VARIOUS ARTISTS - The Cosmic Soul Syndicate Presents Interstellar Soul: The Final Chapter (2010)

Newest and last chapter of the Interstellar Soul series, a kinda different Soul compilation conceived by the prolific DJ GP from DOVELHOAONOVO Camp!! This time GP join forces with long time GGC fellows Vlada Stojanovic and Jay Fusion, plus the legendary Lord Blak and his partner Joaquino De Lorenzo from the Blak´s Lair Family, to form The Cosmic Soul Syndicate, a supergroup responsible for this awesome compilation!! As the title suggests, this is the last volume of the series, where the ideas reach a level never before seen in the previous volumes!! When we get the album to see the tracklist it´s clearly noticeable that there are some hardcore changes in the concept, and it runs through the entire album, from the beginning to the end, with future and vintage Soul, Jazz and Funk tracks changing places all the time, all with that spacey feel we always loved from this series. The cosmic approach is so strong that it seems we're listening to music in another dimension, such seriousness the group implies to it. It´s a shame this astonishing compilation ends here. Hope these guys can come with more and more from this kind, although not with this series!! Definetly a work we´ll be proud to listen for a very long time!! 42 tracks divided in 2 CDs, and titles include “Dawn” by George Duke, “My Music” by Samuel Jonathan Johnson, “Quasar” by Herbie Hancock, “Space Odyssey” by Marcus Belgrave - Just to name a few from the vintage “galaxy” - and GPs rework for “Falling Down” by Julien Dyne, “Glory Us” by Jimetta Rose, who appears two times – alone and together with Shafiq Huseyn and Bilal in the great “Lost & Found” – “Piece Of Art” by Lorett Fleur and LMNO, “Hope” by Mark De Clive-Lowe´s protegé´s Rahel, just to mention some of the many 21st Century Soul tracks figured in this stuff.

Tracklisting:

CD 1:

1. Welcome Aboard (Intro)
2. George Duke - Dawn
3. Julien Dyne - Falling Down (GP Rework)
4. Skymark feat. Deva Mahal - The Shadow
5. Samuel Jonathan Johnson - My Music
6. Lowrell - Mellow Mellow Right On
7. Opolopo feat. Ed Blak - Trips To The Moon
8. Bobby Lyle - Night Breeze
9. Azymuth - Manhã
10. Kirk De Giorgio´s As One - Out Of Darkness
11. Catalyst - Little Miss Lady
12. Cloud One - Dust To Dust
13. Emanative - We Travel The Spacebeats
14. Lorett Fleur feat. LMNO - P.O.A. (Piece Of Art)
15. Shafiq Husayn feat. Jimetta Rose & Bilal - Lost & Found
16. Bottom Fly - Ego
17. Cesar Mariano - Poluição
18. Kool & The Gang - Winter Sadness
19. Breakthrough feat. Amp Fiddler - Highway 2 U
20. The Raah Project - Will You Be There
21. The Temptations - Mother Nature


CD 2:

1. (Interspace)
2. Dexter Wansel - Life On Mars
3. Ian Pooley - What's Your Number (Jazzanova Renumber)
4. Mark De Clive-Lowe feat. Cherie Mathieson - Move On Up
5. Intuit feat. Andy Bey - Planet Birth
6. Lesette Wilson - Caveman Boogie
7. Dwele - Lady Love
8. Rahel - Hope
9. Jimetta Rose - Glory Us
10. Suzi Analogue - The Thing
11. José James - Made For Love
12. Ra-Re Valverde - Take Me Back
13. The Clonious - Emora
14. Flying Lotus - Camel
15. Herbie Hancock - Quasar
16. Marcus Belgrave - Space Odyssey
17. Marcos Valle - Previsão do Tempo
18. Gene Harris - Losalamitoslatinfunklovesong
19. Manchild - We Need We
20. Tettorybad feat. Paul Randolph - Ruff And Tuff
21. Eddie Henderson - We End In A Dream


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ROBERT GLASPER - Double Booked (2009)

Great work from Robert Glasper, one of our favorite new artists on Blue Note in years, a hell of a great piano player, with a fluid groove that just gets better and better with each new record!! Glasper has a way of warming us up right away, sliding into a compelling piano line that holds us rapt, and really takes us on a journey, a bit like the best work of Bheki Mseleku back in the 90´s, but with an undercurrent of funkier NY modes too!! Half the record features Robert in trio format, playing both acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes, and the rest of the set moves into "experiment" tracks that bring in Casey Benjamin on saxes, plus some electric bass, and very funky drums from Chris Dave, who also plays on the trio numbers. Mos Def makes a vocal appearance on one track, and Bilal appears on two more, but our favorite grooves are always from Glasper's keyboards, especially his acoustic piano!!

Tracklisting:

The Robert Glasper Trio
1. Intro
2. No Worries
3. Yes I'm Country (And That's Ok)
4. Downtime
5. 59 South
6. Think Of One

The Robert Glasper Experiment
7. 4eva
8. Butterfly
9. Festival
10. For You
11. All Matter
12. Open Mind

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JASPECTS - Polkadotted Stripe (2009)

There's plenty to love in the music of Jaspects, a groove that's fresh, instrumentation that's real, and a solid, soulful sound all the way through!! The group have a wonderful way of mixing Jazz with heavier rhythms, a dose of Hip Hop production, yet never in ways that kill the instrumental sensitivity of the group, nor the warmer Soul of their lyrics. Keyboards figure heavily on most numbers, bumping along with the beats, but always keeping things cool, and there's kind of a slow-bubbling groove to the record that makes for a real change from other sets of this nature. Things are somewhat more cosmic than before, yet never too spacey, and the set marks a great leap forward for the group, who should hopefully reach a big new audience with this release!!

Tracklisting:

1. 2012 feat. Janelle Monae
2. Fallin'
3. Polkadotted Stripes
4. Play On
5. Unifunk
6. Like a Drum
7. Be Your Man
8. Find My Way To Love (Chantae Cann)
9. Chuck Jones
10. Liquid Sounds (Pj Morton)
11. 1963

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VARIOUS ARTISTS - Pleasure Of Diggin Vol. 3 - Trip To Japan Selected And Compiled By Vlada Stojanovic (2009)

The third installment in Vlada Stojanovic´s Pleasure Of Diggin series, and one which surprises us with a batch of Japanese jazzy grooves that´s hotter than hell!! Vlada does another great job here, selecting the tracks and producing the compilation for Global Grooves Collective and GPs label, Funky Child Records. Vlada catch some J-Jazz luminaires like Hidefumi Toki, Ken Muramatsu, The Rising Sun Band (together with bassist Teruo Nakamura), Shunzo Ohno and others in some of their best moments, sometimes more straight Jazz, sometimes clubby, and sometimes funky, always in a high top level. Another solid work from the Serbian DJ/producer who catch us by the ears each time he appears with a new compilation!!

Tracklisting:

CD 1:

1. Hidefumi Toki - Short Story
2. Kazumi Watanabe And The Gentle Thoughts - Poppy's Walk
3. Katsuji Amazaki - With A Light Heart
4. Ryojiro Furusawa Group - History Of Tabasco
5. Ken Muramatsu - Ocean Boulevard
6. Shigeharu Mukai - Short Legs' Step
7. Yoshiaki Masuo - Sweet And Easy
8. Teruo Nakamura And Rising Sun Band - Wind Smile
9. Hidehiko Matsumoto - Satin Doll
10. Masaru Imada - Rainy Afternoon

CD 2:

1. Yuji Toriyama - Midnight Struttin'
2. Himiko Kikuchi - Everyday's A Miracle
3. Mikio Masuda - Another Rainy Day In New York City
4. Kanzaki On The Road - Non More Salsa
5. Jun Fukamachi - In The Holiday Groove
6. Naoya Matsuoka And Wesing - Rap Out (Oye Baila Mi Son)
7. Masaki Matsubara - S.O.S. (Society Of Soul)
8. Shunzo Ohno - The Dawn
9. Kazu Matsui - Overture
10. Toshiyuki Daitoku - Prudish Walk

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STONEPHACE - Stonephace (2009)

Funk and Psychedelia steeped jazzy grooves from Stonephace, an incredible project from Brit saxophone player and boundary skirting soundscape crafter Larry Stabbins, adding up to one of the best albums on the always reliable Tru Thoughts label!! Stabbins brings a Jazz pedigree to the table, but his way of blending excellent musicianship with a timeless palatte of global Funk rhythms, Psychedelia, and all around trippy grooves is top notch, he plays sax, flutes and tripped out organs in Stonephace on top of writing and co-producing, and he's a big enough talent to bring some incredible players on board. The album was co-produced by Krzystof Oktalski, who brings in some beats and noises of his own, with guitar atmospherics by Adrien Utley of Portishead, beats & percussion by Jim Barr, plus keys, rhythm guitar, percussion and trumpet by Helm Devegas. Avant Funk excellence, a project that's up there with the Heliocentrics in our book for genre-straddling instrumental Jazz Funk and beatcraft!!

Tracklisting:

1. Wedgehead Gets Lucky
2. Twin Earth
3. Yellow Brick Road
4. Rotor
5. Contextual Meaning
6. Five Miles High
7. The Last Myth Of The Given
8. White Queen Psychology
9. Levels And Degrees Of Light
10. Essays For Alice
11. Stonephace

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ELISABETH KONTOMANOU - Back To My Groove (2007)

An amazing singer, and a hell of a writer too, one of those artists who comes along out of nowhere, then grabs you with their talent, and makes you wonder how you missed out on their music for the past few years!! Elisabeth Kontomanou wrote almost all the tunes on this set, and they're all pretty wonderful numbers that mix together Jazz, Soul, and a free-thinking ideas, openly soaring, highly rhythmic modes that sing out with a great sense of joy and life, in ways that are unlike anyone else we can think of. There's definitely a righteous undercurrent to some of the work, but the execution's different than older work that we know too, very much in the forefront of the most creative Jazz vocal expression of the 21st Century, with a depth in conception that matches Elisabeth's great vocals!!

Tracklisting:

1. Back To My Groove
2. What A Life
3. Where I'm Coming From
4. The Abuse
5. Black Angel
6. You've Changed My World
7. Late Cold Night
8. Summer
9. My Love
10. Dreams Of Gold (Are Dreams Of You)
11. Peace On Earth
.
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U-NAM - The Past Builds The Future (2005) / Back From The 80´s (2007) / Unanimity (2009)

Three great albums from the guitarrist U-NAM!! First we come with his debut, The Past Builds The Future, presenting a great sound and showing us how it all begun. Then, the great Back From The 80´s, where he brings a whole bunch of Soul and Jazz from the legends along for the ride!! Here, he sounds even better, and really lives up to the classic sound promised in the title!! The set feels a bit like an R&B fusion album on Columbia or Elektra from a few decades back, smooth, but still quite soulful, and recorded with a nice sense of sound and space that never lets things get too commercial. And finally, the new one, Unanimity, a lean, mean guitar one, working in a groove that's slightly different than before, but equally groovy!! The album's got a funkier feel than his last set, a bit more playful in the arrangements, although still always with a classic-styled approach that makes U-Nam's guitar lines echo the smoother side of 70´s and 80´s fusion in a really great way!!

The Past Builds The Future (2005) - Tracklisting:
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1. From M. A To L.A
2. Love's Taken Over feat. Rahsaan Patterson
3. I'm Only
4. Ça Va Le Faire!
5. L.A. Party
6. Blue Mood feat. Leedia
7. Strike First feat. Gary Meek
8. My Inspiration feat. NYR
9. Soul Cantine
10. Right Here, Right Now feat. Phil Perry
11. Higher
12. French Flavor
13. Groovin' Paris feat. Jeff Lorber



Back From The 80´s (2007) - Tracklisting:
.
CD 1:

1. Street Life
2. Breezin' M.A
3. Keep The Faith
4. Slowdown
5. Turn Your Love Around
6. Mister GB
7. Just A Kiss & Goodbye
8. From Overseas
9. I Can't Help It
10. Just Like Real Lovers Do
11. Love Will Find The Way
12. Where Is The Love?

CD 2:

1. Love's Taken Over feat. Rahsaan Patterson (BFT80S Remix)
2. Right Here, Right Now feat. Phil Perry (BFT80S Remix)
3. Take da Time feat. Abiodun Oyewole (BFT80S Remix)
4. My Inspiration feat. NYR
5. 'Cos I Do feat. Daddy O & Riverside
6. Blue Mood feat. Leedia
7. Love's Taken Over feat. Rahsaan Patterson (Original Version)



Unanimity (2009) - Tracklisting:
.
1. Funk-4-U-nity
2. Shine On
3. Unanimity
4. This Is Just 4 U
5. The Day I Met U
6. Soul Boy Reincarnation feat. Najee
7. (Hang On) U-Is Comin'
8. 4 Ever Urs
9. My Heart & Soul
10. Dancing In The Streets feat. Marva King
11. Losing My Mind
12. U Could Make It Happen
13. SoulIsm

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SCALLYMATIC ORCHESTRA - Annie Get Your Gun (2009)

The group's name and the album title hardly do this one justice, as the record's a really jazzy little effort that has plenty of niceness to offer!! Most of the instrumentation is live, played by a combo that includes trumpet, saxes, flute, guitar, keyboards, bass, and percussion, and the tunes are partially Club Jazz numbers, and partially tracks with a straighter Jazz feel, numbers that kind of take on some of the recent Schema groove, but get a little bit warmer, thanks in part to the guitar, and the lack of any rhythm programming!!

Tracklisting:

1. Minor Moves
2. Before My Time
3. Do It Again
4. Mother N Soul
5. Jasmin
6. Lullaby For Lou And Bobbi
7. Groovy Couple
8. On The Two
9. The Mc
10. Mushroom Johnny
11. Cloud City
.
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NOSTALGIA 77 - The Nostalgia 77 Sessions Vol.1 Feat. Keith & Julie Tippett (2009)

One of the deepest records ever from Nostalgia 77, a set done in close collaboration with Brit Jazz legends Keith and Julie Tippett!! The album's even more Jazz-based than other recent Nostalgia 77 work, and both Tippetts figure heavily in the sound, Keith on sharp-edged piano lines that haven't sounded this good in many years, and Julie singing both wordlessly and with lyrics, in dark-toned lines that really remind us what a revolutionary singer she can be!! Some tracks have a slow-burning groove, while others get a bit out at points, and the always-solid basslines of Riaan Vosloo really help ground the whole proceedings!!

Tracklisting:

1. You Don't Just Dream When You Sleep
2. Film Blues
3. Sketch For Gary/Billy Goes To Town
4. Mice
5. Rainclouds
6. Lapis Blue
7. Soothing The Rattlesnake
8. Miniature
9. Vienna
10. Visions
11. Okinawa
12. Temple
13. Four Whispers For Archie's Chair
14. New Inner City Blues
.
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MULATU ASTATKE & THE HELIOCENTRICS - Inspiration Information Vol. 3 (2009)

A stunner of a joint effort from Ethio Jazz Funk visionary Mulatu Astatke and Psyche Funk genre-busting combo the Heliocentrics, a record we had the highest hopes for and still find wildly above and beyond our loftiest expectations!! The collective touch on some classic Mulatu compositions, but the bulk of the material here is brand new, and purely collaborative, if you know the Helioecentrics or you know Mulatu, you can clearly hear what each bring to the table, and it works together brilliantly!! There's often a gritty Funk bottom end, the best drums and percussion, fat electric bass lines underneath Ethio Jazz inspired sax, trumpet, trombone and flute, swirling psychedelic flourishes with theremin and other effects that never take away from the groove. Mulatu's on vibes, percussion, Wurlitzer, drums and keyboards, and his compositions and the Helios trade back and forth throughout the set. There's some additional ethiopian instrumentation and atmospheric vocals in the mix on some tunes, and more of an astral, avant Funk vibe on others, but there's always a brilliant confluence of styles. Bottom line, the album is everything we wanted it to be and more, this will undoubtedly be favorite for years to come!!

Tracklisting:
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1. Masengo
2. Cha Cha
3. Addis Black Widow
4. Mulatu
5. Blue Nile
6. Esketa Dance
7. Chik Chikka
8. Live From Tigre Lounge
9. Chinese New Year
10. Phantom Of The Panther
11. Dewel
12. Fire In The Zoo
13. An Epic Story
14. Anglo Ethio Suite

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THE FANTASTICS - Mighty Righteous (2008)

Hard grooving throwback Funk, mod Jazz, and 60´s R&B flourishes from the mighty Fantastics, a pretty deft mix of instrumental Funk & Soul with a mastery of classic styles!! The core combo features organ & piano from Greg Boraman, who has roots in fellow UK Funk combo the Soul Destroyers and has also sat in with compatriots Reverend Cleatus & The Soul Saviors, so the pedigree is there, plus Pete Collision on guitar, Raydn Hutner on bass and James Rule on the kit. Guests include Mark Norton on sax and flute, Matt Wilding on congas, and UK Soul vocalists Noel McCoy on Soul Child. Great stuff, and another feather in the cap of modern Funk & Soul flag wavers at Freestyle Records!!

Tracklisting:
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1. Don't Follow Leaders
2. Nine Lives
3. Soul Child
4. The Doctor Is In
5. Kinshasa Five
6. The White Out
7. Stay Hip (Or Die Trying)
8. I Can't Dance With You (Pt. 1)
9. Mighty Righteous
10. Soul Sucka
11. Blue Sunday

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