Canada

Original funk production exclusive 12" release on Jordan Valley Records. Featuring "Fear Not" and "Spaces" plus instrumentals. This is a limited release.

First time official reissue of now much in demand record. Originally released in 1990.In the pivotal period before the end of Apartheid, the fluff of bubblegum was starting to boil over into what later became the tougher township-centric sounds of kwaito. Amidst this volatile and transitional climate a mysterious kid named Eddie Magwaza started making moves in the studio, creating music for a vibrant street dance style that was blowing up in SA, called pantsula. At the time, other groups were also starting to create faster and more instrumental dance music which suited this agile style of dancing, but on this album Magwaza managed to channel the cosmic chant of italo and the sweaty energy of early house music in a unique and peerless way that has captured the ears and feet of DJs and dancers around the world many years later.Magwaza, who wasn't even 20 when he made this album in 1990, had the help of seasoned studio whizzes Lucky Matante & Jan Smit with programming, sequencing and engineering, and their studio mastery really takes flight on the dub version of the title cut which has made the album so desirable in the last few years. Sadly Magwaza was shot and killed shortly after the release of the album and it stands as the last testament to his brilliant vision.Remastered and pressed on a loud 12" Mashisa is once again available to spread the pantsula spirit to dancing bodies everywhere.

Having seemingly been taken aback by their success over the last two years, Vancouver's Mood Hut crew has decided to go back to basics with an album - the crew's first - from the previously unheralded Disco Mantras. Naturally, they're keeping tight-lipped about the identity of its' creators, but it appears to be a collaborative effort containing various members of their extended family. Musically, it's as rich, attractive and loved-up as we've come to expect, with their usual blazed, new age ambient house sounds being joined by influences that range from spaced-out disco and humid African rhythms, to horizontal jazz-funk and scratchy, dust-laden dub reggae. The result is a blazed, early morning classic in the making.

Following an acclaimed appearance on People's Potential Unlimited, Pender Street Steppers return home to Mood Hut with two chunks of willfully loose, dusty and picturesque analogue deep house gems. "Glass City" is superb, with fluttering synthesized horns and becalmed horns gracefully stretching out over a typically sparse but jazzy rhythm and a warm-to-touch bassline. They go even deeper and slower on the flip, with "Golden Garden" delivering pitched-down beats, unfeasibly dreamy, stretched-out chords, and oodles of well-placed dub delay. It's not so much new age house, as the most blazed deep house track you'll hear all year. And, yes, it's also superb.