Youthie
Rebel Horns

The Turbo Guidance quest keeps going on. Our musical roughnecks decided to seek help from a wizard. They needed to empower their earing sense and their dancing skills like mutant elves. Luckily the mighty Mali-I was living in the nearby forest and had something special to share... In his hightower, it took Mali-I years to find and cook secretly the delicate mixture. It's forbidden to name the ingredients, but once you taste it you immediately feel the bouncy chords and dub delays rising. Play the mighty sound of the "Fallow Tales" and enter into the blue magic power. Full versatility to expand your mind and to reach a parallel astral plane. Exactly what our heroes need to face the coming storm. Next step is going to be darker... *Sprinkle your ears with the red powder to increase the musical experience*Vinyl sweetly pressed in 400 limited copies (no repress business) with a riso insert printed in two colors (blue and black) on a Munchen Pure Rough paper 150g/m2 (at Studio Fidele, Paris).

Guadeloupe 1986. The football World Cup has all the Islanders' eyes riveted to their TV sets. At every half time breaks, local TV channel RFO broadcasts a music video on repeat: ‘’Tou’t Jou Pa Min’m". Max Rambhojan, the local singer responsible for this monster tune, has arrived. In the video, he effortlessly sings and kickstarts a joyous street party with his band, Show Man, his dancers, kids, friends, family and what seems like the whole neighbourhood. The song will gain cult status from then on, cementing the power of the 'Zouk Chiré' sound, a high tempo version of Zouk, highly influenced by Guadeloupe's Carnival mass drum bands. Max self-releases his first solo album on vinyl in 1985, enrolling some of the best musicians the scene has to offer: his band leader King Klero, Guy Jacquet of les Vikings de la Guadeloupe fame on production duties, Ramon Pyrmée on synths, Claude Vamur, Meliza… In 1992 a new solo album follows. By then the artists have familiarized themselves with computers and the sound has gone full-on digital. In that album Max records an updated version of his “Tou’t Jou Pa Min’m” anthem to great effect. Reducing Max Rambhojan to a zouk artist would be a mistake. He’s first and foremost a master of Gwo-Ka, a musical practice born during the transatlantic slave trade and performed by all ethnic and religious groups of Guadeloupe. It has never ceased to exist and has become a major part of the Island folk music culture. Max Rambhojan was schooled as a kid by Gwo-Ka pioneer Guy Conquette, and quickly joined the backing band of another legend, Ti-Sélès. That sound is the root of his particular style, especially vibrant on two tracks in his repertoire: “Cecilia” and “On Jou Matin”, both featured on this release's b-side. A touch of Spiritual Jazz is also palpable, allowing a magical vibe to spread, giving birth to some of the deepest music from this era. In 2019, Max still performs Gwo-Ka every week-end in Guadeloupe and also hosts a show on local radio Media Tropical, 88.1FM. Secousse and Hot Mule are proud to present those 4 lost gems on wax and digital, carefully restored and remastered.

Founded in 1996 by the German-Nigerian lead singer Ade Bantu, his brother Abiodun Odukoya and Patrice, BANTU have been one of the West African acts transforming the legacy of King Sunny Adé and Fela Kuti into the soundtrack of the continent. The group is distinguished by the fact that while created and fronted by vocalist Ade Bantu, it is unmistakably a collective, collaborative effort. When you have a band this strong, this tight where everyone gets to shine, magic happens. And once again with this new album, the 13-piece ensemble is pushing the boundaries of funkiness and political prowess for contemporary music, in Africa or globally. From their first release, “No Vernacular in 1996 to the present, BANTU has scored a series of hits across Europe and Africa garnering major awards. Indeed, the list of artists who've collaborated with BANTU is a testament to the power, originality and talent of the band: an international cornucopia including UB40, Tony Allen, Orlando Julius, Brothers Keepers (which they created), Gentleman, Ebenezer Obey and Burna Boy just to name a few. These collaborations helped the band earn several major Continental awards, including the Kora Awards (the Pan African equivalent of the Grammys) for “Best Group West Africa” and “Best Group Africa”. Their latest release Everybody Get Agenda is nothing short of a musical sensation - Afrobeat, Funk and Soul seamlessly flow into one another as they merge with Jazz, Highlife, Hiphop and Yoruba music. The lyrics address issues around corruption, injustice, migration, xenophobia and urban alienation while a guest appearance by Seun Kuti on “Yeye Theory” rounds up this solid long player. There is no doubt that with Everybody Get Agenda BANTU has not just charted new musical territory but reached it and planted the flag.

Eight years deep into their existence, Paris-based Mawimbi are proud to present their debut album Bubbling. Through their own label and events, the collective have championed up and coming artists who look to fuse african music with the modern dancefloor. They’ve released records from Lya, Onipa, Afriquoi and James Stewart and brought established artists and fellow travellers to such as Auntie Flo, Africaine 808, Awesome Tapes From Africa and Esa to Paris. Now it’s time for the collective to unveil their identity as producers and musicians in their own right.“Bubbling” refers to the many ideas, encounters and projects that the collective have come into contact with over the past years. Through their events and their work as label curators and remixers (for artists such as Oumou Sangaré, Blick Bassy, Cerrone, Onipa), Mawimbi have become known as ambassadors for “afro-electro” - whatever that might mean - and their debut album buzzes with the contagious energy of the music they love. If you ask Mawimbi, Afro-electro is about global and local inspiration, from both sides of the Black Atlantic. It’s about paying tribute to the forefathers and the brothers and sisters in arms across the world. Afrobeat, highlife, South African bubblegum pop, Malian music, maloya… Bubbling seeks to connect geographically separate but spiritually similar club sounds.Hence “El Caribe” (feat. Ghetto Kumbé) is half cumbia, half Carribean dancehall, while “Ngana” (feat. Fatim Kouyaté) has some elements of dub music and “Kakraa” (feat. K.O.G) nods to disco‐infused Ghanaian productions from the 70s. Despite the influences, this is a record designed for home-listening, a nod to our present circumstances, but also a deliberate step away from dancefloor. A moment of patience and reflection as much as joy and celebration.`Above all, Bubbling is a personal record, about unexpected cross-pollinations and the collective’s individual explorations of these musical territories. Mawimbi's own history is one of coincidences and chance encounters, and so is “Bubbling”. All the collaborations were born out of the connections made over the last 8 years. A WhatsApp chat with Zambian artist Mufrika, a spontaneous studio jam with Ghetto Kumbé in a Parisian Basement: these are captured moments of real, vital connections made.Like Mawimbi itself, Bubbling is a collage of relationships and shared experiences, shaped by nascent friendships and musical encounters. It’s a truly DIY document in that sense, the sound of the last eight years of the Mawimbi adventure: free spirited, passionate, warm and generous.