Grafonola

BOBBY BOYD - Love Goddess (Athens Of The North) Athens Of The North have worked with some OGs and veterans in their time but Bobby Boyd is by far one of the biggest and influential. Cutting his teeth in the Lafayette Afro Rock Band before going solo, he recorded a whole host of material that remained unreleased. Until now. "Love Goddess" kicks off the collection with a northern soul stomp, big harmonies backed by a tight, slippery funk groove while "Good News" is golden era Boyd funk with its bright horn work, positive sentiment and driving soul energy. This is an amazing piece of investigatory work by Fryer and co. And there's more, too... Love Goddess / Bad News by Bobby Boyd

THE SCORPIOS - Mashena (Afro7) Hot in the slipstream of last year's self-titled debut album comes two brand new adventures from the London-based Sudan-exiled troupe. Both cuts recorded in Abbey Road Studios, both led and characterised by singer Regia Ishag's breath taking vocals; "Mashena" packs a vibrant punch with triumphant horns and insistent, urgent vocal repetition while "Samha" is a much deeper blues piece where Regia's Sudanese vocals take on a rhythmic pattern of their own over a dreamy, star-gazing setting.

J DILLA - Originals: A Continuous Mix Of Funk & Soul As Sampled By J Dilla ( Boom Box ) Comentários: New digipack with "a continuous mix of funk & soul as sampled by J DILLA". So this isn't a mix by J DILLA, but rather a mix of tracks that J DILLA has sampled and used. A dope blend of 23 old soul ballads & funk tracks with some offbeat drop ins and scratches. Cool. No tracklisting. in undergroundhiphop.com [ Para Ouvir/Samples ]

EPPS, Stacy - The Awakening (Japanubia) Comentários: Best known for lending her soulful vocals to artists like MF Doom, Madlib, Oh No, and John Robinson, singer/emcee Stacy Epps steps out on her own with the full-length debut "The Awakening" Short and sweet, this 11-track long player features production and guest appearances from Flying Lotus, Muhsinah, Nick Speed, S1, Apex, Bilal Salaam, and Finale. Even with these notable producers and guest artists, she shines best on the lead single, "Floatin." Check! in rushhour [ Para Ouvir/Samples ]

McKAY, Stephanie - Tell It Like It Is ( Muthas Of Invention ) Comentários: STEPHANIE MCKAY’s new album ‘Tell It Like It Is’ sees the Bronx-born singer/songwriter work with local musicians to produce an album that wraps up classic soul, seventies funk-rock and old-school hip hop influences into one vibrant outpouring. Sometimes romantic and at others acutely topical, ‘Tell It Like It Is’ is an album full of strong performances and great song-writing.The album is packed with classic gems from the feel-good joy of the KATAYST produced lead single “Jackson Avenue”, to the outrageously funky, hornfired groove of “Kinky”. The hip hop influenced “Oh Yeah” is a wind-in-the hair celebration with a cool groove, while a newly-incarnated version of the KATALYST co-written “Say What You Feel” appears in all its glory. R&B sensation ANTHONY HAMILTON appears on the smooth but perfectly pitched duet “Where Did Our Love Go?” resulting in an absolute gem of a ballad, while the album finishes with ...

VARIOUS - Lagos Shake: A Tony Allen Chop Up (Honest Jon's) Comentários: After 18 months of 12" releases that completely blew our minds, Honest Jons finally compile their amazing lineup of Tony Allen remixes for this one mighty cd package. Reworkings from Basic Channel's Mark Ernestus and Mauritz Von Oswald head the lineup, with Mauritz delivering a Ten and a half minute basic channel classic, a mighty Steppers version that unfolds in textbook Rhythm & Sound style, using the deepest tools imaginable within that impossibly spacious, fuzzed-out environment that only Basic Channel ever seem to produce so effortlessly. Carl Craig, meanwhile, utilises all the dancefloor savvy and careful vocal manipulations marked out on his finest and most sought after remixes of the last few years, delivering a fierce drum edit as good as his classic remix for The Congos a few years back. We have a mighty soft spot for the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble reworking that's also featured here, w...

BADU, Erykah - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (Universal Mowtown) Comentários: What's the freakquency, Erykah? The five years since her last album, Worldwide Underground (make that last EP, so more like eight years since her last proper album), make clear that her release frequency lags about as far behind as you could expect from a one-woman jam band at the forefront of a head collective. But the freakquency? That's pitched as high as a kite, now more than ever. Badu's intense New AmErykah: Part One (4th World War), the opening salvo of a promised two-disc series (three if you count a live album Universal is promising in late 2008), is as sonically ambitious as anything she's done to date. It's sort of the flip to Worldwide Underground in that both albums are so diffuse as to seem careless and haphazard to some listeners. But whereas the earlier album maintained a laidback, even keel (held together under the influence of the Mizell brothers), New AmErykah i...

SA RA CREATIVE PARTNERS, The - Sonic Seduction Vol 2 (Jazzy Sport Japan) Comentários: Incredible new Sa-Ra on the japanese Jazzy Sport label. 5 tracks of instrumental futuristic funk/soul drenched hiphop & beyond. This sh*t is so heavy... Again, like the first one, real nice artwork/packaging - so a big up to the Jazzy Sport atelier guys for that! Huge tip! in rushhour [ Para Ouvir/Samples ]

VA - Droppin Science - Greatest Samples From The Blue Note Lab (Blue Note) Comentários: At least in its presentation, Droppin' Science: Greatest Samples From the Blue Note Lab suggests yet another appeal to hip-hop genealogists, the kind of people who obsess over The-Breaks.com and are diligent readers of Oliver Wang's blog . But this is not your run-of-the-mill "roots of rap" or "best breakbeats" compilation, and not just because you won't find "Impeach the President" (which has been, according to The-Breaks, sampled in 116 different rap songs) or James Brown's "Funky Drummer" (181 songs). A few songs on the album have been tapped for use only once, and more than half of these songs bear relevance solely to the early-'90s conscious-rap movement and groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. The people who put together the compilation seem to be aware that the greatest samples often don't come from the greatest song...

DARU/REGGIE B - Future Music (4 Lux Holland) Comentários: 4lux is proud to present this first album on 4lux White, sublabel to 4lux, dedicated to soulful beats, hip hop and leftfield electronica. Future music is a mixture of hip hop, deep and infectious soul and funk, with powerful songwriting. This album is a very diverse one, and a good example of today’s nu-ground soul and hip hop. This will definitely appeal to all the beatheads out there. in clone [ Para Ouvir/Samples ]

VARIOUS - Sister Funk 2: The Sound Of The Unknown Soul Sisters (Jazzman) Comentários: Jazzman Records proudly presents "Sister Funk Volume Two". A full five years in the making, the follow up to the hugely popular first volume finally sees the light of day, bearing with it the fruits of compiler Ian Wright's inexhaustible quest to unearth some of the world's toughest, most elusive and undeniably funky female 45s. nota do editor [ Para Ouvir ]

MF DOOM - Project Jazz / Garbage Day (Instrumentals) Comentários: Killer limited edition 45 with two new MF Doom instrumentals. A-side beats come from the latest Hell Razah album, while the original vocal version of the flip an be found on KMD's classic 'Black Bastards'. Big hole, plain white sleeve, not cheap, 1000 only. in boomkat [ Buy Here ] [ Myspace ]

WILLIS, Nicole/THE SOUL INVESTIGATORS/VARIOUS - Keep Reachin' Up Remixed (Above The Clouds) Comentários: Brooklyn born Helsinki based Nicole Willis is back with the deliciously titled Soul Investigators, and this time round she’s all mixed up.As the title suggests ‘Keep Reachin’ Up Remixed’ is a reworked version of Willis’ 2005 smash ‘Keep Reachin’ Up’ – the album that propelled her into the spotlight and got heads like Giles Peterson and Mr Scruff talking. The dusty funk soul sound of the original remains on much of the album but it’s been pushed in a diverse set of direction from Hammond-funk to electronica, via dub-step, jazz, house and reggae. An Aaron Jerome, BBE nu-blood, mix of ‘Feeling Free’ opens up the album with a smooth jazzy feel while Breakin’ Bread’s Rob Life serves us a break heavy version of the title track a la DJ Format. Remixing duties for ‘If It Ain’t Love’ fall to Mr Scruff who drops some cheeky flute samples and reworks the drums. ‘No One’s Going to Love You...

DOE, Ernie K - Here Come The Girls (Soul Jazz) Comentários: Just in time for the party season, Ernie K. Doe's massive 'Here Come The Girls' (you know, that one from the Boots advert) drops in a big funky way. A great tune in it's own right but absolutely perfect for the 'floor thanks to the advert exposure. Hit! in phonica [ Para Ouvir/Samples ]

THE MILLION DOLLAR ORCHESTRA - Better Days (BBE) Comentários: "Better Days" was recorded in the traditional way - mostly one take, in an analogue studio. The Sound is rich , lush,string laden, beautiful disco music, full of joy with phenomenal musicianship. It is Al Kent's biography told in music. nota do editor [ Para Ouvir/Samples ]

ONRA - Chinoiseries (Label Rouge) Comentários: Brilliantly odd instrumental hip hop album here from Onra, compiled and constructed around vintage Vietnamese pop records picked up in flea markets on a trip to the far east. 32 short tracks make up "Chinoiseries", each of them clocking in at the 1 or 2 minute mark and delivering a tight selection of beats that somehow bring to mind J Dilla, Rza, Madlib, Moondog, MF Doom and the Sublime Frequencies label rolled into one beautifully incoherent package. Having a ravenous appetite for the "Radio Transmission" style beloved of the aforementioned Sublime Frequencies crew, we might be perfectly primed for this sort of thing, but while the dusty exotica, folk and plastic pop of the source material here could so easily have ended up sounding like the sterile plunderphonic coffee table beats that typified so much instrumental hip hop in the late 90's, Onra manages to harness the mystifying magic of the original material and...

LEWIS, Webster - Webster Lewis In Norway: The Club 7 Live Tapes (Plastic Strip Norway) Comentários: Plastic Strip Press and Jazzaggression Records are proud to present this 2 CD/2 LP release of the Webster Lewis and the Post-pop, space-rock, be-bop, gospel tabernacle chorus and orchestra BABY!! Live at Club 7 2LP released by Arne Bendiksen in 1972. This original 2 LP has become a holy grail for soul and jazz collectors all over the world and includes the dance floor classics It´s your thing and Do you believe that has been sampled by various hip-hop and electronica bands. PSP and JA have gotten exclusive access from Arne Bendiksen AS to the complete studiotapes recorded during 2 nights at the legendary Club 7 in Oslo with over 10 hours of music in total. We have found the complete photo series taken by Svein Kojan during the Club 7 concert and the release also includes in depth linernotes based on an interview done with the producer of the Live at Club 7 record Hallvard Kvåle. Webster...