SEALED

LIT is a snapshot of Bluestaeb und JuJu Rogers' musical endeavors in Fall 2016. Both had a successful 2015 & 2016 with highly acclaimed albums and a European support tour of Oddisee for JuJu Roogers. Both musicians are working on new solo albums and both of them are not happy with having the "boom bap" stamp forced on them. Their perspective is about progression, live music, changing the formula and going new ways. This doesn’t mean that they’re blindly following trends but to question and adapt one’s own formula. In the case of lit it means adding live musicians to the equation, going for a sound that refines the direction they took on their previous releases.With regard to content, JuJu's raps on the project deals with the important questions of our time. The trend word „lit“ becomes „LIT“, an abbreviation for "lost in translation" and a metaphor for the disconnection from trends of our society in general and hip hop especially. Racism, police brutality, gangsta rapper turning activists while still following a pattern of hate and destruction. Bluestaeb’s productions fluctuates from soulful and smooth to raw and gritty without sounding redundant or interchangeable.Be on the lookout for Bluesteab’s and JuJu’s solo albums dropping in 2017."This record is dedicated to the wretched of the earth. The weak and poor. To the people all around the world less privileged than us who are forced to live under even worse circumstances. The criminalized, racialized and marginalized people of this planet. RIGHT ON! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!"

Fat Beats Records is proud to present the fourth installment of Baker’s Dozen, an exclusive vinyl series that shines a light on the best minds of instrumental hip-hop, ambient, and electronic music. Each installment gives one artist carte blanche to capture their signature sound. This edition features Los Angeles based producer Ras_G.Every volume features one artist and twelve tracks, and comes equipped with a 5x7” postcard insert that features a photo of the artist’s workspace along with the equipment used in their musicmaking process as well as a personal narrative of how they got into beat making in the first place. Visually cohesive and packaged with the utmost attention to detail, Baker’s Dozen is a series that speaks up for artists whose craft renders voices superfluous, whose instrumentals alone suffice to make a statement.

Carthago: Rare Tunisian Disco Including Unreleased Instrumentals And Eight Page BookletWhen we first decided to start Habibi Funk, a label dedicated to re-releasing „funky" Arabic music from the 1960s to 1980s, a band called Dalton was the first release we worked on. Dalton was a band from the Tunisian capital of Tunis and they played a unique mix of soul & funk with an Arabic DNA. We licensed the release from the band’s composer Fawzi Chekili, and when we spoke to him on the phone in preparation of the release he mentioned another band he was part of, called Carthago. Our work with Habibi Funk is like a big treasure hunt. There are too many great bands that fully vanished into obscurity and didn’t leave any traces in the digital sphere yet. We are so used to the internet providing all informations we might be looking for, but Carthago was one of those bands where the internet largely failed to provide any infos despite the fact that Carthago created some incredible music in the form of an highly infectious Tunisian take on disco music. Luckily most of the members of the 1970s musical scene of Tunis are still around to tell their story.Carthago was founded in the late 1970s as a fusion of Dalton and a second band called Marhaba Band. Both bands frequently played at hotels and night clubs in Tunis and Sousse. They had similar musical influences and despite the fact that they were competition for the most part, they came up with the idea to join forces for a new band. Musically Carthago kept on walking on the musical path of Dalton and Marhaba but incorporated disco music, a new style that was making its way to North Africa from Europe and North America. The band had quite some success on local radio and played a number of big shows with thousands of people showing up. The band’s concerts were a mixture of their own compositions as well as cover versions of the hits of the time from Stevie Wonder to Chicago. At the end of the 70s they went to Paris to record their only, self titled album. For our reissue we picked out two of our favorite tracks: „Hanen“ and the outstanding disco version of the Dalton track „Alech“ which has proved to work on every dance floor we played over the last two years.When I came to Tunis for the first time after the Dalton reissue I met Fawzi in person. He still lives in Tunis and still works as a full time musician though his focus has shifted more towards Jazz over the years. Luckily he did not only keep a spotless copy of the Carthago album but he also kept the master tape of the instrumental versions of the album which to this day were unreleased. Being able to add exclusive content to a reissue is something that is rare and we feel highly privileged to be able to do so. Futher more we are so happy that we will be able to add something new to the bands legacy not only musically but also visually: One day I realized that most of the releases from Tunisia I liked, be it from Dalton, Carthago or Marhaba Band had the same photographer credit.Hassen Turki started taking photos at a young age and when he was 18 he started going to the gigs of the bands of the time that were playing in the Marhaba Hotel which was managed by his father at the time. He became friends with the bands and ended up being the person to be asked when it came to shooting the photos for the covers of the records. After some research I managed to get in touch with Hassen and met him in his hometown Sousse. Luckily he kept most of the negatives of the photos he took so we’re more than happy to be able to share these unseen photos with whoever is interested.

Blitz The Ambassador - More organic rap meets west african sounds from Ghana. The visionary sound of Blitz The Ambassador has been years in the making, with each album crafted to reflect a sonic and visual narrative unique to Blitz's personal experience. His fourth studio album 'Diasporadical' exemplifies this trajectory. Blitz spent a great deal of time traveling between Accra, Salvador Bahia and Brooklyn experiencing the similarities between the African diaspora. "The album title 'Diasporadical' was born out of this experience" Blitz explains. " The radical notion that no matter how fragmented the African diaspora is, the influence of rhythm and spirituality remains largely the same."On Diasporadical, Blitz conjures his signature blend of Classic Hip-Hop and Contemporary African rhythms, enlisting producers like Optiks and IAMNOBODI to create a seamless fusion of live instruments and hard hitting beats. To bring his vision to life, Blitz assembled a supporting cast of continental and diaspora African artists such as Tumi, Akua Naru, Kamau, Patrice, M.anifest and Somi. The sonic result is a three act narrative, crafted like a stage play.Diasporadical offers itself as a study of intersections between the global African experience and struggle. No track exemplifies this more than A(wake), written in response to police brutality and the 'Black Lives Matter' movement in America. Inspiration also came from the 'Fees Must Fall' movement in South Africa and the Afro-Brazilian protests during the Olympics.Besides it's politically charged message, Diasporadical also explores themes common in Blitz's past work. Immigration (Hello Africa), Spirituality (Heaven), Nostalgia (Long Time Coming) and Love (Juju Girl).To reinforce these themes, Blitz directed a 15 minute short film called 'Diasporadical Trilogia'. The story follows a woman who mysteriously wakes up in three different continents. Through a magical realism lens, she shares her memories of growing up as a little girl in Brooklyn, a young lady in Accra and a middle aged woman in Salvador Bahia. With Diasporadical, Blitz has brought his sonic and visual journey full circle. From immigrant struggles on 'Native Sun', to touring in over 30 countries on 'Afropolitan Dreams', this is the album Blitz has been writing his whole life.

Insistent drum machines, resonant synths, phased 'n fuzzed guitar mayhem.The lone magus at play in the studio: there are musical and methodological antecedents for the work of Wicked Witch, but spot-the-influence is a worthless pursuit, crumbling under the relentless focus of the four WW tracks here. For his second release on EM Records, Washington D.C.'s Richard Simms gives us three previously unreleased tracks from his single-mindedly all-encompassing world, plus his own remix of one track. The second disc of this double 12 inch 45 RPM release features remixes/reconstructions by German musician DJ Slyngshot and the Osaka duo YYPYY, which comprises goat's Koshiro Hino and renowned DJ Yousuke Yukimatsu. This second disc by turns emphasizes and destabilizes the relentless rhythm and visionary filigree of the Wicked Witch disc. Get ready to be enchanted by the spell of the Wicked Witch.

North Carolina-born producer & veteran Boston MC f/contributions from Gonjasufi, Akrobaktik, Q-Bert, Chester Watson, & narrated by comedian Wyatt Cenac!George Orwell once prophesized, “if you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.” The latest EP from L’Orange & Mr. Lif, The Life and Death of Scenery, conceives a chimerical “lighthearted dystopia” just far enough from modernity to breathe easily, but close enough to make you consider relocating to that cave in the forest. In this collaboration with the eccentric North Carolina producer, L’Orange, Lif imagines an adjacent future called the “last society,” where culture has been obliterated and survival has taken precedence over art.Released through a partnership between Adult Swim and Mello Music Group, the duo’s latest opus opens with one of four addresses from “The Narrator” (played by The Daily Show’s Wyatt Cenac). These Big Brother missives capture a world where the, “books are all burned, the vinyl has been melted, and the remaining art catapulted over the city walls.” The mere act of whistling is cause for the guillotine. It’s the rap analogue to Fahrenheit 451, 1984, or a Brave New World, where the Soma is uncomfortably soothing and the sunshine eerily abundant.The former Def Jux legend inhabits on the role of The Scribe, frantically showing the post-apocalyptic survivors the power of what's been lost. It attacks those who value disposable art over the timeless, it articulates the necessity of preserving culture, it lampoons the absurdity of attempting to destroy one of the most immutable qualities in mankind.In L’Orange’s words, the collaboration is “a negotiation of influences without compromise.” You can hear the producer’s trademark alchemy of classic boom-rap with glitchy fuzz, a compressed whimsy that slaps against somber scythe-like piano lines, ominous spaghetti western licks, and celestial saxophone licks.Lif spits staccato bars in double-time, adeptly slicing through the beats like banned books to a shredder. He’s joined on “Antique Gold” by the 19-year old monotone samurai, Chester Watson. Gonjasufi’s banshee yelp makes “Strange Technology” even more resonant. Insight bombards on “Five Lies About the World Outside.” The legendary turntablist Q-Bert contributes cuts on “The Scribe.” While Akrobatik, Lif’s longtime partner in The Perceptionists, pops up twice to exhibit their almost telepathic tag-team chemistry.The rapping is virtuosic. The production is sumptuous and scene setting. But what sticks is those cumulative effects: the fantastic imagination of this foreign but familiar world, the importance of illuminations in a world that values cold logic, the sly humor of winking oracles, and inexorable fear that this could be a reality—should we continue down our current path.

Eight track album taking in spiritual jazz, Brazilian fusion, disco and soul composed - performed and recorded by Marc Friedli aka Skymark. Limited Vinyl edition.

Ron Trent's masterpiece from 1993 "I feel The Rhythm" in the rebound! For the first time together on one record with the remixes by Paul Johnson & Inner Experience which came out 1999 on Prescription Records - a must have!

The Pendletons is a long-standing boogie-funk and modern soul project of E da Boss (of the Stones Throw group "Myron & E") and Trailer Limon.The group emerged with their very first release in 2010, a 7" inch of "Coming Down/Waiting On You" with additional synth work by E.Live, on the Slept On record labe.In 2013, they followed up with another 7" featuring K-Maxx, Jacqueline Mari and Songbird Remos and later a very limited flexi-disc release title "Winning Ova You". Now in 2016, they return to the fold in full form with burgeoning live performances backed by a large group of vocal and instrumental guests, and their new release, the "Gotta Get Out" EP, on Voltaire Records.

Beautifully put together and deeply personal comp of pioneering Belgium New Wave / DIY enigma, Alain Neffe (Bene Gesserit, Psuedo Code, Subject...etc). Highly reccomended - includes Folded Inner with Liner Notes (Biography).