Ukraine has always been a rich vein when it comes to music. Our friends at Light In The Attic Records have put together one of the best introductions to Soviet folk, disco, rock and alternative music to come out of Ukraine during their musical 70’s, 80’s and partially, the 90’s. A worth comp.
Our friends at Wewantsounds have dug deep for this one, and of course, they have found gold. This album, available from the label as a vinyl-only release, sits in a strange apex of electronic music, soul, pop, jazz and the avant-garde, which is the first genre I would have associated with Steve Beresford.
This is an album you can don your smoking jacket for. Swanky, well-produced and an elegant listen.
You can purchase the album here.
Thanks to Marcos Valle doing a bit of cleanup in his home, Far Out Recordings proudly present a 7-inch single of a track Marcos and the late Leon Ware worked on in Los Angeles during the 1980s. Here’s the back story, courtesy of Marcos’ Bandcamp site:
“In 1979, together in an LA Studio, Valle and Ware recorded a demo which would remain unfinished for 44 years, as Valle recalls:
“This demo tape Leon and I recorded… I found the tape on a shelf in my house, it must have been there for over forty years! I showed it to Daniel [Maunick]. He really loved it and we decided to develop the song for my new album. The demo had the groove, most of the instrumentation and Leon’s vocal. But the lyrics weren’t finished…”
In 2024, with the help of Maunick’s studio wizardry, Valle restored and sampled the original demo track, adding Portuguese lyrics alongside Leon’s vocal hook, as well as extra keyboards and percussion.
Traversing time and space in a way that might not have been possible before the emergence of new technologies, Daniel Maunick utilised AI stem-separation to remove the placeholder vocal ad-libs, which Valle replaced with his new lyrics.
With the original music treated with the care and reverence it deserves, this stirring soul masterpiece, conceived over four decades prior, retains all the visceral sensuality and authenticity of the golden era from which it emerged.”
Our favorite reissue label, Wewantsounds, offers yet another gem to one of the coolest catalogs around. This album comes from Egyptian diva Nagat, and it’s an example of a type of disco homegrown in Egypt – Disco Arabesquo – which combines the erstwhile dancing style of the 1970s with Arabic beats. Insanely good.
Though Kofi Ayivor now lives in Amsterdam, there was a time where he was the disco king of Nigeria as well as a conga legend with Osibisa. The music here is what one can call proto-Afrobeat, proto-Nu Jazz, and it sounds so incredibly modern that I thought it was a Compost Music release. Funky and great!
It’s safe to say that 1976 Nigeria was a somewhat different world from today’s. The Edo-Delta region must have been a rather swinging place if this reissue of Felix Labarty’s classic, Girls For Sale, is any indication. The music is lush, perhaps a little tinny, disco mixed with reggae vibes and lyrics filled with a combination of braggadocio and grieving over lost loves. No, not love, but loves. He was quite a player in his day. An essential for those who want their Afrobeat to come in a different flavor.
Our friends at Wewantsounds have come out with another banger, this time
From the label’s Bandcamp site:
“In the mid-70s, Bob Shad’s cult New York Jazz label Mainstream Records turned to the burgeoning underground Disco scene and released a handful of great singles produced by the likes of Tommy Stewart, Jimmy Roach or Bert DeCoteaux. Featuring artists from the early Disco hotbed including South Side Coalition, Chocolate Syrup and Three Ounces of Love, these singles, proving Shad’s great flair, accompanied the rise of the New York club and block party culture that was going to revolutionise the musical landscape a few years later. Most of the singles are officially reissued here on vinyl for the first time, with Three Ounces of Love’s “Disco Man” full mix previously unissued on vinyl. Remastered by Colorsound Studio in Paris, with liner notes by Charles Waring.”
I have something of a love-hate relationship with the city of Naples in Italy, but what always left a big impression on me was the quality of the music coming out of the city of all genres.
This particular single is a reissue by Periodica Records of an ultra-rare disco classic recorded by Tonino Balsamo, and has made the rounds as a bootleg before finally being reissued in pristine sound. From the label’s Bandcamp site:
“One of the rarest and most requested Neapolitan track around. Originally recorded in 1983 at the Rico Sound studios, the budget made available was not managed well by the artistic crew (money wasted on women, dinners and night clubs …) and it was not enough to be able to produce an LP on vinyl and only very few copies were produced on cassette. Occasionally some promotional vinyl copies appeared in flea markets, probably intended for radio stations of the time but to date neither the label nor the author remember ever having distributed or authorized this press. There are also counterfeit copies circulating through private-to-private sales channels. It was not easy to track down Tonino, namesake of his uncle Antonio Balsamo, master flautist of great fame, and it’s with great pleasure that we can finally announce, almost 40 years after its creation, the official release of “Sta Guagliona Mo Ddà” enriched by an instrumental version plus an unpublished variation on the original theme – “Voglie ‘E Mare” – written by keyboardist Enzo Anoldo in the early 90s.”
Though I don’t think this banger will be available as a digital download (my friends at Wewantsounds will be happy to clarify this), Sharayet El Disco is going to be an indispensable part of your world disco collection! From the label’s Bandcamp site:
“Wewantsounds is delighted to release ‘Sharayet el Disco’ a selection of Egyptian 80s Disco and Boogie tracks curated by Egyptian DJ Disco Arabesquo from his vast collection of cassettes. Most tracks have never been released on any other format and are making their vinyl debut with this set. A journey through the funky sound of 80s Egypt, Sharayet El Disco (which can be translated by “Disco Cassettes”) features Simone, Ammar El Sherei and more obscure names from Cairo‘s cassette culture. The audio has been remastered for vinyl by David Hachour at Colorsound Studio in Paris and features artwork by young Egyptian graphic designer Heba Tarek.”
A side note – the packaging looks absolutely stunning, and judging by quality of the promotional tracks I’m listening to, the remastering is stellar. Of particular interest is Dr. Ezat Abou Ouf & el four M’s track Gonoun El Disco. It’s a combination of ABBA and cuts from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack imbued with the spirit of 1970s Cairo’s dancefloors.
Read more about the release at the label’s official website here.
Beefy, gritty, nasty funk. That’s what you will hear from this monster by DJ Daniele Baldelli. There are elements of tribal funk, Afrobeat, and soundtrack music that wouldn’t be out-of-place in old German or Italian krimis or Poliziotteschi. Calibro 35 would be the most apt comparison to Daniele’s work, but this feels more dance-floor-ready.