Cléon Jazzy Pidjay
Freedom Sound / Samba à l'aéroport

Vaudou Game is a contemporary live band of 6 members playing an authentic Togolese funk based on voodoo chants scales, and led by Peter Solo, a singer and composer born in Aného-Glidji (Togo), birthplace of the Guin tribe and place of the voodoo culture. He was raised with those traditional values of human and environment respect.Apiafo is a 12 tracks album, entirely recorded, mixed and mastered with old analog tapes, and played with vintage instruments, recalling the sound of bands like Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou or El Rego! Peter Solo invited his uncle, Roger Damawuzan, famous pioneer of the 70’s soul scene in Togo, to sing on “Pas Contente” & “Wrong Road“. The result of their collaboration is without a doubt two amazing future dancefloor classics! The idea of integrating these haunting lines, sung in honor of the Divinities, to an energetic 70's Afro-funk style, was, in Peter Solo's mind, an obvious extension of the analogy he found between the voodoo tradition and trance inducers such as Soul, Funk, as well as the Rhythm ‘N Blues of James Brown or Otis Redding.Vaudou Game will be touring all over the world next year promoting this new Afro-Soul classic album!

After an album made out of hip-hop extrapolations of their atypical music (Got To Get Down released in September 2016, featuring the creme of NYC MC’s Emskee (The Good People), Audessey & Oxygen (Soundsci)), the Afro Latin Vintage Orchestra returns with another hip-hop colored LP, IMPACT, featuring Paris based Chicago MC Racecar. These two parties have had the opportunity for a clever joint venture, wisely stirred during both live and studio sessions. A furiously efficient mashup of their respective talents, combining the characteristic crazed orchestration and composition skills of the ALVO, to the survitaminated flow and writing of one of the most prolific MCs on the French territory.After the success of this oldschool oriented hip-hop album, the ALVO locked up itself during months in the studio with Racecar to compose a successor to the thunderous Got To Get Down, but also to the hovering Pulsion (compared to Miles Davis’ On The Corner by Wax Poetics) released in 2015 on Ubiquity.A more orchestral approach, on which the MC takes the same furious train as the ALVO musicians, all led by the Masta Conga locomotive, once again with strength and determination but also and still with this obsession for details that characterizes the Parisian band since its beginnings in 2007. More modern tunes, but more obscure as well, such as “Schizo” opening the album on a sharp flow and a dark, stellar, music that sets the tone: the combination in between ALVO and Racecar is naturally attacking, contagious and uninhibited.Tunes “Impact” and “The Jam” further rely on the fundamentals of funk music, which are not more an issue to the shrill flow of the Chicago MC, much at ease on jazz or fusion beats. Then everything erupts with “Let’s Move” and “One To One”, on which ALVO’s craziness contaminates Racecar’s flow and reciprocally, in a furious osmosis, which results in an atypical and spontaneous jazz and hip-hop fusion.

Broc Recordz presents its new 7inch of the legendary Janko Nilovic with the Soul Surfers! Enter in this psychedelic and groovy record with a crazy artwork made by Fabricio Orellano from Argentina.

Originally released in 2002, Comet is proud to present the legendary album Homecooking, reissued with a remastered version.Tony Allen talks about the album: “After Black Voices and Psyco on Da Bus albums, I came back with HomeCooking which was an album filled with guests. I brought in Ty, who had remixed some of my work previously, to rap on the record, and Damon Albarn, who had already sung about me on ‘Music is my Radar’. On the first day in the studio, Damon didn’t record anything because we were enjoying ourselves too much. He came with two boxes of champagne and everyone got boozed and he decided he’d take the music back to his own studio and finish it there. That was the beginning of our friendship and since then we’ve done a lot of different things. Since the early days I’ve been trying to find things that everybody will want to listen to. I’ve always been pushing Afrobeat in different directions. Here’s another one again, another style, almost clean but still rough, raggedy and radical.’’

Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice proudly present the 5th edition of the AOR Global Sounds compilations series: 8 rare and hidden tracks, produced between 1977 and 1984 in various parts of the world. Started in 2015, the AOR Global Sounds series was born from the will of Charles Maurice (aka Pascal Rioux) to share his longtime love for the AOR and WestCoast movement and highlight its influence for many artists in the late 70s and early 80s. In this 5th volume, he selected again highly forgotten productions, deeply infused with Disco and Soul flavors. Half of the compilation’s tracklist is naturally coming from the US, homeland of this music style, while the other half is made of productions from all over the globe, from France or United Kingdom to Venezuela. And for most of these beautiful songs, it came from artists and bands rather unknown and often released as private press. Often, these records will have a special story, sometimes they’re just part of the universal quest of finding true love. Nonetheless, they all carry a wide range of emotions magnified by the music. For example, “Don’t Take It Away” by Westside is as a love song about a new relationship, recorded in Minnesota and mastered on Sunset Bld. (Hollywood) by Bernie Grundman, who worked on Thriller – funny thing, the original LP is a picture-disc, which was still quite rare back in the days because the singer saw one from Mickael Jackson when visiting the studio. “Til’ Mornin’ Comes”, the only release by The Ferry Brothers, is also a love song, recorded in NYC with notably Gwen Guthrie, Vivian Cherry & Patti Austin singing as backup vocalists. On “What Its Meant To Me”, Jonathon Hansen remembers with emotion the good times spent with the members of his band including the vocalist he was in love with. On “J’Irai Squatter Ton Cœur”, Didier Makaga better-known as a French Boogie & Pop singer, arranger & composer, sings a charming declaration of love on a heavy and groovy eighties production. “You Never Know” by Rhapsody, recorded in Connecticut, sounds more like an East coast fusion of Soul and Jazz-Funk à la James Mason. “What You Do To Me” by Sugar Cane was highlighted on a Pittsburgh Rock Radio compilation: listening to this smooth ballad with its amazing Moog synth break will lift your soul. “Kailua” by Venezuelan Jazz-Funk band Esperanto, is a song about Hawaii which evocates bucolic dreamy nights facing the ocean, a typical AOR vibe. Finally, “I Need You” from Mark Williamson is a blue-eyed soul UK groover ending on a four-on-the-floor climax!And we could detail stories but our guessing is the best way to learn more about all these gems is to listen to the compilation, fully remastered from originals, and whether your preference is for vinyl or CD formats.

Mr Day is also known as the singer of French combo Metropolitan Jazz Affair, the main singer in The Dynamics, for his House-Soul records released on indie label Rotax, as well as his superb guest vocals on productions by Boozoo Bajou, Patchworks and Mr President! "Small Fry" evokes classic soul music, from Curtis Mayfield to Motown, and from northern soul to west coast, without being a specific genre album. The musical style is vast and replete, but the composition and production manage to never fall prey to shortcuts or repetitiveness.