Funk | Soul 314 Items

Wan Chai Records is a Hong-Kong based label, specialized in rare Asian records and quality reissues.
For their first release, they wanted to highlight a promotional record released at 500 copies only in Hong-Kong for a famous Soda brand. It was offered with a pack of bottles in 1977 and never been released.
Produced and arranged by Noel Quinlan, this Album is a mix of Funk and Soul covers. The result is an awesome LP including groovy covers, from the classic “Lowdown” by Bob Scaggs, to a Funky “I Shot The Sheriff” by Bob Marley with a deep Fender Rhodes, and 12 other outstanding tracks.

Here comes the highly anticipated album release from Aaron Abernathy featuring Black Milk, Deborah Bond, Nat Turner, Phonte (of Little Brother + The Foreign Exchange), Zo!

Aaron Abernathy, is a jazz pianist/soul singer and multi-talented entertainer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Abernathy comes from a long-line of historical pioneers including Civil Rights Leader, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy and student of the same high school music program as the late R&B great Gerald Levert.

He joined the ranks of artists like Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack as a graduate from the prestigious music program at Howard University, where he sharpened his piano playing and musicianship by majoring in jazz piano. With outstanding talents as both a pianist and a vocalist, he has acted as musical director for global touring acts Black Milk and Slum Village and collaborated with Grammy-nominated artists including Jack White, The Foreign Exchange, and Eric Roberson.

Still in shrink but opened. Cover is close to NM.

It was made the way they made electronic music in the good old days, all analog everything, right after synthesizers shrunk to a manageable size and you didn’t have to trek down to a university to use one anymore. Electronic music as practiced and developed by pioneers like Dick Hyman and Raymond Scott and Wendy Carlos is precise and intentional. In making his first electronic album, Younge took his cues from them, reminding a contemporary audience what a synthesizer, deep in its heart, really could be. “Black Noise” is men talking to men about women; “Lemonade” is a woman talking to women about men, and they both orbit around a failure we take for granted like the sun: loving you is complicated. It’s a skill; we forgot. Adrian Younge calls “The Electronique Void” an academic album, by which he means it is both instructional and informational. There’s a problem at the heart of it, a woman who’s been told that she’s loved, but she doesn’t recognize that, can’t feel it, may have heard it all before, may be worrying about the wrong things. Jack Waterson, long a guitarist in Younge’s band, plays the role of narrator, sounding professorial and rather superior as he lays out for the woman where she’s erred. That vocoder you hear is Adrian, talking to her on a subterranean level, the way an artist must. The discourse on the album is the kind of thing that happens when you go blonde and then you can’t keep ‘em off you. These truths are cold and hard, and our hero begrudges the well-meaning advice being rained down upon her as any independent woman would. The science of love, its formulas and if-then constraints, causal relationships and observable properties, is best taught experientially, but learning it hurts so, so bad. Music, especially electronic music, reliant as it is on abstraction and unrepentant as it is about hijacking your physiological responses to tempo and rhythm and dynamics, is a way to get there without going through it.

After two hip-hop albums (Got To Get Down in 2016 and Impact in 2017), the unpredictable Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra comes back to its fundamentals with a new instrumental album: MORPHEUS which repositions the band in the spirit of their previous spatial, almost cosmic albums Last Odyssey (2012) and Pulsion (2015), both released on Ubiquity Records and acclaimed by spiritual and fusion jazz lovers, library music fans, as well as rare grooves diggers (ALVO’s first 4 vinyl albums now being out of stock).
Each new ALVO new release is a millesimal which evolved and learned from its predecessors. Masta Conga, who’s still leading the herd, has for main purpose to explore the musical space-time, gaining ground on never before revealed tracks, followed by his now faithful team of atypical and farseeing musicians.
Compared to Miles Davis and his On The Corner by Wax Poetics, the band dives again in this “realm of psychedelia and beyond”, in particular with the contribution of Indian musicians. Twirling around violins, superimposed patchy keyboards and effects, just as if their conductor wasn’t already sufficiently influenced by Pierre Boulez and others such as Hiroshi Murakami…
The result is however more uncluttered and loaded with multiple vibes than its predecessor Pulsion, which already carried the ceremonial characteristics of cult movie soundtracks. Tracks “Moksha”, “Air” and “Morpheus” are the perfect demonstration, and far beyond their names. Simple grooves, lunar, but terribly efficient, emphasized by a mix that puts focus on these fiddly contributions of ethnic instruments, on percussions and horns on a drip of delay, reverbs and other space-echoes.
On the other side, the very rhythmic “Descarga Uno”, “Descarga Dos” and “Super Dopamine” show that the Parisian crew hasn’t lost its good habit to look around latin, ternary, and syncopated rhythms, in the ALVO only style!
A new millésime, a Grand Cru maybe, but for sure to taste and appreciate in all weathers including space ones.

Ahmed Malek - Algeria's Ennio Morricone

Ahmed Malek was one of the most important musicians of the Algerian scene of the 1970s. His sountrack works that were composed for various Algerian movies of the time fuse Arabic influences with jazz, psych and funk influences. Dark cineastic soundscapes meet african Jazz at times reminicent of Mulatu. Original copies of his vinyl releases have been sold for enormous amounts. For this release we combined the strongest tracks from his releases with a selection of unreleased material straight from the families archive. The vinyl edition comes with a 8 page 12” size booklet, the cd version with a 16 page booklet with lot of unseen photos, an interview with the artist from 1978 and an introduction to Algerian cinema.

Al Massrieen: Disco, Funk and modernized Arabic Pop from Egypt

In the beginning of Habibi Funk, our search was focussed on vinyl records. Around a year ago though, we got to the point where we realized that it became substantially harder to discover music, that we enjoyed and hadn’t heard before. It became apparent that it was time to start looking for other formats. Cassette tapes were the obvious alternative. These were introduced in the arabic world around the late 1970s. In some countries they took over a bit earlier, in others a bit later, but eventually they pushed the vinyl format out of the market in the 1980s. In Egypt this trend already even started in the late 1970s.

Al Massrieen was one of the first bands I learned about once I discovered the tape format for myself. They were really popular in Egypt in the 1970s and the more of their music I found on either tapes or Arabic pirate mp3 sites, the more I was becoming a fan. Only very few bands from the region can match the band’s versatility as well as their strive for innovation. Hany Shenoda is the man behind the Al Massrieen band. He is a reknown figure of the Egyptian music scene and has worked with everyone from Abdel Halim Hafez to Mohamed Mounir. Al Massrieen was his attempt to introduce his ideas of modernizing Egyptian music, heavily encouraged by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt's only winner of the Nobel Price for literature) after discussing his ideas with him.
Al Massrieen's sound goes from lush disco like “Sah” to psych rock like “Horreya” or incredible jazz fused pop on songs such as “Edba Mn Gded”. I was shocked to realize the band seemed to be hardly known outside Egypt, even though I feel they're at least on the same level as Ahmed Fakroun. An relative obscurity which I largely attribute to the fact that their releases never have been pressed on vinyl (apart from a Greece best of LP which wasn’t a strong compilation of the group’s songs). One way or another it felt like this band and especially their composer, band leader and overall brain Hany Shenoda was in need to get some recognition outside of Egypt. The release is fully licensed from the band and comes with an extensive booklet with liner notes, interviews and unseen photos.

White vinyl. Original inner sleeve. Tiny wear.

A groovy vibrant jazz / soul / funk soundtrack for an imaginary hard-boiled movie from the 70s!
The varied selection of instruments (organ, flute, moog, bongos, cello, violin, drums, bass, acoustic
and electric guitars etc.) blend flawlessly into each other and make this album an intense and
inspired trip... in fact it may turn into a movie in front of your very eyes! Featuring the legendary
Edda Dell’Orso on vocals and her husband Giacomo on string arrangements!!!

Top Originally Unissued Killer Sixties Northern Soul Mover Outta Philadelphia For Upfront Deejays Which Is Taking No Prisoners!

close to NM. With insert

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs. 180 gram reissue

Vinyl with scuffs and hairlines. Still in shrink, but opened, with hype sticker

Green translucent vinyl.

The two songs included in this 7-inch, “Spooky” and “Hurt So Bad”, directly come Andrea Balducci debut album “Bloom” (Schema Records, 2012, SC 459): two evergreen standards modernized and rearranged in a smooth, refined groovy soul key; a voice ins pired by crooners such as Frank Sinatra, Jamie Cullum and Michael Bublé, over music played by an exceptional team of musicians. These are songs that speak to the heart.

‘Caribbean Roots’ represents a return to his roots for Anthony Joseph, who has always remained true to a powerful, deep-seated sense of his Caribbean identity.

The Norman Connors produced Aquarian Dream first appeared in 1976 with their debut album on Buddah, featuring the extremely popular 'Phoenix' along with the club dancer 'East 6th Street'.
Both tracks were only released previously on 12" in the UK and quickly became a huge collector's item with the release averaging £50 on Discogs some 38 years later.
Fully remastered on limited edition 180 gram heavyweight vinyl, officially reissued for the first time since its original release.
A much loved & timeless disco track sampled many times in the house music community.

Cover close to NM

Big Crown Records is proud to present Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s new 45, “Scorpio” b/w “8th Wonder”. Coming after the smashing success of their debut full length “55” they drop 2 B-Boy classics back to back on this tough two sider that comes in a beautifully illustrated picture sleeve.
The A side “Scorpio” is a killer cover of the Dennis Coffey breakbeat staple. BRSB turn up the tempo a touch on the original doing the tune justice with crushing drums they have become known for. This is sure to be in every breakbeat enthusiasts box. The B side features the non album cut, BRSB’s cover of The Sugarhill Gang’s 8th Wonder, a tune that lends itself to pans like it was written for them. Another dance floor winner sure to be in DJs sets the world over shortly.

Still sealed with hype sticker. Tiny wear. 2017 reissue.

Türküola’s new vinyl release of Kayalarınoğlu 2023 is based on Barış Manço & Kurtalan Ekspres’ 1975 album “2023”. On the other hand you can hear tracks like “Estergon Kalesi”, “Ben Bilirim Ben Bilirim” as well. “Estergon Kalesi” was the latest single released before the 2023 LP and “Ben Bilirim” was the A side of the single which contained single version “2023” at the flipside. In addition to these additional tracks you can hear the unedited version of “Kolbastı” first time on vinyl.
2023 was Manço’s most experimental album which contained a lot of electronic sounds of analogue synthesizers and also early drum machines. The track “Kayaların Oğlu-2023” has a touch of early electronic music of its age just like Jean Michael Jarre and Chezlaw Niemen. “Ben Bilirim” is a power funky song while the band’s experiments in Baykoca Destanı drives us to concept albums of pogressive rock groups such as Genesis, Yes, Renaissance etc. You can hear moody Anatolian Rock ballads in “Uzun İnce Bir Yoldayım” and “Yol Verin ağalar Beyler”. In both tracks you can hear a powerful rhythm section formed of two drummers and one percussionist.
The cover art also reflects the esthetic approach of Türküola during 1970s and 1980s. After the accurate reissues of 2023 by different companies, Türküola gives a new path to interpret the album once again but this time in a new vision.

Back around the early 1970's Bell Telephunk was formed around the New Jersey area. Some members moved to Clevleand Ohio where the group performed in these early days at bars and clubs. The band disbanded early on and the name lie dormant for a few years. Around 1975/76 Michael Calhoun and a few others decided to rejuvenate the name again. They played often at the Kinsman grill located in Kinsman road Cleveland where they cut their teeth! They ventured into the studio just once to record a series of 6 songs. We are now pleased to bring them to light the newly formed Kinsman Record label. Once you hear these you will fall in love instantly with Ron Thatch's amazing vocals skills. This is crossover ghetto soul of the highest order...

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2017!