GSD & Lenski
Organic Feeling

Back in 2007, Xavier Boyer, frontman of French indie maestros Tahiti 80, released his first solo LP Tutu To Tango under the “nom de plume” Axe Riverboy. He didn’t think it would take another 10 years for the follow-up but here it is and it was well worth the wait.The title Some/Any/New, his tip of the cap to Todd Rundgren’s Something Anything album, reflects both the atmosphere and the process, Boyer crafted the new set playing everything, save a few overdubs recorded with collaborator Stéphane Laporte, using a laptop, an 8-track tape machine and a few cherished instruments (a groovebox, a guitalele and a casiotone).The album is awash with classic melodies, sweet Odessey & Oracle-esque vocals and the songs have a warm, organic glow, enhanced by some rough edges and little imperfections, happy accidents of the DIY nature of the recordings.Xavier pieced together the album over quite a long period. The songs were written in different places, in different towns and houses. Given all of that, it is perhaps surprising that the finished record is so coherent, light-infused and optimistic. What is supremely evident is Xavier’s ability as a songwriter; here he again delivers a set of gorgeous, contemporary and immediate pop songs. From the exquisite harmonies and frayed electronics of “Cherry Cloud Panic” through to the down-tempo, deliciously melancholic track, “Longing/The International Merry-Go-Round” we are in the company of an artist, confident in his creative ability. This is a highly-enjoyable piece of work - as the man himself says “It’s “like opening a window to the world on a sunny day.”

Misfortunes never come singly. That way AZAR AZAR returns with a strong new EP Inner World / Space Coconut Conspiracy widening its musical universe to join Portuguese label Jazzego 2021 first physical edition.After his first four track EP re-working Miles Davis - Bitches Brew's classic album released in April 2020, AZAR AZAR strikes again with two compositions joining the dots between Jazz-Funk and Hip-Hop grooves.A-side opens with “Inner World” and this new single “Space Coconut conspiracy”, B-side features three club-friendly remixes from Esa Williams, K15 and Minus & MRDolly.This new EP anticipates the already announced album Cosmic Drops set for later in 2021.

To celebrate the 10 years of Cracki Records, we decided to offer you a new compilation which is not only a return towards the past, gathering the titles which marked the history of Cracki, but also a glance towards the future with the meeting of artists who always gravitated in our close environment. Our wish is to reunite the constellation of friendly and sincere influences that surrounds us through featurings, remixes and exclusive collaborations. In addition to our usual friends, we will meet on this compilation Juan Wauters, Chassol, David Numwami, Lord Apex, NxxxxxS, Myd, Voiski, Tryphème, Myth Syzer or Black Devil Disco Club. With these new collaborations that cross the borders, Cracki Records projects itself towards unknown territories, always searching innovative projects, against fashion and mercantile imperatives. The artistic effervescence, the sensitivity and the human aspect will always come first.

** Not available for Italy & UK **With seven releases - including this one - on Schema Records and three - considering also the Cosmorama project - on Milano 2000, Stefano Tirone has tightened his collaboration with the Edizioni Ishtar group. He is today one of the label’s most popular artists, with more than 300.000 monthly listeners and millions of plays of his acclaimed hits on Spotify – more than 3 million overall for his recent digital singles “Blow My Mind” and “No Meio Do Samba”.His previous full-length Body & Soul shows influences from the early ’90s British acid jazz scene and his deep love for the ’70s soul, Brazilian and jazz music that constitute the basic foundations of S-Tone Inc. Here, instead of asking other artists to remix his tracks, Stefano has decided to do that himself, reworking in a nu-disco key the entire “Body & Soul” record, herein named “The Disco Experience”. The title and the graphic layout take us to a period in time between late ’70s and early ’80s when the artist as a teenager, completely absorbed by the sound of disco music, used to go to clubs and discotheques to listen and dance to those unmistakable sonic frequencies. In those years the American DJ Larry Levan and the Italian Mozart and Baldelli used to play their music in front of crowded disco halls, while record labels such as Prelude and Solar set the standards with artists such as D-Train, Sharon Redd, Whispers, Shalamar and their soulful vocals combined to strong basslines, funky guitars and uptempo rhythms. This is how “Body & Soul - The Disco Experience” was born, as a homage to the music that Stefano used to immerse in during those adventurous years, with a few exceptions: “No Meio Do Samba”, a tribute to the house sound of Frankie Knuckles in the early ’90s, and the two downbeat tracks “Flying Away”, with its essential R&B arrangement, and “Midnight Sun”, that keeps its cinematic mood but with a more funky attitude. “Odoya” is the only track remixed by The Invisible Session in a minimal spacey disco arrangement that fits perfectly with the overall sound of the album.