Contemporary Funk 20 Items

produced by Rick Rubin & Paul Epworth

produced by Rick Rubin & Paul Epworth

produced by Rick Rubin & Paul Epworth

Featuring songs from upcoming releases produced by Younge, including 12 Reasons To Die II (with Ghostface Killah, Raekwon & RZA), Something About April II, and The Midnight Hour (with Ali Shaheed
Muhammad), alongside Younge catalog classics dating back to 2000. LP format features bonus track: “Sirens II,” from upcoming Bilal album.

When first I got to know that I was going to create the score for this short, I was pretty excited about the idea behind the film, and especially the story of the character Jens, who suffers from schizophrenia.I started inventing sounds to depict the character’s visions and hallucinations and I knew right away that I was going for a style more experimental than the two previous scores, Eastern Army and Mosaic, both written during the same year. The working process of the soundtrack for Hell is Other People (Helvede er de Andre) has perhaps been the most creative I have ever done. I just started recording sounds, effects and handmade percussion with no idea as to where I was heading, only the sense that I was going somewhere else, somewhere I had never been before. Somewhere where I felt very comfortable. All of the sounds are performed and recorded at night in my home studio Easy Beat Evil Bite and I used everything I could at home, everything I could get my hands on: wine glasses, chimes, shakers, African percussion instruments, angel harp, tambourine, sitar, hand drumming on a paper box or on naked skin, cymbals, synthesizer, effect pedals, the Rhodes, the piano and a lot of reverse recording from my old Revox tape recorder as well as electric and acoustic guitars. The title song “Every Missing Beat of Your Heart” and ”Falling Papers from a Staircase” are both very calm and reflecting tunes, characterized by a dreaming acoustic guitar arpeggio and a persuasive hypnotized tempo from an old metronome. On the track ”Metal Me” is a lot of psycho-blues; the strumming of an acoustic Yamaha is evident on three monotone chords and the 'sloppy' beat makes everything sound so heavy. I love the production of the song ”At the Clinic” where I chose to do a swing beat playing on the glasses to generate a more defined sound, like something you just can’t get rid of; like an annoying sound , and together with electric guitar playing in surf mood I really did something cool and easy there… I pictured the boy Jens walking up and down the corridors at the hospital and having trouble thinking clearly, or maybe seeing what other people couldn’t see. I think that all in all, I was most inspired by the sound of the 50’s in the making of this album; the warmth of the tremolo of in ”My Room” and the dark and psychotic mood of “Perspective” and ”Second Moon”. From time to time there is a touch of emptiness, death, agony and the feeling of loneliness behind those moments in tunes such as ”One of Us”, “No More Dead Flies” and ”She Suicide”. The second part of ”Every Missing Beat of Your Heart” I wrote on an acoustic guitar in Berlin during a short vacation. I remember having written the chords and the lyrics for the melody in half an hour and was very happy with the result. Signe Isager, who recently sang live with the band Alex Puddu and The Butterfly Collectors, sings in this song with me and I thought it would be a good choice to go with the end credits. For the making of the songs on this album I have been searching for the clinical, cold aesthetics of the rooms and corridors of a hospital and the warm sound of the sea from a house on the beach and I do believe this is what inspired me. It has been a great experience working on this album and the production, from the very start to the very end of the process, and being able to give what I felt was right for this picture at this moment.

Copy closer to NM

In celebration of the 20 year anniversary of this classic album UMe will be reissuing it back on vinyl for this first time in almost 10 years, on limited edition white vinyl.

Produced by Patchworks!

Limited to 500 Copies!

20 years HHV: our team has selected an album from each of these years that is particularly relevant and precious to us. On a monthly basis we release exclusive and limited pressings of these records in collaboration with some of our favorite labels.

Originally released in 2011 with a limited pressing and repressed once a few years later in 2016. “Right now in cities across the globe, there are plenty of great Afrobeat revivalist bands aping the sound and groove of Fela Kuti’s legendary sound. Yet, surprisingly few of the new groups have strayed from an orthodox interpretation of the genre or done much real innovation. ..Ikebe Shakedown is here to change that. The band takes signature Afrobeat elements—big unison horns, slinky bass lines, tight little guitar licks—and blends them with tasty grooves culled from '70s-style horn-driven funk”. -Marlon Bishop, Wnyc

Ikebe Shakedown, the self-titled album and Ubiquity Records debut from the Brooklyn-based band, plays with elements of Cinematic Soul, Afro-funk, Deep Disco, and Boogaloo in all the right ways. Pushing their globally-informed sound and eclectic approach to tune-writing into new territory, “Self-titling the album is a way to introduce the audience to the many facets of the band -- to provide a more complete understanding of what we do,” bassist Vince Chiarito says. “Our sound has grown to incorporate our influences without overtly representing any one in particular. It just sounds like us," he adds.

It’s not every day you find a keyboard player with chops like John Camp. Plucked from the same Minneapolis Jazz vine that grew such deliciously ripened talents as No Regular Play's Greg Paulus and Aaron James (Gregory Porter band), we met Camp for the first time at the Marcy Hotel. Initially adding his signature touch to other’s Crew Love records and last year dropping an incredi- ble EP on Have A Killer Time, the Mistral EP marks his first official Crew Love release!

Taking influence from 1960's Thai funk - their name literally translates to "Engine Fly" in Thai - Khruangbin’s debut album ‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ is steeped in the bass heavy, psychedelic sound of their inspiration, Tarantino soundtracks and surf-rock cool. The Texan trio is formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums.

‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ was recorded at their spiritual home, a remote barn deep in the Texas countryside where their first rehearsals took place. The band listened to a lot of different types of music on the long drives out to the country but their favourites were 60s and 70s Thai cassettes gleaned from the cult Monrakplengthai blog and compilations of southeast Asian pop, rock and funk. This had a heavy impact on the direction of the band, the scales they used and the inflection of the melodies; which coupled with the spaciousness of the Texan countryside culminated in Khruangbin forming their exotic, individual sound.

Repress on black vinyl in regular sleeve.

The Moritz Von Oswald Trio opens a new chapter. There's a new configuration to the project, with Tony Allen joining original members Moritz von Oswald and Max Loderbauer. Tony Allen, the legendary drummer who's amassed a formidable catalogue both as a solo artist and as part of Fela Kuti's band, has taken over percussion duties from Vladislav Delay. Together, von Oswald, Loderbauer and Allen form something close to a dream team, two masters of the electronic sphere meeting an afrobeat pioneer. Allen had already established a rapport with the group before they entered the studio to record Sounding Lines - he's been touring with von Oswald and Loderbauer for more than a year, playing live shows around the world. There has been an evolution on each new Moritz Von Oswald Trio record, and Sounding Lines is no different. The album, which was mixed by Ricardo Villalobos, maintains the project's trajectory—a fearless exploration of dub techno, classical music and jazz—but the prevailing mood feels looser and more organic than ever before. Allen's imperious percussive work sits tantalisingly in the mix. His drums meet the electronics of von Oswald and Loderbauer in a way that renders the project in new, vivid colours. There are 4/4 tracks, beatless interludes and complex jazz structures, with propulsive recordings ("3") coexisting alongside more languid moments ("1"). Sometimes Allen provides flourishes of drums (notably on "4") while at other times spectral synths come to the fore (as on "5"). Von Oswald, a masterful composer and arranger with a deep understanding of space, paints the crevices of each composition on Sounding Lines with rich detail. Individually, von Oswald, Loderbauer and Allen are formidable and hugely influential musicians. As a trio, they've conjured something remarkable.

Runner-Up at Apollo Theater Amateur Night! Highly Anticipated Debut Album from a Major New Talent Set to Take the World by Storm Nao Yoshioka's first album, "The Light," was recorded by three teams in the U.S., the Netherlands, and Japan. The notable vintage soul artist Brian Owens from the U.S. handled the instrumental recording and vocal direction for three tracks. In New York, Dani Elliott and Orly collaborated on songwriting and provided tracks. In the Netherlands, Shirma Rouse, hailed as the No. 1 Soul Queen, also took charge of the instrumental recording and vocal direction for three tracks. The Japanese team featured top musicians from the scene, including Takuya Kuroda, a trumpeter renowned for his work with the José James Band. Soul music, connected through Nao Yoshioka, casts its spell from Tokyo to the world.

A singularly talented man with an extraordinary voice and groove, an impassioned artist who has absorbed music influences of the most varied styles since a very young age: from Jazz, to Latin and Blues and beyond. For example, you can hear Marvin Gaye in the track “Why ft. Ra- chel Claudio, Erik Truffaz & Valérie Delgado”, J Dilla in his cover of Al Green’s “Simply Beautiful”, or Bobby McFerrin on the track “Good Morning”.

The man behind this fine selection of RK sounds needs no introduction, DJ/Producer Smoove has been an avid collector of all that is funk for more than 30 years and is one half of the renown duo Smoove & Turrell. He has releases out on Acid Jazz, Jalapeno and Unique to name a few, as well as having founded the labels Wack Records and Wass Records. Not only did Smoove lovingly hand-pick each cut that appears on MO’ RK II, but he is also responsible for 2 of the first-rate remixes that appear here: The New Mastersounds and Nick Pride & The Pimptones both get a Smoove reworking, while brand new afro-funk combo from Sydney The Liberators are remixed by Kokolo head honcho Ray Lugo, The Diplomats Of Solid Sound are given the Lack Of Afro treatment, Ray Harris & The Fusion Experience get a makeover by Valique and “Are You Ready” by Mr. Comicstore feat. Nicole Willis appears in a new discomix version. Other highlights of the compilation include a cracking gospel funk piece by William Joseph Fowler & The Disciples, some deep funk by recent RK signing Hannah Williams & The Tastemakers, and brand new material by Big Boss Man’s bass player Scott Milsom aka The Hawk. Plus singles by The Baker Brothers, Link Quartet, Floyd Lawson, Crabs Corporation and more!

The mysterious Tuxedo Funk Crew drops it in full length in 2015!