)
This is definitely a case of an LP doing ‘exactly what it says on the tin’: The Liberators bring us the funkiest afrobeat sounds we have heard this year. Coming out of Sydney, this 10-piece band have been together less than a year but are putting down some very heavy sounds. We first came across [...]
Quincy Jointz presents Lime Sorbet (Eighth Dimension Records)
This delightful LP is the child of a radio show hosted by German DJ, Quincy Jointz. Essentially a compilation of downtempo, nu-funk, breakbeat, and broken beat tracks, Quincy has selected and mixed 16 tracks featuring acts such as (Meme favourites) Ancient Astronauts, Thunderball and Dr. Rubberfunk; some of artists are Eighth Dimension’s own, and some are unreleased [...]
Ancient Astronauts – Into Bass and Time (ESL)
The Ancient Astronauts are Kabanjak and Dugo, two German-born producer-DJs, and ‘Into Bass And Time’ is their second LP on ESL Records, home to Thievery Corporation. Although giving us a similar big bass feel, Ancient Astronauts are like the up-start younger brother to Thievery’s more mature chilled vibe – the beats are bigger, as are [...]
VA – The Beat Generation 10th Anniversary Collection (BBE)
In the ideal world, this LP would need no promotion at all – the music and artists it features should speak loudly enough for themselves – with names such as J Dilla, King Britt, Pete Rock, will.i.am, Marly Marl, Jazzy Jeff, DJ Spinna and Madlib this is a history lesson in 21st century Hip Hop. [...]
Nostalgia 77 – The Sleepwalking Society (Tru Thoughts)
Ben Lamdin has been a busy boy between his last album, and this, his fourth, working as producer, engineer, musician and on projects with, amongst many others, Jeb Loy Nichols, Lizzy Parks, Larry Stabbins, Alice Russell and his own Nostalgia 77 Octet. Probably due to these many influences, ‘The Sleepwalking Society’ changes the vibe a little from ‘Everything [...]
VA – Henry Street Grooves – Classic Deep, Funky and Jazzy House from New York (BBE)
One of a current swathe of compilation albums being released by BBE, ‘Henry Street Grooves’ is a collection of top House tunes that were all recorded at the eponymous recording studio / label in Brooklyn run by Johnny deMairo, whose day job was Senior Director A&R for Atlantic Records. Kicking off in 1993, this is [...]
Space Invadas – Soul:Fi (BBE)
Sydney-based Space Invadas, aka Katalyst and Steve Spacek, released an EP of 3 tracks and remixes from this album late last year, which we enjoyed enormously. The album arrived at the end of last month in Europe (it was released initially in Australia) and included a further 12 tracks, making this quite a substantial piece [...]
VA – The Breaks – Original B-Boy Street Funk & Block Party Classics (Harmless)
If you’ve ever wanted to collect together on one album all of those original soul and funk tunes that have had their breaks used in classic hip hop tracks, then you will surely be satisfied with this new compilation-of-compilations from Harmless. There are some tracks that you probably already own (a couple each from Cymande [...]
VA – More Rare Disco & Soul Uncovered Compiled by Al Kent (BBE)
Any disco compilation around at the moment (for there are many) has got to be pretty special if it is to stand out from the crowd, especially if it’s Number 2 in a series (BBE themselves are releasing The M+M Mixes Vol 2 in the same week). So, when Disco Love 2 arrived at Meme [...]
VA – The M&M Mixes Vol 2 by John Morales (BBE)
There is no denying the skill and reputation of remixer and producer, John Morales. Listening to this second instalment of his work (we reviewed Volume 1 a long while back) it’s patently obvious his influence on the disco scene of the 80s is profound – we have remixes of Teddy Pendergrass’s ‘The More I Get’, [...]
Lanu – Her 12 Faces (Tru Thoughts)
By now we don’t need to tell you that Lanu is the solo recording nomme-de-guerre of Lance Ferguson, band leader of the mighty Bamboos, whose long player, ’4′, we included as one of our top 5 albums of 2010. So, is ‘Her 12 Faces’ just a distracting side project or a solo tour-de-force? (Note to [...]
Frootful – Colours (Freestyle)
The first single, ‘Fish In The Sea’, from new Freestyle signing, Frootful, generated a lot of interest on Meme Magazine. Now, with their debut LP ready for release on 21st March 2011, the band are set to get us all going once again. Created and led by Nick Radford and produced by Adam Gibbons (Lack [...]
