Twylyte '81
The First Coming

This is the debut album from the Nancy-based quartet NCY Milky Band.The four musicians deliver unique jazz experiments at the crossroads of 70's french groove and modern electronica. The album covers a wide range of moods, switching from cheerful anthems with goofy synths to slow jams in which the saxophone breezes a deep feeling of nostalgia. With Burn’IN, NCY Milky Band are bringing a refreshing and original touch to the upcoming french jazz scene.

** EXCEPT PORTUGAL **Funkamental is a label of new releases and first-time-on-wax reissues curated by Funkamente, also behind the Edits Estrela and Lisbon's East Side Radio.When a record collection starts to grow, some blind spots become very noticeable: records too hard to find, upcoming artists with music so good it deserves a nice record or old releases that have never been pressed to vinyl. Yet.That's how Funkamental was born: out of the desire – should we say "the need"? – to have a specific release on vinyl. How specific? Anything that'd fit in our bag.The first Funkamental release is Sonic Fiction, the only album by Spaceboys, initially released on CD back in 2003 described as an interplanetary never-ending jam session between Sun Ra and Fela Kuti, materialized by the hands of Francisco Rebelo, João Gomes and Tiago Santos who first assembled as Cool Hipnoise in 1995 a prolific band recording a string of albums, singles and EPs revolving around Funk, Acid Jazz, Jazz Funk and Dub for the best part of ten years.

African, funky, sarcastic, bewitching, green, ecstatic: these words collide to describe Vaudou Game and all of them are true. Bella is the first vinyl single derived from the upcoming album called Noussin, due to be relased June 11th 2021. "Bella" is a smashing summer hit, sang in Mina and french. It's an ode to the nature and love in this hard times. "Be My Wife" on the B side, is a trip into a rock /funk universe with an uptempo twist rythm, sang into the voodoo harmonies.Composed in Lyon on 100% analog equipment during the lockdown, those two songs might be the funky nuggets of all DJ's and radio playlists.

Thandi Zulu known as T.Z. Junior was a young girl from Soweto. Soweto became an independent municipality with elected black councilors in 1983. T.Z. Junior started her musical career with Peter Moticoe who produced "Love Games" with The Young Five on Heads label in 1984. Then, Peter Moticoe brought her to Phil Hollis at Dephon Entertainment who then teamed them up with Attie Van Wyk who was the producer for Yvonne Chaka Chaka at that time.Phil Hollis started Dephon Promotion (Dephon Entertainment) in the late 70's and developed into the largest independent record company in South Africa. He describes himself as the only person who has been involved in recording of major hit songs in nearly all genres of music in all the languages in South Africa. Phil Hollis was involved in all aspects of the Entertainment industry from production of recordings, recording company, distribution, marketing and promotion, events management, staging major events and filming. "Sugar My Love" and "Are You Ready for Love" were produced and arranged by Attie Van Wyk. “Back in the 80's I was a songwriter for a band called Ballyhoo when I got an offer from the Dephon Record Company to join them as a music producer. So I quit the band and joined them, producing records mainly for music targeted at the black market in those days,” he says. Between 1982 and 1992, Attie Van Wyk produced over 120 albums, including many for Yvonne Chaka Chaka.

For the 4th edition of our Southern Sounds Series, focusing on the forgotten legends of Soul, Funk and Rhythm & Blues, we decided to hit the road to the mythical city of Nashville, Tennessee.This musical headquarter has been a playground for the colorful Larry Birdsong, one of the most beautiful voices of Nashville’s R&B scene golden age. Such a great voice that some people predicted him to a stunning interstate career. History unfortunately has proved otherwise; despite his ability to fit with any genre, whether it’s Jazz, Gospel, Rock’n’Roll, Rhythm & Blues, or Soul, this musician with a predestined surname (Birdsong) never made it as expected, however he delivered some high quality recordings, made with a lot of dedication.Larry was born in June 1934 to a 11 children family, in a place called Pulaski, a small town located in old deep rural Tennessee. Music was everywhere at the Birdsongs and before his 21th year, Larry was already one of the top acts of the Sugarhill club in Nashville. Ted Jarett, one of the big figures of Nashville’s recording industry, also noticed him and signed him in as an underage musician, to close a first deal for the Excello’ imprint in the early 50’s. He was later followed by a bunch of local records companies like Home of the Blues in Memphis and Ace Records in New Orleans, to name just a few.Up to the middle of the 60’s, Larry surfed from Rock’n’Roll to Rhythm & Blues and finally, at the end of the decade (up to 1973), he landed on the waves of Soul, even Funk, when he was backed by prestigious musicians like Johnny Jones or Buford Majors, as compiled on this volume.Although Larry Birdsong never reached any national or international charts, this versatile singer kept on singing until he passed away in 1990 (or 1983 from some sources), leaving behind him these singles that EALZ! Records are once again very proud to release, so that you just have to spin it on your record player.