Originally released in 1986 ‘Power’ was the work of Philly producer Derrick Graves and vocalist Terrance T. The machine lead production on ‘Power’ was part of an emerging wave of post disco producers embracing a dub aesthetic that proved to be the precursor to the emergence of house music. The vocal harmonies from Terrance were influenced by Cameo and Prince and combined with the powerful production results in a dancefloor bomb in the Larry Levan style, stripped back and dubby with a strong song at its core. This level of musicality and production was no fluke, Derrick was a seasoned session musician who worked extensively with the likes of Sister Sledge, Dexter Wansel & Donny Hathaway. Derrick had a clear understanding of emerging studio trends “Music production was evolving into a new phase where home studios were developing and it was becoming more possible for real recordings to be made! From there, I eventually enhanced my production skills by learning how to compose using sequencers, computer software (DAWs), and midi instrument implementation in the 80's and 90's. I went from a 4-track to eventually a 24-Track 2" tape machine setup!”.

The fully remastered 12” includes the essential instrumental mix.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Isle Of Jura reissue a classic slice of mid-80s boogie which, though not in the £200+ club, will have remained pretty illusive for most. It's all about that cracking drum machine programming and beautiful interplay between guitar, synth and vocal. A perfect example of raw boogie power!

TRACK LISTING

Power (Extended Vocal Mix)
Power (Extended Instrumental Mix)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Dave Lee's "AC Soul Symphony" alias has been releasing delectable and sultry disco since 2005 but reached his magnus opus in 2023 with the release of the "Metamorphosis" LP. Here we find two tracks handpicked from the album and delivered, for the first time, in a 7" format. The single starts much as the album does with the track "Windy City Theme", beautifully scored, recorded, and produced legato strings envelope the track, punctuated with horns and vocals reminiscent of a Love Unlimited Orchestra production. This version of the track has been rearranged, speeding up the pacing of the track and reaching the juicy parts in a really satisfying way. On the flip side we have the title track from the album "Metamorphosis", which is the first time the vocal version has been made available on Vinyl. A bass laden intro gives ways to glistening pianos and those signature strings (have we mentioned how good the strings are?). A more laid back and seductive track than the A side, but no less appealing. Again, due to the limitations of the 7" format, "Metamorphosis" has been expertly rearranged with loving care and attention.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: As disco as disco gets (and therefore not for everyone) - but with a b-side like this who can possibly resist? Metamorphosis with its catchy motif and sultry vocals has me well and truly hooked.

TRACK LISTING

Windy City Theme
Metamorphosis

Great music is often about chance meetings and impromptu creative sessions and so it is that Hell Yeah proudly serves up Sensory Blending, a new collaborative album from Italian collective Aura Safari and Finnish musician Jimi Tenor. The nine-track record is a lush and luxurious fusion of jazz-funk styles.

This glorious record came about after Tenor was playing a Hell Yeah party at Tangram in Perugia. Aura Safari were local and, in some free time the day before the gig, everyone jumped in the studio together. They had never met before but soon found plenty of free-flowing common ground and the result of that one-off session is now served up on this vibrant new album that brims with musicality, indelible melodies and subtly uplifting vibrations.

Tenor has toured the world and previously collaborated with the likes of Japanese master Calm. He is a psychedelic space-jazz-funk king, skilled musician, composer and producer who, since the mid-nineties, has released more than 25 albums and 45 EPs. Aura Safari is made up of bass, synth, guitar and keys players Lorenzo Francioli, Ruggero Bonucci, Nicola Pitassio Andrea Moretti, Lorenzo Lavoratori, Daniele Melloni and Nicholas Iammatteo, and they are label regulars who served up their sublime Island Dreams album here last year.

Says Jimi, who enjoyed his time in Perugia and adds that 'the studio session was 100% efficient. I showed up and we started to play. Almost all that was made was material that we could use for the album. I love to work fast. Quick brushstrokes. Finish! I was amazed at how intuitively the Aura Safari guys could come up with new parts for songs. I mentioned some feeling or approach and they seemed to find it just like that.'

'Bodily Synesthesia' is the seductive opener with steamy sax notes and gentle grooves that are topped by aloof vocal whispers. 'Lunar Wind' is another slow and steamy mix of jazzy keys and soulful vocal hooks, 'Bewitched By The Sea' is a more tropical and percussive number with majestic melodies and 'My Bluebell' picks up the pace with jazz-funk grooves and hustling chords. 'Last Waltz In Perugia' has freeform sax lines soaring over meticulous drums that ebb and flow and 'Gimlet' brings a playful, samba-tinged rhythm and sunny flute leads straight from South America. There's a laidback, carefree mood to 'It's Too Easy To Love You' while 'Your Magic Touch' is a dancey number that exudes melodic joy, and 'Indigo' closes in dramatic fashion with a conversational sax that sticks long in the memory.

Sensory Blending is a seamless fusion of collaborative minds from Aura Safari and Jimi Tenor and it could well be performed live at some special select shows later in the year.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bodily Synesthesia
A2. Lunar Wind
A3. Bewitched By The Sea
A4. My BlueBell
B1. Last Waltz In Perugia
B2. Gimlet
B3. It's Too Easy To Love You
B4. Your Magic Touch
B5. Indigo

Dramaboy's self-titled LP is a modern yet nostalgic soundtrack layering ambient pads, dreamy melodies and hero basslines with soulful boogie, city pop and leftfield analogue rhythms. The album also features Kristian Hamilton's voice on the second track "Stargazer", a LA-based singer who previously collaborated with the likes of Steven Julien, Theophilus London, Tom Trago & Fredfades. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Intriguing little nugget taking on city-pop / Balearic-house, modern boogie and more. Dramaboy is the solo project of Greg Tallon (previously of Mcbaise and The Dead Pirates), and this debut LP shows plenty of promise.

TRACK LISTING

Take Off
Stargazer (Ft Kristian Hamilton)
Goddess
Taurus Constellation
Planet D
City Drama
Mind Controlled
Close Encounter
Stargazer (Instrumental)
Close Encounter (Instrumental)

Especial Specials has recently helped to take the Japanese label Chill Mountain Record into the world of wax after it previously operated only in the digital world. Now it carries on with a similar MO as it works with Multi Culti label head, DJ and producer Dreems on a new set of limited-edition EPs. He has already landed on the likes of Kompakt, Pinchy & Friends and Futureboogie and now digs into his vaults to serve up some edits and dubs that are hard to pin down but often doused in psychedelic overtones, acid and dub. Each one is a unique work in its own right but they all add up to one helluva good EP.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Dreems provides all your psychedelic dancefloor needs across two new aurally and visually pleasing 12" compilations on Especial. This one is worth it alone for the addictive groove of 'Battaki'.

TRACK LISTING

An Ancient
Piska Power - Dumm Dumm ~ Ex Riemen (Dreems Rebirth)
Un Peu Sage
Eye-Mah, Yeah-Mah
Umeko Ando - "Battaki" (Dreems Luv It Dub It)

Especial Specials always deal in releases with a story often as interesting as the music itself. This time out they enlist DJ and producer Dreems for a fine collection of limited-edition 12"s. Angus Gruzman aka Dreems is the man behind the vital Multi Culti label and has dropped his own wares on the likes of Kompakt, Pinchy & Friends and Futureboogie but somehow remains rather in the shadows. This deep dive into his vaults should change that - these are edits and dubs that come doused in psychedelia as they trip through several genres. There is off-kilter dub, melon-twisting dub, intensely percussive and tribal dub, and more across the five fantastic tracks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Part 2 of a collection of shamanic edits and dubs by Dreems. A bit more on the dubbier side and every bit as good as Vol. 1... Nice to look at too!

TRACK LISTING

Jungle Gym
Peter Power - Adamo Waro (Dreems Horn Dub)
Zulu For Who
Ground & Kabamix - 2099 (Dreems Acid Dub)
Simonas & Gustavas - Undubbed (Dreems Redub)

Three years after he released the incredible "New Experience EP" (picking up plaudits from Bill Brewster, Tim Sweeney, Laurent Garnier, Horse Meat Disco, Leo Mas & 6Music’s Tom Ravenscroft, among many more), Tokyo’s Kota Motomura returns to Hobbes Music for his debut LP, "Pay It Forward". This is the first vinyl release on Hobbes Music since the much-loved "Aranath" EP by Leonidas & Hobbes last Spring. While the label maintains the level of quality control for which it has become recognized, the artist continues to subvert electronic and dance music norms in his iconoclastic way on this extraordinary record.

He’s a mysterious character with an ear for idiosyncratic music that runs the gamut from ambient, exotica and jazz to disco, house and techno via post punk, new wave and funk. It’s highly original and all adds up to a confection perhaps best described as Balearic, despite how tumultuous that word has become of late!

Album opener "Paradise" is a certified jazz-funk jam. Destined for dancefloors worldwide, this one’s been dropping well with DJs, Motomura demonstrating his piano chops alongside Mutsumi Takeuchi’s sax. "Tropical" pushes the boat in a more rhythmic direction, some pretty wild drum programming laced with more sounds of the, um, tropics, before mad vocal yelps suggest something yet more tribal. "To Be Free" initially resembles early 90s progressive house (pulsing bassline, synth-driven melodies), before the arrival of some new wave guitar licks a la classic Talking Heads / David Byrne and ooh ooh vocal chants take it to another dimension altogether.

B-side opener "Emotion" features Takeuchi again (on flute this time) and more vocal chants before things take a dramatic turn, threatening to open up into a full fanfare before calming and then bursting into wild life again. Rhythm flirts with an energy and pace more akin to a techno record: drums, drums, more drums plus a fair few yelps and chants - the kind of DJ tool that will send a simmering dance floor wild in the right hands. "Flower" closes things in a more melancholy style, familiar to fans of "Aboy" from the "New Experience" EP, with plaintive acoustic guitar (performed by Akichi), birdsong and big piano chords.

Support from Bill Brewster, Leo Mas, Al Kent, Red Rack’em, Nick The Record, Phil Mison, Phat Phil Cooper, KZA, Sean Johnston (ALFOS), S/A/M, Dribbler, Joe Muggs, Monolith Cocktail and more… 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Paradise
A2. Tropical
A3. To Be Free
B1. Emotion
B2. Rhythm
B3. Flower

The crucial Mr K is back with a special repress for Record Store Day 2024. This one throws it back to his two superb edits of Kratwerk's 'Trans Euro Express' which is cited often as the start of techno. Side A offers stripped-down, bare drum bones, with naked drums shaped into futuristic fusion, while Part II adds synthetic context. Deconstructing Kraftwerk's original sci-fi masterpiece at a slow, smouldering pace, it presents a classic in an entirely new light. This release unlocks doors of serious DJ creativity and should be snapped up quickly before it's gone again.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: You don't need me to tell you how good "Trans Europe Express" is. However, this cheeky little percussion edit from the masterful Danny Krivit extends the dancefloor ecstasy of that metallic drum break into THE GREATEST DJ TOOL ever. Buy two copies and lock into the robot rhythm.

TRACK LISTING

Trans-Europe Express (Mr K 7" Beats)
Trans-Europe Express (Mr K 7" Part II)

Simply an iconic track from Swiss brothers Mandrax and Seb K aka Shakedown, ‘At Night’ is one of the most recognisable house tracks of the last two decades. With one of the most-hyped remixes of the year, artist of the moment Peggy Gou delivers with a squelching 7 minute groover, bringing in that iconic synth motif to lift the production and keep it rolling. Stepping up to tackle this masterpiece with a nu-disco dance track, Tiger & Woods use cowbell to accent a b-boy beat, with drum machine breaks bringing it back to the dancefloor. With a sophisticated house remix with a nu-disco edge is Purple Disco Machine, fusing a funk-infused bassline with Terra Deva’s unforgettable vocals. Finally is a brand new version from the Shakedown duo themselves, the Galactic Boogie Mix. With saturated synths and interplanetary breakdowns, Shakedown bring a carefree 80s quality to this iconic track’s irresistible after-dark charm.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Fresh copies of this absolute essential record from the last decade. Still one of Peggy Gou's finest moments in my opinion (and two year's before she released "It Makes You Forget"), the other remixes are also killer. One of the best house vocals from recent years.

TRACK LISTING

A1 At Night (Peggy Gou's Acid Journey Remix)
A2 At Night (Tiger & Woods Remix)
B1 At Night (Purple Disco Machine Extended Remix)
B2 At Night (Shakedown's Galactic Boogie) 

Strut present the first ever compilation series to access the archives of one of the greatest of all French Caribbean labels, Disques Debs out of Guadeloupe. Set up by the late Henri Debs during the late ‘50s, the label and studio has continued for over 50 years, releasing over 300 7” singles and 200 LPs, covering styles varying from early biguine and bolero to zouk and reggae. Debs played a pivotal role in bringing the créole music of Guadeloupe and Martinique to a wider international audience.

Volume 1 of this series marks the first decade of the label’s existence and takes in big band orchestras, home-grown stars, touring bands and a new generation that would emerge at the end of the ‘60s. Early releases were recorded in the back of Henri’s shop in Pointe-a-Pitre, from his own sextet playing percussive biguines to young saxophonist Edouard Benoit, leader of Les Maxels and regular arranger for Debs bands. Other artists ranged from big bands like Orchestre Esperanza and Orchestre Caribbean Jazz to poet and radio personality Casimir “Caso” Létang and folkloric gwo ka artist Sydney Leremon. Debs also capitalised on recording foreign touring artists visiting Guadeloupe during the early ‘60s including Haitian trumpeter Raymond Cicault and Trinidadian bandleader Cyril Diaz.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Daniel Forestal Et Sa Guitare – Ces P’Tits Je T’Aime
A2. Casimir Létang – Travail Z’Enfants! Chantez Après!
A3. Cyril Diaz Et Son Orchestre – Feeling Happy
A4. Georges Tinedor Et Manuela Pioche – Collié Et Zanno
A5. Henri Debs Quintet – Douce Kombass
A6. Joseph Lacides – Mr. Morin
B1. Geno Exilie – Lan Misè
B2. Dolor Et Les Diables Du Rythme – Salvana
B3. Sydney Lérémon Et Ses Amis Du Calvaire Baie- Mahault – You You Matayango
B4. Raymond Cicault Et Son Orchestre Volcan – À Mon Ami Lucien Jolibois
B5. Orchestre Esperanza Et Jean Leroy – Ou Pas Bel
B6. Henri Debs Sextet Et Paul Blamar – Moin Çé On Maléré
C1. Le Ry- Co Jazz – Si I Bon Di I Bon
C2. Remy Mondey – Meringue Mondey
C3. Henri Guedon Et Les Contesta – Van Van
C4. Les Shupa Shupa D’Haiti – Batterie Shupa
D1. Paul Blamar Et Vélo – Lovency
D2. Eric Virgal – Stanislas
D3. Les Aiglons – Les Aiglons Ka Satisfait
D4. Tutus De La Guyane – Nanao Nanao
D5. Guy Conquette – Assez Fait Cancan

The 3rd installment of Razor-N-Tape's Family Affair series is back and hotter than ever! Now an annual end-of-year tradition, Family Affair Vol. 3 features a heavy hitting 5 track sampler of standout tracks from the full compilation.

The A side features two spanking new remixes of RNT material — Ezel’s dub of Cor.ece & JKriv’s Possibly Impossible takes the track into classic & soulful house territory, while Bruce Leroys flip fellow brasilian artist Guinu’s Amanha into a mid-tempo afro stomper.

The B side starts with boogie-funk bomb Better Than Her by JKriv ft. Saucy Lady & Tortured Soul on vocals. Kim Ahn delivers the deep & sensual vibrations of In The Stars, and Cody Currie rounds out the EP with Ghost, a funk live instrumentation heavy UK broken beat jazz-dance serving.

With gorgeous art lovingly designed by The Myno, in true RNT style the collection is a lovely listen from beginning to end, and naturally boasts some serious dance floor heat!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Cor.ece - Possibly Impossible (Ezel Dub)
A2. Guinu - Amanha (Bruce Leroys Remix)
B1. JKriv Ft. Saucy Lady & Tortured Soul - Better Than Her
B2. Kim Anh - In The Stars
B3. Cody Currie - Ghost

Third chapter of the “Milano Undiscovered” series, curated by Fred Ventura, takes us on a journey through the vibrant Milanese techno and house scene of 1988-1992.

This latest installment unveils a treasure of unreleased demos, showcasing the productions that emerged from the city’s flourishing underground during this era. Inspired by the pioneering sounds emanating from Chicago, Detroit, London and Sheffield, a wave of Milanese producers embarked on a creative odyssey, crafting their own unique sonic interpretations of the electronic dance music landscape.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Italo overlord Fred Ventura directs his attention towards the fertile and embryonic period of Milan's early house and techno seen. As usual, Italians do it better (or at least as good as) their counterparts in the US and UK as they take on the faithful blueprints supplied by our Chicago and Detroit brethren.

TRACK LISTING

Sigma Tibet - Pablo
B-Logic - Aliasing
Grey Area - Beyond Belief
Mont Blanc - Let Your Body
Straight Beat - Afterwork
Love Nation - Let's Make It Right
Soul City Crew - One Day
Visions Factory - Solitary Dancers
Periferico - In A Freedom World
Beat 4 Life - Your Lifestyle