Glen Adams
A Beat For You

Betino's Records proudly presents its third release: an EP by the very sharp collective The Big Hustle. The band founded in 2014 by bass player and composer Sébastien Levanneur, brings together 70's old school funk with the hippest actual sound with influences spanning from Steely Dan to Snarky Puppy, from Mandrill to Lettuce and from Herbie Hancock (Manchild era) to Soulive. With mighty horn players, a rock and funky rhythm section, and percussions added to it, The Big Hustle’s music has a very large variety of sound landscapes. Still, the music never loses the groove and always stays close to the funk.The A side opens with "Afrorever", a tribute to African culture and music. The guest of honor on this song is legendary Malian musician Cheick Tidiane Seck, longtime partner of Salif Keita, and collaborator of Joe Zawinul, Carlos Santana and Damon Albarn to name a few. After Cheick’s introduction, the songs jumps into a typical afrobeat vibe featuring a tight and powerful horn section, suddenly breaks into an electro funk groove and ends in a furious percussive party. Second track on the A side is "Faure is the Magic Number". It is dedicated to Thomas Faure (co-composer of the track) and François Faure (both featured on this song on tenor sax and keyboards respectively). This piece displays the band’s ability to blend jazz-funk groove with a heavy hip-hop beat. Kind of DJ Premier meets Steely Dan. The B side starts with "Afrorever (Sun's Up Mix)". Through this mix, one can acknowledge instantly Olivier Portal's touch. From the very first chords, he conveys us into his realm blending warm and melancholy keyboards with an old school deep-house rhythm pattern.The fourth track is called “1, 2, 1, 2”. It is a purely improvised moment in the studio while the band was sound checking before recording with special guest rapper Raashan Ahmad. Nicolas Gueguen had the good idea to press the R button and what you hear is basically what happened afterwards. Enjoy!

Created in 2005, Trevor & Lisa is a Parisian Funk band founded by Sébastien Despicht (guitars, talk box) and Mikael Prignot (programming). With Stéphane Ugolini (keyboards) who joined them later on, they formed the core production trio of the group, helped around with various other talented musicians. Built for live shows, Trevor & Lisa has strongly toured the French and Parisian gigs scenes, with also numerous radio shows (Nova, Generations, Le Mouv, ...) or TV shows (France 4). Additionally they developed several collaborations, for example with famous soul diva Gwen McCrae (as her backing band) or with French singer Mounam (from The Dynamics) on “What Needs Mama” single. Meanwhile, Trevor & Lisa also produced two punchy 7inches released on Favorite Recordings and which could be considered as a preview to a long player.This first LP will finally be released early 2013 on Favorite Recordings, and it’s filled with the same contagious energy they gave off on their previous records and live shows. Clap ‘N' Hustle is like a call to dance, filled by a deep groove and boosted with relentless breakbeats and percussions. With an ambitious production, this first album has involved many talented musicians and many guest singers such as Jehro, US underground rappers Rita J, Raashan Ahmad and Clyde King Rap (Real Fake MC), his longtime mate DJ Suspect (The Funk League) at turntables, or Julien Tekeyan at percussions.The program for this Clap ‘n’ Hustle : instrumentals spiced up with burning breaks (Night Of The Wolf, Tango Hustle, ...), old-school rap influences (Soul Clap, Dope On Plastic, ...), a taste of Californian Blue-Eyed Soul (My Friend ...), some talk box and vocoder embellished with an incisive brass section, all of it punctuated with interludes made of finely selected samples. Finally, Liza Rose and Yann Kesz have brought up their personal touch for visuals, artwork and videos.We hope you’ll enjoy !!

After Sweet Sweet Dreams album, Jamwax is very proud to finally release D'Hardest on its original maxi 12'' format.“D'Hardest” was recorded at K.H. studios in Trinidad in 1980 and another version/mix was released on the Wake Up album. This song is everything, thanks to Winston Bailey aka Shadow and all his team.

Official reissue of one of the hardest to find albums by the Afro Soul maestro, a pure Afro Funk spiritual grail from 1978!Born in 1943 in Ikole-Ekiti in Ondo State, Nigeria, Orlando Julius Ekemode (“Orlando was really a nickname, taken from the Nigerian actor, Orlando Martins“) had started in music from an early age, becoming the school drummer and learning flute, bugle and other instruments at St Peters Anglican School in Ikole-Ekiti. Nigerian musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he is credited as one of the first musicians to fuse US R&B into traditional highlife music, creating his own influential Afrobeat sound during the mid-‘60s.From his time playing in the USA during the 1970s onwards, he is credited with bringing African music to a broader audience and famously co-composed the song “Going Back To My Roots” with Lamont Dozier. In 1978, Orlando Julius Ekemode decided to produce himself this amazing session, originally recorded between Maryland and West Virginia (USA) and released in limited quantity in Nigeria by the obscure label Jungle Records. 6 stunning Afro-Funk monster tracks, recorded by 8 musicians based in Oakland. Fully licensed with the artist and remastered by The Carvery. Essential!

Stix Records, a sub-label of Favorite Recordings, proudly presents Scary Dub, a new project by Mato, made of exclusive Dub versions of some of the most famous horror movie soundtracks. Available as Vinyl LP & Digital on February 5th 2021.Do you remember The Exorcist, Halloween, Jaws, Evil Dead, The Twilight Zone or The Return Of The Living Dead and their haunting musical themes? Imagine all and many more remixed by the French dub master, along with three original and scary compositions. Needless to say, Mato, who’s playing most instruments and synthesizers, did a fantastic job and you’ll be blown when hearing these versions.Starting his reggae production career in 2006, Thomas Blanchot (aka Mato) has released music through various projects on EDR Records, Big Singles or Makasound... In the meantime he developed a real trademark: taking over classics French, Hip-Hop, OST, Classical or Pop song, into roots reggae-dub new versions. Besides, since 2010, Mato has built a solid reputation thanks to his hot remixes of Hip-Hop classics on Stix Records.