Keni Okulolo
Talkin' Bass Experience

The mbira maestro from Zimbabwe Jacob Mafuleni and his wife Martha Thom on vocals and percussion team up with French electro-funk prodigy Gary Gritness for a fresh and surprising take on traditional Shona music.Gary Gritness' subtle electronic arrangements take already hypnotic compositions to a higher dance-floor friendly trance without altering the fragile nature of mbira music . This natural and respectful collaboration resulted in two already classic ‘afro techno’ tracks “Atuka Mondhoro 808” and “Chikoni 808”, released on Nyami Nyami Records. The present album Batanidzo (Together) was recorded live in 2 days at the Red Bull studio in Paris in September 2016 when the band was invited by the Red Bull Music Academy team to participate to their second live music festival.

When Ajax Tow travels in his Pop Western landscapes, you can be sure there’s always a perfect 70’s road trip soundtrack. Italians cowboys meeting the legendary Miriam Makeba in Rennes suburbs... For his 3rd album The Soul Vegetable Orchestra, Ajax Tow is bringing us on a ten tracks sonic adventure, where many inspirations and references collide. The succession of tracks inspires many feels and moods from sipping a good old bourbon, dance in the kitchen, or gallops though the plains of Napoli. We can found the influence of Danger Mouse paying hommage to the late Ennio Morricone (Roma, 2011), a cinematic side of Shawn Lee and Misha Panfilov, from music library à la Jean-Claude Vannier to the Band Voilaa, a little glimpse of pimped Ninja tune, a Reworked organic Mo’Wax vibe, all mixed up and spiced up with a Tricky style. This album is also the result of a collaboration with Dan Voisin (Modul-Club, Eighty…) at the production and drums with Rennes city scene musicians who gives a hand on this album: Romain Baousson (Coupe Colonel, Bikini Machine…) on drums, Sax Machine and Racecar (Saxtoys Records) on horns and vocals, Dj Marrrtin (Funky Bijou, Lord Paramour) on beatmaking, Medline (My Bags) on Flûte. As a special guest, the late and legendary Miriam Makeba appears on “Magic Miriam”. “Feel it” is definitely setting a west coast on the LP with a Jurassic 5 inspiration, accompanied by a spicy rhythm, MC Racecar (Sax Machine) flows and lyrics brings even more energy to the track. On “Movie” and “Silence”. Ajax Tow give us a nice taste of his favorite psychedelic blends, romantic and intimate at the same time, where we found back Fuzz guitar with 60’s Eric Clapton style (Cream era) and Pink Floyd synths Flavors. The cinematic style and first notes of “So What” reminds Air first EP and the beautiful bass of “Melody Nelson”. For the dessert, “Smallville” is a kind of wedding cake with 70’s loops sprinkling that brings us to Phillipe Sarde’s La Grande Bouffe soundtrack, but with a more contemporary feeling.

Following the recent success of French Disco Boogie Sounds, DJ and producer Charles Maurice is back on Favorite Recordings, this time engaging a musical World tour, in the search of hidden productions with a touch of AOR style. The result is AOR Global Sounds, a new compilation made of 8 forgotten and rare tracks produced between 1977 and 1982 in all parts of the globe. At the end of the 70s, many artists over the world were deeply influenced by AOR’s famous stars such as Steely Dan and his classic Aja LP, looking to reach the same attention to sound production and details, and this specific Westcoast style mixing together Pop-Rock standards, with Soul (sometime Disco) and Jazz influences.From Erik Tagg in Netherlands, and Ulla in Poland, to Diane Tell in Quebec, and Nohelani Cypriano in Hawaï, Charles Maurice found a real link between these 8 great songs and artists, in their music clearly infused with this special AOR touch, in a Soulful and Disco way.This perfect soundtrack for the summer has been fully remastered from original versions, and is presented by Favorite Recordings in a deluxe vinyl version, housed in a tip-on jacket. A must have for rare-groove music collectors and many more…

Driven by a vicious and visceral soul, The Buttshakers are known for their fierce and fiery music.Yet after nearly a decade of touring and recording, it was with a different musical vision that they approached Sweet Rewards, their first collaboration with Underdog Records. Accustomed to the raw, primitive sounds of 60s garage rock and the crude sexuality of pre-Motown soul music, A sound they could have continued to dig into again and again. Instead, they decided to take another route: a creative shift, a return to a style of soul music that no longer has to rely on pure energy alone. Exceeding the limitations imposed by their tight yet powerful six person lineup, they opened up this studio session to fully accommodate their ideas and concretize their musical ambitions: a larger horn section creates a richer, scintillating sonority; a touch of slide-guitar opens their creative universe to the open spaces of the far West; the organ vacillates between psychedelic drapery and heartfelt gospel tones; all of this supported by the wicked groove of a percussionist driving the beat on. Their sultry and soulful frontwoman, Ciara Thompson, is here for the first time supported by backing vocalist. An occasion for her to indulge in a few call and- response chorales, a reverence to a gospel background instilled in her from her native St Louis (Missouri), a still vibrant heritage from the city that cradled jazz, blues, country and folk music. Ideal for a sound that never lets down yet remains intuitive to the gradual rise of emotion each song demands. With each new listening, Sweet Rewards reveals something new to the listener: another dimension, a hidden layer.

It was July 26th 1979, following a meeting with the group The Meditations in the Madison Square Garden area, Kingston Jamaica, Dervin Dawes and Donald Marshall paid close attention and exchanged ideas in turn learning much more from an already established group with their hit song ‘Woman Is Like A Shadow’. Ansel Cridland (The Meditations) brought some more talent to the D’Nations by suggesting meeting and talking with Anthony Hill who can sing very well. The Meditations would show the D'Nations good lead vocals and having harmony in sync together in order to develop a better sound for the determined trio.Channel 1 Records Studio on Maxfield Avenue, West Kingston Jamaica; in that era was the top of the line and one of the most prestigious recording studios. There, the D'Nations met and impressed the producer Bunny Hylton from London, who was residing in Jamaica at the time. He provided them with studio time enough to produce the first two songs from the trio ‘See Me in the Park’ and ‘I Am Not Good At Proposing’, released in England in late 1979.In 1989, after good vibes with the most famous backing-band at this time Fire House Crew, the D'Nations composed with them 'Vibes Version' at Music Works studio and then move to Creative Sound Studio on Mountain View Avenue to record the vocal. The result is a monster digital lover tune that will mash up all festivals this summer.

Not many cities in the world are gifted with a timeless anthem of their own. We all know “New York, New York”, a song widely known across its city borders. For many Vietnamese, the beautiful Cha Cha Cha tune “Sài Gòn” has a similar reputation. The tune was written by Hanoi-born composer Y-Van. Like many of his generation, he moved to the South in 1954 after The Geneva Accords partitioned Vietnam temporarily into two states. There he became one of the most famous and prolifc songwriters in South Vietnamese pop music. His revered songs are still sung and covered to this day. “Sài Gòn”, which he wrote in 1965, was recorded for the frst time by Saigonese-born singer Trúc Mai for the Sóng Nhạc label. It is one of his most iconic compositions and has been recorded countless times since. Trúc Mai rose to prominence during the late 1950s as a popular headliner in the cabaret circuit of Saigon, earning her the title, "Nữ Hoàng Mambo" (the Queen of the Mambo). Her reputation helped make the 1965 recording of “Sai Gon” an instant hit. It was so successful that it was one of only a few songs to appear on multiple 7” vinyl releases.However, that same year, Trúc Mai took a seven-year hiatus from the music industry to take care of her family. But she returned in 1972 to record “Sai Gon” again, this time with another producer, Duy Khánh – also a successful singer and musician. They released this track on his “reel 2 reel” tape series, “Cỏ May”. After the war ended in 1975, Trúc Mai and her family left Vietnam to begin their new lives in the United States, where she continued her successful music career with the overseas community.The Sài Gòn sung about in the song refers geographically to today's Districts 1 & 3 in Ho Chi Minh City, the name given in 1975, after reunifcation. But colloquially, the city is still afectionately called Sài Gòn by many of its residents, and even the airport retains the ‘SGN’ designation as its abbreviation. Despite being recorded over 55 years ago, the unbroken popularity of this life-afrming ode to the city is proven when, whether in Sài Gòn or Hanoi; the south or north; whether young or old, when the song plays, everyone immediately joins in to sing along to the chorus…Saigon đẹp lắm Saigon ơi! Saigon ơi! (Saigon is so beautiful! Saigon oi! Saigon oi!)The two extensively restored mixes are supplemented with a 2021 edit by Saigon Supersound producer and DJ Jan Hagenkötter, who tries to preserve the vibes of the original and at the same time to wrap it in a contemporary garment.