Gil Scott-Heron left us at the end of May. His bluesology, black American music and message marked us forever. Sandra Nkaké and Jî Drû have written and recorded in one night an homage piece, A Place For You!. Joined by a bunch of friends who felt as much concerned as they were, on a riff from Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues, they sing a chorus tribute to Scott-Heron and borrow a text extracted from I Think I'll Call It Morning. The original track was mixed by Blackjoy, with remixes from Mark de Clive-Lowe, Doctor L, Loik Dury, Eric Legnini, Jeff Sharel feat. Karl The Voice, DJ Oil or Vadim...

Our good ol' friend and doublebass player Lawkyz has just launched a new project, Versus, between hip hop, jazz, funk and blaxploitation. The band is playful and fun, sounding like early stuff from The Herbaliser with a distinguished French taste for Jazz musings. Their album will be out january 2012. Meanwhile, they've asked many of their friends for remixes and the n°1 reggae producer worldwide, Grant Phabao, who had already worked with Lawkyz in the past on some still unreleased tracks with Amayo from Antibalas, agreed to put his magic hands on the Mr Blue piece. The result is astounding...

©© Les Frères Smith - Contreband Mentality
(gatefold 2xLP) Cafe Creme Contreband Corporation, 2011-04-22
(CD/Digital) Comet, late may 2011

©© les Freres Smith - the Smiths brothers - is a Paris based 14 piece collective specialized in afrobeat and ethio flavoured grooves. These music smugglers have been touring the French and European scenes for more than 10 years, always with the same blasting energy. Well known for its explosive live interventions, the band is now releasing its first real album after various collaborations with artists such as Tony Allen, Kutiman, Franck Biyong, or Kokolo, among others. Already accounting as a reference on the Parisian live scene and after a first 7" single on Melting Pot Music, the crew is now releasing its very first album!! 11 crazy afro joints mashed up with as many influences as there are family members in this band, and gathering the cream of the Parisian afrobeat family. Produced by les Freres Smith themselves with support and precious help by mythical afrobeat label Comet Records led by Eric Trosset, featuring the great Tony Allen and the crazy guitarist minister Oghene Kologbo from Fela's Africa 70, the album was mixed and mastered by experienced producer Grant Phabao (T.I.M.E.C.), with the help of afrobeat specialist Loik Dury (Kraked Records) who mixed one of the album's tracks.

Paris DJs Soundsystem & Musiques Impures present Adrian Quesada's Spring Reverb (MP3 Podcast on ParisDJs.com and MusiquesImpures.com) 2011-04-13 The Echocentrics is a new project of psychedelic, cinematic and dusty soul produced by Adrian Quesada of Brownout/Ocote Soul Sounds/Grupo Fantasma fame. Loads of spring reverb, psyched out farfisa organs and heavy drums are accented by beautiful vocals sung in English, Spanish and Portuguese by Tita Lima from Brazil and Natalia Clavier from Argentina. The album is out on Ubiquity Records. Grant Phabao, without any doubt the greatest reggae...

Gimme gimme gimme some o'that... Reggay reggay! The vibe he received from the fine people of N.A.S.A. (Squeak E. Clean + DJ Zegon), after sending them a skanking reggae remix of their Money< track, pushed Grant Phabao to rework another track from their Spirit of Apollo album. Hip Hop feat. KRS-One, Fatlip, Slim Kid Tre is one of the coolest tributes to real hip-hop from the last years. The trick was to add a full Jamaican dubby smile to the whole, upload the mp3... and let you enjoy this exclusive remix - straight from the vaults of Paris DJs!...

The Black Cat - Hard 2 Find Vol.1 (MP3 Podcast on www.ParisDJs.com, digital album on www.Colored-Inc.com) Colored-Inc., 2011-03-04 The Black Cat, the first album on the Colored-Inc. label (colored-inc.com) launched a year ago by Djouls and Doctor L, is what some could say a 'world' album. Blending Latin grooves with Afro rhythms, Reggae harmonies with American Jazz or Funk vibes, Saudade with Jamaican riddims, Psychedelic Funk with Electronic R&B, Psychedelia and Hip Hop, with some lusty doses of Rub-a-Dub, Afro, Soul and Reggae in between, this is indeed a kinda world tour entirely...

Grant Phabao and Djouls Cosmic Tropical Disco (MP3 Podcast on www.ParisDJs.com) T.I.M.E.C., 2011-02-19 You might have already heard about people re-editing disco tracks for augmented dancefloor pleasure. You might even have read the latest issue of Wax Poetics and know about Tom Moulton, originator of the remix, the breakdown section, and the 12-inch single vinyl format. You've also probably heard everything about 'Cosmic', 'Tropical' and 'Disco' music... Well, here's our global tribute to this scene. Let's get the party started. [comment faire?/how to?] Tracklisting : 01. Doc Severinsen - Be...

Ari Roze - Why You Wanna (Be With Me) / Left & Rite
(limited 2x7", 300 copies) Mighty Highness Records MHR-7004/7005, 2011-01

Ari Roze's first 7inch single on Mighty Highness Records, Rolling with a Planet, took us to a place where Dub, Electro & Soul came together in an organic, spontaneous & dare we say, heretofore unimagined collision. Ari's been in the studio for a year now crafting what is to be a full length LP out in 2011 & we felt a special type of release was in order to celebrate its coming. This individually numbered & hand screen printed release features 2 x 7 inches in a recycled card gatefold sleeve. Of the 4 songs featured on this release only the title track will be on the album. None of this release will be available digitally, making it all the more collectable with only 300 copies being pressed. The labels for each record are also screen printed, so consider this a serious work of art. The music here is undoubtedly imaginative, different, unusual, whatever you want to call it.. But also in this day of the quickly come & go MP3 mentality, we think its necessary.. Time for a slow down & listen people. There's no anchor for this music, it steps to its own rhythm & style & a greater compliment we cannot think of. All of the instrumentation & lyrics are composed, recorded & often played by Ari Roze. All of it live, including string & horn sections, D6 clavinet, L100 hammond & leslie, drums etc.. & lastly, all recorded into vintage RCA ribbon mics & ampex pre's direct to tape. If you hear hiss, thats just part of the dusty flavour. ENJOY...
PS And it's mastered by Grant Phabao!!

Colored-Inc. presents Carlton Livingston (MP3 Podcast on www.ParisDJs.com) 2011-02-05 Carlton Livingston is one of the great, sort of lost singers of the early eighties dancehall scene. He's just released a new album, Bridge of Life and it's a killer. Under the production of Grant Phabao, Carlton's smooth style and voice made this album full of both dancehall mashers and lovers tunes. The sound is a cross between Groundation and more traditional 70's reggae from the island. Here's a selection of some of his earlier hits mixed with a few tracks from this new album. [comment faire?/how to?]...

Black Magic - Hard 2 Find Vol.5
(Download/Limited CD) Colored-Inc. COLI019, 2010-12-20

An artistic revolution has been ongoing these recent years in Paris, with some unique producers breathing new life into the idea of jazz music, upping the standards of sound and production to those of the masters - Miles Davis, Lee Perry, Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, Traffic and the such...

From the message-intense material, impressionistic soundscapes and folk musings of Doctor L to the dancefloor-filling cosmic afro and soulful roots reggae vibes of Grant Phabao, the Colored-Inc. collective has managed to create a solid universe, showcasing the many facets of the jazz spectrum in the shape of a free-minded label, undoubtly this year's most ambitious one.

Black Magic is their fifth experience in cooperative expression, a voodoo-themed concept album of music suitable for the dancefloor or the living room, a fresh wave of Jazz, Soul, Afro & Reggae production, untangling the scribble of the wicked world with clarity and maturity, and bringing Paris back to its rightful place, the cultural center of the world.


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