Chief Udoh Essiet
Afrobeat Highlife Crossing

West African and Venezuelan inspired dancefloor single from Cyril Diaz, the 1950's Trinidadian bandleader playing the roots music of his Afro-Venezuelan parentage. His father Gordon Diaz migrated to Trinidad sometime in the early 1900's. Throughout the 1950's Cyril Diaz and his big band calypso orchestra toured the Caribbean and South America recording culturally inspired hybrid calypsos with an African and Latin tinge. Showcased here is his fascination with West African shango on "Mme Killio", who was a famous beauty contest in Africa, Diaz’s version being recorded by Emory Cook in November 1957.

French renowned reggae producer Mato is back with a new killer volume of the “Hip-Hop Reggae Series”.Stix Records rounds up all recent Mato’s 7inches anthems into this extended player, with all the cuts remastered for the occasion. The Mato’s touch?: Remixing the biggest Hip-Hop, R&B and Pop tunes with choice reggae backing tracks. As usual he’s blended all of the tracks to perfection, and ready to rock any party.As well as his recent top selling 7inches, which included hits such as “Suit & Tie” (Justin Timberlake), “Happy” (Pharrell Williams), “Blurred Lines” (Robin Thicke), or “Love Never Felt So Good” (Michael Jackson), this collection also includes four unreleased exclusive remixes: “What’s Golden” by Jurassic 5, “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea, “Drop That Naenae” by We Are Toonz and the classic “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse.Woop, woop, that's the perfect sound of reggae hip-hop ready to hit the dancefloors again!This is definitely one you shouldn't miss!!!!!

Tony Clarke is from Waterhouse, St. Andrew Jamaica. At the tender age of 10 he started following sound systems like Sir Mike The Musical Dragon with the great toaster Prince Ruff at the controls, and King Tubby's with the legendary U-Roy. Tony Clarke did his first recording in New York in 1971 at Hugh Hendricks recording studio called "Righteous Man" of which he played both bass and lead guitar. The band was later managed by the legendary band leader/trombonist Carlos Malcolm.Tony Clarke decided to write the song “Going Home” to reference the roots of his music. In those days and even now good reggae music that was being recorded in the United States was not receiving the approbation from home because, in Jamaica they felt that the best reggae music could only come from and be created in Jamaica to substantiate the true feeling of the genre. So he decided to go back to Jamaica and record “Going Home” at Harry J Studio with Sylvan Morris as engineer.The rhythm track was played by Lloyd Parks (Bass), Devon Richardson (Drum), Andy Bassford (Lead Guitar), Winston "Bo-Pee" Bowen (Rhythm Guitar), Franklyn "Bubbler" Waul (Keyboard), David Madden & Junior "Chico" Chin (Horns). He also recorded the cover version to “Hey Little Girl” originally done by Dee Clark. For this 12'' vinyl edition, the artwork was done with a vintage photo of Tony Clarke in front of his house at Waterhouse and extended liner notes on the back cover.

Thomas Blanchot, 40 years old percussionist and drummer, started his production structure Mato Production in 2001, where he collaborated and directed for many projects.Composer, music publisher and producer of music for TV, advertising, films and records, he also began a career as reggae producer since 2006, under the name "MATO". Since then he’s released music through various projects concepts, coming out through labels such as Makasound, EDR Records or Big Singles. In the meantime he developed a real trademark: taking over classics French, Hip-Hop, or Pop song, into roots reggae-dub new versions.Besides since 2010, Mato has built a solid reputation thanks to his hot remixes of Hip-Hop classics on Stix Records. And in 2014, he presented Homework Dub, giving his own vision of the multiplatinum classic album by Daft Punk, quickly acclaimed internationally as a true performance.Today, Mato is back with another target for his special skills as a tailor of reggae music, this time focusing on classic musical themes from original soundtracks. Imagine if Lalo Schiffrin, Nino Rota, Gorgio Moroder, Ennio Morricone or John Williams had been blunted at Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark studio… there you go, this is Hollywoo Dub!!

Black So Man. For Black Is Also Man. Tout Le Monde Et Personne. He blames ‘Everybody and No one’. Clealry, Bingotoma Traore was not trying to get rich, or entertain: he wanted to change the world. And all it took to get there was four cassettes, all recorded between 1994 et 1998. In that time he went from extreme poverty, sellings eggs in the streets and killing pigs at the factory, to being the biggest pop star in his native country, Burkina Faso, and a legend all over Western Africa. Corruption, ill governance, education, colonisation… All his songs were history and philosophical lessons for the ghetto youths, the unemployed, and the many people who could identify themselves with him. He died 20 years ago, mortally wounded after going through a car crash. Today, his videos still ranks millions of views on social network. No one has forgotten him. And his fight is more relevant than ever. Rest In Power Black So Man (1967-2002). Thank you to his son Ange Fela Traore and his ex-wife Adji Sanon (to whom he dedicated the song ‘Adji’ included here) for their trust in us leading this reissue project. Half of the profits from the record goes to them.

When faced with the decision to take a different direction at the risk of getting lost in a synthetic sound or to further explore the same musical path, Vaudou Game didn’t need to consult the oracle for very long when putting together their new album. Since their first acclaimed album, Apiafo and its irresistible single "Pas Contente", these Lyon natives never turned down the heat on over 130 stages across Europe, Africa, America and Asia. Peter Solo has displayed his amulets, charisma and yellow pants around the globe.When time came for them to harness their Afro-Funk sound for the second time, they turned their attention once again to their analog strengths. Vintage material, instruments produced in the 70's and cassette tapes were the "grigris" (or lucky charms) which proved most effective to ward off digital corruption of their music and return them to a tight-knit group with a solid groove.This unbeatable trance rhythm, inherited from James Brown and Fela, icons of Funk and Afrobeat, becomes trident when joined by Mawu, the creative voodoo divinity hidden in each of the group's notes. This inspiration transcends their spirit of communion, plunges them deeply into Mother Earth and results in the telepathic trance which is directly connected to Togo Peter's native Togo.Each song then becomes a celebration where the listener becomes the group's voodoo doll, embraced by the rhythm, submitting itself to the mercilessly metronomic cutting of guitars, struck by the copper-colored flashes of lightning forged by the African voodoo deity Hevioso, pierced by the psychedelic visions generated by the organs and a six-string guitar, cheerful songs, and hypnotic incantations. KIDAYU means "sharing" in Kabye, the language spoken in northern Togo. Sharing, is the philosophy of Vaudou Game – both in their recorded music and on stage.