2xLP

Strut is proud to announce Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band’s sophomore release ‘Obiaa!’, released on 4th October 2019. The album, produced again by Kwame Yeboah and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff at Lovelite Studio’s analogue HQ in Berlin, is a deep and soulful journey into the heart of Ghana’s indigenous highlife music celebrating the timeless and iconic voice of Pat Thomas, the 72 year-old “Golden Voice of Africa”.After producing Ebo Taylor’s seminal albums ‘Love and Death’ and ‘Appia Kwa Bridge’ for Strut Records, in 2014 Ben Abarbanel-Wolff approached Kwame Yeboah, Ghana’s top contemporary instrumentalist and bandleader, to work on a new project: “We initially wanted to invite Pat back into the studio with Ebo Taylor and Tony Allen to recreate and expand on some of the vibes they had recorded together during a lost session in 1977,” Ben explains. Recorded in Accra, the result was the critically acclaimed self-titled debut album ‘Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band’ in 2015. Pat and the Kwashibu Area Band (named after Kwame’s neighbourhood in Accra) hit the road in October 2015.After a memorable performance at WOMEX in Budapest, they never looked back. The next two years took them around the world to play at major venues and festivals including Glastonbury, Roskilde, WOMAD, Sakifo, WOMADelaide, Sines and many more. “We could see there was something for everyone in our music. People of all ages, colours and trends were dancing together!’ explains Kwame, the mastermind behind the band’s unbelievable precision and killer live show.The new album is called ‘Obiaa!’ which means ‘Everybody!’. Tracks include the modern parables ‘Onfa Nkosi Hwee’ warning against arrogance and ‘Odo Ankasa’ about the value of real love and trust as well as a great new cover of Thomas’ Afro-disco favourite ‘Yamona’. “Playing highlife around the world taught us what we had to do to move our sound forward,” continues Ben. While simultaneously looking back towards the classic days of highlife and forward to a fresh revival of the guitar band sound, this album cements Pat Thomas & Kwashibu Area Band’s position at the pinnacle of modern African music.‘Obiaa!’ is released on all formats on 4th October The album features exclusive cover artwork by Lewis Heriz with photos by Marie Weikopf and Michelle Chiu and is mastered by Édouard Bonan at Ed-Room Studio in Paris.-Brand new album from Ghana’s original highlife master-Produced by Kwame Yeboah and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff and recorded at Jochen Stroeh’s Lovelite Studios-Mastered and cut by The Carvery with illustrated design by Lewis Heriz-Full worldwide PR campaign + European tour during Oct / Nov 2019-2LP IN SINGLE SLEEVE, 12” SHEET INSERT

This retro-futuristic Italian classic from the cosmic era is now finally reissued in a double LP edition that will surely bring joy to DJs worldwide. Underrated jazz musician and composer Gianni Safred is one of the great pioneers of Italian electronic music, and had proven his talent in a couple of ultra-rare and highly sought-after library records released by renowned Italian label Music Scene.FUTURIBILE was the second of the batch, composed and recorded in 1978 in his Trieste-based studio, using Minimoog, Polymoog, Arp Odyssey, Arp Omni, Fender Rhodes, Sequencer Roland, Space Echo Roland, and accompanied by a solid drum section. The whole album is crazy, with spooky and mysterious grooves that sounds both modern and danceable. An incredible electronic disco-jazz album, full of deep breaks and beats, along with dope overlapping synths, resulting in minimalistic proto-house tunes.A record that will take you both back in time and forward into the future. These sounds are suitable for space travels, space exploration, experiments, fantastic adventures, future enterprises, interplanetary stories, important achievements, industrial accomplishments of broad implications, modern scientific discoveries, and new industrial events.

Elder statesman of Malian music Cheick Tidiane Seck sends an Afro Jazz prayer to his friend and colleague Randy Weston over a double LP, propelling his Pan-African vision into the future over a sea of soulful piano and complex percussion. Cheikh envisaged the session as a kind of musical banquet, inviting guests including Manu Dibango and Abd Al Malik to the table to pay tribute to Randy Weston’s composi- tions, blending disparate musical traditions and experiences into a collective eulogy.

Initially Guts idea was ​​a return to his basics of beatmaker, a solo work with samplers and sequencing. But he finally put it back below his stack of ideas for an album radically different from the previous ones.Experimental, sunny, which would explore all these vibrations from the southern hemisphere that Guts has been collecting for years while practicing in his passion for diggin '. The ones with whom he builds his DJ sets, those he patiently collected on the five volumes of his compilations series Beach Diggin'. An Afro-tropical album.C’est d’abord l’idée d’un retour à ses fondamentaux de beatmaker qui s’était installée dans l’esprit de Guts. Un travail en solitaire, aux samplers et au séquençage. Guts l’a finalement remis en dessous de sa pile d’idées et en a fait remonter une autre, celle de faire un album radicalement différent des précédents.Expérimental, ensoleillé, qui explorerait toutes ces vibrations venues de l’hémisphère sud que Guts collecte depuis des années en s’adonnant à sa passion du diggin’. Celles avec lesquelles il embrase ses dj sets, celles qu'il a patiemment collectées sur les cinq volumes de ses compilations Beach Diggin’. Un album afro-tropical.

Compilation of funky, tropical tunes from all over the place, following up the well know Beach Digging compilations!Straight From The Decks compiles seventeen tunes that constitute the true essence of Gut's DJ sets. To listen at home, or to remind you of the atmosphere you may have experienced at one of them.

BACK IN STOCK !!!