The Bongo Hop
Satingarona Part. 2

Raúl Monsalve y Los Forajidos welcome listeners to a new day with SOL, their groundbreaking second album for Olindo Records. Venezuelan rhythms and traditional songs blend with spiritual jazz, psychedelic funk, and Afrobeat, delivering an exhilarating, boundary-pushing experience.Led by Venezuelan bassist Raúl Monsalve, the group gained international acclaim with Bichos (2020), praised for its Afrobeat influences from legends like Fela Kuti and Orlando Julius, alongside Afro-Venezuelan rhythms. Featuring Luzmira Zerpa (Family Atlantica) and Betsayda Machado, the album earned praise from The Wire, Songlines, Gilles Peterson, and others, with airplay on BBC 6 Music, NTS, and Worldwide FM. This success brought performances at Super Sonic Jazz Festival and Shambala Festival.SOL marks a leap forward for Los Forajidos, evolving from a studio project into a cohesive ensemble. Monsalve, now contributing bass, vocals, and percussion, is joined by vocalist Lya Bonilla, keyboardist Edgar Bonilla, flautist/guitarist Nando Guerrero, saxophonist Andrés Vela, drummer Mario Orsinet, and percussionist Yves Prud’homme.The album features contributions from producer Nick Woodmansey (Emanative), singer Carlos Talez, mixing by Malcolm Catto (The Heliocentrics), percussionist Gustavo Ovalles, and Congolese guitarist Kiala Nzavotunga.Drawing from Venezuelan traditions while embracing modern influences like George Clinton, Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi, Jeff Parker, and Nyege Nyege Tapes, SOL bridges cultural heritage and forward-thinking artistry.

No one had been through those doors in years. Unchanged, seemingly untouched, just a Guard watching over it, one wondered whether the place would ever see the light of day again. Built in the 70s by Scotch, there were only twenty such places in the entire world. Twenty studios, all identical. Most had undergone a digital makeover in the 80s, but not this one; situated in Lomé, this studio had stayed true to its original form. Silent and uninhabited but waiting for one thing, and one thing only: for the sacred fire to be lit once again. That of the Togolese Recording Office, is studio OTODI for those in the know. Through thick layers of dust, the console was vibrating still, impatient to be turned on and spurt out the sound so unique to analog. That sound is what Peter Solo and his band Vaudou Game came to seek out. The original vibrations of Lomé’s sound, resonating within the studio space, an undercurrent pulsing within the walls, the floor, and the entire atmosphere. A presence at once electrical and mystical sourced through the amps that had never really gone cold, despite the deep sleep that they had been forced into. In taking over the studio’s 3000 square feet, enough to house a full orchestra, Vaudou Game had the space necessary to conjure the spirits of voodoo, those very spirits who watch over men and nature, and with whom Peter converses every day. For the most authentic of frequencies to fully imbibe this third album, Peter Solo entrusted the rhythmic section to a Togolese bass and drum duo, putting the groove in the expert hands of those versed in feeling and a type of musicianship that you can’t learn in any school. This was also a way to put OTODI on the path of a more heavily hued funk sound, the backbone of which maintains flexibility and agility when moving over to highlife, straightens out when enhanced with frequent guest Roger Damawuzan’s James Brown type screams, and softens when making the way for strings. Snaking and undulating when a chorus of Togolese women takes over, guiding it towards a slow, hypnotic trance. Up until now, Vaudou Game had maintained their connection to Togo from their base in France. This time, recording the entire album in Lomé at OTODI with local musicians, Peter Solo drew the voodoo fluid directly from the source, once again using only Togolese scales to make his guitar sing, his strings acting as channels between listeners and deities…

** Available exclusively at The Pusher **For it’s 10th album, Blundetto drops his first soundtrack on LP, an ode to road trips and 70’s scores. VTC is a Canal + mini series and features Golshifteh Farahani as Nora, the main character. This soundtrack is the most « urban » and « electronic » work from Blundetto to date. 33 mins of funk grooves, hypnotic atmospheres and psychedelic landscapes. This is the first release of Blundetto’s new label: Les Rythmes Ruban.

Mr Day is also known as the singer of French combo Metropolitan Jazz Affair, the main singer in The Dynamics, for his House-Soul records released on indie label Rotax, as well as his superb guest vocals on productions by Boozoo Bajou, Patchworks and Mr President! "Small Fry" evokes classic soul music, from Curtis Mayfield to Motown, and from northern soul to west coast, without being a specific genre album. The musical style is vast and replete, but the composition and production manage to never fall prey to shortcuts or repetitiveness.

Continuing his journey, the former member of Egypt 80 and last trumpeter of the Black President Fela Kuti releases his second album: APP (Accumulation of Profit & Power). Muyiwa Kunnuji and his band Osemako, which has been extensively recasted since Moju Ba O - which had already laid the foundations of his afroclassicbeat - have had quite an evolution, and are eager to share a recipe that has been patiently elaborated and stewed, both on stage and in the studio.A complex mix of deep musical and cultural heritages as well as a claimed and combative Pan-African culture, APP sets the bar still one step higher in the message, but also and especially in terms of composition and polyrhythms. Inspired by Western African highlife as well as the purest afrobeat of the Afrika 70 era, and even incorporating elements of South African marabi or Central African soukous, the whole does not sound less perfectly personal, tailored, with a natural and disconcerting ease. But this easiness is only an apparent as Muyiwa devoted himself body and soul to the composition and harmony during the gestation of these tunes so widely inspired and yet intensely personal.APP will thus delight fans of African music in the broad sense as well as connoisseurs, and just as much fans of funk grooves or jazzy solos; it is a deeply plural album. Multi-influenced, multicultural, multilingual, a slice of life as much as an initiatory journey, on which hovers the spectre of Covid, which has also largely inspired this second ‘effort’. Standing against absurd sanitary rules or the accumulation of profits by the powerful of this world and other pseudo-philanthropists, APP, again, reminds us of the great Fela, as much by the use of an acronym to entitle the album as by the themes addressed or the mixing of genres. A warrior album, filled and full of revendications, but also of calls for open-mindedness. An intensely human, sincere, combative album, and however radically enthusiastic and optimistic.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents an exclusive eponymous LP by Brazilian singer and composer George Sauma Jr., originally produced in 1985. Imagine a never-marketed release on which you’d hear not only the beautiful and genuine George’s songs but also the work from two figures of the Brazilian Music Golden Age: Arthur Verocai and Junior Mendes! A much-needed album for all Brazilian connoisseurs. Back in the days, George Sauma Jr. was a young artist from Rio de Janeiro, learning on his side how to play chords and compose songs since he was 10. Still at the university, he’s influenced by Brazilian artists like Cassiano or Tim Maia, deeply fascinated by the arrangements and the “levada” (the groove) of all these new Brazilian songs. Simple and romantic music that resonated to his soul and creativity.Around 1985, the story took an unexpected turn. George tells: “Dna Deyse Lucidy, the mother of Junior Mendes was a candidate for deputy and went to my father’s company to advertise. When I saw her, I shouted, “I’m a big fan of your son!” ” Of course, she could not praise more the work of her son. On her advises, George went to his studio on Rua Siqueria Campos at Copacabana. Junior loved the project and sent him to Arthur Verocai to improve the arrangements. Without money, the decision was taken to record everything at Junior Mendes’ studio on an 8-channel mixer. It was a small set-up but the emotions were there! George surely had other plans for some of his songs but without the budget, they ended up doing everything the best they could. And they did very fine with a top-notch team of musicians: Paulo Black on Drums, Arthur Verocai on Guitar, Ricardo Do Canto on Bass and Helvius Vilela on Keyboards.Leaving the studio with the tapes, George tried to knock doors of international labels, but none did even dare to give him an answer. With less than 1000 copies pressed back in the days and without any distributor or label behind him, he went with proud to record stores, but received nothing than a strong reality check regarding the difficulties for a young Brazilian artist to achieve something on the saturated market of the 80s. Even for free, record stores didn’t want it. In the end, he ended up giving copies to friends and families, knowing deep inside that the songs were good! George tells: “I decided to leave, calm and conscious. I’ve still made three more albums, however on tapes, as it was more affordable. This time, just for my pleasure…”. Thirty-five years after, it’s with great emotion that this first album by George Sauma Jr. is now made available as Vinyl LP with its original offset printed innersleeve & CD.