Raashan Ahmad
Soul Power

Beatsqueeze Records presents a new opus of his Dj Tool / Battle Skip-proof 7inch vinyl by Moody Mike coming in a beautiful orange marbled version.

Marrrtin, French DJ, producer, and half of the group FUNKY BIJOU presents A Bunch of Funk, a selection of 16 short but sharp tracks building on the artistic heritage of 70s Library music. Album created with several musicians from different countries, working together without ever seeing each other in a studio thanks to Marrrtin's unique production process.Uptempo, Rhythmic, Brassy, Percussive, Lively and Dancing Vocal, Thematic Dramatic, Activ, Perky, Agressive, Riffy and Groovy: these are the words who can define this album.Features apprences of: Medline, Felix from FUSIK (USA), Carla Vallet, Tchoubine Collin (Setenta, FR), Romain Baousson (Bikini Machine Drummer), Naufalle from AIWA (France / Irak), Deheb , Meriadeg (Stand High Patrol) and others...All the Tracks have been played for the RED BULL BC ONE world final in Roma where Marrrtin was mixing.

You have to know how to move away from the rich, strong and noisy streets, if you want to discover another Havana. A Havana far from the tourist circuits and preconceived images. A Havana where one discovers bucolic, but hard and stripped too after slow journeys in the crowded buses, a Havana with which Al Quetz maintains a passionate history since more than fourteen years.Installed in one of those neighborhoods that can only be reached by going deeper into the alleys, from the open window of the studio comes the sound of banging drums and thumping bass. The sound reaches the streets on which the day rises.The place wakes up in a growing tumult, with some rare engines coughing, conversations under the windows, songs of the street vendors , an urban ballet sets up as the sun darts its rays.Far from the musical clichés with percussions and horns, Cuba is an island bombarded with influences that one discovers. An island which vibrated for the jazz, the soul, the psychedelic rock , from the waves coming from the Caribbean to those of the bulky neighboring ogre.A musical flowering as varied as abundant that the glorious post-revolutionary label Areito has on thousands of recordings, and that Al Quetz has designated as the sole source of his samples to compose Habanologia.From the ambiences that punctuate the local daily life caught by his samplers, he let the melancholy infiltrate his hip hop beats, the nostalgia melting in the depths of his grooves. Nostalgia in the Cuban air, even during moments of intense laughter, which never totally disappears.Habanologia restores these moments when the song of the birds has extinguished those of the cars. Where, sitting on a doorstep, we comment on the life of the neighborhood, we watch the women's swaying at eye level. The whole day if necessary, the coffee at one peso, after a certain hour, which leaves its place to the Planchao rum. Wandering through its streets where a chance encounter can itself bring others and lead to the essence of the habanera life. From Regla, after a short trip on the bus-boat that crosses the bay, savor the end of the day, observe the capital from afar, let the nocturnal insects ensure some arrangements and drift towards mysterious horizons, bringing to the contemplation of the place and the moment.A flute, a keyboard, percussions or a voice. Al Quetz also invited his friends from the island or elsewhere to decorate his productions with their live touch. To share with him this Havana for which he covered his tracks, mixed times and distorted space-time to make it timeless.To write with Habanalogia, a declaration of love to the Cuban capital, to make Havana, His Havana.

J-Zen is a French producer signed on Dooinit music, his style is a mixture of heavy beats and samples crushed to the point of making them unrecognizable.He made his debut on the beatmaking scene with his first beat-tape called Breakfast, but it’s with Guilty Pleasure EP, alongside Shawn Jackson and Substantial and released in 2010, that he really revealed himself to the public.Since then, he’s collaborated with Georgia Anne Muldrow & Declaime on the single “God Music”, a custom-made production for the California duo, and has shared the stage with the greatest (DJ Premier, Dilated Peoples,…)His first album Managua is available now. Started between Rennes and Paris, recorded in California, Berlin, NYC, Paris, Portland, mixed in San Diego, mastered in LA and Costa Rica, this project and J-Zen have traveled a lot to finish their trip in Managua, where he stayed for a few months.