Paris DJs Soundsystem - In The Footsteps of the Ethio-Jazz Innovator (MP3 Podcast on www.ParisDJs.com) T.I.M.E.C., 2011-02-27 Next thursday evening in Paris will be a BIG date at La Bellevilloise, thanks to our friends from the Soul Train parties, who produce an Ethio Jazz Night with Strut... featuring Mulatu Astake and The Heliocentrics playing live!! You DON'T want to miss this show and as an appetizer here's a small tribute to the father of Ethio-Jazz, on the 21st century side of the genre and beyond. [comment faire?/how to?] Tracklisting : 01. The Gaslamp Killer - When I'm In Awe (feat....

Shawn Lee - World Of Funk
(CD/2xLP) Ubiquity Records, 2011-02-08

Here's the first listen to a new Shawn Lee record, set for release in Feb 2011. Lee says he lives in a World of Funk, and invited friends from around the globe to make his point; Brazilian singer-multi instrumentalist Curumin (Hailing from Sao Paulo, and of Japanese/Spanish Brazilian background,) British/Egyptian singer Natacha Atlas, Chhom Nimol - singer with the band Dengue Fever, Bardo of Chicano Batman and Cava, from LA, plus Truth and Soul Recording artist Michael Leonhart, NOMO bandleader Elliot Bergman, and Lee's mother-in-law (aka Nanny Jee)!

Floating Points - Future Soul from Sun Ra to Madlib (MP3 Podcast on www.ParisDJs.com) 2011-01-24 Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points has been shaking the electronic music world for two years now, through a string of releases and remixes... His smooth, dusty, soulful House sound, his techno-disco-boogie bubblism are rather Detroit-flavoured, while his samples are craftily cut into heavy bumping crunch-beats, paying respect to the lineage from Sun Ra to Madlib and onwards... This is future soul at the edge of modern British music! Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points has been shaking the electronic...

The Afro Soul-Tet - Afrodesia
(CD/2xLP) Luv'N'Haight / Ubiquity Records LH063, 2011-01-18

Jack Millman, aka Johnny Kitchen, had a hand in many interesting, obscure and highly collectible records from the 1960s and 1970s. Producing, composing, recording, editing, releasing, licensing - you name it, Millman did it. The records he touched had an eclectic range from psychedelic rock to Latin jazz, and several include editing techniques that can only be described as an early incarnation of sampling in music. After seeing them play on Sunset Boulevard, Millman became manager of the Afro Latin Blues Quintet +1, and signed them to Randy Woods in the late 1960s. Having released several albums this band would later become the Afro Soultet. The liner notes to their Afrodesia album state "This is Afrodesia! A Musical collage of many peoples. . .it comes from Africa and from Arabia, from the South Seas and from Asia." Living up to the promise of those notes Afrodesia mixes Latin Jazz, with straight jazz, worldly percussion, surf, rock, funk, oddball sound effects, a touch of lounge, and some hints of tropicalia. Millman produced and released the Afrodesia album on his own Banyon label sometime between 1968-1971 (no release date is listed on the record, and Millman cannot recall a more exact date.). After their short stint as the Afro Soultet, the band morphed one more time into The Afro Latin Soultet< releasing records with pianist Phil Moore III at the helm.

NOMO and Shawn Lee - Upside Down
(limited 7") Ubiquity Record UR7283, 2011-01-18

NOMO and Shawn Lee collaborate for this one-off 7" single which will be sold exclusively at upcoming NOMO gigs w/ Iron & Wine. This 7" tour exclusive is limited to 300 copies, it also features NOMO's Nocturne on the B-Side. This collaboration came about almost by accident. NOMO's Elliot Bergman had spent the better part of the summer building and recording electric kalimbas in Brooklyn, when label-mate Shawn Lee asked him to send over a kalimba track for his new album. Lee, based in London, added some funky drums, bass and a smattering of steel drums, and sent it back to Bergman. When Bergman's sister, Natalie, heard the instrumental track destined for Shawn's album, she decided that she had to add some vocals. She stayed up all night writing the tune and recorded the vocals in garage band. The happy result is a great groove, and NOMO's first vocal tune in ages.

Shawn Lee - Hooked Up Classics
(CD/2xLP) Ubiquity Records UR280, 2010-12-13

Shawn Lee dons his Ping Pong Orchestra hat for an album inspired by the Hooked On Classics series of the early 1980s. This popular series of albums (arranged by Louis Clark of Electric Light Orchestra fame) took well-known classical pieces and gave them a contemporary re-working, mostly adding a disco flavor. Lee throws his new musical twist on the idea, taking 12 favorite classical tracks and squeezing them through the Ping Pong Orchestra machine. While Lee has spent most of the year releasing and working on albums featuring vocal collaborations (the recent Sing A Song and upcoming World of Funk), this Ping Pong Orchestra album puts Lee back in library-record mode, creating cinematic instrumental music.

Various - Groove Merchant 20 (14 Selections From Behind The Counter)
(CD/2xLP) Luv N' Haight LH062, 2010-11-11

20 Years ago the Groove Merchant record store opened its doors on Haight Street in San Francisco. The rare funk, soul and jazz emporium became a mecca for collectors, DJs, music fans and producers. It was also the birthplace for the Luv N'Haight and Ubiquity Record labels. To celebrate this anniversary, Groove Merchant record store owner Chris Veltri is collaborating with Luv N'Haight and has compiled a tasty selection of 14 musical treats that range from soulful disco to dusty funky folk, and beyond. The forthcoming full-length album will be packaged for release on CD, and super limited edition 7 x 7" box set with an exclusive poster by Props/Wax Poetics designer Freddy Anzures. Liner notes will be by Oliver Wang of href="http://www.soul-sides.com" target="_blank">Soul-Sides.com, who says,

Radio Citizen - Hope and Despair
(CD/2xLP) Ubiquity Records URCD279/URCD279, 2010-10-19

Four years have passed since the release of Berlin Serengeti, the debut album from producer Niko Schabel and friends, aka Radio Citizen. His first album was an all-out assault of electronic music armed with organic tentacles that reached far into an eclectic bag of rough jazz and worldly funk. (...) Schabel creates music that balances being accessible and exciting by way of his ability to blend the electronic with the organic. On Berlin Serengeti he seamlessly glued-together a loose collage of sampled textures and embellished them with gifted musicians and vocalists. On Hope and Despair he takes an even headier blend of raucous live instrumentation and works it into gritty songs and walls of sound with deft mixing and subtle studio trickery all rooted by heavyweight bass lines. His mass ensemble of musical friends often performs together in the Radio Citizen live show that developed after the release of the first album. Their unified musical prowess is reflected in the soloing, the harmonies, and all the interactions, that lift Hope and Despair above its predecessor.

Jed and Lucia - Super Human Heart
(CD/2xLP) Ubiquity Records UR277, 2010-10-19

Like the distant cousins of Jose Gonzales and Boards of Canada, Jed and Lucia’s songs have a pastoral sensibility that has been warped by their love for electronics. Superhuman Heart is a kaleidoscope of tunes dreamed-up and recorded in the hills, parks and woods of North Berkeley. Their vocal harmonies smack of classic 1960s Cali-pop, but Jed and Lucia’s acoustic guitars and poignant lyrics are subverted by sun-drenched synths and bass lines that add a subtle dose of urban bump and grind. Folksy songs are transformed by acid-tripped atmospherics in a soundtrack for creatures that crawl from the back woods into the city at nightfall.

Jed and Lucia - Apostrophe/April Showers
(10"/Digital) Ubiquity Records UR278, 2010-10-05 (Digital), 2010-10-28 (Vinyl)

Like the distant cousins of Jose Gonzales and Boards of Canada, Jed and Lucia's songs have a pastoral sensibility that has been warped by their love for electronics. Their forthcoming album, Superhuman Heart, is a kaleidoscope of tunes dreamed-up and recorded in the hills, parks and woods of North Berkeley. This limited edition 10" (300 only!) features two tracks from that album, plus stellar remixes from Shawn Lee and Shlohmo. Lee turns the breezy Apostrophe into a catchy head-nod-inducing bossa with just a touch of psych. While LA beat scene fave Shlohmo bends the already-twisted folk sound of April Showers into a new more angular shape, complete with other-worldly electronics, aggo-gritty beats and plenty o'bass. Jed and Lucia's vocal harmonies smack of classic 1960s Cali-pop, but their acoustic guitars and poignant lyrics are subverted by sun-drenched synths and bass lines that add a subtle dose of urban bump and grind. Folksy songs are transformed by acid-tripped atmospherics in a soundtrack for creatures that crawl from the back woods into the city at nightfall.