Ian Ash & Ella May / Jessie Wagner & Fostin Meets Ian Ash
The Boogievision

Welcome aboard! We're about to slide into the wide musical landscapes of True Flavas Band. Please take place on your seat, enjoy the smell of a cup of Douchka black tea , close your eyes, the train's door is shutting then the locomotive pulls the heavyweight trans-Siberian slowly.The Journey starts to reach the "Polar Circle" and its deep soaring atmosphere, snowy forest and the steppes' flatness. Now You recognize, that it's all about immersive laidback funk. The band breaks with the white screen view blowing up at the wagon's window, crosses some more urban ensembles with the uptempo "Take It Straight", the intriguing "Estonia" and "Ghlmly". The expression touches climax offering a view from the mountain's top in "4Hero" and "Double Trouble" with transversal dynamic and flight sensations. The four musicians offer nights full of stars and aurora borealis moments in tracks like "Gamekeeper" and "Jazz'N'Bass". At the end "Countryside" brings us into a gradual rise of leftfield ambience sustained by Krautrock guitars and Gregorian like chants, hypnotic.With this first LP on Stereophonk, True Flavas Band show ten beautiful, fine and well-matured pieces. Strong of a rich musical experience and influences, the quartet from Saint-Petersburg composed by Roma (drums), Danik (keyboards and electronics), Dima (bass) and Alexey (guitar) have evolved since 2005 to achieve a perfect combination. TrueFlavas performed with artists such as Tricky, Dj Vadim, Dj Krush, Theo Parrish, Badbadnotgood, Gaslampkiller, Fatima, Themselves, Jimi Tenor... and toured all over Russia.

Born in 1949 in Recife (Brazil), Roberto De Melo Santos, despite a very light discography, is among the true icons of the Brazilian Soul music under his artist alias, Di Melo. He’s indeed only needed an eponymous album, released in 1975 on Odeon, to assert himself as a star in his native country, but also as a legend for all collectors and connoisseurs of the world. More than 40 years after its release, this famous album sells for several hundred euros in its original version, and even for the few reissues that were offered. Not very active since then, Di Melo however returned in 2016 with the album O Imorrível, released on the Brazilian label Casona Produções.It is then that a year later, came a meeting with the French group Cotonete, that Florian Pellissier, founding member and keyboard within the band tells us about: “On tour in Brazil with Cotonete, we had a few days off in Sao Paulo and I really hoped to make a collaboration with an important artist or band from the Brazilian funk scene. We had thought of Marcos Valle, Meta Meta or Ed Motta... but Rafaela Prestes our Brazilian "sound ingineer/genious" told me she’d worked with Di Melo for his recent comeback and gave me his number. No sooner said than done, as I'm a huge fan of Di Melo. The next day he arrived at our house with Jo, his wife, and Gabi, his daughter. He takes the guitar in front of us and gives us a private show of 3 hours… we cried the tears of joy. He had 400 original songs never recorded, a gold mine. On the same night, we started working the arrangements for 2 days, followed by a rehearsal and two small gigs in Sao Paulo. Immediately after, we recorded in the magical Epsilon B studio. This album is the summary of this moment, of these 5 days of madness spent together between “the best band in the world” and the legend Roberto Di Melo… Simple, beautiful, Brazilian-French, human music…”Today, Atemporal found its final version in collaboration with Favorite Recordings and is proudly presented as what we believe will become the genuine long-awaited follow-up to the classic Di Melo’s LP.

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.

Parson Jones is a tree. No joke: in the American duo, neither member is named Parson or Jones. One, singer, is Joshua Hollenstein. The other, multi-instrumentalist and producer, is Kerry Fogarty. So Parson Jones is a tree. “A giant redwood that we spotted near us at Armstrong Woods in northern California.” He has the right to his own plaque. And to his name. Parson Jones is 1,300 years old. He deserved this special treatment. “Sometimes people call us Parson & Jones, they want to know who Parson is, who Jones is,” Kerry laughs.Without demonstration of style, Parson Jones envisages all the music which make the buttocks dance and the brain meditate. Often in the same song, the temperatures play yo-yo, but it is the beneficence, the generosity, the nonchalance of the melodies that have the last word. It does not matter if the dressing is funk, rock, pop, soul, psychedelic, if the tone is euphoric or melancholic: it’s the great and beautiful score of timeless pop-music played by Parson Jones.

After his first adventure in the endless universe of instrumental music where he made known “Man With a Plan” in 2018, Minus & MRDolly now presents the new EP Broken Hearts Make Broken Beats. This new work is the result of a recording session at the Groove-Wood studios promoted by João André - who mixes two of the three originals of the EP - to which Hugo Danin joined on drums and Sérgio Alves on keyboards and electric piano. In trio, Minus, Hugo and Sérgio rearranged and explored the original sketches, previously composed by Minus & MRDolly.Floating, or as if to say, with one “foot inside and the other outside” of his so familiar home that is Hip Hop, “BHMBB” is the reflection of some musical references previous to that house, where “Britfunk” or “Broken Beat” serves as an example. This EP intends to marry the acoustic character of the interpretation with the aesthetic and electronic universe of dance music.“Salame”, “The Break” and “A Thousand Miles”, the three originals that make up the EP Broken Hearts Make Broken Beats, also count on the participation of percussionists Manu Idhra and Rui Ferreira, the voice of Mary Raisekings, and the Pardal saxophone. The theme "The Break" has remixes by Pedro and Max Graef.

You may know of “Rude Movements”, an early dance music classic produced by SunPalace (Mike Collins and Keith O’Connell) back in 1983 that brought together proto-house, balearic beats and funky vibes. In 1984, the tune quickly became an anthem that could regularly be heard at David Mancuso’s “The Loft” or at Larry Levan’s “Paradise Garage” for example. Thanks to Mike Collins, the studio veteran still in the business after more than 35 years and currently busy perpetuating the legacy of SunPalace, more material from the archives has been ‘surfacing’ over the past few years on UK-based record labels. After a very productive meeting earlier this year, Parisian label Chuwanaga is really proud to present four unreleased songs produced between 1982 and 1984! Co-written by Mike Collins from SunPalace and Breeze McKrieth, a founder member of Britfunk bands Light Of The World and Beggar & Co, these Lost Songs are the almost forgotten result of this seminal collaboration, an exclusive musical rendez-vous between experienced studio music makers and funksters at the top of their game, including some of the finest Britfunk musicians. Bringing together eighties influences and futuristic sounds, the result covers a wide range of genres, from jazz-funk to new wave: it captured a unique moment in British musical history, a smooth transition to a more electronic sound. Definitely not one to be missed!