Souleance - Le Plaisir / Chemise
(7"/Download) First Word Records FW35, 2010-01-11

Souleance are back with their second single on First Word. After the massive success of their debut Le Monde EP, the French duo of DJ Soulist (What The Funk?) and producer Fulgeance (Musique Large / Peter Digital Orchestra / One-Handed) have crafted one of the first must-have releases of 2010.

Souleance will be back later this year with their debut album. With a growing legion of fans including Gilles Peterson (who picked their track Manana for his Brownswood Bubblers compilation) and Radio Nova (France) who have booked the duo to play at their prestigious Nuitz Zebrees event in December, 2010 is gonna be big for Souleance.

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The Duke and The King - Nothing Gold Can Stay
(CD) Ramseur Records (US) / Loose Records (UK), 2009-08-04

On August 4, Ramseur Records in the US and Loose Records in the UK released Nothing Gold Can Stay by The Duke & The King, an album recorded in the the coldest Catskill winter, that shimmers with the light of memory and hope. The album features ten new songs, all co-written by The Duke (Simone Felice of The Felice Brothers) and The King (Robert Chicken Burke, from the Kraked family, longtime partner of Loik Dury, member of the cult Drugs soul/p-funk band, involved in many projects from the 20th connection of Paris DJs), and was recorded on a two-inch tape machine in Burke's one-room, woodstove-heated cabin - affectionately known as The Chapel - in Woodstock, NY. Folk-blue-eyed-soul at its best!

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Souleance - Le Monde EP
(12" / Download) First Word Records FW27, 2009-06-01

First Word are back with another banging release, this time from the first international signing to First Word, Souleance, live and direct from Paris. SOULEANCE is the result of the partnership between producer Fulgeance and DJ Soulist of What The Funk… Soulist and Fulgeance met in 2006 while performing and from that friendship the Souleance project was born: a mixture of Soulist's organic influences and the raw energy and production skill of Fulgeance. The EP covers many genres, taking in Hip Hop (Manana), Breaks (Le Monde and One Step) and even the funkier end of the 80s (Cool FM ). Already receiving radio support from Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio One (Manana is currently featured on his myspace player), the Le Monde EP is the first of many massive releases from thus talented duo.

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Various - It's The New Hip Hop Thing Volume 1
Selection & sleeve notes by Djouls (TIMEC/Paris DJs) with the help of Loik Dury (Kraked/Paris DJs)
(CD) Vibrations VIBRATIONSHIPHOP01, 2009-02-23

Hip hop is a culture that's became mainstream. But indie labels and artists still appear and spread everywhere, more than ever. Filled with jazz, funk, soul, rock, samples, scratches, breakbeats, rhymes, "It's the new hip hop thing" is an 2009 snapshot of the kaleidoscopic panorama of current productions. AND it's selected by Djouls & Loik, founders and activists of parisdjs.com...

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Alice in Jamaica !!

Tru Thoughts loved this fanblog, they even used to say it was "better than the official site". Thankfully, the Tru-Thoughts website (tru-thoughts.co.uk) has been re-designed and is now quite the best I must admit. Hopefully, I've now started to integrate in this site (tru-thoughts.net) more content, announcing shows in Paris in collaboration with Paris DJs and 3eme Voie, adding new artists and labels in the scene musical universe as Brighton's finest...

The connection goes now even deeper now... Last year while legendary Studio One deejay The Lone Ranger (rangerstyle.com) was at TIMEC's studios in Paris, I had him listen to many new releases, I order to produce some cool bootlegs together. The Jamaican rub-a-dub master agreed immediatly to the idea, saying "we've been doing bootlegs in Jamaica for 30 years!"... The artist that knocked his ears was Alice Russell, of course: he loved "Humankind" and wanted to play around with this track.

French reggae dubmeister Grant Phabao (grantphabao.com) took the acapella from the 12 inch, built a new riddim just for it, while The Lone Ranger checked the lyrics in order to write a few new verses that wouldbe replying to Alice's ones. A few days later, the night before going back to Jamaica was the one, and Phabao and Ranger recorded their "Tuff n'Uff Skank" remix of Alice Russell's "Humankind"...

Rob Luis (A&R for Tru Thoughts) and TM Juke (producer of the original version of the track) loved it right away and soon started asking to release it themselves.... We were thrilled by the idea and started thinking of an "Alice In Jamaica" concept of bringing more Alice Russell songs into pure roots reggae territories.

Grant Phabao picked into my Tru Thoughts vinyls and found out more Alice Russell acapellas were available. Bim bam! Digitalized into WAV files, riddim-ized into skanking beats and one drop grooves, 3 more remixes happened quite fast.... The Tru Thoughts crew loved those too and I'm now please to announce they've scheduled an autumn release of those 4 Grant Phabao reggae remixes on a "Shapes EP" 12 inch and on a "Shapes compilation" CD! Can't wait to get your feedback on those...
Djouls (TIMEC/Paris DJs)

The remixes are :
• Alice Russell - Humankind (Grant Phabao tuff 'n uff skank starring The Lone Ranger)
• The Quantic Soul Orchestra feat. Alice Russell - Pushin' On (Grant Phabao remix)
• Nostalgia 77 feat. Alice Russell - Seven Nation Army (Grant Phabao remix)
• Alice Russell - Fly In The Hand (Grant Phabao remix)