Minus MrDolly
Broken Hearts Make Broken Beats

** Available exclusively at The Pusher **After the recent reissue of their first eponymous album, Favorite Recordings proudly presents Vegas, the second LP from Venezuelan band Esperanto. Rare and sought-after for many collectors, it was recorded in between Las Vegas and Caracas and originally released in 1981. Following bandleader Jorge Aguilar in his musical trip to the infamous American city bathing into flashing lights and vivid colors, we're invited to an excursion in Disco, Boogie and Jazz-Funk territories. Finally reissued, fully remastered, Vegas will be available as Gatefold Tip-On Vinyl LP.With great care and attention to details, Esperanto managed to create a very convincing sequel to their Jazz-Funk debuts. Vegas keeps indeed a perfect balance between various influences. Through energic disco beats with intense funky solos, catchy AOR-influenced songs, where Jorge delivers convincing vocal performance, or sunny jazz-funk slow jams, the album still reveals something quite authentic. And this feeling echoes surely the one that could have been felt by Jorge Aguilar while discovering USA on a trip - where it all started for the music he loves. Like sometimes a foreigner's enriching view on some local specialty, he surely brought with the band all his authenticity and young but vibrant experience while convincing at the same time major labels for distribution.With certain notoriety coming with the release of their first album, Jorge Aguilar and his drummer Pablo Matarazzo planned to go to Los Angeles for a few gigs. But once there, they realized their contact had to leave for Tina Turner's tour in Europe. Before that, he invited them to come along to Las Vegas and eventually meet musicians there. Luckily, the plan worked perfectly: Jorge came back to Los Angeles with a lot of contacts then moved to Boston and NYC before finally coming back to Caracas. He told: "I was so impressed with this trip that I told myself that one day I would return to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The first tracks I did them in Los Angeles with Kenny More, James Gadson and other session musicians from that city. Later, I took the tracks to Caracas where the musicians of the band recorded overdubs. After that, I returned to Los Angeles to master with Bernie Grundman who was still working in his small studio at A & M records studios in Hollywood. As can be seen in the title of some of the songs like "Hollywood", "Vegas", "Kenny's Place", were only the translation of my experiences at the time."

Trad Vibe Records is pleased to present the first release of classic Jazz-Funk band Cortex, remixed by DJ’s!Extracted from the 4th album I Heard A Sigh (TVLP11), recently released by the label, these 2 underrated gems seemed obvious material to put into the hands of two Jazz lovers DJs, both well represented and respected within the edits scene.The Reflex has held the title "Stand & Move" with loops, filters and dub, for one French-Touch side and a 100% Disco-Jazz result, highlighting the famous Fender Rhodes playing by the band leader, Alain Mion.DJ Moar was in charge of "High on the Funk", keeping most lead voice, chorus, organ and synth parts, he used re-loops and a bigger beat to give it the deserved punch and groove!Future Classic Jazz Dance!

Gentle waves lap the soft white sand. The limitless ocean fills the view as the sun slowly sinks below the horizon. As the day ends in blue and orange tones, the heat begins to subside, a sure sign that the slow evening migration from the beach will soon begin. A pleasant, yet formidable music comes from the radio tuned into a frequency transmitted from Paris. Maybe it was written and recorded in the 70s, or maybe it has simply soaked in that aesthetic all the way down to the pauses. It doesn't really matter. Delving deep to explore the roots of Brazil’s musical tradition, the Camarão Orkestra has tapped into Candomblé and its rhythms. Born on the drums of enslaved Africans in a ritual that invokes numerous deities, they lay the foundation for this new album, Nação África.The eleven musicians, guided by Amanda Roldan’s silky voice and guest appearance by Anthony Joseph (“Canto De Bahia”), explore and embrace the murmuring polyrhythm of Brazilian percussion instruments, vibrating berimbau and squeaking cuícas, pouring their tightly-wound funk bass into the groove and letting their jazz fly free, together and solo.The seven nonchalant tracks get your hips swaying, whether you’re in a comfortable armchair or surrounded by other dancers. They take your mind far away, on a journey paved by analog synths with Fender Rhodes crystals to the horizon where the sun’s last glimmer has finally faded away. The brass section’s shiny bells, valves and keys reflect the images and ambiance of the soft Brazilian night air.

DOWDELIN explores as a tireless ever moving trailblazer a path where Creole jazz, electronic dancefloor sounds and Caribbean percussions come together to create a unique Future Kréol feeling. Dowdelin’s a Lyon-based trio exploring Afro-futurism in its Creolized form, plunging the traditions of the French West Indies into a great fountain of electronic youth glazed in jazz, in a way that few have so far. It all began, or not quite actually, when the singer Olivya contacted David Kiledjian (Fowatile). It is not yet the moment and Dawatile then doubts the relevance of a group with soul influences in English, with a non English-speaking singer... But they stay in touch, and a year later, an idea sprung: what if Olivya sang in Creole, her mother tongue. This is Dowdelin’s genesis: two individuals, constantly exchanging, in a quest for a Creole feeling chiseled by electronics.Dowdelin illustrates this art of blending: the search for the recognizable ancestral flavor in the moment, pairing it with an unusual influence, shaking everything to create the texture that will make the difference. Being embroidered in the bubbling afro-futuristic scene and confirming the return of Caribbean influences in French pop, Dowdelin becomes a trio when David thinks of an old fellow musician whom he has not met in ages: Raphael Philibert, Guadeloupian poly-instrumentalist omnipresent on the jazz scene, saxophonist for Sonny Troupé, but also a goldsmith in Afro-Cuban percussions and a tried Gwoka player. He is added to the sketched repertoire: it’s a match! Dowdelin transcends the exercise of style and complicity with two multi-instrumentalists, who by their experience, versatility and vision, open the field of possibilities to a singer speaking in her native language. The group brings to the forefront the notions of expression and freedom in music while steering clear of the fixed roles and the clichés.

Eight years deep into their existence, Paris-based Mawimbi are proud to present their debut album Bubbling. Through their own label and events, the collective have championed up and coming artists who look to fuse african music with the modern dancefloor. They’ve released records from Lya, Onipa, Afriquoi and James Stewart and brought established artists and fellow travellers to such as Auntie Flo, Africaine 808, Awesome Tapes From Africa and Esa to Paris. Now it’s time for the collective to unveil their identity as producers and musicians in their own right.“Bubbling” refers to the many ideas, encounters and projects that the collective have come into contact with over the past years. Through their events and their work as label curators and remixers (for artists such as Oumou Sangaré, Blick Bassy, Cerrone, Onipa), Mawimbi have become known as ambassadors for “afro-electro” - whatever that might mean - and their debut album buzzes with the contagious energy of the music they love. If you ask Mawimbi, Afro-electro is about global and local inspiration, from both sides of the Black Atlantic. It’s about paying tribute to the forefathers and the brothers and sisters in arms across the world. Afrobeat, highlife, South African bubblegum pop, Malian music, maloya… Bubbling seeks to connect geographically separate but spiritually similar club sounds.Hence “El Caribe” (feat. Ghetto Kumbé) is half cumbia, half Carribean dancehall, while “Ngana” (feat. Fatim Kouyaté) has some elements of dub music and “Kakraa” (feat. K.O.G) nods to disco‐infused Ghanaian productions from the 70s. Despite the influences, this is a record designed for home-listening, a nod to our present circumstances, but also a deliberate step away from dancefloor. A moment of patience and reflection as much as joy and celebration.`Above all, Bubbling is a personal record, about unexpected cross-pollinations and the collective’s individual explorations of these musical territories. Mawimbi's own history is one of coincidences and chance encounters, and so is “Bubbling”. All the collaborations were born out of the connections made over the last 8 years. A WhatsApp chat with Zambian artist Mufrika, a spontaneous studio jam with Ghetto Kumbé in a Parisian Basement: these are captured moments of real, vital connections made.Like Mawimbi itself, Bubbling is a collage of relationships and shared experiences, shaped by nascent friendships and musical encounters. It’s a truly DIY document in that sense, the sound of the last eight years of the Mawimbi adventure: free spirited, passionate, warm and generous.

Thandi Zulu known as T.Z. Junior was a young girl from Soweto. Soweto became an independent municipality with elected black councilors in 1983. T.Z. Junior started her musical career with Peter Moticoe who produced "Love Games" with The Young Five on Heads label in 1984. Then, Peter Moticoe brought her to Phil Hollis at Dephon Entertainment who then teamed them up with Attie Van Wyk who was the producer for Yvonne Chaka Chaka at that time.Phil Hollis started Dephon Promotion (Dephon Entertainment) in the late 70's and developed into the largest independent record company in South Africa. He describes himself as the only person who has been involved in recording of major hit songs in nearly all genres of music in all the languages in South Africa. Phil Hollis was involved in all aspects of the Entertainment industry from production of recordings, recording company, distribution, marketing and promotion, events management, staging major events and filming. "Sugar My Love" and "Are You Ready for Love" were produced and arranged by Attie Van Wyk. “Back in the 80's I was a songwriter for a band called Ballyhoo when I got an offer from the Dephon Record Company to join them as a music producer. So I quit the band and joined them, producing records mainly for music targeted at the black market in those days,” he says. Between 1982 and 1992, Attie Van Wyk produced over 120 albums, including many for Yvonne Chaka Chaka.