Yaşar Akpençe
Desert Wind

Emotional Rescue and Jamwax end their Capo Disco series by returning to Glen Adams and his cover of Bob Marley’s classic. The early 70s Lee Perry produced original raw sound is taken to the disco reggae dancefloors of the early 80s with a bottom heavy jam, while his Capo Crew works a killer dub flipside.“Fussing & Fighting” was originally released on the 1971’s Soul Revolution album and for many came during the pinnacle of Bob Marley & The Wailers output, before the smoothing out of their sound during the later “Island” years. Whichever, the guidance and collaboration with Perry transformed the Wailers from a successful Ska / Rocksteady group towards a visionary, conscious, crossover phenomenon.Perry’s in-house band, The Upsetters, lent so much to this early period, the brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett creating a perfect drum and bass bedrock. With Glen Adams on organ, the original version known simply as is an incessant, rumbling message and in that light, Adams return to it over a decade later makes justified and righteous sense.Actually released on both Capo Disco and Marley’s own Tuff Gong, Adams’ vocal marries a disco-dub and guitar groove, dropping, in the latter half, right down to tambourine into perfectly stretched Discomix.Things get even more laid out on “Mad Blank” aka the version. Riding the desk, “Capo” lets each instrument time and space, dropping to just a kick and dubbed piano before slowly coming back with hats, guitar and then when the bass comes, the Gospel purity of dub reggae shines, all before the teasing fade calls for a rewind. Rest and rise, Glenroy “Capo” Adams.

This is the first release on All Nation Records new label, courtesy of French producer Simon Nyabinghi. With all instruments and mix done in his freshly rebuilt studio, Simon delivers a proper roots and dub riddim that has already done the rounds as dubplate magic around the globe prior to its official release. With the help of young and upcoming talent Youthie on trumpet duties, this uplifting track will rock any sessions as well as your living room, especially when followed by the wild dub mix you’ll find on the flip of this record.

Split Single from the garage combo of The Panturas and Sundancer sung entirely on their regional language. An exclusive 7” split from Indonesian surf-garage-rock behemoth The Panturas and Sundancer, hailing from Jatinangor and Lombok Respectively. It was the first series from their upcoming “"Singel Klub" series."Lasut Nyanggut" by The Panturas their first song sung entirely in Sundanese language. The band appointed Ricky Virgana from White Shoes and The Couples Company fame to be their producer, and successfully produced a garage psych-surf-calypso with a mixture of traditional oriental sundanese pop aesthetics. The lyrics of the song itself paints a picture of someone fishing.The title itself is a popular term among fishing enthusiast on the western parts of Java.“Dedare Tanjung” or “Gadis Tanjung” roughly translates to “the girl on the cape”, was inspired from “Dark Eyes” a russian folk song and Ismail Marzuki’s very own “Panon Hideung” which is a song sung in Sundanese language. The band translates the song to their own mother tongue language which is the Sasak, a language that the band originated from.

Since first emerging in the latter half of the noughties, Guillaume Metenier’s Soul Sugar project has evolved considerably. Initially a trio built around the virtuoso organist’s love of ‘60s and ‘70s soul-jazz and Hammond funk – Metenier studied under jazz organ legend Dr Lonnie Smith – Soul Sugar is now a collaborative collective that draws just as much influence from classic Jamaican dub and reggae as the works of Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff.The outfit’s musical evolution comes into sharp focus on Excursions in Soul, Reggae, Funk & Dub, a collection of hard-to-find tracks that have been released at different points, and on different vinyl formats, over the last three years. Taken as a whole, the set offers a stunning snapshot of Soul Sugar’s rapidly expanding catalogue of classics. Metenier is once again at the controls but this time round Soul Sugar’s cast list of contributing musicians includes Sly & Robbie, Blundetto, Lone Ark, Slikk Tim, Thomas Naim and honey-voiced soul singer Leo Carmichael. Metenier also stars as a musician, providing lively and ear-catching organ solos under his now familiar Booker Gee alias.What’s most noticeable from the off is the richness of the reggae riddims, the warmness of the instrumentation and the effortlessly soulful nature of the music. This is particularly evident on the collective’s stunning covers of Luther Vandross’s "Never Too Much" and Marvin Gaye’s "I Want You": effortlessly sunny and life-affirming interpretations that re-imagine the tracks as sumptuous slabs of reggae-soul and provide a platform for Leo Carmichael’s inspiring and comforting voice. Metenier and friends’ take on dub reggae – toasty, authentically bass-heavy and seeped in analogue effects – can also be admired on "Matumbee" and "Cool Down", the latter a digi-dub influenced affair rich in colourful synths sounds, echoing delay trails and sub-bass so deep it will rattle your teeth. Both also contain lusciously jazzy guitar licks and some incredible keys-work from Metenier.The guiding hand of Spanish multi-instrumentalist and producer Lone Ark can be heard on album opener "Aximites" – think Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry producing Jimmy Smith – and "Faith", an expertly breezy concoction that sports Jackie Mittoo-esque Hammond B3 solos from Metenier over a luscious backing track that sounds like something that may have emerged from Studio One in the mid 1970s. The collective’s love of Studio One is explored further on a sweaty, reggae-funk cover of "Greedy" that features fabulous drums, bass and guitar from Slikk Tim, while "Out In The Rain" is an authentically sparse, spaced-out dub number laden with fluid instrument solos and devilishly heavy riddim.Part compilation, part artist album, part collaborative celebration of dub-soul fusion, Excursions in Soul, Reggae, Funk & Dub is the strongest statement yet of who Soul Sugar are, and where they’re going.

After a few other successful projects, Franck Biyong, French-Cameroonian Afrobeat composer, guitar player and singer is back on Hot Casa with a hot futuristic Afro-Brazilian club anthem.The similarities and filiations between traditional West-African drumming and Afro-Brazilian religious musical rites are many: under colonial rule African people and African slaves outwardly practiced Christianity but secretly prayed to their own God, Gods, or Ancestor spirits. So we aimed at keeping the gritty urban menacing sound and poetry of Afrobeat with the percussive mass rumble of Batucada and poignant beauty of Carioca. We then got in touch with Cristina Violle, the first lady of “Samba de Roda” in Paris who graced us with a startling inspired and heartfelt melody. The first completed version of the song then briefly went on alternative radio, we also made plans to release a vinyl version, but for one way or another we shelved the project, without thinking we would get back to it again…until a few months ago.We went back to the studio last summer and started ironing the song again from scratch. That same initial spirit and energy caught hold of us again from the day we started and we worked relentlessly to create a balanced but experimental track, showcasing rootsy sound, pop instrumentation, tight world beat drumming, song structure, jazzy horns, spacey synthesizers, choral-like vocal harmonies with call and response figurative vocals.We now proudly present this brand new record; Like our predecessors years ago, we subconsciously did our best to keep alive a longtime tradition of cultural tradition of African Artistic Renaissance, pushing further musical themes of contemporary African sound. To be continued…