Funk | Soul 159 Items

USM are pleased to announce the release of Marvin Gaye: 1961-1965, a collection of his first seven studio albums on 180g vinyl in one fantastic box. This includes the stereo mixes of The Soulful Moods Of Marvin Gaye, That Stubborn Kind Of Fellow and When I’m Alone I Cry released as LPs for the first time ever.

Lavender Vinyl.In the late 1970s, a peculiar sound began bubbling up from the land of 10,000 lakes. Buried beneath 50 solid inches of annual snow, Minneapolis made a Sound quite different than what the pop world foresaw. It issued forth as a slick, black, technologically advanced fusion, poised to storm the charts. Never known for sizable African-American populations, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in fact harbored a tight-knit community of musiciansworking feverishly through the late '70s and early '80s toward a radical manipulation of American dance music, coating futuristic funk with the glamorous sheen of guitar rock. Synthetic ebony and ivory met electricity, with sexed-up results sent shockingly across the pop heavens like violet lightning.

As always, D_m flexes his multi-instrumentalist talents by handling all the production but still makes time for guests including rapper Q-Tip, the father-son duo of Leon Sylvers III & IV, and funk giant Junie
Morrison of the Ohio Players, who opens and closes the album with
dire warnings of what could happen in a world without funk. Rest
assured, D_m is here to make sure that never comes to pass. As he
puts it, "funk is the underdog, the black sheep of black music," and if
that's true, D_m-Funk is its shepherd.

Damon Albarn & Four Tet dig this gentleman, so you should dig this forgotten master of african synth-craze, too!

With love from Northern Europe... Erotic Mondo's hidden treasure! Long-awaited analog reissue of two Monica Lassen album titles

A Wamono erotic work produced in Japan with the setting of ``A work created for the enjoyment of men and women by a Swedish female musician named Monika Lassen, who is also active as a sexual psychologist.'' Mondo's hidden treasure. This is a rare and unusual record, with sounds that overlap with the dazzling sounds of jazz, rock, lounge, psych, etc.

The sequel was released one year after the previous work ``woman'' was well received. It's an erotic Japanese groove that knows no bounds, with more moaning voices than the previous work, heavy fuzz guitar, piercing organ, and sexy scat! A total concept album consisting of the same song at the beginning and end of both sides.

120 gram vinyl in gatefold sleeve with download code!

After 14 years out of the spotlight, D'Angelo releases 'Black Messiah'. Lyrics from Q-Tip and Kendra Foster, and backing by Questlove, James Gadsen and Pino Palladino. All sexy as hell, like his previous work.

The Supremes, the most commercially successful girl group in Pop history, were one of the jewels in Motown Records' artist stable. Two dozen of Number One hits, both as The Supremes and as Ross solo, are collected here, including the timeless classics "Come See About Me", "You Can't Hurry Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "Stop! In the Name of Love".

180g vinyl.

For 23 straight Saturday nights of 1982, "The Chicago Party" dance show assaulted Chicagoland UHF eyeballs with Spandex, Southside fly guys, tender tenderonies, magicians, contortionists, prismatic video gimmickry, and lip-synched singles by a rising regime of local post-disco casualties. Unfettered nightlife and outlandish humor poured out of oddball outpost The CopHerBox II and onto TV screens, presented here as a 100-minute video mixtape on DVD. Its companion compilation features five previously unreleased tracks, joined by music culled from a trove of self-released 45s and small-time 12"s. Die-cut cathode-ray jacket and six in-package stills put the Party at your fingertips.Available on CD or 2LP, each edition of Ultra-High Frequencies: The Chicago Party will arrive in one of six cover configurations, all of which are interchangeable via printed inner sleeves and enclosed booklet. Both editions include our entertaining DVD mixtape, isolating the most absurd and outrageous moments from the original broadcasts. Play functions enable viewers to enjoy 23 unique musical performances, as well as a mini-documentary about the creation and realization of "The Chicago Party." For fans of electronic soul with a public-access aesthetic, Ultra-High Frequencies: The Chicago Party is the place to be.

Why you'll love it...
The first notes Charles Bradley sings on Victim of Love, his 2013 sophomore release, are not words but moaned lamentations. A drawn out “ooh” reminds listeners who we are dealing with: The Screaming Eagle of Soul, who doesn’t simply sing. Bradley wails, pleads, begs and screeches his way through Victim of Love. Many tracks are love songs, but they’d be better described as songs of longing.

Attention: the sticker says "incl. booklet", but there's no booklet inside!

Now-Again Records is proud to present "Back From The Brink", the only legitimately licensed collection of the godfather of Iranian psychedelic rock, Kourosh Yaghmaei. Known within the Iranian diaspora simply by his first name, Kourosh’s Pre-Revolution recordings were thought lost after Islamic fundamentalists took control of Iran. They weren’t: Kourosh had protected them – along with key ephemera from the 70’s. Their collection here - spread over a 3-LP - bolstered by Kourosh’s first person recollections of Iran’s 70s rock scene and its death after the Revolution, tells the story of an immensely talented artist’s desire to persevere in the face of terrible adversity.

The album was mostly recorded at Dan Auerbach's (The Black Keys) Easy Eye studio in Nashville, as well as L.A. and Budapest, and was produced by both Dan Auerbach and Kevin Augunas (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Florence & The Machine).

In 2011 Gazelle Twin self-released 'The Entire City', a debut album that gathered rapid acclaim and sparked a decade of creativity during which its creator, Elizabeth Bernholz has built big upon her foundation of dark, cinematic energy. The album is now set to be reissued on deluxe Colored Vinyl featuring the captivating photo collage artwork of British artist, Suzanne Moxhay, with newly designed artwork by Paul Agar & Gazelle Twin.

Classy jazzy soul from Caro.

A delicate, slinky figure with a powerhouse voice, Ann Peebles occupied a special place among the many great talents that roamed the halls of Memphis' iconic Hi Records in the 1960s and 1970s. While producer Willie Mitchell was the company's heart, musicians the Hodges Brothers its soul, and Al Green its top star, it was Peebles who gave the label its first national success, and a lasting female identity. Over the course of seven albums and dozens of singles for Hi, Peebles expressed a complex range of moods and emotions in her music. Her songs were alternately pleading and defiant and destructive, but always, utterly soulful.

One of the great characters in rock and soul music is Jerry Williams, better known as the eccentric, idiosyncratic, and always entertaining Swamp Dogg (no relation to Snoop Doggy Dogg). A Virginia native, Williams invented his own legend by claiming that he had little proper schooling, only to wake up one day and find himself a musical genius (his words). Actually, Williams is very talented, and an early association with Jerry Wexler and Phil Walden led to him working for a number of years as a producer, engineer, and occasional songwriter with Atlantic in the '60s. At decade's end, however, he decided that the time was right to unleash Swamp Dogg's singular view of the world on an unsuspecting public. The initial result was one of the most gloriously gonzo soul recordings of all time, Total Destruction to Your Mind. The album's charm may have to do with Dogg's world view: part libertarian politics; part Zappa-style critiques of commerciality and capitalism; and part horny male, the latter defining for better and worse his view of women. Although he spent years working in the industry, Dogg was simply not the standard-issue soul type. And that was good. Dogg continued to make records, albeit infrequently, after 1969, some good, a few great, and most all extremely difficult to find. With contemporary soul sounding increasingly mannered and sterile, Dogg's yelling, screaming, and general craziness is missed. Thankfully, he hasn't disappeared for good, although he only makes records when he feels like it. It would be wise to not count him out; just when you think this Dogg is down and out, he sneaks up and bites you.

Blanck Mass Is The Debut Self Titled Release From Ben Power Of Fuck Buttons. First Released In 2011 To Critical Acclaim, This Expansive Album Is A Collection Of Tracks Loosely Themed Around Cerebral Hypoxia And The Beautiful Complexity Of The Natural World, Featuring Ten Songs Which Were Written, Recorded And Self-Produced At Ben Power's Home In London. Unlike Much Of His Recent Work This Album Has An Aquatic Ambient Quality And Guides The Listener On A Deeply Hypnotic Interstellar Journey.In 2011, Benjamin John Power (Fuck Buttons) Released His First Solo Album As Blanck Mass On Rock Action Records. The Vinyl Went Out Of Print Shortly Thereafter And Has Been Largely Unavailable Ever Since. Now, Nine Years Later, Sacred Bones Records Is Honored To Put It Back In Print, As A Clear Vinyl Deluxe Double Lp Housed In Gatefold Sleeve And Limited To 1000 Copies. As Blanck Mass, Benjamin John Power Takes The Anthemic Melodies And Heroic Doses Of Noise He Pioneered With Fuck Buttons In Directions That Are Sometimes More Immediate But Always Thought-Provoking. He Introduced The Project With The Amorphous Drones Of 2011's Self-Titled Album.This Ambient, Droning Electronic Music He Recorded In His Apartment Became The Project's Self-Titled Debut Album, Which Mogwai's Rock Action Label Issued In 2011. More Abstract, Yet Often More Accessible Than His Work With Fuck Buttons, Blanck Mass Received Favorable Reviews As Well As Comparisons To Brian Eno And Ghost Box's Roster Of Artists. "Sundowner," A Track From The Album, Was Used During The 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, Along With "Olympians" From Fuck Buttons' Album Tarot Sport.

Released For The Very First Time In The Format It Was Recorded For. The Holy Grail Of Bolan's Unreleased Soul Recordings As Producer For Sister Pat Hall, Includes Completely Unheard Version Of Do Your Thing Taken From Newly Acquired Original Reels Features Completely Reworked Version Of Classic T. Rex Tracks 'Jitterbug Love', 'Get It On', 'Sunken Rags', And The Never Released In Marc's Lifetime 'Sailors Of The Highway'. Besides Some Self-Released Gospel Recordings, Pat Hall Was A Much Sought After Vocalist In The Late 60's Early 70's, Having Worked With Joe Cocker As One Of The `Sanctified Sisters' Along With Gloria Jones.In 1972 Pat (& Hloria) Became Backing Singers On The U.S T.Rex Concerts And In Mid To Late 1973 Marc Bolan Decided He Was Going To Produce An Album By Pat, Being Well Ahead Of The Then Interest In Black American Soul By Fellow Pop Stars David Bowie John Lennon And Elton John. The Album Was Recorded But Never Released (On Vinyl), Until Now!Pat Hall Never Released Anything Again, This Album Remains The Sole Released Recordings Of This Extraordinary Singer.

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.

Raised amid the rich musical culture and history of the San Francisco Bay Area, Monophonics proudly carry the torch through the generations into today’s musical landscape. Holding on to tradition, but by no means purists of any kind, they play their own brand of music known as “Psychedelic Soul.”

The 2012 release of Monophonics last album In Your Brain saw the band pulling influences from such acts as early Funkadelic, Sly and The Family Stone and the The Temptation's Norman Whitfield produced records. With the new album, Sound of Sinning (April 14, 2015 on Transistor Sound Records), the band has grown in all areas of record making and felt a need to explore other important in- fluences. While the group has come to cherish these inspirations, With Sound of Sinning they started venturing beyond, to the groups that were inspiring those soul acts to embrace the psychedelic sound of the 60's and 70's. Bands such as The Zombies, The Beatles, Beach Boys and Pink Floyd. Even with the experimentation of new musical territory, they display the sound that people know and love about Monophonics. Touching on Northern soul, doo-wop, rock and roll, Psych pop, and cinematic music, Monophonics show off their diversity while remaining true to their roots. Overall it's heartfelt music and old school vibes, without losing sight of the present. This is is music steeped in that timeless feeling when people could write and produce songs that you could listen to over and over again. Sound of Sinning was produced by Kelly Finnigan & Ian McDonald and recorded on an old Tascam eight-track 1/4” tape machine at Transistor Sound Studios in San Rafael, CA.

Back IN Print 2022 Edition - Limited Edition of 300 copies Recorded Live in Hyattsville, MD 1975-2015. George really had no interest in releasing this record. "Seeing Is believing, they don’t need records, trust me I did that, today they getting it live". So this record is that, live tapes from the house, recorded on a government issued cassette recorder from National Library Service for the Blind. George calls these his practice tapes for songwriting, and performance warm-up, and never beyond his ears were they intended to travel. "You just got to see me live if you want to really see me.. so when we get there just plug me in, and point me at that crowd". Last time I saw George they had him wired to the club system. He unplugs his Yamaha keyboard, licks the tip of the power cord and taps a beat on it, finally plugging in, synth lights up, tones all at zero, beats at zero. Then he builds from there, counting blind through a preset one hunderd factory tones and rhythm patterns. "I gotta start off at zero, and go from there." After the Marshmellow Band disperesed, he got this Yamaha keyboard, same one he’s been playing since 1990, endless scrolling over the same presets, trying to make them fit, tempo down, tapping while telling the story and asking if that feels right to you. "This always gonna be different live."Some selections on this album are original material from home sessions prior to George’s 1980 self- released LP. The rest, just a sampling from the Smallwood mind’s library of classic song writers. - Andrew Morgan (Peoples Potential Unlimited)

The music of Magic Sword, crafted by two unknown individuals is a collaboration of sight and sound. Featuring the music. Part dance, part cinematic experience and a comic book (by The Harbinger). Which brings life to this tale of fantasy. Volume 1 is an introduction to the epic story of Magic Sword that will consist of several volumes set to be released over the next several years.So as it was, it shall always be. Whenever the need is great, we call upon the power of the Magic Sword.

Utterly magnificent, sublimely soulful survey of the Gospel Roots label, subsidiary of the mighty TK Records at the height of the Miami Sound. Beautifully presented, the LPs come with a 12"-square, full-colour, sixteen-page album of photos and original artwork and truly outstanding notes, including insightful new interviews across the board; mastered at Abbey Road.

As then, calypso carries the swing. There are four more Lord Kitchener songs — in consideration of his wife leaving him for a GI, cricket umpires, a fling onboard an ocean-liner and West Indian poultry — besides a hot mambo cash-in, cross-bred under his supervision, and an uproarious, teasing Ghanaian tribute to him in Fanti by London visitors The Quavers.
Other calypsos range compellingly from the devaluation of the pound through jiu jitsu, big rubbery instruments, football fans, heavyweight champ Joe Louis and the sexual allure of English women police. The Mighty Terror contributes the woe-begotten, cautionary tale of his beloved Patricia's change of heart: 'I cannot believe, not for one moment / She gone with Millicent... / You may think I am jocular / But this really happened in Manchester / I felt so ashamed, my friends laughed at me / I had to take a train for London city.'
Ambrose Campbell is back, with six more shots of prodigal, limber, melancholic, visionary West African highlife. Also the Rolling Stones' favourite Ginger Johnson, with a percussive Latin scorcher; and Mona Baptiste, with some wonderful, soulful exotica.
Jamaican mento makes its first entry in the series, with a brace by Tony Johnson: a drily witty drinking-song, and a love-letter to Marilyn Monroe. Also finally getting some dues, the path-breaking Latin-African-jazz experiments of Ghanaian drummer and percussionist Buddy Pipp, with spine-tingling playing by the great Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott.
Expert jazz idioms course sophisticatedly through all the selections, which include a straight-up, South London version of Duke Jordan's Jordhu, something from Dizzy Reece's soundtrack — brokered by Kenneth Tynan — to the British crime film Nowhere To Go, and a trio of magnificently hybrid, hard-swinging instrumentals led in turn by master-guitarist Fitzroy Coleman, Kitch's innovative arranger Rupert Nurse, and trumpeter Shake Keane — named after Shakespeare because of his love of poetry — from St. Vincent.

120 gram vinyl in gatefold sleeve with download code!

After 14 years out of the spotlight, D'Angelo releases 'Black Messiah'. Lyrics from Q-Tip and Kendra Foster, and backing by Questlove, James Gadsen and Pino Palladino. All sexy as hell, like his previous work.

James Brown had several incredibly talented funky divas in his late 60s and early 70s stable, including Vicki Anderson and Marva Whitney. But as great as those two powerhouse singers were, Lyn Collins was the strongest hitmaker of that funky JB era. Her strong voice and commanding stage presence - which earned her the nicknames The Female Preacher and Mama Feelgood - quickly proved to be a potent addition to the People Records universe. In the spring of 1972 her second single, the driving and ridiculously funky “Think (About It)” hit the R&B music world like a ton of bricks. As fans young and old know, thanks to its timeless, relentless groove and powerful vocals, “Think” gained a powerful second life in the 1980s thanks to the hip-hop generation, fueling the platinum smash “It Takes Two,” by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock in 1988 and additionally sampled by dozens of hip-hop and dance music artists up to the present day. But Collins was far from a one hit wonder: she was as vocally adept on ballads as she was with full-blown funk. She proves this throughout her debut album, which was released in 1972 on James Browns new People Records - the imprint's second full-length release. To wit, aside from the title smash: a powerful and emotional cover of Bill Withers "Ain’t No Sunshine"; the socially progressive "Women’s Lib"; the Gamble & Huff-penned "Never Gonna Give You Up" (originally done by Jerry Butler); and even a daring, muscular take on the song “Fly Me To The Moon,” made famous by, among others, Frank Sinatra. Throughout Think (About It), Collins shows that she was a vocal force to be reckoned with. Backed by a James Brown assembled musical crew that included Pee Wee Ellis, Fred Wesley and, of course, James Brown himself, the platter was bound to impress and succeed. And that it did.

From the dawn of doo-wop to the death of disco, the Notations saw_and sang_it all. Persisting through changing trends and technologies, on major labels and minor ones, produced by both Syl Johnson and Curtis Mayfield, nothing could stop the Notations from representing Chicago's Southside for decades. The first overview of their indie label golden age, Still Here 1967-1973 finds the Notations at a musical crossroads, turning from simmering R&B ballads to socially-conscious soul. Offering up a platter of golden-dipped harmonies, inventive arrangements, and super-powered soul, the Notations survived as unheralded legends in their own time.

Dr.Dre and Jay-Z sampled, legendary cinematic funk combo Calibro 35 announces the reissue of their fifth album "S.P.A.C.E." on ltd edition Crystal Orange vinyl and digital deluxe edition with bonus tracks.

Record Kicks presents the reissue of Calibro 35's fifth acclaimed long-time sold out album "S.P.A.C.E." on limited edition Crystal Orange vinyl and digital "deluxe" version with bonus tracks.The publication is part of "The Record Kicks Trilogy" that follows the reissue of the first three albums of the band, released in 2020. This time, Milan label Record Kicks will repress on wax of three different colours and on digital deluxe edition, the fourth, fifth and sixth legendary studio albums of the Italian cinematic-funk cult band. The digital deluxe edition of "S.P.A.C.E." includes 3 bonus tracks: "clbr 35", originally released as a b-side of "Bandits of Mars" 45 vinyl, and the unreleased songs "Omicron Paradox"and "The Haploids".

Recorded to tape on an 8-track tape recorder at the 'analog mecca' Toe Rag Studios in London, the worldwide famous studio where The White Stripes penned "Elephant", "S.P.A.C.E." is the fifth studio album by Calibro 35. Forget about the gripping noir atmospheres of their previous full lengths, with this album the Milan combo escapes from planet earth and lands on their own satellite to write the perfect funk soundtrack of an imaginary sci-fi movie directed by Sergio Leone. They've thrown away the balaclavas and embraced a bunch of synthesizers in their new instalment where Calibro 35 explores fresh new territories.

From the storming imaginary main title notes of the title track "S.P.A.C.E." to the percussive effects and creepy organ of "Serenade for a satellite", with incursions into cosmic afrobeat ("Ungwana Bay Launch Complex"), lunar funk ("Bandits On Mars") and trippy atmospheres ("Something Happened on Planet Earth"), in "S.P.A.C.E." Calibro 35 sound as cinematic and groovy as ever. Captured live and direct to tape with no overdubbing or editing facilities by Tommaso Colliva (Muse/Franz Ferdinand), the sound is tough, warm and super tight and confirms the unique musicianship of the band able in few years to gain followers worldwide.

Active since 2008, Calibro 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. During their fourteen-year career, they were sampled by Dr. Dre on his Compton album, Jay-Z, The Child of lov & Damon Albarn; they shared stages worldwide with the likes of Roy Ayers, Muse, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sharon Jones, Thundercat and Headhunters and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish and Stewart Copeland and Nic Cester (The Jet). Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that happened to Italy in the last years", Calibro 35 now count on a number of aficionados worldwide including VIP fans such as Dj Food (Ninja Tune), Mr Scruff and Huey Morgan (Fun Lovin' Criminals) among others.

Introducing California cult legend Doug Hream Blunt, featuring the hit "Gentle Persuasion". Tip!

Nine unreleased and rare tracks from the amazing Roger Damawuzan also known as the “James Brown from Lomé”, backed by the tremendous “Les As du Benin” orchestra, and recorded between 1972 and 1981.

San Diego’s The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble is here with
their debut full-length on Colemine Records. Laid back
vibes, funky rhythms, and heavy instrumental goodness
are the order for the day.

Bow down to the 'Screaming Eagle Of Soul'! Download code for the full album is included.

Original recordings remastered

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2015!

Jimmy Jam Harris was just 16 when he began writing and arranging for Minneapolis 11-piece Mind & Matter. Boasting a perfectly calibrated vocal quartet, an aggressive rhythm section, and stacks of Rhodes, Rolands, and Hammonds, the danceable act failed to win favor with frigid Midwest audiences. Tracked in 1977, this bundle of never-before-released basement demos throw Harris' beloved Philadelphia Sound into an unfinished root cellar, pelting it with Clavinet attacks, disco skats, and infectious hooks. Named for the street address of its underground uptown genesis, 1514 Oliver Avenue (Basement) is James "Jimmy Jam" Harris' first foray into songcraft and an organic Minneapolis-vintage alternative to a late '70s Prince songbook gone increasingly synthetic.

Always best selling Adele is back with a new set of heartfelt anthems.

8 tracks of raw Arabic funk music, none of these have ever been reissued before. It took 2 years and countless trips to Morocco to find the artists family to license the release from them. Vinyl and CD edition come with liner notes, unseen live photos and lyrics translations.

We recommend Matthew E White for no particular reason, just for his beautiful music! Give it a try!

Urban Ethiopian music stands out within the African continent thanks to its creativity and originality. Whatever the shade — pop, blues, jazz or soul — it comes from a fusion of local musical traditions mixed with an echo of Western music. It bewitched Ethiopia during the ‘Swinging Addis’ decade before recently winning the favors of a well-informed audience all over the world. This first vinyl volume of Ethiopian Urban Modern Music presents some of the Ethiopian ‘groove jewels’ drawn from the essential CD Ethiopiques series directed by Francis Falceto and published by Buda music.

“It has been a lengthy hiatus, but we have finally finished our latest ‘masterpiece’ and named it after an incredible indigenous-rights movement that is happening right now called Idle No More. I was born and raised in Montreal and spent a lot of time on the Kahnawake Mohawk Indian reservation. Idle No More is probably the most refined piece of music we have made to date. The songs are about the state of the world we live in today. Originally, I was going to call the album Of Madness I Dream, but then I became very enthused about the amazing work of the Idle No More movement. Everyone I asked had never heard of it, so I contacted the leaders of the movement and, with their permission, decided to rename the album Idle No More in hopes that it would increase the world’s awareness of this miracle that is taking place for the indigenous peoples of the world. If you are not familiar with Idle No More, look it up and GET Involved! It took a long time to make, but we are very proud and pleased to bring you this album. I hope that the future will brighten up every time it is played. Ultimately, John and Yoko were absolutely right: Love IS ALL YOU Need! Peace and Love.”—King Bama Lama Khan Emperor of RnB.

This years retro-soul sensation goes by the name of Leon Brigdes. Nice one!

"I use music as a medium to talk to other people", Sun Ra once revealed. The Düsseldorfer Stefan Schwander would agree with this statement by the avant-garde jazz great, though he would not necessarily sign his name to it. He also speaks to people through music. Yet he also likes to let music talk to music. Since 2008, as Harmonious Thelonious, on numerous EPs and two albums, he blends the reduced patterns and structures of American minimalist music with African, Latin American and Caribbean rhythms.

For his new work "Santos", which he sees as an LP with a unified concept, he embarked on a mental journey to the north of the African continent and became entranced by Moroccan trance music. The resulting pieces are light, with traces of pop, interweaving the atmospheres of the Master Musicians Of Joujouka and Gnawa music with the driving force of techno. This time Schwander invited a handful of guest musicians to serve as sound sources. The Berliner Ghazi Barakat, former bass player of Stereo Total and man behind the psychedelic experimental project Pharoah Chromium, contributed modified sounds from his Moroccan flute. A second guest musician is the Cologne-based composer Volker Zander, who has long played double bass and electric bass with Calexico. For songs like "Mountains" or "Belloumi" he played a melody on the Turkish Tambur, lending an oriental flair to the vital rhythms of the tracks. The intricate rhythmic patterns also incorporate instruments such as banjo, mandolin and Afro-Cuban drums, played by the percussionist Stefan Suhr, who studied Afro-Cuban ritual drumming in Cuba. Schwander's electronic sequencing blurs these organic sources and brings them into a fluid dialogue with his electronic ideas. For a piece like "Rendez-vous of the Dead", for example, Harmonious Thelonious projected himself out of the studio onto the Djemaa el Fna square in Marrakech. Here, every evening after sunset, local musicians meet and play themselves into a frenzy on distorted mandolins. Harmonious Thelonious translates this dream into a quaking dance monster whose home might be a techno club with an experimental sonic approach. Of course, most of the pieces of "Santos" are heavily danceable, although this time Harmonious Thelonious' tracks roll a little slower than previously. Their rugged beauty has also given way to a very smooth sound. His music, however, has lost none of its complexity. The many voices speak together, propelling each other toward something that traverses traditional genre boundaries, creating a playful trance.

The cover of "Santos" underscores this: It is a collage designed by the artist himself, depicting his notion of an all-star band. Everyone must decipher for themselves exactly who is to be found there. Here, once again, the pictures are not direct portrayals, but veiled references to an emotional state hidden far beyond the visual realm. Just like the music of Thelonious Harmonious, which uses various layers tell countless stories.

180g Colored Vinyl with heavy-duty card sleeve!

One of the finest voices in Southern Soul, George Jackson’s success as a writer meant he wasn’t pushed as an artist and so his vinyl output is disappointingly small. Kent Records is rectifying that with this 12-track LP.

Band Leader Alex Puddu is behind the project the Moonfires. The Album is released on 300 copies limited edition on Alex Puddu's own label Al Dente. The Album Black sugar is written, Arranged and Produced By Alex Puddu Recorded during the summer 2014 in Copenhagen Recorded at Redrum Studio Mixed and Masterd in N.Y.C Astoria Queens Soundworks recording by Kamilo Kratc Album photo by Maiken Kildegaard Artwork by Leo Scherfig

GED Soul is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated reissue of the legendary debut album from Magic In Threes. Out of print for over a decade, this atmospheric 2011 library funk gem has become somewhat of a rarity, fetching absurd prices in the second-hand market. The 2024 reissue has undergone exquisite remastering by Jukka Sarapää from Timmion Cutting and is pressed onto premium black vinyl. Don’t sleep on the chance to own this iconic GED Soul album on wax.

Considered an underground classic by many, XL Middleton's “Tap Water” was released at the height of the fervor over 'modern funk' music, brought to life by Dam Funk & carried on by a small but dedicated cadre of artists including Middleton. Always in demand, “Tap Water” has become scarce in the aftermarket and demands collector-level prices when it does sell; thus a reissue was inevitable.

Band Leader Alex Puddu is behind the project the Moonfires. The Album is released on 300 copies limited edition on Alex Puddu's own label Al Dente. The Album Black sugar is written, Arranged and Produced By Alex Puddu Recorded during the summer 2014 in Copenhagen Recorded at Redrum Studio Mixed and Masterd in N.Y.C Astoria Queens Soundworks recording by Kamilo Kratc Album photo by Maiken Kildegaard Artwork by Leo Scherfig

An explosive boogie funk production for your dancefloor, with special guest Joe Bataan on 3 tracks.

“The re-release series of original Ethiopian classic vinyl continues — the finest Ethio jazz by Mahmoud Ahmed and his band from 1975 plus two tracks from 1978. The liner notes: ‘Melancholy blues, piercingly minimalist country airs, brassy, danceable urban jazz, heart-wrenching, off-key crooners: a rich and stirring patchwork of sounds, crossing Afro-beat, Latino-swing moves and Eastern arabesques (Anaïs Prosaïc).’ Such were the first — informed and enthusiastic — opinions of the music press when the first strains of modern Ethiopian music sounded on our shores. This was in 1984-1985. Such a positive note, struck about such a country at such a time, created plenty of reverb. The country had been so thoroughly trashed by the media’s feeding-frenzy, which spewed out a mix of horror and pious pity, bitter denunciation and humanitarian appeals, wallet-tickling clichés and refusal of identity. In one brutal swoop, TV-reality transformed Ethiopia into a cursed nation, forsaken by God and by man. In contrast to these tragedies, but in the same hackneyed tones, Mahmoud Ahmed’s life resembles an edifying fairy-tale where destiny, talent and achievement combine to triumph over poverty, fate and the evil eye. Biography, history and legend, with the help of God, infallibly weave the lesson of merit rewarded. But who can argue, in spite of the mockery that celebrities invariably draw, when faced with one of the greatest voices in all of Africa? Once upon a time, there was a street urchin in Addis Ababa, who started off as a shoe-shine boy and went on to become one of his country’s biggest stars, opening the door to Ethiopian music to Western audiences.” — Francis Falceto

Instrumental version of Lee Fields & The Expressions' "Emma Jean" record. Soul legend Lee Fields has re-teamed with the Expressions for his new album Emma Jean.

By popular demand, Truth & Soul is proud to present the instrumental version of the already classic self titled debut by Lady.