Carmen Randria & Radek Azul Band - Things You (Don't) Know
(CD/LP/Digital) Qsounds Recordings QS003/QS003LP, 2011-09-01

This is Soul! This is Radek Azul Band! Q-Sounds est le label. Radek Azul Band le groupe maison. Montreuil is the place. La forteresse de dix musiciens et choristes et de leur Northern Soul cuivrée. Influencés par les mythiques Motown, Hi ou Chess ou par les contemporains Daptone et Truth & Soul; obsédés par la qualité premium des productions Soul- Funk des 60’s et des 70’s comme par le Jazz-Funk, Radek Azul Band joue, compose et affine sa musique comme un artisan dans un monde d’industriels. Aucun trucage, tout est capté sur huit pistes et mixé pour toujours rester proche de l’os. Le son est brut et les arrangements polis par la main de l’artiste. Pas question de prescrire un traitement du Docteur Auto-tune pour aplanir le grain de la voix. Le résultat donne un disque 100 % Soul, sans verroteries créées par la magie numérique des 0 et des 1 mais avec d’authentiques chansons régulièrement reproduites sur scène.

East Of Underground - Hell Below
(3CD/3LP boxsets/Digital) Now-Again Records NA5083LP, 2011-11-07

Now-Again Records is proud to present Hell Below, three complete albums from the winners of the US Army's First and Second Annual Original Magnificent Special Services Entertainment Showband Contests, consisting of nearly two hours of heavy funk and soul music from the United States Army soldiers enlisted in the 70's. The 3-CD "mini-LP" box set contains exact album reissues, 32 tracks total, housed in thick cardboard, gatefold "tip-on" sleeves; 20-page full color booklet and an exact reproduction of 's 1971 tour poster. The 3-LP BOX SET contains exact album reissues, 32 tracks total, housed in thick-cardboard, gatefold "tip-on" sleeves; 28-page, full color booklet and an exact reproduction of East of Underground's 1971 tour poster. DIGITAL gathers East of Underground and The Black Seeds, 21 tracks total. SOAP album only available on CD/LP boxsets.

Adrian Younge presents Venice Dawn
(Free Digital Download) Wax Poetics Records, 2011-11-03

Wax Poetics Records releases a free Adrian Younge digital download as an appetizer to his much anticipated album, Venice Dawn's Something About April (out November 29th on Wax Poetics Records). This EP was originally released as very limited edition CD in 2000 when Adrian Younge began to work on his fictional italian and dark soul soundtrack Venice Dawn. We'll be publishing an Adrian Younge interview soon on Paris DJs, so stay tuned.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Soul Time!
(CD/LP/Digital) Daptone Records DAP024, 2011-10-31

Sharon Jones, former Lee Fields backing vocalist, will be releasing her 5th funk/soul album on Daptone Records on october 31st, with The Dap-Kings, the label's house band, backing her once again. The new record is a collection of rare tracks and b-sides. Genuine pt.1&2 is taken from a 2004 seven inch, and the all-so-true-ringing What If We All Stopped Paying Taxes? from a 2002 one. There's also the exclusive track Longer And Stronger, previously available on the For Colored Girls soundtrack from 2010. He Said I Can was an iTunes bonus track for the previous album I Learned The Hard Way and should be released in october on a Daptone 7 inch (with the exclusive It Hurts To Be Alone on the b-side). I'm Not Gonna Cry was featured on the Daptone Gold compilation from 2009. When I Come Home was on a 45 from 2010 given for free with pre-orders of I Learned The Hard Way and also available as a bonus MP3 download with purchase of the same album in digital form on DaptoneRecords.com. If buying on Amazon, you got Without A Trace as a bonus track. Settling In was the b-side of the 100 Days, 100 Nights 7 inch from 2008. Ain't No Chimneys was Daptone's 2009 christmas 45. The closing Inspiration Information, a Shuggie Otis cover, was to be found on the Dark Was The Night compilation from the Red Hot organization, released in 2009. So the only new track seems to be the Motwon-esque New Shoes, which also sounds like a lost soul classic, like the rest of the album. Is this compilation an essential addition to your funk/soul collection? Definitively. Don't hesitate. And stay connected, we'll soon publish an interview of your favorite soul sister in those pages...

Various - Boddie Recording Company : Cleveland, Ohio
(promo CD/3xCD/4xCD limited/5xLP/6xLP limited) Numero Group NUM035, 2011-10-25

The Numero Group has been releasing totally amazing rare soul compilations these last years. They're back with a new boxset to be released on october 25th, celebrating the Boddie Recording Company run by Thomas & Louise Boddie between 1958 and 1993. The boxset is a 5LP or 3CD one, gathering 58 tracks of eccentric soul, grainy funk and funky doo-wop or gospel. Something you should absolutely get your hands on? Surely! But if you consider buying the boxset (maybe for a christmas present?) you'll might be a little disappointed. A little. Because the pre-order period is over, and you won't get either the bonus 6th LP or the bonus 21 tracks CD... One could debate about the dark side of bonus material for early consumers for hours... but if this boxset's as luxurious as the previous Sly johnson Complete Mythology or the Light - On The South Side 70's Chicago blues boxsets, then it's another absolute must buy!

General Elektriks - Parker Street
(CD/Digital) Elektriks Collection/Discograph (Europe/Japan)/Quannum Projects (North America) 2011-10-18

General Elektriks is the brainchild of French vintage keyboard player/ composer/ singer/ producer Hervé Salters. Blending keyboard funk, oldschool pop and hip hop beats in his home studio in the San Francisco Bay Area, Salters has released 3 albums as General Elektriks: Cliquety Kliqk (2003), Good City For Dreamers (2009) and this new one, Parker Street(2011). RV quickly became the go-to Parisian for "vintage sound", scoring session work with Femi Kuti, -M-, and DJ Mehdi, among others, before leaving in 1999 to relocate to the US. In 2009 he was also featured in the classic hip hop compilation selected by Paris DJs alumni Djouls & Loik, It's The New Hip Hop Thing Volume 1. The new album Parker Street was released mid October by cuting-edge French label Discograph in Europe and Japan and by Quannum Projects in North America. Parker Street is the most successful and most dense of General Eletriks albums, filled with multiple influences and perfused by the energy and experience of live concerts.

The Stepkids - The Stepkids
(CD/LP with bonus postcard 45/Digital) Stones Throw STH2270, 2011-09-23

Connecticut psych-soul outfit The Stepkids are three singer-songwriters destined for great things together. The Stepkids' groove is a fusion of 70s soul, funk, punk, jazz, folk, West African rhythms and modern classical. This gifted band absorb it all, then produce, engineer and record something altogether new on a reel-to-reel. This is psychedelia for the 21st century, where the focus is on the whole. This approach comes from more than a decade of musical experimentation and experience. Raised on the East Coast jazz and the R&B circuit, individual band members went on to share stages with 50 Cent and Lauryn Hill, tour internationally with indie punk band Zox, score movies and commercials, and produce solo albums. Now it's time for The Stepkids to take their time in the spotlight.

Mike James Kirkland - Don't Sell Your Soul
(limited edition 2xCD/2xLP/Digital) Ubiquity Records/Luv'N'Haight LHCD/LP064, 2011-10-18

Before the release of his seminal, socially-conscious, 1972 soul album, Hang On In There, a young Mike James Kirkland released a number of singles as Mike and The Censations. Despite being offered a record deal by Curtis Mayfield, eventually making a deal with MCA, and selling in excess of 50,000+ singles, Mike and the Censations never released an album and never fully realized their potential. Here for the first time are all of his early-releases, along with some unreleased gems discovered on tapes as this project was being researched. Pigeon-holed as a doo-wop group by one of their early labels, Mike and The Censations fought to battle that image. In doing so they made a unique blend of soul, funk, and even jazz-influenced tunes, occasionally sneaking in an up-tempo number on a B-side. Their doo-wop tunes were pretty damn amazing too, dripping in soul and becoming big favorites of the low-rider scene.
"This is a VERY welcome re-issue ! I remember it took me years to find the previous Luv'N'Haight reissues of "Hang On In There" and "Doin' It Right"... Add to that the collection of earlier 45s from the 60s, and it 's definitively an essential Soul (re-)release!" - (Djouls/Paris DJs)

Mr. Chop - Switched On
(CD/2x10"/9"/Digital) Now-Again / Five Day Weekend FDW7705, 2011-10-17

Now-Again Records, in association with Five Day Weekend, presents Mr. Chop's Switched On over the course of a 9" single and a 2x10" LP. If you're a long-time Paris DJs reaer/follower, by now you know all about the man - but, in case you need a primer: Coz Littler aka Mr. Chop is a producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist and the proprietor of Cheshire, UK based Ape Recording Studios, one of the finest analog studios in the world.... and a repository for vintage synthesizers, guitars, drums and gear sourced from the world over. Which brings us to Switched On, his homage to the great Moog-lead albums that proliferated in the wake of the synthesizer's invention in the late 60s and early 70s. But, unlike those records - like Dick Hyman's Age of Electronicus which contained one great synth-funk track amidst a series of soft pop hits, this album is all killer, and no filler. Mr. Chop tackles songs by the likes of Can, The JB's, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Smith via a still-futuristic blend of heavy drums by The Heliocentrics' Malcolm Catto, and his own and funky bassline, fuzzy guitars and cosmic keys.

Mr. Chop - Silver Frequencies
(Promo CD) Now-Again Records/Five Day Weekend FDW 7704P, 2009

Coz Littler aka Mr. Chop has been releasing his music on his own label, then on Gerald 'Jazzman' Short's Stark Reality label, then on Dusty's Jazz & Milk Records. He's now signed on Stones Throw's subsidiary label Now-Again Records and is releasing new music with the help of, among others UK psych-heads, Malcolm Catto & Mike Burnham from The Heliocentrics. Mr. Chop has a new mind-blowing album coming out in november (Switched On), and if you're a fan of mixtures of fuzzy psychedelia, electronics, cinematics, funk and jazz with a heavy dose of mind-expanding tripping grooves, don't pass out on this one... and if you're able to find some information about this promo-only album released in 2009, Silver Frequencies, don't hesitate to share it with us!!!