Voilaaa
Des Promesses

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.

Periodica Records dives into the heart of the Napoli underground with a scorching single from Danger Boys called "Danger Zone", which sees Milord and Whodamanny paying tribute to the their cult party of the same name hosted at the Boudoir Club.Across two tracks, perilous premonitions of tribal disco intertwine with shadowy strains of post-punk, as basslines cut the difference between frenetic funk and cosmic rock while propulsive beats pound beneath heady fuzz licks, galactic synth sparkles, computronic sequences, and a psychedelic panorama of scrapes and slides. And above it all, a high priest chants in ecstasy, with his mystical musings and messages of defiance pulling the body deeper into the dance.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents Voiciii, the 3rd and new album by Voilaaa, an immersive dip into its Afro-Disco universe spread across 14 tracks. Needless to say you’ll find in this new LP all the ingredients that made him famous: strong dancefloor-friendly festive bangers, irresistible funky arrangements and an undeniable sense of humor and irony. Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart, behind Voilaaa, is as often surrounded by amazing vocal featurings from previous LP’s regulars (Pat Kalla, Lass) but also new voices you may already have heard on its recent EPs (David Walters, Rama Traore, Ayuune Suule), as well as the saxophonist Boris Pokora. The LP is also an occasion to pay tributes to major artists of the African sound, such as Fela Kuti (on “Water No Get Enemy”), or Manu Dibango (“Manu Écoute Ça” and “Tenor Jam For Manu”). Since the release of Voilaaa’s previous LP’s Des Promesses and On Te L’Avait Dit and their massive international support, the Voilaaa Soundsystem did travel through the world to deliver its message of infectious joy and groove, from Equator to Thailand, from Kazakhstan to the infamous French “Fête de l’Huma”. Now you know: Voilaaa is everywhere and Voiciii (“here it is”) their new album.

Two years after an acclaimed first album, Al Sunny and Favorite Recordings proudly present Planets, carrying on their collaboration and bringing it to another level.Al Sunny is a young and talented singer/musician/composer emerging from the French soul music scene. During his conservatory studies, he refined his knowledge and confirmed his desire to write and compose. He quickly matured the music that he truly loves, inspired by artists such as Tim Maia, America, Al Green, and Al Jarreau. Giving birth to the majority of his compositions through his guitar, he always seeks to bring his songs’ melody to the forefront. During his studies he kept experiencing live performing on different scenes and confirmed his choice for a musical career, while also meeting many brilliant musicians, including Florian Pellissier, who later introduced him to Pascal Rioux and Favorite Recordings.It resulted in 2017 in Time to Decide release, a dazzling first album establishing Al Sunny’s music and writing style, looking towards the 70s and 80s Westcoast movement, infused with Blue-Eyed-Soul, Pop and Folk flavors. Built on the same influences, Planets is made of 8 new compositions (including a CD and digital bonus), and is clearly a continuation of its cadet, asserting Al Sunny’s talent and singing skills.Fully recorded live and analogic in Paris, this new album also stands out by an impressive level of production, faithful to some classics of the genre. Mixing catchy melodies, soulful vocals, warm and heavy bass, strong beat and beautiful guitars and keyboards harmonies, Planets just perfectly meets the AOR and Modern-Soul golden era standards.

Floxmade! Anglo-French binational FLOX has been sowing his Nu-Reggae seeds for years now in venues all around France, and a new genre has sprung up, somewhere between roots reggae and electro. Deeply influenced by the Jamaican Culture, from LKJ to The Police, to the more modern Fat Freddy’s Drop.