Pop & Rock News

The second in Jazz Room's occasional Pure Latin releases this Underground Masterpiece first emerged in 1980 and is an outstanding example of the Classic Era Nu Yorican El Barrio Underground Sound! If you dig the Tata Vasquez LP on Jazz Room then this is for you.

Featuring the Afro-Cubano Salsaero Jazz Heavyweights of the day including Chocolate Armenteros, Jose Mangual, Mauricio Smith and Orestes Vilato and a huge seven man Percussion Section it really blasts out the Afro-Latin message.

A part history of the Afro-Cuban Music Journey from the Hinterlands of Cuba via Havana and eventually arriving in Jazz Age New York it is a welcome addition to the Jazz Room Catalogue (as well as being Jazz Room Head Honcho's favourite albums).

Floor filler cuts for Latin Lovers with "Esa Brujeria" always turning up the heat.

From an offshoot of Salifornian funk/soul collective Banda Maje, here comes a new 7" single penned by the rapper, producer and band's co-founder Tonico 70. "Vic'l / Fantasie" is a tasty prelude to Tonico 70's forthcoming album "Antonico", due out this November on Four Flies Records.

Like the rest of the album, the two tracks on the single have been co-written and co-produced by Peppe Maiellano, Banda Maje's other founder, and offer a more intimate portrait of the artist. Tonico has put his 'tough-music-smuggler' persona aside to let his soulful side shine through.

"Vic'l", on side A, is a very autobiographical song. The flow of words you hear, almost a stream of consciousness, took place late one night in the privacy of home and was recorded on the spot. Tonico 70 evaluates his personal history, speaking about the people who are or were there for him. The sound is smooth and sweet, rife with contrapuntal notes and harmonies (those played on the Fender Rhodes and the flute especially stand out) and clearly reminiscent of 70s soul.

In the funky, uptempo "Fantasie", on the flip side, Tonico 70 lets his Salifornian flow roam free totalk about the strong bonds that bring us together and make us feel good.

Both tracks evoke images and stories while enveloping you in a warm embrace. Not unlike Banda Maje's music, they have a strong cinematic quality that Tonico 70's rap adds to nicely. We can't wait to listen to what's coming next!

Cocktail and power-bossa vibes meet shots of clavinet-funk in the new single by Milan-based producer Larry Manteca, a relentless creator of soundtracks for imaginary films in various genres – from the erotic to the spaghetti western, and from crime to zombie-horror.

Manteca's debut on 7" vinyl could only have happened under the aegis of Four Flies Records, whose team went and hand-picked two of the grooviest tracks in his bulimic output, both recorded in 2015 for the sci-fi/erotic-themed album Mutant Virgins From Pluto (the title says it all!).

"Ufo Bossa" is a delicious, uptempo bossa-jazz number cast in an ultra-lounge style and spiced up with references to Les Baxter's and Martin Denny's exotica, as well as to pop/erotic sci-fi soundtracks like Bob Crewe's Barbarella, with the added bonus of Yasmine Zekri's sexy scat singing. On the flip side you have "Intergalactc Porno Scene", a typical poliziottesco theme where clavinet and flute interweave into a super-funky groove, before synths come in and send us into erotically-charged space orbit.

Available as a 350-Copy Limited Edition 7-inch, and as a Digital Remaster.

Nonesuch releases Sorry I Haven’t Called, the new album by Vagabon, the moniker of Lætitia Tamko. Co-produced by Tamko and Rostam (Vampire Weekend, Haim, Clairo), it finds Tamko reinventing herself once again and features the most playful and adventurous music of her career, as evidenced by its lead track and opening song ‘Can I Talk My Shit?’. Vagabon has also announced an autumn tour that includes a headline run in the US, as well as European dates with Weyes Blood.



“I didn’t feel like being introspective,” says Tamko of her new album. “I just wanted to have fun.” Following her intimate 2017 debut Infinite Worlds, the New York artist favoured expansive and evocative electronic textures in her breakthrough 2019 self-titled follow-up. But her latest album feels like a wholly new era for Tamko, one that’s transformational and uncompromising. Across 12 vibrant tracks she wrote and produced primarily in Germany, she channels dance music and effervescent pop through her own confident sensibilities. These conversational songs are alive and unselfconscious, a document of an artist fully embracing her vision and reclaiming her joy.



The first words she sings on the album are, “Can I talk my shit? / I got way too high for this.” It’s a statement of purpose for the rest of the album that this is an unapologetic artist. “This whole record is how I talk to my friends and how to talk to my lovers,” says Tamko. “I think honesty and conversational songwriting can become poetry. There’s beauty in plainly speaking without metaphors and without flowery imagery.”



The story of Sorry I Haven’t Called started in grief after Tamko’s best friend died in 2021. This devastating and unexpected loss unmoored Tamko but also gave her a newfound clarity. “The things that I thought I cared about, I no longer cared about,” she says. “I had a realization that I need to make sure to feel everything that comes my way.” She decided to sell her things and move to a small lakeside village a few hours north of Hamburg in northern Germany to process everything. “There's no linear path to grief, and everyone handles it differently, but uprooting my life just felt like exactly what I had to do,” says Tamko. “I needed a place to think and go through my discomfort privately but to also explore the newness and urgency I was feeling in my life.” In the village, her phone didn’t work and there were no close grocery stores or restaurants, so she spent her time alone working on music.



Despite the palpable absence in her life, her new songs were her most disarming and ebullient yet. The first one she wrote was ‘Carpenter’, a mesmerizing track anchored by a tangible bass groove, where she sings, “I wasn’t ready to move on out / but I'm more ready now.” It’s a fully-realised track and feels like the culmination of her catalogue so far. “A lot of the music that I was making there had nothing to do with my grief at all,” says Tamko. “Once I gave myself permission to make a record that's full of life and energy, I realized that’s the point of this album. In the midst of going through all of these tough things, it became a record because of the vitality that these songs had.” For Tamko, there’s power in pursuing happiness.



While writing in Germany, Tamko nurtured her love for dance music and let it seep into her new songs. “The only things that were giving me access to a feeling were dance music and going to a rave in an extremely dark club where if I wanted to cry, I could do it and be around other people,” she says.



After a few months in Germany that included marathon writing sessions and a whirlwind romance, Tamko decided to stay with friends in Los Angeles and finish her record. She enlisted co-producer Rostam to help her unify her vision.



Sorry I Haven’t Called is a warm and resilient album about embracing the ecstatic moments wherever you can by knowing how you love and how you mourn. It’s an album born of both communal dancefloor revelations and the clarifying peace from solitude, an emotional rebirth as well as an artistic one. “This record feels like what I've been working towards,” says Tamko. “When I think of this album, I think of playfulness. It's completely euphoric. It's because things were dark that this record is so full of life and energy. It’s a reaction to what I was experiencing at the time, not a document of it.”

Exotica, ye-yé cumbia, guaracha infused twist, rock’n roll mambo, Spanish rumba, boogaloo beat, tropical garage and other unexpected bastard genres are featured in this festive compilation of bizarre hits taken from the glorious catalog of records released during the 60s and 70s on the Peruvian label Discos MAG. Some clearly unite genres, others are projects with creative names, but all are bold musical initiatives that got and will always get people onto the dance floor. “Sabroso Go Go” brings together fourteen musical mixes created in the recording studios of Manuel Antonio Guerrero (MAG), in which music directors combine rhythm with alchemy in a quest to find the philosopher's stone of the dance. Exotica, ye-yé cumbia, guaracha infused twist, rock’n roll mambo, Spanish rumba, boogaloo beat, tropical garage and other unexpected bastard genres are featured in this festive compilation. Although this compilation begins in 1957, experiments like this (some more memorable than others) were not new in Peru. The songs on this album were however much more successful hybrids. Some clearly unite genres, others are projects with creative names, but all are bold musical initiatives that got and will always get people onto the dance floor. At the end of the fifties, rock music shook the foundations of Peru, and orchestras rushed to cover hit songs and explore the possibilities of mixing them with tropical music. Lucho Macedo's orchestra took up the mantle and reinterpreted a well-known guaracha by Celia Cruz ('Rock and Roll') in mambo style, renaming it 'Rock and roll Mambo'. 'Maestro de Rock and Roll', a hit by the Cuban Conjunto Casino, received similar treatment. Another mix in this vein is the rock tune 'El Rock de los Chinos' by the Mexican Manolo Muñoz (author of 'Speedy González') recorded by the Chilean Choche Mérida for MAG in 1961. The following year, Chubby Checker’s 'The Twist' hit the scene and was immediately fused with guaracha by maestro Nelson Ferreyra. A legendary MAG musician, Carlos Pickling, composed 'La Charanga del Espacio' in 1963. The space sounds are produced by Pickling and his inseparable Hammond. He himself is the one who leads the orchestra that accompanies Benny Del Solar, Lita Branda and Pablo "Melcochita" Villanueva in the tropicalized version of Spanish Rumba, when the beats of the Iberian rumba were still exotic in South America. Around that time, the Chilean Willy Marambio was already living in Lima. In the track included on this album, the go-go style showcases his virtuosity on the trumpet. Another outstanding trumpet player, Roberto "Tito" Chicoma from Chiclayo, played as a session musician with MAG from 1959. A few years later, he became one of the most popular Colombian cumbia players, a talent he demonstrates in the song on this compilation, which blends the fun of go-go with yé-yé beats. 'Batijugando' was a hit from Mexico and was played in all the rhythms played across the Hispanic world since 1967. Inspired by the "Batman" series, it was performed at MAG by the Betico Salas orchestra, with vocals by the Panamanian lady crooner Nallye Fernández. 'Computador Electrónico' is another surprise on this album, performed by Panamanian vocalist Patty Pastel, it is the only known version in Spanish of 'Der Computer Nr. 3', originally sung in German by France Gall. Two other songs feature Edgar Zamudio. The versatility of Zamudio y Los Vikingos (originally a Chilean group) is demonstrated in the guitar-heavy song composed specifically for the late sixties skate fashion ('Go Go en Patines') and in his idiosyncratic protest song ('Día de Pago') performed in beat style. In the mid-seventies, Los Kintos, led by guitarist Francisco Acosta, developed different harmonic ideas in an instrumental track that veers from boogaloo to salsa, the fashionable rhythm of the day. Finally, in 1976, when the bumping hips dance craze swept the continent, Manuel Guerrero was quick to jump onto the bandwagon, composing a Bump song, together with his son Carlos. The Italian musician based in Lima, Luciano Luciani performed the song 'A Bailar Bump' backed by his band of local musicians Los Mulatos.

If Bach can go Moog, so can cumbia! This surprisingly funky novelty tune has one of those break-beat intros that loop makers drool for. Weird synth noodles and chipmunk chorus vocals only add to the “what the?” factor (in a good way!). On the flipside, another updated Costeño classic, with crazy synth noodles, scratchy guitar looping and odd vocals. Hats off to Fruko and Fuentes for letting this experiment in Afro-modernization happen. First time reissue as a separate release, previously only available as part of the long-deleted “Big Box of Afrosound” (VAMPI 45062).

This second volume of Mangle Rojo is a tribute to the spirit of celebration and diversity that reigns in the festivities of Colombia´s town squares. We created this compilation in vinyl format, in which we continue to explore the traditional sounds of the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, which have a rooted Afro tradition.

We begin this journey with field recordings of traditional groups such as Sexteto Tabalá from Palenque de San Basilio, who plays the sextet format heir to the Cuban Son and Los Alegres del Telembí, exponents of the marimba music of the Colombian South Pacific.

We continue this voyage with proposals that fuse traditional rhythms with modern instruments and musical genres: The popular singer Nelda Piña makes a featuring with the afrobeat orchestra La BOA and the marimba band Saborimba, from a small town on the Pacific coast, collaborates with urban musicians.

In addition, we find new protagonists like the big band formats that have been popular in Colombia since the beginning of the 20th century: the Papayera band (Calentanos Brass Band) and the Chirimía format (Chirrimía Balsámica), this last one with the collaboration of the renowned singer Alexis Play.

Finally, we invite artists who use traditional rhythms to develop electronic proposals, such as Ghetto Kumbé and the well-known singer Nidia Góngora.

Los Angeles-based Fabiano Do Nascimento is a multi-string guitarist and songwriter who melds the traditional idioms of his native Brazil (i.e., samba, choro) with the more contemporary and experimental strains of jazz, pop, and electronic music. Das Nuvens (“The Clouds”), out July 2023 on Leaving Records, is a crisp, frequently blissful, and deceptively groove-oriented showcase from a consummate musician — a rich and varied collection of songs, all of which seem to prioritize, and thrive in, the soft and intentional spaces between notes.

Das Nuvens constitutes the free-form, exploratory work of a musician who, having mastered a distinct musical language, seeks to apply his skill towards broader, more experimental modes of expression. Fittingly, track one — built around a contemplative, pointillistic refrain— is titled “Babel,” a reference to the legend of man’s attempt to build a tower to heaven, and how God thwarted this alleged act of hubris by shattering man’s shared language, sowing chaos and confusion. Though a stern parable on its face, it is a myth that enshrines our world’s dizzying array of languages (of modes of being), and the subsequent beauty of cultural exchange through art. In this regard, it is a fitting opening statement for an album that collapses and collages not only contemporary and classical Brazilian and pop idioms, but also the diverse range of indigenous music that Nascimento has encountered and studied in his travels as a touring musician.

Los Angeles-based Fabiano Do Nascimento is a multi-string guitarist and songwriter who melds the traditional idioms of his native Brazil (i.e., samba, choro) with the more contemporary and experimental strains of jazz, pop, and electronic music. Das Nuvens (“The Clouds”), out July 2023 on Leaving Records, is a crisp, frequently blissful, and deceptively groove-oriented showcase from a consummate musician — a rich and varied collection of songs, all of which seem to prioritize, and thrive in, the soft and intentional spaces between notes.

Das Nuvens constitutes the free-form, exploratory work of a musician who, having mastered a distinct musical language, seeks to apply his skill towards broader, more experimental modes of expression. Fittingly, track one — built around a contemplative, pointillistic refrain— is titled “Babel,” a reference to the legend of man’s attempt to build a tower to heaven, and how God thwarted this alleged act of hubris by shattering man’s shared language, sowing chaos and confusion. Though a stern parable on its face, it is a myth that enshrines our world’s dizzying array of languages (of modes of being), and the subsequent beauty of cultural exchange through art. In this regard, it is a fitting opening statement for an album that collapses and collages not only contemporary and classical Brazilian and pop idioms, but also the diverse range of indigenous music that Nascimento has encountered and studied in his travels as a touring musician.

After a huge year of travelling in 2022, playing DJ sets in more than 30 cities across 10 countries, Captain Planet dove back into the studio to create his 5th and most ambitious album to date- Sounds Like Home. Taking a turn toward the more organic, retro sounds of artists who originally inspired him as a young musician, Charlie Wilder (aka Captain Planet) flexed his composer and bandleader muscles- incorporating horn sections, strings and acoustic drums more than the big club focussed electronic sounds he has often come to be known for. "The basic concept was to make a record like the ones I constantly pull off my shelves at home and play on the weekends. The records that turn into living room dance parties with my family, the soundtracks while I'm cooking, the music that fills the backyard for lazy hang outs." An avid vinyl record collector and musicologist since his teens, the Captain has a near encyclopedic knowledge of music from around the world, particularly artists from the 60's and 70's, which is the era that inspired much of the sonic texture on this new album.

In classic Captain Planet style, a kaleidoscopic array of genres from around the world find their way into the mix- Brazilian disco, Latin funk, Jamaican dub, Middle Eastern psychedelia, and American soul music. While this diversity may sound more like a mixtape, the Captain's trademark uplifting vibe and impeccable knack for building a great groove, provide the special ingredients that pull it all together and makes the sauce work. The Fader wrote "the Captain is a walking 'recommended vinyl' section from the best record store you've ever been to", because all his deep love and appreciation for classic music comes right through him in his original songs. Throughout this album you'll hear echoes of timeless artists like Cymande, Gilberto Gil, Ray Barretto, Curtis Mayfield, Mulatu Astatke, and Gabor Szabo, all funneled through the Captain's modern musical sensibility, shaped by nearly 2 decades of being a professional world-traveling DJ.

The past year also brought some major challenges for Charlie Wilder, most central of which was losing a close friend and collaborator, the fellow LA-based DJ/producer Sumohair (1⁄2 of the band Reyna Tropical). The album starts off with a brief tropical tribute to his friend, followed by the strong message "Music Is Medicine" sung by another regular collaborator, the Zimbabwean-American (Grammy winning) singer Shungudzo. With the true value of friendship front and center on his mind, Captain Planet made a strong conscious effort to include many of his oldest friends and musical partners throughout the album, including Grammy winning pianist Sam Barsh, Chico Mann, Zuzuka Poderosa (who bartended at one of the Captain's earliest DJ residencies in Brooklyn), David Walters (whose new album "Soul Tropical" was co-written & co-produced by the Captain), Todd Simon, Leo Mintek (who has played guitar with Wilder since their teens), and Wilder's youngest brother Taj Bethel who co-wrote 2 of the songs on the album. The warm light of friendship and family shines throughout the album, and while the influences reach far across the globe, the music clearly shows that Captain Planet has found his musical home.

After a huge year of travelling in 2022, playing DJ sets in more than 30 cities across 10 countries, Captain Planet dove back into the studio to create his 5th and most ambitious album to date- Sounds Like Home. Taking a turn toward the more organic, retro sounds of artists who originally inspired him as a young musician, Charlie Wilder (aka Captain Planet) flexed his composer and bandleader muscles- incorporating horn sections, strings and acoustic drums more than the big club focussed electronic sounds he has often come to be known for. "The basic concept was to make a record like the ones I constantly pull off my shelves at home and play on the weekends. The records that turn into living room dance parties with my family, the soundtracks while I'm cooking, the music that fills the backyard for lazy hang outs." An avid vinyl record collector and musicologist since his teens, the Captain has a near encyclopedic knowledge of music from around the world, particularly artists from the 60's and 70's, which is the era that inspired much of the sonic texture on this new album.

In classic Captain Planet style, a kaleidoscopic array of genres from around the world find their way into the mix- Brazilian disco, Latin funk, Jamaican dub, Middle Eastern psychedelia, and American soul music. While this diversity may sound more like a mixtape, the Captain's trademark uplifting vibe and impeccable knack for building a great groove, provide the special ingredients that pull it all together and makes the sauce work. The Fader wrote "the Captain is a walking 'recommended vinyl' section from the best record store you've ever been to", because all his deep love and appreciation for classic music comes right through him in his original songs. Throughout this album you'll hear echoes of timeless artists like Cymande, Gilberto Gil, Ray Barretto, Curtis Mayfield, Mulatu Astatke, and Gabor Szabo, all funneled through the Captain's modern musical sensibility, shaped by nearly 2 decades of being a professional world-traveling DJ.

The past year also brought some major challenges for Charlie Wilder, most central of which was losing a close friend and collaborator, the fellow LA-based DJ/producer Sumohair (1⁄2 of the band Reyna Tropical). The album starts off with a brief tropical tribute to his friend, followed by the strong message "Music Is Medicine" sung by another regular collaborator, the Zimbabwean-American (Grammy winning) singer Shungudzo. With the true value of friendship front and center on his mind, Captain Planet made a strong conscious effort to include many of his oldest friends and musical partners throughout the album, including Grammy winning pianist Sam Barsh, Chico Mann, Zuzuka Poderosa (who bartended at one of the Captain's earliest DJ residencies in Brooklyn), David Walters (whose new album "Soul Tropical" was co-written & co-produced by the Captain), Todd Simon, Leo Mintek (who has played guitar with Wilder since their teens), and Wilder's youngest brother Taj Bethel who co-wrote 2 of the songs on the album. The warm light of friendship and family shines throughout the album, and while the influences reach far across the globe, the music clearly shows that Captain Planet has found his musical home.

CHIARA CIVELLO'S NEW SINGLE ADDS NEAPOLITAN VIBES TO BRAZILIAN FUNK TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Four Flies is proud to present a new, exciting single by internationally acclaimed Italian singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Chiara Civello. Co-produced with Neapolitan pianist, beatmaker and producer Dario Bassolino and with lyrics by Civello and Sicilian artist Kaballà, "Sono Come Sono" is the first Italian adaptation of the Brazilian song "Olhos Coloridos", a celebration of diversity, mixed roots and inclusion written by Macau and made famous by singer Sandra de Sa. To respect the spirit of the original and its soul-funk sound, Civello decided to produce the song in Naples, a city with many similarities to Rio de Janeiro, including its multicultural history. The result is an irresistible eighties-inspired boogie-funk track brimming with positivity and joy.

"Sono Come Sono" comes out on 21 October 2022 as a 12" VINYL MAXI SINGLE containing the song plus three fantastic remixes by eclectic Neapolitan DJ/producer Whodamanny that add groovy and tribal influences to the mix and further enhance its dancefloor potential.

Civello's adaptation has been praised by the writer and singer of the original, as well as by another great name in Brasilian popular music:

"Cada Qual com seu Cada Qual, e muito Respeito pra Liberar Geral…" Chiara has expressed this idea truthfully, beautifully and with dignity. I'm very excited, proud and happy! This is a fantastic version of "Olhos Coloridos". "Limitar…, é humilhar o Infinito…" Thank you, sister" – Sandra de Sá

"Chiara, I couldn't contain my emotion when I listened to your Italian version of "Olhos Coloridos". Beautiful vocals… a beautiful brass arrangement… pure black-Rio! You put colors into my eyes and light into my soul with your magical performance, I have no words. I must really thank you for the joy you gave me. "somos o que somos", Olhos Coloridos, Sarará Crioulo"" – Macau

"Another smooth and super groovy creation by Chiara Civello, this is a perfect Italian version of the classic Rio de Janeiro soul-funk song, "Olhos Coloridos", made famous by Sandra de Sá. It respects the spirit of Black pride contained in the original lyrics but adds to it new sounds and meanings. Well done, Chiara!" – Nelson Motta

Tumblack is a special reissue of a fantastic and rare percussive Afro Disco from 1978. This perfectly blends elements of African styles, afrobeat, funk and disco tracks. Contains the famous funk disco track "Caraiba" much used by funky-afro DJs.

“Baile en el Infierno” & “Villa Incepciòn” are the new singles from Bogota-based cumbia band Conjunto Media Luna. Directed by accordionist and producer Ivan Medellin, Conjunto Media Luna makes a sound shift towards fresher and more street sounds influenced by the Sonideros from Monterrey, and the Chicano movement of the Low Rider Kumbias from California. However, Conjunto Media Luna still sticks to their roots by homaging the original format of the traditional Cumbia Sabanera from the Montes de Maria region of Colombia and including accordion licks that remind of Andres Landero’s style.
Edition of 500 copies, coming in a plastic sleeve including artwork printed cardboard.
Pressed on high quality Black vinyl wax (40 gr.).

Originally released in 2012, the second album by the São Paulo-born composer Rodrigo Campos marks a turning point in both lyrical and aesthetic inspiration. “Bahia Fantástica” is the result of the absorption of a then recent influence of soul music (especially Curtis Mayfield) and is in the middle of this path marked by an unlikely geography in the lyrical part (São Mateus, Bahia, Japan) and by an expansion of sound ( from samba to the indefinable, with a passage through black American music).

The album turns ten years old in 2022 and exudes vitality. The soul reference takes on a different aroma when it passes through the filter of the composer and his band – formed by Kiko Dinucci on guitar, Marcelo Cabral on bass, Maurício Fleury on keyboards, Maurício Takara on drums and Thiago França on sax: it has Brazilian sauce, hints of afrobeat and a very particular seasoning. The lyrics bear the artist's mark: they project scenes in the listener's imagination and design the characters and environments with their own style of subjective chronicle. Bahia is both imaginary and intimate in Rodrigo Campos’s music.

Soundway’s telescope to forgotten and lesser known musical realms extends to Argentina on a brand new, triple vinyl compilation, Síntesis Moderna: An Alternative Vision Of Argentinian Music 1980-1990.

A digital rewilding of computer and synth powered music, dripping with an impressive variety of influence, from Italo disco, electro-funk, post punk, tango, ambience, jazz-fusion, Afro-folk and techno pop. The record is a cultural document of a musical decade transformed after the lifting of restrictions of English language music post Falklands War, and the end of Argentina’s military dictatorship.

Edition of 500 copies. Comes with download code and insert.

' Funkadelic touring the vast Caribbean coastline of Venezuela, together with Afrosound and Grupo Bota, with endless supplies of Aguardiente and other substances, in a “Back to the future” setting. ' ....?

Lola's Dice's debut album is the result of a radical musical transmutation, marked by the phenomenon of massive Venezuelan emigration. The songs contained in "Pura maldad" expose the current point of that process with amazing detail. Rhythms that were considered exclusively "traditional" and almost untouchable back home (Tamborera, Gaita) get twisted, stretched and pushed beyond any imaginary limit, while being combined with healthy doses of Disco, Funk, Electro, Techno and their Caribbean counterparts, Merengue, Salsa and Compass.

Having taken their first steps in the key of Funk-Rock, things first took a turn after the leader Javier Bohorquez met Venezuelan producer Alex Figueira (Fumaça Preta, Conjunto Papa Upa, etc) at a show and he handed him a business card. The tropical psychedelic sound Figueira was specialized on spoke immediately to Javier, as it did combine many of the crazy and groovy elements he loved from the most "out there" Funk (a la Funkadelic), with the countless Caribbean rhythms he had been exposed to, having grown up in Venezuela.

After the first EP "Viaje al centro del ritmo", where everything acquired a decisive tropical tone, a further eccentric exploration of the music of their homeland became inevitable. The subsequent single "Cacri 'e Playa / Sr Cartujo" clearly showed where things were moving towards.

“Pura Maldad” is a true tropical lysergic trip, and while you see vibrant colors and things move in very strange ways, the sun never seizes to shine. Despite its profoundly experimental character, the album proves very useful to anyone in need of getting a party started, maintained or fully blown up, depending at what point of the evening it’s played.

Artwork by Colombian artist Kevin Simón Mancera.

Produced by Alex Figueira at Heat Too Hot, Amsterdam.

Enigmatic group known for their song Cumbia Del Desierto on a 12-inch vinyl they share with El Dragón Criollo at El Palmas Music. This song was played with fury by music lovers and collectors around the world.

Well, beautiful people La Jungla is back with the melody in this mini album titled De Borondo!!!

A cut of four songs where criticism, humor, experiences and good vibes are present throughout all the songs.



Come and we'll go De Borondo well, surely something cool is going to happen.

On the eve of her 80th birthday, Dona Onete - ‘the grande dame of Amazonian song’ - returns with Rebujo, a love letter to her hometown of Belém, situated deep in the Amazon.

Rebujo brims with two music styles born in Belém: carimbós, influenced by African grooves, and bangues, a ska-type rhythm, plus there’s a cumbia, brega (‘romantic’ music) and samba.

Since the release of her 2017 album Banzeiro, Onete has become a superstar in Brazil – she composed and sung the theme song for one of Brazil’s biggest soap operas (A Força do Querer), been awarded the Brazilian Ordem do Mérito Cultural in recognition for her contribution to Brazilian culture + her video for ‘No Meio do Pitiu’ has an impressive 9.2m views on Youtube.

Outside of Brazil she’s performed at Roskilde, Womad (UK, NZ & AUS), Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival and TFF Rudolstadt and is a global spokesperson for indigenous cultures.

- 3rd album of funky Brazilian/Amazonian grooves from the ‘Diva of the Amazon’, mastered @ The Carvery
- David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Gilles Peterson, Cerys Matthews all big supporters

Brazilian singer, guitarist and actor Seu Jorge returns with an intimate and stripped back session and album, a collaboration with his close friend and kindred spirit Rogê, for new UK based, direct-to-disc record label, Night Dreamer.

Recorded and cut direct-to-disc on Thursday 22nd & Friday 23rd August 2019 at Artone Studio, Haarlem, The Netherlands. Brazilian singer, guitarist and actor Seu Jorge turns to brother-in-arms Rogê, for their first ever album recording, celebrating 25 years of friendship and companionship as part of the latest instalment on UK based, direct-to-disc record label, Night Dreamer.

From concept to completion in four days, the Night Dreamer session commits a lifetime of collaboration and companionship to record for the first time, encapsulated by ‘Caminhão’ - the first song the duo ever wrote together 25 years ago.

Similar to his breakout album and Bowie homage, The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions, the new record is stripped back and raw but with an altogether different ambition - to create a 'classic Brazilian record'. Featuring both Seu Jorge and Rogê on guitar and vocals it also enlists the additional talents of two of Brazil’s most sought-after percussionists, Peu Meurray and Pretinho da Serrinha.

The seven original compositions recall the pairs plaintive and idiosyncratic melancholy and draws on the likes of Brazilian greats like Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil and orge Ben.

From Rio De Janeiro in Brazil, Jorge’s success has been witnessed by close friend Rogê – a story which has seen Jorge go from humble beginnings in Rio to working with the likes of Beck and Bowie, and starring in major film and television productions. Well known for his acting roles in,

City of God and the current Netflix hit series Irmandade (Brotherhood), it was Wes Anderson’s A Life Aquatic film that global audiences first saw Jorge on the screen performing as a troubadour strumming Portuguese-language covers of David Bowie classics. All in all, Seu Jorge has been a pioneering force in revitalising Brazilian popular music across the globe.

A songwriter, composer and musician in his own right, Rogê has received a Latin Grammy Nomination for ‘Na Veia’, his collaboration with samba legend Arlindo Cruz. With a strong catalogue of 7 albums and countless collaborations with Brazilian and international producers, Rogê represents the new generation of artists of the Brazilian Popular Music movement and has been instrumental in the pair building an archive of unrealised songs, sketches and ideas, some of which ultimately comprise the backbone of this session.

Like eavesdropping on a campfire session, the one-take direct-to-vinyl process at Artone captures the intensity of the duo’s relationship, setting the conditions for an extraordinarily intimate recording.

The last couple of years have seen a renaissance for West Coast singer-songwriters. LA-based youngsters such as Drugdealer and Sylvie have attracted considerable attention releasing warm and mellow records tonally reminiscent of the early 70s. Most fans of this new/old sound are unaware of Bart Davenport's early explorations in the same sonic territory. His now 20-year-old "Game Preserve"album should gain an appreciative new audience with its first ever vinyl release.

In the year 2000, Bay Area troubadour Bart Davenport and several other musicians were recruited by a major tech corporation in Seattle to work on an algorithm-based music matching/search engine. It was what looked like the beginning of a promising career. After a year, however, the project was shelved. Bart and his colleagues were laid off with a healthy severance package... on the 12th of September, 2001. Not only had the musician's life changed, so had the world. Rather than blow the money on a holiday or new car, Bart knew he had to make a record. A proper album that meant something.

Back in Oakland, he entered Wally Sound Studios with former Kinetics bandmate Jon Erickson at the controls, and a swathe of talented local musicians. "With Game Preserve," Bart explains, "Jon and I really wanted to knock it out of the park. I wanted to utilize people from my old bands like Loved Ones drummer John Kent. I also invited my newer indie-pop friends from Call & Response, and a young Nedelle Torrisi. Harmony singing by The Moore Brothers was an essential ingredient on Game Preserve as well."

Both Erickson and Davenport fondly recall growing up in households where the music of The Carpenters, Joni Mitchell and The Eagles soundtracked their young lives. By the early 00s they were ready to reconnect with what is often referred to as the "Laurel Canyon" sound. "I'd buy used tapes at garage sales and play them in the car. "Ladies Of The Canyon" by Joni and Jackson Browne's first album were both in heavy rotation. Jon Erickson was getting deeper into the Steely-Mac-Doobie yacht-rock sound in earnest. A certain amount of childhood nostalgia led a lot of us back to that part of the 70s. I'd flirted with classic soft-rock on my first album, but that record was pretty scattered esthetically. I wanted my next one to be more focused. Jon and I made some ground rules: no electric guitars (except on 'Bar-Code Trees'). No synths. Most importantly, all the songs have an air-tight, super dead, close mic'd drum sound. Putting these sorts of limitations on the sessions will give your record a specific quality. In the case of "Game Preserve"it's mostly about tight drums, acoustic instruments and analog production. We used a 24-track, two-inch tape machine for tracking, then ran the mixes through an analog board straight to a 1/4 inch master tape."

While the album's sonic palette may be firmly planted in 1970, Davenport's songwriting covers a sizable landscape of moods and reflections. From the quasi-flamenco intro of 'Sweetest Game' to the somber Wurlitzer of 'Nowhere Left To Go', to the 12-string shimmer of 'Intertwine', "Game Preserve" tells a story of young love, lost innocence and redemption, crossing borders and oceans along the way.

Released in 2003 on family-run Oakland label Antenna Farm, the ultra-analog sounding "Game Preserve" was only made available on digital formats, including CD. Copies were later pressed by labels in Germany and Spain; the latter being one country the album actually did well in, establishing Bart Davenport with a small but loyal fanbase he still enjoys today. Two European tours as support for Kings of Convenience also helped gain a foothold on the continent. Back in the US, however, Davenport and his sophomore album remained quite obscure.

Limited promotion meant it did little, but for the music lovers that heard it, the album undoubtedly remains a classic of the era, deserving far more. Twenty years on, it now finally receives its vinyl debut. "I personally think it holds up well," says Bart of the album two decades later. "The idea was to make something that could be an homage to late 60s/early 70s West Coast pop but hopefully timeless as well. Years on, I hear it as just that. It was a colorful and brief period of my life that felt at times like it could last forever. I discovered the joy of working in a proper studio with a perfect cast of characters. I'm still very close with all these people and still play music with many of them."

Brazilian singer Elba Ramalho is still going strong – and maybe sounding better than ever, partly due to a matured quality in her vocals – which makes things sometimes sound deeper than in the early years! The style here is a mix of older forro elements with more contemporary touches – accordion a bit in the background on more numbers, surrounded by electric elements that emphasize some of the more soulful currents in the music – while the lady herself stands strongly in the spotlight. The set features guest appearances by Ney Matogrosso and Roberta Sa – and titles include "Girassol", "Calcanhar", "Na Areia", "Princesa Domeu Lugar", "Oxente", "Setudo Pode Acontecer", and "O Mundo".

A seminal set from Jorge Ben  one that mixes samba soul with more baroque arrangements from the legendary Arthur Verocai! The record's got a different feel than some of Jorge's other work  almost a wider vision of music that ties his usual funky style to some of the more ambitious modes being explored by Marcos Valle and Edu Lobo at the time  expressed here in some larger instrumental passages that shade the tunes lightly, while still letting Jorge step out strongly on vocals and the usual mix of tight percussion and raspy guitar. Titles include "Que Maravilha", "Rita Jeep", "Comanche", "Porque E Proibido Pisa Na Grama", "Cassius Marcelo Clay", "Palomaris", "Maria Domingas", and "Negro E Lindo".

(2LP gatefold 180gr pressing) The album is a collaboration between Brazilian artists Lula Côrtes and Zé Ramalho, a wonderfully off-kilter record full of fantastic hooky and strange tunes that range from full-on freakouts to quiet pastoral numbers displaying the entire range of 1970s hippie Brazilian musician culture.

HIGHLIGHTS! Acting as an artistic ambassador for Cuba, the Orquesta Revé made several tours abroad, traveling to Peru in 1971. This extremely scarce LP was recorded for MAG in Lima and comprises mostly Cuban songs -like the outstanding Vicente Rojas' original 'Mi Son Combinado'- and also a rare cover of Jorge Ben's 'Domingas'. Quite an invisible record even for hardcore collectors, and almost impossible to find in any condition, "De Habana a Lima" is now reissued for the first time. More: In 1956, the percussionist and composer from Guantanamo, Elio Revé, founded the orchestra popularly known as La Revé, which in the space of a few years became the Cuban music group par excellence for foreign audiences. Elio, dubbed the father of changüí for his seminal work on this genre, is also considered one of the forerunners of salsa music and his orchestra included musicians of the stature of vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer; pianists Chucho Valdés, César Pedroso and Juan Carlos Alfonso; and bass guitarist Juan Formell, who left the group in 1969 to form Los Van Van. Acting as an artistic ambassador for Cuba, the Orquesta Revé made several tours abroad in the seventies, traveling to countries such as Spain, Belgium and the People's Republic of Angola, and these journeys are well documented on the internet. However, little is known about their trip to Peru in 1971_ The local record label MAG quickly signed the Cuban groups that arrived in the Peruvian capital and that the head of the label, Manuel Guerrero, agreed to record. The La Revé LP was followed by a Los Compadres album the following year. "De Habana a Lima..." comprises a dozen songs labeled changüis, mostly written by Cuban composers, the exception being the closing track: 'Domingas', an original song by Brazilian artist Jorge Ben. In contrast, the album opens with the distinctly Cuban song 'Guajira guantanamera'.

First solo LP by the talented Peruvian artist Betico Salas, lead trumpet player of the great Sonora de Lucho Macedo, one of the best ensembles playing Cuban repertoires in the early '60s. This 1966 album features Alfredo Linares on piano and sonero vocals by Benny del Solar, and combines a mix of guarachas, guanguancó and even cumbias. Betico Salas would later release two more albums and become a legendary trumpet player in Peruvian musical history. First time reissue.- DETAILS: Alfredo Linares on piano and sonero vocals by Benny del Solar stand out on this album. Benny del Solar sings lead vocals on the cumbia of Argentine origin 'Nos vamos a casar'; the Colombian 'Lo que pasa es que la banda está borracha', a continental hit since the early sixties; the guaracha 'A los muchachos de Belén', by Puerto Rican musician Tito Rodríguez; the guaracha 'Ritmo del amor'; the elegant Cuban guaguancó 'Así namá', also well known for Tito Rodríguez's rendition; and the cumbia 'Qué le digo a mi mujer'. Singer, César Gonzales, who would have an extensive career in Peruvian tropical music, sang lead vocals in the guaguancó by the Sonora Matancera 'Lindo Omelenko' and the bolero 'El árbol', a hit for the singer Roberto Ledesma, also recorded that same year by Peruvians Carmita Jiménez, Anamelba, Raul del Mar and Lucho Macedo himself, who decided to sing for his new record label. The mythical singer Johnny Arce, years later known as Mr. Macondo, also appears on the album on the two guarachas: 'La renga', a composition by Esther Forero, known as La novia de Barranquilla; and 'Yo soy candela', a composition by the Colombian Ray Rodríguez. Finally, 'La chola' is a cumbia by Peruvian composer Tomás Benítez; and 'Mambo Jazz' is a version of the descarga 'Yayi's instant mambo', an innovative instrumental track performed by Puerto Rican Willie Rosario, who recorded it in the United States at the start of 1966 with his own orchestra. Betico Salas would later release two more albums and become a legendary trumpet player in Peruvian musical history.