SEALED

“After touring the United-States to promote my first solo album The Push, I discovered that I wanted to add more bangin’ songs to my live set as well as speak on some more topics that I have been dealing with.Soul Power is the result. When I I say “Soul Power”, I’m talking about what gives my soul, my spirit power--which is music! This project was especially born out of all that I learned being on the road as well as teaming up with new friends I’ve met along the way which led to some dope collaborations!I definitely have to give thanks to the folks who have made me feel at home while away from home; who have blessed me with food, shelter, ciphers, laughter, conversation, money, memories, general nonsense, and love. Also mad thanks to the artists who blessed this project with their talent. Peace. Raashan”

Lungile Masitha was the short-lived studio name for renowned SA artist Sello ‘Chicco’ Twala, who played with such iconic bands as Harari and Umoja. However, in the mid 80’s his name was under license to one of the major labels and in an effort for self-expression recorded under the name ‘Lungile Masitha’, here he linked up with long term friend Jimmy Mngwandi to co-write and arrange the two tracks ‘Vuyani’ & ‘Makoti’, both sung in his native Tsongan tongue. Vuyani is an upbeat tune that matches Chicco’s unique vocal style with percolating drums and distorted choruses to incredible effect, while Makoti is a mellower blend of floating keys and choruses sung by local kids in an effort to expose “emerging talent”.

40 years after its first release, Cameroun born artists Zogo reissues for the first time his EP 'Africa' on Banquise. This release includes new versions by Dan Shake (Mahogani Music), Folamour (FHUO Records) and Tvfrom86 (In The Box Records).

In 1972, Orchestre Abass released two incredible singles on Polydor. These records - featuring Samarin Banza, Haka Dunia and other afrofunk masterpieces - were powerful enough to knock any music head out, but it wasn’t until the discovery of some unreleased material by the band that the seeds for this project were planted.It all happened in 2008 in Ghana. I was going through some tapes that had previously been the property of PolyGram one of the major record companies based in west Africa. In the late 80s political instability and curfews had paralysed the music industry forcing Polygram to close their Ghanaian subsidiaries leaving all of their recordings behind. These recordings had been packed in boxes and left vegetating in an Accra warehouse for three decades until I came along. To my surprise all of the tapes looked unharmed and I was particularly relieved to hear that the Orchestre Abass tape was in an excellent state of condition. I began fiddling around with the idea of releasing an album of the band and that plan got an additional boost with le “coup de grace” which had landed in the form of an ultra rare tune called Honam discovered in Sotoboua, a small northern Togolese town in the middle of nowhere. That find completed this selection.I had previously discovered some similar music in Northern Benin and in Nigeria and I started picturing an area that spread all the way from Northern Ghana to Northern Cameroon, an area I dubbed ‘The Islamic funk belt’ due to the fact that Super Borgou de Parakou, Napo De Mi Amor, Uppers International and Hamad Kalkaba just to name a few - all from that ‘belt’ - were groups made up of musicians with an Islamic background. This can be felt and heard in the music and particularly in the singing since many of the musicians had attended koranic schools and the languages used in the songs often had Arabic elements fused in - Orchestra Abass was one of them. With their heavy, organ-led sound combining with the deftest of musical touches, these records were the work of a rhythmic powerhouse and we are honoured to be in a position to present the recordings of Togo´s funkiest Band.Unfortunately Malam Issa Abass, the founder, guitarist and organ player of the band, was killed in 1993 by a grenade thrown into his bedroom and to help me reconstruct the biography of the band I tracked down Thon Komla, one of the band´s songwriters and Abderaman Issa, the guitar player of the band.All the music was licensed directly from the various composers of these songs. The vinyl is pressed on 180 High Quality Virgin Vinyl and the gatefold contains previously unseen pictures and a detailed biography of the might band.

Another must have part of Marc Mac's "Beats n knowledge" series of mixtape style albums.A Documentary on Wax. Looking back (and forward), reflecting on the movement / organisation known as "The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Often the term "Self-Defense" is left out of discussion and far too often knowledge of the social programs developed by the Panthers gets push aside to continue a narrative of a violent group of anti-society revolutionaries. Revolutionary yes, anti-society no. All Power To The People.Produced by Marc Mac and pretty much all straight out of his MPC2500 (sampling sequencer), the 'college mixtape' style with sound bites from the era mixed with 90s style hip hop beats is now a trademark of this series. Limited to 300 copies worldwide. don't sleep.

First Word Records is very proud to present a brand new full-length album from Kaidi Tatham. 'It's A World Before You'.Following on from two EPs released on First Word last year ('Changing Times' and 'Hard Times'), Kaidi has delivered us thirteen tracks that deftly illustrate his various talents as a multi-instrumentalist.Kaidi is probably best known for his work with Bugz In The Attic, though his musical contributions over the years have also included Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler, Chris Dave, Macy Gray, King Britt, DJ Spinna, Mr Scruff and IG Culture to name but a few! In recent times, he's worked with DJ Jazzy Jeff on a variety of projects, including his most recent album 'M3', touring Europe for Jeff and Will Smith's reunion shows, and on the PLAYlist album 'Chasing Goosebumps', with Glenn Lewis, Stro Elliot (The Roots), Masego, Maimouna Youssef, Rich Medina, Daniel Crawford and more.All this in addition to heating up dances around Europe with his inimitable DJ sets, and working heavily with First Word label-mate, Eric Lau (who also mixed this album) on a variety of projects, and adding releases to his already impressive catalogue on 2000 Black, Eglo and Theo Parrish's Sound Signature, with regular compadre, Dego (who features on the album's title track).This album personifies Kaidi's diverse palette of sounds – bar Eric & Dego's features, every piece of music is played by himself. Largely flowing on a broken beat rhythm section, Kaidi effortlessly incorporates washes of afro, latin and funk throughout. From the harmonics of 'Your Dream Don't Mean A Thing', to the breakneck funk of 'Outta Audah', each and every riddim exudes energy. But this isn't simply a bruk record. The album is laced together with downtempo beats and future jazz interludes throughout, and some sweet synth boogie is never very far away, especially on the weighty vibes of 'It's About Who You Know'. To top it all off, there's two delightful nuggets of hip hop soul - Mancunian label-mates, Children of Zeus, feature on the neo-soul vibes of 'Out Here On My Own', and there's a feature from Amir Townes, better known as Uhmeer - an upcoming MC from Philadelphia, and son of one Jazzy Jeff Townes - who rides a sub-heavy, piano-led slice of boom bap, voicing an assortment of characters to tell the tale of 'Cupid'.'It's A World Before You' is set to cause serious damage to sound-systems over the Summer, and show and prove once again the skills of one of the UK's best unsung musical talents, Kaidi Tatham.

The 45 of Everyday People - World full of people is well known on the modern soul and funk scene and it relatively easy to find a copy for maybe 500 pounds. What was always less well known was that there was also an LP by the same band but labels as People Pleasure. I first came across this LP in Turku, Finland in the early 2000s when at the house of DJ and Collector Felix Manell who pulled a pile of rare and interesting bits that day. I did not really appreciate the true rarity until trying to source my own copy. The next copy I saw was in Japan in 2004 but was not going anywhere. Roll on 15 years, Russell Paine, collector, DJ and super record researcher called me saying he had finally unravelled the mystery and was talking to Bill brown & Al Hall Jr. Russel sets himself the hard task of only putting out unreleased material on his own label so we also work together on LPs and Singles on Athens of the North. After we managed to clear the rights the final hurdle was finding a clean copy, not an easy task. After asking loads of deep collectors, Zaf put me onto DJ Nick the Record who very kindly lent me his minty personal copy, a huge favour considering how rare this record is, almost impossible to replace. So we mastered from the vinyl (no tapes exist) and while it still sound pretty raw it is twice as good as the O.G. Been a long time coming.