Orlando Julius
Disco Hi-Life

INFOS“Muscles” is a banging 90’s-beat flavored tune extracted from Bonnie Banane’s 1st EP, Greatests Tits. Recently highlighted with a great DIY video made by Walter Mecca, it’s quickly been acclaimed by many bloggers and DJs. At Favorite Recordings, we also believe it deserves a spinning on your turntables! For the occasion, we’ve arranged a photo shooting with brilliant French photographer Lisa Roze (Keren Ann, M & Sean Lennon, Leon Ware & Quadron,…), resulting in a tasty label artwork. And we fatten the sound thanks to a new mastering made at Carvery Studio (UK).ABOUT WALTERDiscreet and prolific figure of a new French musical scene, obsessional producer mainly feeding himself with muesli, biscuits and VCRs, and quoting references such as G.A Romero, Herbie Hancock, Ice-T, or Kid Chameleon, Walter Mecca is an hybrid artist. With several singles and one LP released on Favorite Recordings, he’s also responsible for the creation of his own label, called Weirdata.Since he started among a rap crew in the early 90s, he never stopped surprising and transforming himself, wearing several hats (rapper, producer, director) and adapting his musical identities under various alter-egos. From the Cut Basic series (released as Dal-gren), to Gaab Squaad, or Breaking Point, we ride through heavy soundfields, hardly classifiable, naturally zigzaging with his skills between meta-hip-hop, destructured House and dirty Nu-Jazz, haunted by synthesizers, talkbox and subliminal.ABOUT BONNIEWhen Bonnie Banane started making music it was so compulsive that she did it first with her dictaphone, then her computer eventually. Initiated early to American music played loud in the car, she’s still inspired by this original packaging (Cameo, Stevie Wonder, Above The Rim, Janet Jackson, Boys II Men ...), but also by some late discoveries (Slum Village Nini Raviolette, Moondog, Bahamadia, Gerard Depardie, ...).Distilling intuitively psychedeliquo-suave and hypnotiquo-tropical vocals, with post-feminist lyrics, sometimes explicit, sometimes inarticulate, Bonnie Banane has delivered her 1st EP called “Greatest Hits” in collaboration with Walter Mecca.

Paris based Roforofo Jazz is a 7-piece liveband fronted by Chicago born MC Days (aka RacecaR), with a certain taste for adventurous blends, mixing hip hop, afrobeat and jazz into their very own style.After more than 15 years slashing the afrobeat of Les Freres Smith with his guitar cuts, Martin Smith digged into the musical sediments and silts in a swamp of hip hop, funk groove, afro power, jazz freedom radicality, with a certain taste for adventurous blends. This wax solid 5 tracks Vinyl was recorded live in Montreuil (France) at Studios La Peche, in November 2019, just a few weeks after the band toured in Nigeria and played at the mythical New Afrika Shrine on the occasion of Felabration 2019, where they got invited to perform by the Fela Kuti family for a series of concerts in Lagos.The 5 titles include the single “Fire Eater”, a raw afro hip hop tune mixing rhythms in the tradition of polyrhythm afrofunk tunes, while also alternating in between jazzy mood and burning hip hop anthem. “Dump It” is a dark, mid tempo beat, borrowing the groove signature of ethiopian soul, and coated with hip hop sharp drops, while horns bring the jazzyness through their themes. “Helelyos” is a cover/extrapolation of Iranian singer Zia’s hit, to which Days vocals bring an heavy old school hip hop vibe. “2Kick1” is a relentless afrobeat oriented tune, though with a languorous spacy chorus that breaks with the traditional afrobeat routine. And “What We Think We Saw” ends the EP with an opening to more psychedelic visions, in which a Gil Scott-Heron spoken word style meets jazzy space echoes, flutes under massive reverbs in a global vibe that could remind old analog recordings of Mandrill, Cymande or LKJ.

After a first edition acclaimed internationally, Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice finally follows-up to their French Disco Boogie Sounds compilation with a second volume!!Pursuing his fine work at digging rare music from around the world, DJ and collector Charles Maurice presents another brilliant selection of great music linked to France and French West-Indies: 12 hidden and forgotten titles, all produced between 1978 and 1985, whether in France, or by French artists abroad. This time again, he perfectly browse and defines the great energy and quality of this specific Disco/Funk scene at that time, both in the underground market, or through bigger labels.On one hand, tracks by Crystal, Jackie Esam, Ideku Dynasty or Marc Ashy, were produced by small artists and labels from the French Caribbean and African community and also filled with a raw spirit and some Tropical influences. On the other hand, tracks by Claude Morgan, Greg Smaha, Roots, or Black Bells Group, were released by major labels such as Phonogram, RCA, Derby, or Carrere, thanks to confirmed independent producers, acting not only in France, but also in Canada and the US.Today, Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice are very proud to unearth these 12 gems, with amongst them some very hard to find and almost unknown titles.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents Time to Decide, The first album by Al SunnyAl Sunny is a young composer emerging from the French soul music scene. Soon after learning the guitar, he started composing and became involved in numerous projects and collaborations. Al has been influenced by pop, rock, and electronic music, always with a foundation in the “Black” and “Soul” sound.During his conservatory studies, he refined his knowledge and confirmed his desire to write and compose. The will to establish himself on a solo project became stronger and stronger. He quickly discovered deep inside himself the music that he truly loves, inspired by artists such as Tim Maia, America, Al Green, and Al Jarreau. Thru his guitar, he gives birth to the majority of his compositions and always seeks to bring the melody of his songs to the forefront. During his studies he met musicians including Florian Pellissier, then professor at the conservatory and a confirmed pianist who worked on various projects such as Guts, Anthony Joseph, Florian Pellissier Quintet, and Shola Adissa.It's then thanks to Florian that Al Sunny meets Pascal Rioux, founder and A&R of Favorite Recordings. Immediately seduced and impressed by his talent and the various demos that he listened to, Pascal invites the young musician to collaborate and produce an album within Favorite Recordings. Together they agree on a musical direction looking towards the West coast movement of the 70s and 80s. This direction includes influences like Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, and Ned Doheny, of whom Al Sunny covers the classic “Get It Up For Love” on the new album.With Time To Decide, Al Sunny shows us the premise of his music style, infused with Blue-Eyed-Soul, Pop and Folk. Written and composed by himself, it’s in close collaboration with Florian Pellissier that his songs came to life. Under the guidance of Pascal Rioux and Favorite Recordings, the production of this album ensures a sound and a final result worthy of the best classics of the genre.

Comet presents the third release of its new Disco Highlife series, featuring remastered originals by Ghanaian legends Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas and disco re-edits by Trus’me and Tiger Tigre.On Side A, “Yes Indeed” is a heavy afrobeat piece out of the legendary LP Super Sounds Namba recorded in Togo and released in 1981 on Abotar Records. This awesome synthetic afrobeat is featuring the two biggest stars of Ghana Ebo Taylor and Pat Thomas. Trus’me Version is cross Atlantic production between Trus’me from Lisbon and Benjamin Tierney from LA. An effortless collaboration of musicianship and production, using the seductive Simmons drums, Ensoniq ESQ-1 on percussion, Casio CZ-5000 on the lead & a solid Moog rogue on the bass. The additional production complimenting the original direction, whilst intoducing it to a modern day eclectic dancefllor, courtesy of Prime Numbers Records.On Side B, “Yesu San Bra” is a strong funky disco highlife anthem by Ghanaian legend Pat Thomas. This disco highlife classic has originally been released in 1980 on the Ivory Cost label Pan African Records. Tiger Tigre’s rework is a mysterious secret weapon deployed to decimate dance floors. Adding with his characteristic bleepy twist, a punchy kick drum fully acoustic, an heavy liquid bass line and transforming this disco highlife classic into a euphoric and hypnotic piece of progressive house. Vincent Taeger aka Tiger Tigre is a french artist producer, drummer, a virtuoso who just released his debut album Grrr ! to his credit for numerous collaboration as producer with international artists like Allen, Oumou Sangare, Sebastien Tellier, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Franz Ferdinand, Chilly Gonzales, Gregory Porter, Saul Williams…

Favorite Recordings presents this new official album reissue of The Parker Brothers: Maybe one of the best Blue-Eyed-Soul/Modern-Soul private-press albums you can imagine, surprisingly highly unknown and underrated.Produced in 1981 by George P Grexa and released in a private-press version on his label Crown Vetch Enterprises, this album is filled with memorable material from the first note to the last, mixing Modern-Soul, Boogie, cross-over Jazz and Rock elements, for a result reminiscent of the WestCoast music’ golden years, however being recorded in Pittsburgh.As one of the longtime favorite collectable piece for Charles Maurice, it’s a real honor and proud for Favorite Recordings, to finally officially reissue it from the original master tapes and for the first time on vinyl.