Lucas Arruda
Ominira

French avantgarde Jazz-Funk pioneers Cortex released three milestone albums during the seventies including the iconic Troupeau Bleu. Their music has been sampled by Hip Hop artists such as MF Doom, Wiz Khalifa, Lupe Fiasco and Rick Ross and as a consequence is still very much alive today. Trad Vibe Records proudly presents a first time re-issue of their double sider 7inch single from 1976 Les Oiseaux Morts / Back To Life. We are sure that you will enjoy the melancholic beauty of “Les Oiseaux Morts” and the harmonica driven disco funk of “Back To Life”.

The debut album by musician and producer GO.SOUL.MAP. is a little gem in which pop and soul intersect and the clichés between mainstream and underground leap. A sexy and pensive nocturnal journey, immersed in thirteen songs between soft bass and space disco trips, with the voice of London-based Derane Obika of Living Sounds.The selection of songs in this album were made with the hope to bring the listener to deep thought, the lyrics and melodies seamlessly married to tracks that drive the listener's emotions.Produced, written and performed by Derane and Salvo, they came together by chance and were inspired to make the album making sure to balance the sound between the Lyrics, Melody and Music to insure that not only the songs are heard but the experience remembered and both spirit and soul are touched. The album is truly "Music From The Heart" Behind the alias GO.SOUL.MAP. hides one of the most authentic and purest talents of the current Catania music scene. Of which, moreover, under other guises and names, he has been an indispensable pillar for over a decade. An artist of immediate sensitivity, not only artistic. His training is fairly canonical: as a child, he studied piano. From there, as if following the movements of concentric circles, the passion for synths, drum machines, the world of samples and the recording studio. Above all, an uncommon ability to breathe in music. Accepted and found without prejudice, but always with the need to reveal a distinctive track, a signature. Touring between bars, streets, concerts and clubbing. An experience very consistent with the subject matter of this disc. Which is, in fact, the debut of a non-rookie. An ambitious record, because it possesses a sound that is as sexy as it is thoughtful and a writing style, exemplary, that lies on that borderline that, in the stereotype, defines underground and mainstream. Fields that instead it crosses naturally and between which it moves without any particular problems. After all, the music comes not from the malice of the intellect but from the nuances, tender or vehement, of naivety.Peaceful Sound For Broken Minds is a pop record, pop soul, of modern urban pop. Yes, labels, even in the sense of tags, are definitely that. Of course, it is the way in which ideas are rendered that makes the difference. The record is about the need to find one's peace, but it is the fall that it shows and not the landing. With honesty and, above all, style. That is, mastery of means and an important file work with which to decline that therapeutic soul pain in which his songs are immersed. We wait for hours more, the initial Fall Into The Flame and I Am Believe seem to tell us from there we move on. Hold The Line is where trip hop forgets itself, immersing itself, to the point of blurring, with the retro atmospheres of someone like Curtis Harding. Pushing has a space disco cadence that, more pronounced, we also find in the lunar expedition sound of Watergate. The exotic visions of Back In Underwater, between the stardust of Air and the innocence of Plone, become more jazzy in Cat With Camera. Just as in the urban streaks of Don't You Worry, which in upbeat mode would sound like a great reggae song, or Are U Ready, or in the disco funk of Right Of Me, the soulful accent of Derane Obika of Living Sounds emerges, a Londoner of Nigerian origin who grew up listening to gospel, Prince and Stevie Wonder, whose voice guides us through the songs of Peacefull Sound For Broken Minds. Which is a new point for that work of redefining the standards of pop today that Space Echo is doing. Throwing the clock overboard, because the time it wants to capture is nothing more than the movement of its hands.

Born to a French mother and a Burkinabe-Senegalese father, Jennifer "Hawa" Zonou bathed from a young age into the world of the Afro-American music. Approaching its 20th anniversary, she shows a real talent as a singer and naturally begins his musical training with the best school, Gospel. She then entered the Soul-Hip-Hop scene from Lyon, multiplying gigs and collaborations.During a show in 2008, Hawa made the acquaintance of Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart (Metropolitan Jazz Affair, Uptown Funk Empire, Mr Day, Mr President) and in the same time of Pascal Rioux and Favorite Recordings label. Seduced by what he hears, Patchworks offered her his services and in 2009, Hawa revealed to the public with a remarkable cover of "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice, and fine appearances alongside Mr Day or Mr President.Naturally, the duo nourishes the common desire to embark further and in June 2011, Hawa presented her first solo album entitled My Little Green Box. Collecting first the support and praise from many French media (France Inter, FIP, Nova, Telerama, etc ...), the groove of the album will also trigger a long series of festivals & concerts throughout France. Hawa reveals herself with a genuine stage presence, spontaneity and ability to move, that will fulfill every audiences encountered, whether in Blues, Jazz, or Contemporary Music’ a stages, and whatever generations it was. This is also an opportunity for her and Patchworks, to surround them with a cohesive group, composed with the finest musicians of the Jazz and Soul scene from Lyon.With this positive environment around her, Hawa also starts writing her new album with exalted inspiration. Once again produced by Patchworks, Another Tree marks an important evolution for Hawa, both in sound and production, writing, or influences. Deliberately more live, the entire production is made both with analog equipment and tape recorder, and with the participation of the live band members.A perfect background to enhance Hawa’s songs, which are significantly looking towards Memphis, crossing the genres between Soul, Folk, or even Rockabilly. The sound of the album also permeates the footprint of artists like the Staple Singers, Isley Brothers, or Shirley Ann Lee, labels like Hi Records, Sun, or Stax, and finally great producers like Willy Mitchell, Jack Nitzsche, or Phil Spector. Hawa happens to be more direct and confident, but also more sensitive and more deep. And without a doubt, it makes her songs just more intense, original and elegant.

Two years after the release of his first self-titled album, DJ producer Massimo Napoli aka Galathea presents the new 'Sacred Love', in which he once again avails himself of the collaboration of his friend producer and bass player Salvo Dub, as well as a combo of respected musicians: singer Kadi Koulibaly - originally from Burkina Faso - already featured on the first album, Giulia La Rosa, author of the lyrics and performer of the title track, pianist Mario Pappalardo, percussionist Sergio Spitaleri and drummer Luciano Cantone.'Sacred Love' is definitely a more mature, intense and profound journey than the previous album of the same name, which enhances the magical dreamlike and spiritual atmospheres of a certain African culture.The album guides the listener along a path of multi-ethnic contaminations: "Divinité", "Ouaga" and "Koloko", well interpreted by Kadi, touch on the sacredness and mysticism of the African continent and blend well with the Spiritual Jazz sounds that have evolved in the West."Divinité", through the spoken word of French poet Diego Hernandez, tackles the themes of faith, life and the relationship with one's 'self', with references to French chanson productions, in which Kadi's spiritual song, at times 'Saharan', intersects and expands into cosmic space.The title track, the first single from the album, also released on 7" (45rpm) in two versions, is an Afro-American gospel with a typically afrobeat rhythm, vaguely reminiscent of Nina Simone's 'See-Line Woman'.North Africa is represented by "Equator", while we climb further north into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with "Medican Blues", to land in Stromboli with the Deep Jazz of "Ginostra", whose title recalls the village of the marvellous island in the Aeolian archipelago.Then we have the Cuban track "Caminito", a sort of Cha-Cha with a romantic piano melody (à la Chucho Valdez) well performed by maestro Mario Pappalardo; and then again "Eos", strongly Balearic with a Brazilian mood; "Impression", a dreamy journey of impact; "Sirens", already present on the first album and here reworked in a new Spiritual-Ambient version produced by Agosta."Sacred Love" is thus an original and musically borderless album, which expands a certain African sacred culture and naturally blends Afrobeat, Jazz and Blues atmospheres with the Balearic sounds of Mediterranean culture.Enjoy listening!

If you’re into funky sixties or seventies B-movies soundtracks, Mustang Force is what you need! Composed of 14 tracks recorded live and composed by Sébastien Blanchon (drums, rhodes, organ, clavinet, synthesizers) and Emmanuel Marée (drums, guitar, bass, percussion), Hollywood Hustlers is an imaginary soundtrack inspired by all these movies. 14 songs recorded live, illustratring scenes of pursuits, deals, investigations. An album which will undoubtedly delight fans of funk and rare groove.

** Available exclusively at The Pusher **Maurice Lecoeur could be considered as France’s best kept secret composer. Although hardly known outside of « digging-nerds » circles, he produced an incredible number of themes for movies, TV programs and commercials. Inspired by his friend and mentor François de Roubaix, he managed to create his own print, juggling freely with genres, harmonies, tonalities and string arrangements.This fine compilation gathers together the cream of his 70s-to-mid-80s work ; a journey overflowing with pop fantasies, crazy drum-breaks and beautiful orchestral themes.Most of these magnetic tapes are totally unrealeased and could have burned in the terrible fire that devastated Lecoeur’s home studio in the early 90’s. For fans of Jean Claude Vannier, Michel Colombier, François De Roubaix and Janco Nilovic…