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The two Portuguese-speaking African islands of Sao Tomé & Principe, located in the Gulf of Guinea, created an unique music called Puxa : a refined mixture of various musical components from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. A blend of Semba, Merengue, Kompas, Soukouss, Coladeira patterns, often pushing forward with a voodoo-like energy, solid bass lines, delicate melodies and backing harmonies of the rich Sao Tomean melodic traditions. Very first compilation focusing on the golden age of these island’s sounds, the 16 tracks selected will surely set fire on all dance floors !

Léve-Léve is the first ever compilation devoted to music from São Tome and Principe, two small islands situated off the coast of Gabon in central Africa. The album unravels a story of liberation where the music of Africa, Europe and the Americas unify with a carefree spirit personified by a phrase the islanders use all the time: “léve, léve” (“take it easy”). With echoes of Angolan semba and merengue, of Brazilian afoxê, of coladeira from Cape Verde and dance music from the Caribbean, it is a sound fiercely proud of its island heritage, sung in local dialects and using distinctive local rhythms.

On this record you can hear the cultural and social history of São Tome and Principe, and how live music represented its beating heart. Once known as the “Chocolate Islands” (remarkably, these two tiny islands were the largest cocoa producers in the world, though now this title acts as a reminder of its colonial past), through the years leading up to independence from Portugal, music would be a fundamental voice of liberation and conviviality. Os Úntués were one of the first groups to make an impression, releasing a couple of 7 inches in Angola – the litmus test of success for any of the islands’ groups. They united unique rhythms and dances like socopé, puita and dança-congo – borne from the islands’ largely slave-descendant population – with the sound of pop music beamed in on the radio from Europe, even adding in a little bit of soukous and Brazilian instrumentation. Their main rivals were Conjunto Mindelo, who fused São Toméan rhythms with rebita, an Angolan style, to create high energy puxa, a truly original island rhythm.

From the mid-1970s, coinciding with independence from Portugal in 1975, the islands’ groups featured an even stronger African influence and nowhere was that more apparent than with Africa Negra. They would listen to the latest records from Gabon, Zaire and Cameroon, taking inspiration and trying out phrasing from the greats of Central African guitar playing, developing a devoted fan base off the islands, as well as on. A score of other bands would follow a similar musical path, with a few getting their dues overseas in Angola, Cape Verde, Portugal and across Africa.

Os Leonenses (led by the iconic Pedro Lima), Conjunto Sangazuza, Sum Alvarinho and Conjunto Ecuador were just some of the other bands that formed a lively home-grown music scene that lit up the islands’ bars and open-air shows from the 1950s through to the mid-90s. Regardless of class or age, they were responsible for keeping the population entertained come the weekend, with Sunday matinee shows the highlight of the week, the music not stopping from midday until midnight.

As a Portuguese island colony that was for many years populated with slaves brought from Africa, São Tome and Principe has much in common with other Lusophone countries and boasts a richly complex and idiosyncratic musical DNA. Whilst the musical tapestries of Angola and Cape Verde are well known, São Tome and Principe’s secrets were assigned to the islanders themselves. Until now.

In order to realize his Cuban music in a concentrated way for the future, Ramón Valle always falls back on his favorite instrumentation, the trio. With these live recordings, Ramón Valle shows how the music of his homeland is combined with cosmopolitanism to form a new language, how Cuban nest warmth merges with stupendous technical mastery to create truly great sounds.

No returns. Comes with seamsplit.

UEG Music proudly presents this ultra rare Killer Album finally available on this very limited edition Colored Vinyl album. A Muther's Pearl was previously released on limited CD in 2005, the album quickly became a sought after item with a current asking price of £120

This 18 track collection contains the sought after killer track 'I Don't Mind Tellin You'

A Muther's Pearl is a true Soul and R&B masterpiece, produced by Barry Bee & Joe Powell, the famed duo behind Leona Lewis, Salt & Pepa, and many others.

A very limited amount of copies will be available along with an A3 poster.

Blue vinyl version!

Blue Note Re:imagined was first released in 2020 featuring fresh takes on music from the illustrious Blue Note Records vaults recorded by a heavyweight line-up of the UK jazz, soul, and R&B scene’s most hotly-tipped rising stars. This incredible compilation includes artists such as Jorja Smith, Jordan Rakai, Ezra Collective, Poppy Ajudha and more. This new version of Blue Note Re:imagined, pressed exclusively for Record Store Day on Smokey Clear & Blue vinyl with new blue cover, includes an exclusive bonus track - Jorja Smith – Rose Rouge (Joy Orbison Remix)

Cuba: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 1 is a new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that explores the many new styles that emerged in Cuba in the 1970s as Jazz, Funk, Brazilian Tropicalia and even Disco mixed together with Latin and Salsa on the island as Cuban artists experimented with new musical forms created in the unique socialist state. The music on this album features legendary Cuban groups such as Irakere, Los Van Van and Pablo Milanés as well as a host of lesser known artists such as the radical Grupo De Experimentación, Juan Pablo Torres and Algo Nuevo, Grupo Monumental and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, groups whose names remain largely unknown outside of Cuba owing to the now 60-year old US trade embargo which remains in place today and which prevents trade with Cuba - and thus most Cuban records were only ever available in Cuba or in ex-Soviet Union states. The music on this album reflects the most cutting-edge of Cuban groups that were recording in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s - who were all searching for a new Cuban identity and new musical forms that reflected both the Afro-Cuban cultural heritage of a nation that gave birth to Latin music - and its new position as a socialist state. Most of the music featured on this album has never been heard outside of Cuba. Cuba: Music and Revolution is the third book that Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker have collaborated on together and follows on from their two earlier critically acclaimed books, Freedom, Rhythm and Sound (Revolutionary Jazz Music in the 1960s and 1970s) and Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s, both of which also had related album releases on Soul Jazz Records.

Soul Slabs Vol. 2 Is A Collection Of A-Sides From The 7-Inch Catalog Of Loveland Ohio's Colemine Records. Specializing In Heavy Soul, Funk, And R&B, Colemine Prides Itself On Authenticity And An Old School Production Style, While Still Making Songs That Seem Fresh And Are Moving The Genre Ofsoul Forward. This 3lp Collection Of 27 Tracks Puts Their Diverse Catalog On Full Display, Many Of These Songs Being Presented For The First Time On An Lp. Featuring Artists Such As Durand Jones & The Indications, Kellyfinnigan, Ben Pirani, Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Monophonics, Ikebe Shakedown, The Dip, The Sure Fire Soulensemble, Soul Scratch, And More!

It was in Benin City, in the heart of Nigeria, that a new hybrid of
intoxicating highlife music known as Edo Funk was born.
It first emerged in the late 1970s when a group of musicians began
to experiment with different ways of integrating elements from their
native Edo culture and fusing them with new sound effects coming
from West Africa ́s night-clubs. Unlike the rather polished 1980 ́s
Nigerian disco productions coming out of the international
metropolis of Lagos Edo Funk was raw and reduced to its bare
minimum.

Someone was needed to channel this energy into a distinctive sound
and Sir Victor Uwaifo appeared like a mad professor with his Joromi
studio. Uwaifo took the skeletal structure of Edo music and
relentless began fusing them with synthesizers, electric guitars and
80 ́s effect racks which resulted in some of the most outstanding Edo
recordings ever made. An explosive spiced up brew with an odd
psychedelic note dubbed "Edo Funk".

That's the sound you'll be discovering in the first volume of the
Edo Funk Explosion series which focusses on the genre’s greatest
originators; Osayomore Joseph, Akaba Man, and Sir Victor Uwaifo:

Osayomore Joseph was one of the first musicians to bring the sound
of the flute into the horn-dominated world of highlife, and his
skills as a performer made him a fixture on the Lagos scene. When he
returned to settle in Benin City in the mid 1970s – at the
invitation of the royal family – he devoted himself to the
modernisation and electrification of Edo music, using funk and Afro-
beat as the building blocks for songs that weren’t afraid to call
out government corruption or confront the dark legacy of Nigeria’s
colonial past.

Akaba Man was the philosopher king of Edo funk. Less overtly
political than Osayomore Joseph and less psychedelic than Victor
Uwaifo, he found the perfect medium for his message in the trance-
like grooves of Edo funk. With pulsating rhythms awash in cosmic
synth-fields and lyrics that express a deep personal vision, he
found great success at the dawn of the 1980s as one of Benin City’s
most persuasive ambassadors of funky highlife.

Victor Uwaifo was already a star in Nigeria when he built the
legendary Joromi studios in his hometown of Benin City in 1978.
Using his unique guitar style as the mediating force between West-
African highlife and the traditional rhythms and melodies of Edo
music, he had scored several hits in the early seventies, but once
he had his own sixteen-track facility he was able to pursue his
obsession with the synesthetic possibilities of pure sound, adding
squelchy synths, swirling organs and studio effects to hypnotic
basslines and raw grooves. Between his own records and his
production for other musicians, he quickly established himself as
the godfather of Edo funk.

What unites these diverse musicians is their ability to strip funk
down to its primal essence and use it as the foundation for their
own excursions inward to the heart of Edo culture and outward to the
furthest limits of sonic alchemy. The twelve tracks on Edo Funk
Explosion Volume 1 pulse with raw inspiration, mixing highlife
horns, driving rhythms, day-glo keyboards and tripped-out guitars
into a funk experience unlike any other.
Double LP pressed on 140g virgin vinyl comes with a full color 20-pages booklet

Mokomizik Records presents the first-ever reissue of this ultra-rare Latin-Jazz masterpiece. The Fantastic Variety in the Music of Panama - The Winsor Style and Calypso Impressions was privately released in the early 1960s by Panamanian pianist and songwriter Alonso Wilson De Briano.
Alonso described Panama as a country "with a foot in each side", referring to its unique geography that connects North and South America. The blending of Latin and English-speaking cultures had a big influence on Alonso, whose work draws on elements from West-Indian, Afro-Cuban and Panamanian folk musical styles. From the upbeat mambo rhythms of "Amigo" to the unusual combination of Calypso and Tamborera styles used in "My Brother, Too," Alonso weaves a rich musical tapestry into his arrangements. Back in 50s Panama, Alonso enjoyed relative success, with the likes of Orquesta Armando Boza and Tito Contreras performing his songs. So distinctive were his compositions that people had started referring to them by their own style - El stylito Winsor (the Winsor style), a reference to a club that Alonso performed at. Throughout his music career, Alonso worked with a number of renowned musicians, several of whom appear on the record, including Cuban-Jazz pioneer Arsenio Rodríguez's main bassist, Alfonso Joseph; and saxophonist and flutist Gene Jefferson to name a few.
Sadly, not many copies remain of Alonso's music today and the few that have surfaced over the years have naturally demanded high asking prices. This limited reissue aims to shed new light on Alonso's work and make it available for a new generation of listeners to enjoy. Great care has been taken to restore this record, using quality mastering to ensure maximum listening pleasure and retaining the original artwork with lyrics and the song descriptions written at the time. Each record comes with an insert containing restored photos and detailed biography, which features quotes from a rare interview with Alonso from the 1980s along with information gathered from his family and Alfonso Joseph, the only musician we could reach who plays on the record.
Limited to 500 copies. 180g LP with tip-on sleeve.

Highlights:For The First Time A Sample Of The Essential Work Of Mesías Maiguashca, Covering A Period That Goes From 1967 To 1989.This Release Includes Historical Pieces Of Electronic Music, Such As "El Mundo En Que Vivimos" (1967) Or "Ayayayayay"(1971), Which Are Early References For Electronic Music In Latin America.Description:Mesías Maiguashca Is A Relevant Figure On The Map Of Contemporary Avant-Garde Composers. Born In Ecuador But Currently Based In Germany, He Has Been A Composer Who, Since The 60s, Would Constantly Expand His Possibilities In Fields Such As Electronic Music (Where He Stands Out As A Pioneer), Mixed Works, Expanded Interdisciplinary Pieces And The Creation Of Unconventional Instruments, Where The Encounter Between His Country Of Origin's Popular Folkloric Tradition And The New European Music Has Produced A Universe Of Tension, As Fascinating As It Is Startling.Mesías Maiguashca: Música Para Cinta Magnética (+) Instrumentos (1967-1989) Presents For The First Time A Sample Of The Essential Work Of Maiguashca, Covering A Period That Goes From 1967 To 1989. This Is The First Of A New Collection, A New Series Of Albums That Seeks To Document The Extensive Recorded Work Of Maiguashca, With Pieces That Date From The Mid-60s To The Present. This First Release Is A Good Introduction To Understand The Various Aesthetic Options Developed By The Artist Throughout His Career. It Includes His Historical Pieces Of Electronic Music, Such As "El Mundo En Que Vivimos" (1967) Or "Ayayayayay"(1971), Which Are Early References For Electronic Music In Latin America, And Also Mixed Pieces, Such As "Intensidad Y Altura" (1979) For Six Percussionists And Magnetic Tape, "The Wings Of Perception" (1989) For A String Quartet And Tape, And "Nemos Orgel" (1989) For Organ And Magnetic Tape.As The Critic Fabiano Kueva Has Pointed Out: "During Six Decades Of Musical Creation, Maiguashca Has Outlined Diverse Aesthetic Axes, Raising Questions About The Aural Experience And Generating A Sound...

“Things happen for a reason, man.” - Leo Nocentelli

At just fourteen, Leo Nocentelli was backing up Otis Redding. Soon after, he was playing on hits for Lee Dorsey, The Supremes, and The Temptations. As an original member of The Meters, Leo wrote instant classics “Cissy Strut” and “Hey Pocky A–Way,” but his greatest moment on record may be totally unknown, until now…

Recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s Jazz City Studio in New Orleans in the early ‘70s and then lost to the ages, Another Side is one of Leo Nocentelli’s most personal and definitive moments ever cut to tape. A mixture of funky folk and rootsy, raw emotion (think Bill Withers and James Taylor meeting Allen Toussaint at Link Wray’s Three Track Shack), this previously unheard album shines like the sun on a spring day on the New Orleans fairgrounds. Backing Nocentelli is an all-star line-up of New Orleans royalty, including Allen Toussaint (piano), James Black (drums), and both George Porter Jr. (bass) and Zigaboo Modeliste (drums) of The Meters. Deeply introspective, the album features nine original songs by Nocentelli, plus a soulful rendition of Elton John’s “Your Song.” Half a century later, these recordings sound just as fresh and engaging as the day they were recorded.

What makes Another Side even more extraordinary, however, is the fact that the album—which could have easily become a classic in the ‘70s singer-songwriter canon—sat untouched for decades; miraculously surviving the devastating blow of Hurricane Katrina, only to be found 2,000 miles away at a Southern California swap meet in 2018 by record collector Mike Nishita. The album’s incredible journey is documented in the liner notes by Sam Sweet (New York Times, Los Angeles Times), who spoke with Nocentelli and Nishita about the recording process and re-discovery of the tapes. Sweet’s full notes appear in the release’s accompanying booklet, alongside handwritten lyrics by Leo Nocentelli. The first pressing of the vinyl edition will feature gold-foil treatment on cover and spine. Rounding out the package are original designs and layout by the multi GRAMMY®–winning designer Masaki Koike.

While Nocentelli was embedded in New Orleans’ R&B scene, he was also deeply inspired by the late 1960s and early 1970s rising singer-songwriters, and soon found himself exploring sounds that were miles away from his band’s hard-edged funk riffs. Whenever he had downtime from session work and shows, Nocentelli spent much of 1971 recording his newly-found, reflective, diaristic songs at Matassa’s Jazz City studio. Backed by longtime Meters bandmate George Porter Jr. on bass, Nocentelli crafted the lineups for his sessions to match the tone of the material. When he needed a pianist, he’d call Toussaint. For percussion on the slower songs, he used drummer Zigaboo Modeliste, but many of the tracks featured James Black—a frequent collaborator of Toussaint’s and a member of Ellis Marsalis’ jazz group, whom Nocentelli recalls as an “unbelievable” musician. The recording, which Nocentelli fondly refers to as his “country-and-western-album,” paints a picture of a young man yearning to find a sense of purpose. “I was going through some changes which were reflected in the songs that I wrote during that time,” he tells Sweet. Among them is the mid-tempo “Getting Nowhere,” in which he expresses a sense of frustration, as he watches others find success around him. Similarly, “Till I Get There” details a man who is struggling to persevere in his goals. In the soaring “Tell Me Why,” meanwhile, the singer contemplates the existence of God. Other songs center around fictional characters. “Pretty Mittie,” for instance, is sung from the perspective of a farmer who longs to give up his arduous life for the city. “You’ve Become a Habit” is about a man who falls for a sex worker named Fancy. “Riverfront” is based on stories that singer Aaron Neville shared, about his days working on the New Orleans waterfront. Nocentelli also chose to perform one cover: Elton John’s breakthrough hit, “Your Song.” The guitarist made the recently-released ballad his own—infusing it with a loping, head-nodding cadence, ever so tastefully “funkdafied” in true New Orleans fashion. By the time that the album was finished, The Meters were busier than ever. They had just signed a record deal with Warner Brothers and were now the official house band at Toussaint’s studio, Sea-Saint. There, they not only backed artists on Toussaint’s Sehorn label but had also become the go-to session musicians for every major artist that recorded in New Orleans. Rather than focus on a solo career, Nocentelli poured his energies into The Meters’ next album. Eventually, time moved on, as did Nocentelli, and he decided to store his unreleased solo album at Sea-Saint for safekeeping. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Sea-Saint was among its victims. While Toussaint (who passed away in 2015) had sold the hallowed studio in the mid-90s, hundreds of his archived recordings remained in the building. The new owner salvaged what he could from the flooded building, shipping everything to a storage facility in Southern California. Boxes of tapes sat there for more than a decade before moving to another unit, which foreclosed a year later. The contents were purchased in a blind auction and, days later, sold at a swap meet. The fact that record collector Mike Nishita just happened to be there was pure kismet. Nishita, a DJ and brother to “Money Mark” Nishita (of Beastie Boys fame), recognized the Sea-Saint label on the boxes and purchased all 673 master tapes at the swap meet. He inspected the contents with his friend Mario Caldato Jr., the longtime audio engineer for the Beastie Boys. In addition to masters from Irma Thomas, Dr. John, Lee Dorsey, and Toussaint, there was a quarter-inch reel with Nocentelli’s name on it. As Caldato and Nishita played it back, they knew they had something special. “There was nothing else like it,” writes Sweet. “An acoustic album by the greatest funk guitarist who ever lived. It was the tape Mike would play for people to show them how special the collection was. The best album in the vault was something nobody knew existed.” Eventually, Nishita and Nocentelli connected, “He was so grateful, so sincere,” recalls Nishita. “I just kept thinking about how this music needs to be heard... Especially when you look at all the things that had to fall into place for these tapes to survive and be discovered this way.” As Nocentelli simply puts it, “Things happen for a reason, man.” And now, Light in the Attic is thrilled to give this remarkable record the spotlight it so rightly deserves. 50 years later, all is not lost.

Dick Essilfie-Bondzie was all ready for his 90th birthday party when the Covid pandemic hit. The legendary producer, businessman and founder of Ghana’s mighty Essiebons label had invited all his family and friends to the event and it was the disappointment at having to postpone that prompted Analog Africa founder Samy Ben Redjeb to propose a new compilation celebrating his contributions to the world of West African music.

For most of the 1970s Essilfie-Bondzie’s Dix and Essiebons labels were synonymous with the best in modern highlife, and his roster was a who’s-who of highlife legends. C.K. Mann, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Kofi Papa Yankson, Ernest Honny, Rob ‘Roy’ Raindorf and Ebo Taylor all released some of their greatest music under the Essiebons banner.

Yet Essilfie-Bondzie had been destined for a very different career. Born in Apam and raised in Accra, he was sent to business school in London at the age of 20, and returned to the security of a government job in Ghana. But his passion for music, inspired by the sounds of Accra’s highlife scene, had never left him, and in 1967 he figured out a way of combining music and business by opening West Africa’s first record pressing plant.

The venture, a partnership with the Philips label, was a huge success, attracting business from all over the continent. By the early 1970s Essilfie-Bondzie had left his government job to concentrate on his labels, and by the mid-seventies he was on a hot streak injecting album after album of restless highlife into the bloodstream of the Ghanaian music scene.

Essiebons Special features a selection of obscure workouts from some of the label’s heaviest hitters. But in the course of digitising his vast archive of master tapes, Essilfie-Bondzie found a number of Afrobeat and Instrumental maszterpieces tracks from the label’s mid-70s golden age that, for one reason or another, had never been released. Those songs are included here for the first time.

Sadly Essilfie-Bondzie passed away before the compilation was finished. But his legacy lives on in the extraordinary music that he gave to the world in his lifetime.

A gift to Mrs. HH on her ninetieth birthday – and her to us

A year ago, in preparation for the celebration of Hana Hegerova’s 90th birthday, the idea of summarising her francophone repertoire was conceived. She liked the theme very much and gladly agreed to it. As fate would have it, this year’s preparatory work could only be observed – and enriched by the provision of archival material – by her descendants.

The recordings from 1965 to 2010 include everything that was recorded, mainly studio shots but also rare stage moments. A chronology has been preserved, allowing for logical continuation of period arrangements and sounds, but also showing the maturation of artistic expression. Between her thirties and eighties or so, Hana Hegerova met Brel, Ferre, Becaud, Moustaki, Aznavour and Gainsbourg to add her own singing and personal experiences. The original versions, as well as the lyrics by Pavlo Kopta, zak and Vrba, O. Suchy, J. Fikejzova and others, have helped make these songs a permanent part of the top of our popular music of the last six decades.

In the form of a 2LP set, it is actually a thank you to France by Mrs. Hegerova for her musical inspiration and at the same time our thanks to her for a lot of beautiful music. The cover features a photograph by Jakub Ludvik, capturing the charmingly relaxed singer. Inside the cover you’ll find historic footage from Paris Olympia and other concert images, as well as reminiscences of her career and sheet music, lyrics and other material from Hana Hegerova’s personal archive.

Deluxe double vinyl LP pressing of the 2021 holiday release from the acclaimed singer/songwriter.

Norah Jones’ album “I Dream Of Christmas”, last year’s holiday bestseller, is a hip and charming seasonal masterpiece. This year it returns to make the season even brighter, as a 24-track deluxe LP + CD, featuring eight new recordings: the studio tracks “The Christmas Waltz”, “O Holy Night” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” plus five live performances recorded on top of the Empire State Building!

Limited to 500 copies on clear vinyl in occasion of HHV's 20th birthday.

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.

Still sealed. Tiny corner wear.

The Tribe Records co-founder’s lost album, rumored to exist no more. Mastered from the original tapes and lacquered by Bernie Grundman. “As I thought about reecting on an aggregate of music for this album, I projected my attitude and spirit while living and working here, in Detroit, Michigan. We are earning and learning a new way of life, which explicitly tells us to become self-reliant in taking care of our families and each other. Government hand-outs are not an option for us.” -Wendell Harrison The first ever issue of this Spiritual Jazz album. The Tribe label, one of the brightest lights of America’s 1970s jazz underground, receives the Now-Again reissue treatment. This is your chance to indulge in the music and story of one of the most meaningful, local movements of the 20th Century Black American experience, one that expanded outwards towards the cosmos. In the words of the collective themselves, “Music is the healing force of the universe.” Included in an extensive, oversized booklet, Larry Gabriel and Jeff “Chairman” Mao take us through the history of the Tribe, in a compelling story that delves not just into the history of the label and its principals, but into the story of Black American empowerment in the latter half of the 20th Century. The booklet features never-before-seen archival photos and rare ephemera from Tribe’s mid-1970s heyday.

Magnetic Ghost Orchestra! It's a 17-piece big band from Berlin between jazz and electropop under the direction of their bandleader and composer Moritz Sembritzki. Moritz Sembritzki is a guitarist and composer living in Berlin. His music is characterized by simple basic ideas, to which something unexpected regularly happens.Besides his own bands "Magnetic Ghost Orchestra" and "Koerper", he plays guitar in the band "Holzig". In addition, MS works as a commissioned composer (film music, big bands, etc.) and as a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig.

Limited edition. Gatefold.

Sitting atop a bean curd shop on grungy Geylang Road in Singapore, a room filled with vintage gear serves as the home and studio of Kribo Records, the home-grown independent label founded by the enigmatic musician and producer known simply as Maggot. This is where his madcap studio wizardry conjures up the muggy, sweaty, funky and groovy tunes that soundtrack his world within the melting pot culture of his homeland.

This is the Sound of Lecak, a regional stamp on the global retro funk and soul movement, inspired by the indigenous word that can mean moist, wet, muddy or even naughty. Filtered through his love of global soul and rhythms of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Maggot and his collaborators offer up a vibe that’s equal parts Thai Luk Thung / Molam, African Afrobeat, 70’s U.S. funk, disco, psych, soul, and U.K. pop. This collection of Kribo Records singles provides a peek into Maggot’s singular musical attitude, and provides a window into the unique cultural landscape of the Nusantara archipelago.

‘Little Orphan Boy’ is the second single taken from album ‘This Is Brian Jackson’, presented with remixes by Two Soul Fusion, a.k.a. Louie Vega and Josh Milan.

The veteran artist’s first true solo LP in over 20 years, ‘This Is Brian Jackson’ is produced by Phenomenal Handclap Band founder Daniel Collás. Collás lovingly re-frames and updates ideas and demos that Jackson first laid down back in 1976, right around the time he recorded ‘Bridges’ with Gil Scott-Heron, for a solo project that never saw the light of day… until now.

Alongside his ‘Two Soul Fusion’ partner Josh Milan, Louie Vega gives the album’s closing track ‘Little Orphan Boy’ two truly vintage remix treatments, taking the song on an eclectic, soul-stirring, timeless journey. The extended ‘Two Soul Fusion’ mix calls to mind the golden era of Masters at Work productions, featuring a Latin-infused percussion groove, shimmering organs and in-the-cut funky guitar lines. The ‘Downtempo’ remix lets Brian Jackson’s vocals ride over a head-nodding, stripped back, yet equally soulful arrangement.

“A dream to work with Brian Jackson” says Louie Vega. “I mean, he’s a big part of our musical landscape and has been a huge inspiration in our lives. From way back to my early years in the Bronx, through to my DJing and producing career, into productions like Nuyorican Soul, Elements of Life, Kenlou, Brian and Gil have always been with us! Now to work on such an amazing song with Brian’s keyboard work and lead vocal, it made it so much easier for Two Soul Fusion (Josh and I) to find that pocket and groove. We had to create an epic piece and take you on a trip through several styles, it was calling for it. That’s due to the original work of Brian Jackson, a true Master at Work & Two Soul Fusion hero!!! I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next on the horizon with us and the one & only Brian Jackson.

Brian Jackson: “I have always loved the musicality and the rhythmic power that surges through the artistry of Louie Vega since I first heard him in Masters at Work. I made a silent wish that one day I would hear one of my songs given that special treatment. Imagine my elation to know that it would finally happen – with a song I wrote and recorded 45 years ago for a solo project that might have never happened if not for producer Daniel Collás and BBE chief Peter Adarkwah! Louie, along with Two Soul Fusion partner Josh Milan and I are alike in so many ways, I knew that if we ever got together, magic would happen and well… here’s to magic! My love and gratitude to Louie, Josh, Daniel, Peter and the beautiful BBE family.”