Conch Records
Upcoming: Various - Seven Heven (BBE)
Due out May 2011 on 2LP & CD, to pre-order please contact us at info@conch.co.nz
Mark Webster has been involved in the black music scene for around 25 years now. His career began working for the highly acclaimed Blues & Soul and Black Music & Jazz Review magazines, eventually working his way up to assistant editor of B&S before leaving to pursue a career in television. His evangelistic enthusiasm for the music was carried through into his TV work - ranging from introducing the TV audience to the likes Gil Scott Heron, Brand New Heavies and Soul ll Soul via and the entertainment show 01 For London, and programming the music soundtrack for the pioneering NBA show he hosted for Channel 4 in the UK. He has also been a regular voice of radio - he was the original co-presenter on KISS FM's breakfast show - and can currently be heard as a regular contributor to Five Live's 'Virtual iPod'. He has also written a wealth of sleeve notes (most notably for a series of BGP releases) and has DJed steadily throughout all this time, with emphasis on a series of monthly sessions across a variety of venues, that has seen Mark bring his music to the Shoreditch area for most of this Millenium. On this 7” Mark Webster draws on his own record collection of the last decade, and with the help of BBE has tracked down some of the most magical little moments of funk, latin, soul, jazz, disco - and myriad variations on the theme – of the noughties, via a truly international network of labels. Track List & Sound Clips:
| 01 | The James Taylor Quartet | Senouci Part 1 | clip | |||
| 02 | Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos | The Time Is Right For Love (45 Swing-O Remix) | clip | |||
| 03 | Timo Lassy | The More I Look At You (feat. José James) | clip | |||
| 04 | Loretta Heywood | Little Angel (Jung Collective Rehash) | clip | |||
| 05 | Sasso | Agua Y Luz | clip | |||
| 06 | Lingua Franca | Work Or Play | clip | |||
| 07 | Kova & Miles | Clap Clap (Hand Clappin' Song) | clip | |||
| 08 | The Chiswick Reach All Stars | Nutsin | clip | |||
| 09 | Speedometer | Lover And A Friend | clip | |||
| 10 | Stac | Balls Bounce (Bonobo Remix) | clip | |||
| 11 | Smith & Mudd | Ling Ling | clip | |||
| 12 | Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel | Better Living (feat. Stuart Lisbie) | clip | |||
| 13 | Lil' Dave | Chips & Salsa | clip | |||
| 14 | Soopasoul | It's Just Begun (Part 1) | clip | |||
| 15 | Hypnotic Brass Ensemble | Brass In Africa | clip | |||
| 16 | Sunlightsquare Latin Combo | I Believe In Miracles | clip | |||
| 17 | Ron Hall & The MuthaFunkas | The Way You Love Me (feat. Marc Evans) (Dim's TSOP Version Part 1) | clip | |||
| 18 | Milano Jazz-Dance Combo | Much More (feat. Colonel Red) | clip | |||
| 19 | The Filthy Six | Get Carter | clip |
UPCOMING: Rob - Funky Rob Way (ANALOG AFRICA)
Due out late May 2011, to pre-order please contact us at info@conch.co.nz
Rob "Roy" Raindorf, born on the 13th of May 1949 in Accra, is definitely one of the most enigmatic artists to come out of Ghana. He appeared from nowhere with a unique and twisted sound. An admirer of American artists Otis Reading, James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Ray Charles, Rob began his trade by learning the piano at a music school in Cotonou, Benin.
When his education ended, he ventured out to make what money he could by getting gigs with the movers and shakers of the Beninese music scene, namely Orchestre Poly-Rythmo as well as the Black Santiagos. Absorbing and learning the intricacies of music composition, Rob returned to Ghana where he began to write his own songs and eventually sought the backing of a band, specifically one which possessed horns.
In 1977, a young Rob travelled to the city of Takoradi in western Ghana to approach an army band named Mag-2 whom he had seen perform in Accra. Mag-2 had an entire section of its ensemble dedicated to horns and some of the sophisticated music equipment available in Ghana at the time - Hofner guitars, Yamaha keyboards and the like.
Belonging to the "magnificient" second battalion of the Takoradi-based army unit, original founder Amponsah Rockson decided to aptly name the band "Mag-2." Joining the army during the 1970s was often an easy decision, particularly for musicians, since the army provided not only good music equipment but basic services such as food and medical care.
Mag-2 was essentially filled with the best elements of "The Parrots," a highlife band in which Amponsah was the lead guitarist. Their primary task was to entertain soldiers and with the army tour bus, perform from town to town as well as in reputable venues in the captial. Enticed by the style of music Rob had proposed, Mag-2 backed the Ghanaian sensation on two of his most astonishing records - his first and second albums -"Funky Rob Way" and "Make it Fast, Make it Slow," both of which were recorded at Essiebons studios in Accra.
Despite Rob's training and musical education, Amponsah was responsible for the vast majority of the compositions, such as building the chord progression and arranging the horns that Rob craved. Rob would even wait for the Mag-2 maestro's cue to begin singing. Despite early successes, a once-unflinching interest in Afrobeat began to wane by the early 1980s and Disco Boogie rapidly became the vogue style around which label owners and music producers sought to capitalize upon. The style Rob had shaped his career around was in decline and an adequate income consequently became a major concern, forcing him to travel to Hamburg, Germany in search of a financial backer.
| 01 | Funky Rob Way | clip | ||||
| 02 | Boogie On | clip | ||||
| 03 | Just One More Time | clip | ||||
| 04 | Your Kiss Stole Me Away | clip | ||||
| 05 | Loose Up Yourself | clip | ||||
| 06 | More | clip |
Scratch 22 - Distance From View (Round Trip Mars)
Available Here
Arguably best known for his DJing prowess, which recently saw him traveling, all expenses paid, to Paris, to represent New Zealand in the Red Bull World Thre3style championships, Scratch 22 is a man on the move. As co-founder of Auckland’s notorious ‘The ARC’ collective, and the host of Base FM’s long running ‘The Lion For Real’ Friday lunchtime radio tipple, he has been slaying the denizens of Auckland and beyond with his wide-screen musical tastes and profoundly deep crates, since the age of 15.
Marginally less well known, though equally as impressive, his production talents have been growing over the years with highly lauded work alongside Tourettes and his own Unscene crew, and remixes for everyone from the Mint Chicks to Electric Wire Hustle and Homebrew, as well as an ever evolving, solid armoury of individualistic, cinematic tunes that truly reflect his personality.
Set for release on April 18th 2011 through Round Trip Mars/Universal, Distance From View is Scratch 22’s debut album, and it’s a magnificent manifestation of a lifetime immersed in music and countless hours in the studio, hauling in friends, family and fine musicians like Mara TK (Electric Wire Hustle) and Jeremy Toy (She’s So Rad/Open Souls etc) to create a gently psychedelic journey into the deepest recesses. While it may be best described as slow burning, journey music, the first track unleashed to radio, Window Rattle, scaled the heights of the Top Ten on the Radioscope Alt Charts, vindicating the early faith shown in his productions by Round Trip Mars talent hound Stinky Jim and Nightmares On Wax’s George Evelyn (who selected an early version of Medicine Man for his Wax On compilation).
This remarkably assured and unfathomably deep debut is preceded by the Medicine Man single, which includes a quite astonishing blitzkrieg cover version of Medicine Man/For Walking Faces by The DHDFD’s, who will also be part of the soon to be unveiled Scratch 22 live experience.
Distance From View is a soundscape spectacular and that modern rarity - an album you can truly lose yourself in, time and time again.
Kode9 & The Spaceape - Otherman / Love Is The Drug (ft Cha Cha) (HYPERDUB)
Available Here
Tracklisting & Soundclips: A. Otherman AA. Love Is The Drug (ft Cha Cha)Otherman’ backed with ‘Love Is The Drug’ is the lead single from Kode9 And The Spaceape’s second long player ‘Black Sun’. Coming from oblique angles, these two songs introduce the breadth of the album.
‘Otherman’ opens with a sombre, arpeggiated march built from wavering analogue synth drones, lulling the listener until Spaceape’s cracked communique interrupts the flow with downtrodden descriptions, wrapped around lop-sided rhythms. Sombre, flatline funk.
‘Love Is The Drug’ features the vocals of Cha Cha, a singer from Shanghai, who guests across four tracks on the album. ‘Love Is The Drug’ is ambiguously connected to house music by speed, but operates on a much rawer emotional level here, over a droning synth and an aggressively coiling drum pattern with the sound of a pumping heartbeat at the centre. Cha Cha’s vocals drift into a sensual pattern as the melody soars beneath her, before confirming the suffocation of love, with Spaceape whispering over her shoulder.
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