Soul-Funk

Reissue! Cultures of Soul Records is proud to bring to you an anthology of the music of Evans Pyramid. This album features all of the officially released singles plus four previously unreleased tracks. Andre Evans was the mastermind behind Evans Pyramid, a seasoned performer and session player in Boston throughout the '70s. Full of unique disco and boogie stylings, the LP includes all of the rare singles such as “Never Gonna Leave You,” “Dip Drop,” “No I Won’t” and “I Want Your Body,” as well as a recently discovered 45 that featured two top-notch disco tracks - “Dance A Thon” and “Rubber Band.” The album also includes a download card to four unissued tracks from the original demo tapes.Thanks to praise and adulation from Gilles Peterson, DJ Kon, the Noble brothers and Joey Negro, as well as other respected DJs and collectors around the world, Evans Pyramid is the undisputed king of Boston boogie.LP is a limited edition, individually hand-numbered pressing of 1,000

For its third release, Chuwanaga goes back in the past with the reissue of “(Where Is The) Sunshine” by Kalima, a rare 7” originally released in 1981 and produced in Baltimore by Afro-American pianist and producer Derrick Amin. Part I on the A side and part II on the B side form a real journey, a beauty in its own style fusing jazz, soul and spirituality as well as political values.Back in the mid-seventies Derrick Amin brought together young musicians from his Afro-American Muslim community in Baltimore. He tells us: “all black music in America is a response to racism and slavery” and “(Where Is The) Sunshine” was their own answer, “a plaintiff query of one immerse in darkness. The darkness of lies, lies that deny the humanity, justice, and equality of people.It’s the impetus of this song”. He adds: “Kalima means “Word” or “Langage” in Arabic. The name was inspired by a quote from Imam W.D. Mohammad (the late Muslim American leader and erstwhile successor to Nation of Islam founder, Elijah Muhammad) who once said: “Words make people””.With its splendid vocal parts (thanks to vocalist Sabreen Shareef), a unique major-to-minor chord progression, subtle synthesizer melodies in the chorus and amazing electric piano and sax solos, it really is a very special release. It’s been discovered in a Motor City Drum Ensemble’s jazz set with Gilles Peterson at the J.A.W. Family Reunion in Berlin back in 2016. Still, one must not forget its yet poetic still political message now shared once again with the world. The question asked by Kalima sadly still remains as relevant in 2018: Where is the sunshine?

BACK IN STOCK !!!

Omaggio brings the heat once again with the reissue of Prana People, self titled LP originally released in 1977 on Prelude.The Aleem brothers Taharqa and Tunde Ra (or Albert and Arthur) are Prana People and brought a perfect treasure of disco/funk/soul to make you want to dance from the funked up "Is Your Life A Party" to that slow, head nodding sexy groove of "Wishful Thinking" to proper hands in the air feel good disco of "Angels Say Flee" to the perfect strings and flawless soul of "All Around My World". The combination of the tracks and strong production make for an endlessly playable album, and with the legendary brothers, who since the 60's have their place in music history, this is an instant buy if not already owned to add to The Aleems discography of your collection.

Discover Le Deltaplane, fifth album by Andre Solomko, and third produced on Favorite Recordings, pursuing a collaboration that started more than 5 years ago. Born in Ukraine in 1965 and now based in Finland, Andre Solomko is primarily a rich and engaging personality, but above all, a brilliant saxophonist, composer and engineer, whose contagious passion cannot leave anyone indifferent. Between 2012 and 2014, he and Favorite Recordings released 2 albums, Où es-tu maintenant ? and Le Polaroid, hailed by many tastemakers and meeting notable success in Japan. Following Le Premier Disco Sans Toi, an acclaimed single unveiling two new compositions with Disco flavors, Andre Solomko and Favorite Recordings also proudly present Le Deltaplane. Fully composed and arranged by Andre Solomko, the 6 tracks of the album are deeply infused with his longtime passion for Jazz-Funk and Movie-Soundtracks, this time also injecting more influences from WestCoast and Modern-Soul music. Andre Solomko, an artist who spreads love like in the good old days!

Al Massrieen: Disco, Funk and modernized Arabic Pop from Egypt! In the beginning of Habibi Funk, our search was focussed on vinyl records. Around a year ago though, we got to the point where we realized that it became substantially harder to discover music, that we enjoyed and hadn't heard before. It became apparent that it was time to start looking for other formats. Cassette tapes were the obvious alternative. These were introduced in the arabic world around the late 1970s.In some countries they took over a bit earlier, in others a bit later, but eventually they pushed the vinyl format out of the market in the 1980s. In Egypt this trend already even started in the late 1970s. Al Massrieen was one of the first bands I learned about once I discovered the tape format for myself. They were really popular in Egypt in the 1970s and the more of their music I found on either tapes or Arabic pirate mp3 sites, the more I was becoming a fan. Only very few bands from the region can match the band’s versatility as well as their strive for innovation. Hany Shenoda is the man behind the Al Massrieen band. He is a reknown figure of the Egyptian music scene and has worked with everyone from Abdel Halim Hafez to Mohamed Mounir. Al Massrieen was his attempt to introduce his ideas of modernizing Egyptian music, heavily encouraged by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt's only winner of the Nobel Price for literature) after discussing his ideas with him. Al Massrieen's sound goes from lush disco like “Sah” to psych rock like “Horreya” or incredible jazz fused pop on songs such as “Edba Mn Gded”. I was shocked to realize the band seemed to be hardly known outside Egypt, even though I feel they're at least on the same level as Ahmed Fakroun. An relative obscurity which I largely attribute to the fact that their releases never have been pressed on vinyl (apart from a Greece best of LP which wasn’t a strong compilation of the group’s songs). One way or another it felt like this band and especially their composer, band leader and overall brain Hany Shenoda was in need to get some recognition outside of Egypt. The release is fully licensed from the band and comes with an extensive booklet with liner notes, interviews and unseen photos.

Main Ingredients fantastic take on the Average White Band's original funky classic.For the first time ever on 7" too. Backed with a Main Ingredient track that's shot-up in popularity over the last few years, so welcome to the long 7" version of "Instant Love" previously only available on the U.S. promo 7" which will set you back circa £80 large7 inch vinyl with a large dinked centre hole.

Remastered and resissued double A sider for soul aficionados, B Boys and jazz funk lovers.Both instantly recognisable across the generations, the A side sees a reissue of one of the most feel good records out there in - 'Express Yourself'. Most famously sampled by the mighty N.W.A. in '89…. 'Whatever you do, do it good'.On flip you get pure funk destruction in the form of The Meters - Just Kissed My Baby. An insatiable, groove laden intro which has been prime sampling material throughout the years - most notably in Public Enemy's 'Timebomb'. Here's a chance to own two gems on one limited green coloured vinyl, with a large / dinked centre hole.Limited green vinyl 7"