Soul-Funk

Introducing the eagerly awaited 2nd installment in Zaf LoveVinyl's brilliant Holy Grail Series, following King Tutt's “You Got Me Hung Up/Dancin'”. BBE are proud to bring you the super rare 12" by Martin Dumas Jr “Belief, Attitude & Determination / Non-Stop To The Top”. Slightly Re-edited by Zaf LoveVinyl to keep the value of the original intact this record is available for the first time on 12" Vinyl exclusive to BBE licensed from the estate of Martin Dumas. A Limited edition pressing, fully re-mastered and sounding amazing, pressed loud & with the original artwork. Limited highly collectable 12” vinyl only release Original copies sell for USD 2000+Zaf's previous forays into compilations include the popular Americana series on BBE, Private Wax (keep your eyes peeled v2 coming soon) as well as compiling the whole of the P&P series on Sussd records and the Deep Disco Culture series WEBLINKS www.

Habibi Funk is Jakarta Records's first sub-label, dedicated to re-releasing music from the Arab world.Dalton was a band from Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. They came together as a band around 1968 when most of the members studied together at the University of Tunis. The band had five members. Faouzi Chekili on guitar, piano and vocals, Ridha Kouhen on bass guitar, Mustapha Rehouma and sax and percussion, Sadok Gharbi on trumpet and vocals and Skaner Alim on drums and vocals. They were active in the local scene, playing music that was heavily influenced by American soul and funk and at the same time regional musical traditions. In the early 70s the band got a regular gig at a beach hotel called Sahara Beach Resort on the coastline of Tunisia. They had six month contracts for a couple of years in the early 70s and during that time they would play every single night of the tourist season. While the hotel gig required the band to play sets leaning towards tourist entertainment, the regular work helped put some money into the band's accounts. Using those funds the band was able to travel to Rome to record their one and only 7" single release "Alech" around 1971/1972. The band eventually dismantled in the mid 70s and returned briefly as a new group with new members in the late 1970s under the name Carthago but that is a different story.The single itself impressed us heavily when we first stumbled upon it through French collector Victor Kiswell. While the b-side "Soul Brother" sounds like a Tunisian version of modern soul / AOR with it's English lyrics and lush arrangements, the title track "Alech" is the one that will get every party started. An infectious 3/4 rhythm, a great horn arrangement and brillantly layered vocals that made us think of Brazillian music or the Georgian groove band Gaya. Luckily Faouzi Chekili, the former band leader and composer uses social media communication so he was easy to track down. He is still active as a renowned musician in the Tunisian jazz scene and remains active recording and playing concerts both in Tunisia and internationally."Soul Brother" has already gotten plays on BBC6, our Habibi Funk mixes habe been featured by The Guardian, Radio Nova, Waxpoetics, okayplayer.com, konbini.fr and many more.

Favorite Recordings proudly presents this new official single reissue of “Glow of Love”, by Dave Baker. A scorching Caribbean-Disco version of the classic anthem by Change and Luther Vandross produced and released in 1980 on Black Jack Records.Black Jack was a UK based reggae label active between 1978 and 1982 and ran by Jamaican singer and producer Danny Ray. After recording for MCA Records and Trojan Records in the early 1970s, he later set up Black Jack label, producing mostly his own music and a few others singers such as Christine White and Shirley James.During these short 4 years of activity, Danny Ray and Black Jack also produced a few isolated singles by more famous Jamaican singers like Winston Francis or Jackie Edwards. Amongst them was also this hot lovers-rock version of “Glow of Love” by the great Dave Baker, famous member of The Techniques and half of the duo Dave & Ansell Collins.Pursuing his collaboration with Favorite Recordings and the recent reissue of Lamar Thomas single (FVR099), this very rare record is coordinated for reissue by French DJ and collector Waxist.Remastered from the master tape in its original 12inch version for the occasion, the vinyl single package also includes an exclusive extended Dub version finely edited by Waxist.

Soul Clap teams up with the legendary Dr. Funkenstein himself, George Clinton for this 3 track EP, including one track featuring Sly Stone on keys! Full pic sleeve.May 2nd 2013 will forever go down in Soul Clap history as an outstanding day to be alive. About a year of groundwork was finally paying off and the Clap had just flown Dr. Funkenstein himself, George Clinton from his home in Tallahassee, FL to Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles for a three day recording session. Onsite alongside Clinton were P-Funk family Sa'D "The Hourchild Ali", G-Koop, Tonysha Nelson, Will "Digeridoo" Thoren as well as Crew Love members Nick Monaco and Navid Izadi.Soul Clap's collaboration with George Clinton has been nothing short of incredible. The team efforts of two generations of funk have created true musical dope-ness, which Clinton has proudly included on his new Funkadelic album (30 years since the last album!) including the title track "First Ya Gotta Shake The Gate" and the monster "In Da Karâ€, which features Sly Stone. Our simultaneous release on Soul Clap Records includes special EFUNK remixes by Soul Clap of "First Ya Gotta Shake The Gate" (aka Samplecopydupeitandloopittostupid) and "In Da Karâ€. Plus a west-coast, neck-snap, bonus-cut produced with Nick Monaco and with Clinton on vocals, P-Funk engineer G Koop on bass and Crew Love family member Greg Paulus on trumpet, titled 'Peep This'.

After the Brazilian Disco Boogie Sounds compilation, Favorite Recordings follows-up with the concept, this time focusing on its homeland language. Digging into the mysterious Charles Maurice’s vinyl collection, the label and the DJ extracted 10 amazing hidden dancefloor hits, all produced between 1975 and 1984 within the French music scene.In the late 70s, like most part of the world, France was deeply touched by the influence of American music. The Disco sound therefore quickly reached the French Pop charts, and as always, a creative and prolific independent scene emerged in the shadow of this trend, with quite unequal results, but also some obscure real classics.Helped by a close connoisseur friend, DJ and collector Charles Maurice presents a fine selection of what he thinks represent best the amazing energy and quality of this specific movement and period. With 10 rare titles, he draws a perfect picture of the different styles and productions you could find in French record stores at that time;On one hand, tracks by Overdrive, Marché Noir, Didier Makaga or France-Lise, were mostly composed and produced by underground artists and labels from the French Caribbean and African community, and also filled with the raw spirit and power of this Tropical stamping. On the other hand, tracks by Beckie Bell, Kelly, Le Club, or Bernard Guyvan, were all released by major French labels such as Trëma, Carrere, Disques Vogue, or Pathé Marconi, and created by confirmed independent producers, acting not only in France, but also in Canada and the US.For example, Philippe “Honeyman” Renaux was the founder of Clever label and has credits for Grace Jones, Sheila & B. Devotion, or Gino Soccio to name a few. Canadian composer and producer George Thurston is internationally known as Boule Noire, with his worldwide success “Aimer d’amour”. And Pierre “Berjot” Jaubert was part of the famous Lafayette Afro-Rock Band, before becoming a prolific producer who revealed the Disco diva Chantal Curtis among others, collaborated on recordings for Motown or Tom Moulton, and even scooted the lead singer of Vladimir Cosma’s most famous hit, “La Boom”.With all this talent and “savoir-faire”, each of these 10 forgotten songs had nothing to be ashamed of compared to some majors’ Disco hits and productions, but unfortunately didn’t get the same fate. Today, Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice are very proud to shed some light again on these gems, and hopefully offer them a new life on your turntable.

Groove Line Records Autumn series of properly licensed rare disco / funk reissues continues with two superb slices of dance floor soul from the little known Candy Bowman - “I Wanna Feel Your Love” and “Since I Found You (Love Is Better Than Ever).”Released through RCA on 12” in 1981 under the production guidance of the team behind Stephanie Mills successful 1979 album “What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin'” (James Mtume, Reggie Lucas), both these tracks exhibit the same smooth, subtle orchestration, instrumentation and soulfulness, and have found a loving home on dance floors and in record collections on both sides of the Atlantic and further a field ever since.“I Wanna Feel Your Love” opens with jazzy interplay between the guitars and synths then settles on the tight groove at 0m18 before Bowman's stunning, harmonised vocals build up with an intense yearning while the fluid bassline and Chic-esque rhythm guitars play with the drifting synth and horn lines all the way to the fade. The single version is also included on this release.“Since I Found You (Love Is Better Than Ever)” is incredibly smooth, mid-tempo R&B heaven, favoured by many UK DJs. The ascending piano riff which opens the track can't help but give you an immediate glow even before the beat kicks in and Bowman's joyful vocal hits the first verse. The heightened verses, in contrast to the smooth choruses, make this track perfect for the dancefloor, with a great chorus breakdown at 2m46 which rises back up and glides on the chorus to the fade. The innovative production on this track surely influenced many that came after. Due to the high quality of both of these tracks the original 12”'s are always in high demand by committed collectors. Making them the very definition of 80's Rare Groove!All Groove Line Records releases are fully licensed and taken from the original master tapes, remastered by Nick Robbins at Sound Mastering, and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy (Mastering Engineer of the Year 2013). All vinyl is heavy weight 180g manufactured Optimal Media in Germany, one of the world’s finest pressing plants. Groove Line Records cut no corners when making sure that each and every one of our releases has the highest quality performance possible.Groove Line Records’ deluxe reissue of “I Wanna Feel Your Love”/“Since I Found You (Love Is Better Than Ever)” is an essential purchase for any serious Disco, Soul, Funk vinyl collector who demands the very best in quality vinyl pressings.

If you are not a top end disco collector with deep pockets you won't know this record, it's as rare as its gets. The last clean copy went for $6373. My 'Gangster boy' odyssey started for me around 12 years ago, soul collector and D.J David Ripolles played an acetate at Prestayn soul weekender and it blew me away, I asked dave what it was, he said the acetate was credited to Wanda McDaniels.Myself and Malcom Catto (Drummer in excellent band the Heliocentrics ) started tracking the record and eventually got it touch with Co-Producer Ronald Crawley. We had the opportunity to do the record but the sticking point was nobody had a clean copy of the record to make a recording from and there were no tapes. Roll on 10 years and I secured a mint copy and got perfectly clean recording so here we are.The record was not performed by Wanda McDaniel's & Ultimate choice as it has been credited up till now. The sand was 'The Reality Band And Show' from Newcastle Pennsylvania. The backing band was Ultimate Choice and the backing singer was Wanda McDaniel's (Producer Ronald Crawley sister). The lead singer was called Gladys, what happened to her we don't know but what a voice. It was recorded in 1977 at Asterix Studios in Wilkinsburg Pennsylvania, 300 copies were pressed up to test the market response which surprisingly was lacklustre. So as these things go it was forgotten about and everyone moved on to the next thing.The Label owner of 'Appleray' and its parent 'Pittsburgh Music Industry's' Ray Mitchell is no longer with us and we did not manage to find any more members of the band or uncredited chief engineer Ralph Camino. Ray recorded a couple of other decent 45s on Appleray but nothing quite touches this Disco Soul Perfection.

DJ Fryer's Athens of the North label continues its relentless charge the annals of funk and disco, focussing attentions here on the mid '70s debut of Jeanie Tracy. Glance at the discography of the Houston-born singer and you are presented with a storied recording career that includes credits alongside Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin and Sylvester so it's little surprise to see that original copies of Making New Friends / Trippin On The Sounds rarely change hands below the $1000 mark. Originally released on Marvin Holmes' Oakland-based Brown Door Records around 1975, this Athens of the North edition is a must for any self-respecting 45 wielding selectors out there! The A-side is a recognised classic of the rare groove canon but it's "Trippin On The Sounds" that you need to hear; a glorious horn-laden deep funk nugget.