Lee McDonald
Sweet Magic

Founded by the pianist Robin Notte (from the former electro-jazz band WISE) Panam Panic is one of the best Jazz-Groove french bands. Influenced by Musicians like Yussef Dayes, Robert Glasper, Roy Hargrove or Christian Scott, Panam Panic mix up Jazz with groove, Hip hop and electronic textures. The Black Monk is their first vinyl album.Robin Notte's gamble is to create a Jazz which is sufficiently sophisticated to delight the most demanding experts, yet also accessible enough to initiate neophytes.As such, Panam Panic defends a resolutely actual Jazz, open with no borders or blinders, combining powerful organic grooves with tidy melodies, delicate harmonies and frenzied solos

“These eight musicians are an unfailing combination of pleasure and precision. (…) Together, their strike force is undeniable. And as each one of them has the chance to shine on their own, the “wow!” effect is magnified. These guys seem to be having the time of their lives. And when you see the fans on the ground floor jumping and dancing, their pleasure is contagious.”"Soul Therapy for Montreal, ready to spread worldwide" MOJO "One step forwards, with its lucid 70s style rhythm recalling George Clinton or Sly Stone." Clash Magazine

In the 80s, a Nigerian DJ named Hycentto Junior was notorious for making Onitsha people dance on his grooves. Soon, influenced by U.S hip-hop artists, he began rapping on top of the music he played.His eccentric style drew the attention of the biggest name, and the famous Nkono Teles decided to work with him on his next LP, Mama Groove. Their project was released in 1991. Due to unfortunate circumstances, the number of copies available was really low, making it very hard to find.More than 25 years later, working for a motor company, Hycentto met online with French music passionate collective “Lorem Ipsum”, that had randomly found his Mama Groove LP.The result is a reissue auditioning all the 1991 Mama Groove’s tracks and two bonuses selected from his first 1984 album, At A Party Last Night. The unique variety of sounds and genres, covering Electro Hip-Hop, Digi Reggae and Disco-Funk, will carry you from poolside to late night dancefloors!

"What you have here, pouring out of your listening devices, is Parisian Dreams. A genre-busting, generation-spanning, cross-pollination of 21st century beatmaking and 1970’s psychedelic composition. The styles are myriad. Running the gamut, between acoustic folky guitar riffs, through fuzzy movie-soundtrack textures, hitting grooves that land somewhere between dub and funky breakbeat jazz. MPC producer Yeti recently found himself in a session with one of his musical heroes, Janko Nivolic. A veteran composer of psychedelic funk and jazz dating back to the late 1960’s. In his digging and sampling obsession Yeti had marvelled at the compositions of Mr Nivolic for years, collecting these rarities, mostly found on obscure Library records. The title ‘Parisian Dreams’ is highly significant as is explained in this anecdote from Yeti. “At the session that I was involved in with Janko in Paris, he showed up with a score that he had conceived while dreaming the previous night. He awoke at 5 AM, scribbled it down immediately and brought it with him to the session. He didn’t need to take it over to the piano, to check if it made sense. He just knew it did. Blew my mind!” So, sit back and absorb these magical sounds from the sub-conscious of an 80 year-old musical legend, combined with punchy beats, from a revered MPC pad-tapper, specially designated, to give your woofers a workout. DJ Ollie Teeba". (Text by Soundsci/The Herbaliser)

A 12inch single from the incredible French Afro Funk band including remixes by the one and only Osunlade under the collective name of Yoruba Soul!Since their first acclaimed album Apiafo and its irresistible single “Pas contente”, these Lyon (France) natives never turned down the heat over 160 stages across Europe, Africa, Canada, Japan... Peter Solo has displayed his amulets, voodoo chants and charisma around the globe. When it came time for them to harness their Afro Soul sound for the second time, they turned their attention once again to their analog strengths. On the road Peter Solo and Osunlade met and could share their musical visions. It was obvious that this two will share their spiritual music experiences.Kidayu is the name of the second opus which means “sharing”: it’s exactly what those versions of “On se pousse” are about: a true futuristic Hi-life, a great meeting of two ardent defenders of the Afro Soul sounds ! Limited press, mastered by Carvery.

** Available exclusively at The Pusher **Naples 1982, the earthquake leaves rubble and dismay, unease and misery, smuggling and heroin.The reconstruction is a shadow that will last more than a decade, it is a shady deal between bureaucrats and criminals.Naples is an open construction site and the redemption was long coming. There was the "music-music" of the Neapolitan Power, which conquers the national limelight, and a dark and marginal enigma called "VESUWAVE" (especially for those who have not experienced it), that remains so, even after many years. Naples is not a country for young bands that are not familiar with tradition and "bel canto" while the record industry inhabits a platonic and incorruptible world beyond the vault of heaven. At that time five Lucanians and three Neapolitans founded Little Italy, probably a tribute to the homonymous district of New York and inspired by Talking Heads, Contorsions, Polyrock, B-52's, Konk and Liquid Liquid. They have the freedom to experiment and smash the stages of the Italian peninsula festivals more attentive to the new waves as well as participate in some television broadcasts. They basically don’t unnoticed but in spite of the apprenticeship and the kilometers covered in three years of activity (from 1983 to 1985) all they had the chance to record were a couple of songs.
Fragments is a compilation made with archived materials that Futuribile Records releases on vinyl after having discovered and restored old unreleased tapes from back in the day and made available by the band members themselves. Seven tracks that highlight a collective in continuous transformation and outline their drivers and abilities.Little Italy have a horn section that gives them that chromatic vivacity, a typically mutant funk guitar groove, two fatal and dazed female voices who speak many languages (English, French, Italian) reciting collages of cryptic texts evoking modernity through no-sense and cultured quotations; a funk thrill in the basslines and drums solutions that give a nod to the sly disco beat of a specific easy listening, elegant and refined Italo sound. A super-sophisticated sound with the right dose of fusion, proper New Wave, which in the more New-Yorker passages recalls the volcanic and sweaty sound of the contemporary and fellow citizens Bisca, another out-of-the-box band member. The warm Mediterranean wind blowing on some tracks certifies their origin and the exoticism leads Little Italy to drink from that oasis of escape.After all, the escape from a world that does not contemplate banality is the synthesis of the 1980s thought. (Words by Fabio Astore)