UPDATE: The Pax Nicholas album is now out - available on CD or LP from Conch
Pax Nicholas & the Nettey Family - Na Teef Know De Road of Teef CD + LP (Daptone)
Pax Nicholas was a conga player and singer in Fela Kuti's Africa 70 band, and this, his only proper solo album, was recorded in Ginger Baker's Lagos studios and put out in very limited release in 1973. According to sources, however, when Fela heard the title cut for the first time, and saw how the crowd responded to it, he told Nic to never play the music again.
The album, ostensibly forgotten, was only rediscovered when celebrated DJ and cratedigger Frank Gossner (who ran the legendary Vampyros Lesbos party in New York in the 90s) discovered it by accident in 2005, shortly before he embarked upon his own trip to West Africa.
Now, Daptone is proud to be re-issuing the full-length, with it's original cover art and tracklisting, marking the first proper and global release since the initial limited pressing some three decades ago.
For many this will be one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Mayer Hawthorne's album "A Strange Arrangement" is due to drop in the next few weeks. Avoid any disappointment by letting us know at Conch you want to reserve a preorder - contact us at info@conch.co.nz
Mayer Hawthorne grew up just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,†claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, legendary songwriting and production trio of Dozier, Holland, and Holland Jr. The “retro†tag is added to almost any contemporary work that sounds like it was originally recorded between 1966 and 1974, and Hawthorne, among the newest contributors to the genre, is aware of how trends come and go. After being introduced to Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf, even the label boss was skeptical. “He showed me two songs and I didn’t understand what I was listening to,†Wolf recalls. “I asked him if they were old songs that he did re-edits of – I couldn’t believe they were new songs and that he played all the instruments.â€
And after meeting in person, it was even harder for Wolf to believe that Hawthorne was also the lead vocalist. Few expect such heartfelt sentiment to come from a 29-year-old white kid from Ann Arbor, but he has caught the ear of his family at Stones Throw, as well as BBC Radio 1 host Gilles Peterson and producer/DJ Mark Ronson. Expectations are high for the admitted vinyl junkie who never planned on taking his crooning public. Hawthorne’s hanging-by-a-string falsetto and breakbeat production on his first recorded effort, the tender “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out,†are simultaneously Smokey and J Dilla – equal parts “The Tracks of My Tears†and “Fall in Love.†“It’s soul,†he explains, “But it’s new.â€
Hawthorne has produced and played instruments for much of his life, but never intended to become a singer. He isn’t formally trained, and never sang in the church choir or in any of the bands he was in before founding the County (formerly the County Commissioners). But here he is, new school soul sensation, who has taken the Motown assembly-line production model and eliminated nearly every element but himself and a few hired hands. “I think Mayer is the only artist in the history of the label that I’ve signed after hearing only two songs,†says Peanut Butter Wolf. “Sometimes, you just know it’s the right thing to do.â€And for those willing to believe anything is possible, be grateful to have Mayer Hawthorne on the scene. It’s not just throwback music anymore – this revival is all about progression.
Two of the heaviest forces combine! Firecracker Recordings presents Intrusion Dubs of possibly the biggest Firecracker jam to date, Linkwood Family’s 'Miles Away'! Steve Hitchell aka Intrusion, CV313, Soultek and one half of Echospace has had a prolific output of material over the last 12 months. From the Echospace projects to his killer Intrusion coloured vinyl series, culminating in the CD only album, “The Seduction Of Silence†which sold out it’s full press in just a few hours. Collectors have had to be super-fast to snatch copies literally everything touched by this guy, and these dubs are no exception, with only 1000 copies pressed. Each white vinyl copy is hand stamped and housed in bespoke, screen printed sleeves. As usual the vinyl is ultra heavy weight.
UPDATE: Isaac Aesili's full album is now available on cd hereJust in today is the 12" album sampler for Isaac Aesili's forthcoming album Eye See. Featuring the vocal talents of Mara TK, Deva Mahal, Rachel Fraser and Rosita Vai. The full album is due for release on September 7th 2009
Isaac Aesili’s debut solo album Eye See is a rich tapestry of sound with R&B at its heart, and lashings of soul, reggae and funk woven within. Experimental and futuristic in some parts, warm and soulful in others, the album, an extension of its author, is a tribute to diversity.
The concept behind Eye See was born of Isaac’s desire to offer today’s youth a counter voice to the glorification and idealisation of gangster culture, so often promoted by commercial R&B. Destructive lyrics endorsing kids to fail school and encouraging promiscuity, drugs, violence and degradation of women, saw Isaac grow increasingly disillusioned with the genre of music he had loved since he was a teenager. He resolved to record an R&B album that used contemporary production styles, with references to commercial R&B so that it would still appeal to youth, but he would transpose the negative messages with hopeful, positive themes.
Eye See is an inspired album of intelligent, conscious music, an investigation of our world from the perspective of the youth. The opening eponymous track, a song that explores the state of the world today, features Isaac’s nephews and nieces each reciting a line. It is for them and their generation that Isaac created Eye See.
After the Moody Boyz epic dubstep fix of ‘God Smiled’, the dancehall tune-up of ‘International Broadcaster’, and Kode 9’s funky style workout on ‘Yellow Tongue’, this latest episode in the Lee Perry bespoke remix series adds yet another twist to the musical path, with a hair-raising interpretation from Horsepower Productions. Seeping into halflight zones of bruised ambient dub, over the course of six minutes ‘Exercising’ builds like a distant tropical storm, it’s dense clouds gathering ominously on the horizon while Lee Perry’s shamanic spiritual abstractions add to the sense of heavy weather ahead. Built from similar strands of the low end gene pool as Kode 9 & The Spaceape’s ‘Sine Of The Times’, Horsepower’s brooding view of ‘Exercising’ discards dubstep’s recognised rhythmic frameworks in favour of a largely beat-free excursion, relying instead on swelling subs and oscillating bassline pulses for it’s unstoppable low tempo momentum. Tapping congas, echoing woodblocks and skeletal skittering noises dart insect-like across the mix, while the droning tabla and reverbed melodic guitar figures of Adrian Sherwood’s original production maintain an air of dread occidental mystery. With an equally massive no-vocal take on the flip, this is a simultaneously skin-chilling and oppressively close body heat raising journey to the heart of darkness, and yet another must-have release from the ever mighty On-U Sound.
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