Various
Disco Reggae Vol.5

Stix Records, a sub-label of Favorite Recordings, proudly presents Disco Reggae Vol. 4, following three precedent acclaimed editions. Imagine the biggest classics from Roy Ayers, Chemise, Lyn Christopher, Gerswhin, A Taste Of Honey, Keni Burke, Patrice Rushen or Kraftwerk reworked and re-arranged as Reggae & Dub killer tunes. Dream no more, the best producers from the Stix roster cooked some magic over these essential tunes: Soul Sugar aka Booker Gee, Taggy Matcher, Blundetto, Mato, Rosemary Martins and Wolfgang signed here the perfect soundtrack to extend the summer and rock the dancefloors! Massive!

Synth lovers rock at its best! Jamaican born and New-York based, Laury Webb is a singer, musician, producer, actor, former model and writer. He's been called both the Opera Dread and the Frank Sinatra of Reggae.Laury's musical career began with a role as keyboardist and later backing vocalist with the reggae vocal group The Meditations (with whom he continues to perform).Laury Webb posses a unique and eclectic vocal style. He has performed at some of New York city's premier musical venues, including Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, The Village Gate, S.O.B.'s, The Ritz, The Lion's Den, Joe's Pub, Leopard Lounge, Kenny's Castaway, Central Park Summer Stage, The Baggot Inn and The Brooklyn Bowl.After enjoying years of being a back-up musician, Laury launched a solo career with his Tigerbone Band. During that period he recorded and releases singles "Woman My Queen" and "It Seems The Same". He was fresh out of college and touring with The Meditations, when he purchased a small organ for his girlfriend/mother of his two children for Christmas. By the time her birthday came around he was so broke and could not afford to purchase a birthday present for her so he gave her a writing pad and pen and told her to write down whatever came out of her mouth, and he sat at the keyboard and began playing and singing. “Woman My Queen”, was the result. “It Seems The Same” was begun in America but I did not finish writing it till the music was recorded. My cousin, Barry Biggs, worked with me on this one. We both sang on the backing tracks. Written, Composed & Arranged by Laury WebbArtwork by Parade StudioWoman My Queen: Recorded at Quadrasonic Studio (New-York) in 1986Backed by The Tiger Bone BandBass: Leroy GuyKeyboard: Laury WebbDrums: David RanglinGuitar: RoyoMixed by Peter LewisIt Seems The Same: Recorded at Music Mountain Studio (Jamaica) in 1987Keyboard & Drum Programming: Winston WrightBacking Vocal: Laury Webb & Barry Biggs

The Turbo Guidance quest keeps going on. Our musical roughnecks decided to seek help from a wizard. They needed to empower their earing sense and their dancing skills like mutant elves. Luckily the mighty Mali-I was living in the nearby forest and had something special to share... In his hightower, it took Mali-I years to find and cook secretly the delicate mixture. It's forbidden to name the ingredients, but once you taste it you immediately feel the bouncy chords and dub delays rising. Play the mighty sound of the "Fallow Tales" and enter into the blue magic power. Full versatility to expand your mind and to reach a parallel astral plane. Exactly what our heroes need to face the coming storm. Next step is going to be darker... *Sprinkle your ears with the red powder to increase the musical experience*Vinyl sweetly pressed in 400 limited copies (no repress business) with a riso insert printed in two colors (blue and black) on a Munchen Pure Rough paper 150g/m2 (at Studio Fidele, Paris).

An addictive calypso sound, saucy, ballsy, outspoken, but not exactly an atrocity. Emory Cook was an audio engineer and inventor who used his "Sounds of our Times" and "Cook" record labels to demonstrate his philosophy about sound, his recording equipment, and his manufacturing techniques. From 1952 to 1966, Cook recorded, manufactured, and distributed some of the highest quality audio recordings in the world. The 140 titles on Cook Records include European and American concert music, U.S. and Caribbean popular and traditional music, as well as mechanical and natural sounds. Emory Cook ran two divisions of the Cook company, Cook US and Cook Trinidad. Most of the albums recorded in Trinidad were made available on Cook US, though there were some that weren't. Emory Cook sold Cook Trinidad in the early 1980's. He donated Cook US to the Smithsonian Institution in 1990. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is a nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. They are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound. They belive that musical and cultural diversity contributes to the vitality and quality of life thoughout the world. Through the dissemination of audio recordings and educational materials, a growing legacy that currently comprises more than 3 200 albums and 45 000 tracks.

It’s now pretty obvious that Disco influence has not only been powerful in western clubs. It has also influenced musicians all around the world, from France to Brasil, as Favorite Recordings proved it with the previous volumes of the "Disco Boogie Sounds" compilations. West-Indies islands are no exception to the rule. Indeed, at that time in the Caribbean territories, local musicians and producers seized the sound of their US counterparts, and make it their own, melting-up disco, funk, and boogie (even early rap) elements with some more traditional or local styles. Besides, the important size of the Caribbean diaspora in the US, Canada, or in the UK, has certainly played a huge role in making those two musical worlds meet. At the end, West-Indies Islands have not only tried to reproduce US dance hits locally, they also bred their own version of Disco. Apart from some obvious titles which made it to the charts ("Trinidad" by John Gibbs to name one), very few was known on these productions until recently. Most of it has remained obscure, being only played by a handful of record collectors & DJs. Having grown up for most of my childhood and teenager years in a small island from the Indian Ocean, I was immersed in the “sun & sand” vibes at an early age, which helped molding my musical tastes. If the sound of the Caribbean Islands is very different from the Indian Ocean's one, it’s anyway no surprise that I have been attracted quickly by the West-Indies’ 70s music productions, as a DJ and record collector. From an initial pre-selection of 40 tracks, Favorite Recordings and I teamed up to narrow down the actual tracklist. With no pretention to be exhaustive, this selection represents a tiny sample of a broader ocean of quality Caribbean Disco/Boogie tunes. It will take you to various places like Virgin Islands, Jamaica, or Trinidad, as well as a couple of Western major cities, where West-Indies diaspora is strong (New York, London). The soundtrack of this journey goes from Disco/Rap sounds, with the obscure "Macho Man" by Eddie & The Movement, to weird Afro-Disco/Funk influenced songs, such as “My African Religion” by Jamaican singer Paul Hurlock. Also featured here are a couple of personal secret weapons such as instrumental "Bermuda Triangle" by Musicism, or "Going to the Party" by Barry Bryson.Favorite Recordings & Waxist are very happy and proud to bring back lights on some of these rare tunes.