Kinny - Can't Kill A Dame With Soul
(CD/Digital) Tru Thoughts TRU241, 2012-02-06

Kinny is coming back with a new album entitled Can't Kill A Dame With Soul, released february 6th 2012 on Tru Thoughts, with a digital single released previously early december 2011. The producers are Soul Drop, who co-wrote Water for Chocolate and Idle Forest of Chitchat on her previous album. They're a trio of DJs/producers consisting of Even Brenna, Teddy Touch and Pål Myran-Håland.
We haven't received this album so can't tell you if it's bad or good sorry.
Listen to Big Fat Liar, the new single, in our latest mix Paris DJs Soundsystem - Bag of Goodies Vol.4

Speech Debelle - Freedom Of Speech
(CD/LP/Digital) Big Dada Recordings BD193, 2012-02-06

Two years since winning the 2009 Mercury Music Prize for her debut album, Speech Therapy, and having ridden a rollercoaster through life since then, Speech Debelle is ready to drop her second collection of music. Entitled Freedom of Speech, the album sees Speech turning from introspection to stand up, face and engage with the world around her, spitting confident themes of revolution and love. A first taste of the album came in the aftermath of this summer's riots, when Speech reacted immediately, leaking the track Blaze Up A Fire, (also featuring Roots ManuvaRealism), a track about political revolution written months before. Now the build-up begins to the release of Freedom of Speech in early February 2012 with the free download of the track Studio Backpack Rap. From political to musical revolution, Speech describes the track as being "all about virtual instrumentation and an ode to KwesSpeech Therapy, while showcasing just one aspect of her remarkable new album.

Various - The Nickel & Penny Labels
(CD/2LP) Numero Group NUM039, 2012-01-23

Esteemed Chicago-based reissue label Numero Group has been raising the bar of the soul/funk/blues/rare groove compilation standards ever since 2004 and their first Eccentric Soul collection. They even managed to get 2 albums in our 10 Reissues Of Old Stuff That's Been So Cool To (Re)Discover in 2011 selection. Their latest release, Eccentric Soul: The Nickel & Penny Labels is the brainchild of Richard Pegue, a Chicago DJ/producer/writer/arranger of soul records in the 60s and the 70s, and might suffer from the comparison with previous volumes in the label's flagship series - for example the Boddie Recording Co. boxset from last october... But don't let the tracklisting fool you, this new compilation is a new fabulous one, with most of its best tracks to be found in the second half of the CD! Special flavors are indeed to be found in The Halleluiah Chorus' soulful gem I've Got to Find A Way, South Shore Commision's James-Brown-meets-The Jackson-5-on-The-Blues-Brothers-set You Got Me Hummin', Brothers & Sisters's psychedelick shack Don't Let 'Em Tell You or Joyce Williams' flute-heavy The First Thing I Do In The Morning, just to name a few. We couldn't resist playing the two latter one in our january Bag of Goodies mix recorded last weekend which you should be able to download in the coming days...

Various - Nirobi Edits
(limited 12 inch) Square Records SQRC104, 2011-11-16

Summer 2012, Square Records were right there on spot at the start of the current re-edits craze, with amazing reworks from Onur Engin. The latest edition of their highly collectable 12 inches has arrived at the end of last year and as usual it's a 1000 copies worldwide, no re-press and no digital release affair, on which we advise to jump on before it's too late. This time Robert Luis aka Nirobi, A&R and co-founder of Tru Thoughts Recordings and a world-renowned DJ is the guest of honor, with 4 new edits of choice and their augmented dancefloor boogieness. You might be surprised, but even though there's fantastic re-edits from Soho, St Tropez or Paul McCartney in there, for us the revered treasure of the lot is the Mick Hucknall one (yep, the singer from Simply Red!), whose Farther Up The Road originally found on his 2008 Tribute to Bobby (a tribute to the blues musician Bobby "Blue" Bland), should turn all soulful dancefloors upside down, each time, guaranteed! We'll be playing this gem in the upcoming Bag of Goodies mix we've cooked for you last weekend...

The Hifivers - Life Shines EP
(CD EP) & Awesome Cleavage (7 inch) Hifive Records, 2011

German soul combo The Hifivers are back with a new self-released CD and 7 inch. We had invited them last summer for an introductory mix and were more than happy to check what they had recorded since then. As with the previous one, this new EP is quite rough and promises a lot for the album I guess they're now working on. Favorite tracks come from the soulful groove of Awesome Cleavage, kinda cool for the pornfunk program, and the epic instrumental Rhyhtm'n'Blues/Funk of Cajun Popcorn which may fit many kinds of cool selections. Their Hifivin' Time theme song is quite nice too, and should get tighter and tighter as they play it on stage....

Pepe Deluxé - Queen Of The Wave
(CD/LP) Catskils RIDCD23, 2012-01-30

Queen of the Wave is the fourth record from Finnish duo Pepe Deluxé. Their first album, Super Sound, released in 1999 on Catskills Records, has aged quite much since then. Their second one, Beatitude, from 2003, saw them starting to write real songs, with arrangements to be filed between DJ Shadow, The Herbaliser and The Beatles. It was one of the major electronic album releases of the year. Pepe Deluxé came back in 2007 with Spare Time Machine, a tripped-out, psychedelic masterpiece that didn't really fit in any category anymore. So to say we were expecting this new album is no exaggeration, and this is indeed a new, in-your-face, kind of eccentric thing. From bizarre pop to 60's psychedelic rock, from science-fiction to metaphysics, from heavy drums to pastoral folk, this is an intense piece of music excellence that won't fit in the big beat/future jazz niche the band used to blend in. Favorite tracks include the prog-rock-ish Queenswave, the big-beatlesy A Night And A Day, the trip-hop ballad My Flaming Thirst and the ravaging Queen-on-peyote The Storm. Already a contender for the best albums of the year selection!

Kojato and The Afro Latin Cougaritas - All About Jazz
(CD/Download) Buyú Records BU010CD, 2011-11-11 (bandcamp) 2011-12-12 (digital) 2012-01-13 (physical)

Oliver Belz, the man behind The Juju Orchestra, The Bahama Soul Club, regular guests of our 21st Century Latin mixes, is back with another new project, Kojato and The Afro Latin Cougaritas that's as much nu-jazz as it's 60s soul, 70s funk and afro-latin grooves. The Everywhere You Go Now Kuti kinda-tribute to Fela track is disturbing, it's not afrobeat at all, more of a Juju Orchestra latin thing with funky keyboards. Not that it's bad, but doesn't fit anywhere really, even though it should grace many groovy-lounge compilations in the coming months... African music lovers should go instead directly to the second half of the album, with tracks such as Afro Shigida (Original Lagos Cut), a glamourous take on afro-soul-jazz that'll grace our upcoming Bag of Goodies mix recorded last weekend with records labels and artists have sent to us during the last months. All in all this album's full of funky afro-latin-jazz for the modern rare groove dancefloors, just like the previous Oliver Belz productions: classy & smart, with a nice suit & moustache!

Raffertie - Mass Appeal
(12"/Promo CD/Digital Single) Ninja Tune ZEN12306, 2012-02-03

Contextually, the Mass Appeal EP fits neatly as a natural successor to Raffertie's most recent release, the critically-acclaimed Visual Acuity EP. This time it's more about the subtlety of groove and patchworks of sonic colour, rather than out-and-out dancefloor madness. The dexterity of its musical content, like that of VA, reveals itself in the elastic manipulation of its rhythms and timbres. From the burrowing focal clarity of the epic One Track Mind to the unnatural spinning, air-like quality of Brevity, this EP has a life completely of its own. Closing track Courage Boy is littered with traces of Raffertie's own voice, but rather than giving sole focus and attention to the voice as a lead line, he focuses on the texture of the sound, like any other instrument woven and balanced within the music.

Gregory Rogove - Piana
(CD/LP/Digital) Knitting Factory Records, 2012-01-31

Claude Debussy is a major inspiration for musicians of every faith in popular music. Debussy's seeds can be found in bossa nova, pop or contemporary jazz music from Antonio Carlos Jobim to Ryuchi Sakamoto, from Chilly Gonzales to Joe Henry just to name a few. And now young and talented multi-instrumentalist Gregory Rogove (Megapuss, Priestbird, Devendra Banhart) join this growing number of disciples. Piana (the female for piano?) is a moving collection of mere compositions for piano solo in the manner of the french masters - Debussy, but also the most eccentric pianist of all, Erik Satie. It's brilliant, often melancholic, sometimes funny, and it reminds us of the music played live over the silent movies in early cinema. John Medeski (of Medeski Martin & Wood) is the one and only guest musician on the record, but do not expect sick and mean hammond grooves à la MMW this time. John plays only the piano, and it's an amazing opportunity to hear him as we've never heard him before (except maybe on Marian McPartland's show). But why on earth did Gregory Rogove ask John Medeski to play on his record when he could have performed his own music? Yes, why?
"I asked John Medeski to perform the pieces for a number of reasons. First of all, he is a master performer with a very intimate knowledge of the instrument - something that I am not. Secondly, I thought that it would be interesting to capture the subterranean intensity of having a virtuosic improviser perform simple, composed pieces. Lastly, he's kinda cute" Greg said. The CD comes with a DVD featuring convincing remixes from The Bees, Billy Martin and Devendra Banhart among others.

JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra - Mediacracy
(CD/LP/Digital) Tramp Records TR-9014, 2012-01-30

After a first album in 2009, Afro Sound System (now sold out), the JariBu Afrobeat Arkestra have released late october 2011 their second opus Mediacracy, on Soul Garden Records in Japan. The album will be released in Europe by one of our favorite German labels, Tramp Records on January 30th 2012. A 7 inch, Legend Of Yoruba, pressed at 200 copies, was released in the UK in 2010. That's it for the official info. The other Afrobeat band from Japan that we've heard of is Kingdom Afrocks, maybe there are some others, since Afrofunk and Afrobeat are now a worldwide movement… But let's get back to this 13-piece outfit, one of the most enjoyable live acts from the Tokyo circuit. On this album they are joined by Temjin from Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro on trumpet, Hirose Takao from Jazz Collective/Masa Sextet on trombone and Takao Watanabe from Pikaia Pandeiro Special also on trumpet, which might explain why the first impression left by this album is one of a supa-heavy, fully-powered horn section, for fans of Afrobeat, of course, but also for fans of Funk and Jazz. A fiercely recommended album!