Under the right circumstances, I’m a sucker for some smooth grooves as long as they are tight, funky and have plenty of soul. Down To The Bone has been providing their fans with just that for almost fifteen years, and their new album will be out in Europe / South Africa / Australia / New Zealand: June 27., USA / Canada: July 19. and Japan: July 20. Below you can preview their first single “Music Is The Key”:
After almost eight years, most of the original ultrafunk crew is back together again, and we are working on a new audio hardware project that has been going on for quite a while. It’s called organic one, and you can find out more about it on the new ultrafunk site. Because of this, we have decided that the ultrafunk name will once again be used for all our future development and design ventures.
Beastie Boys long awaited eight studio album called “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two” is close to being released (out May 2.), and below you can listen to the first track from it called “Make Some Noise”:
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With strong roots in early 80′s boogie disco and more modern nu-soul and electronic music, Amalia’s debut effort (out March 4.) is clearly influenced by artists like Chaka Khan and Erykah Badu to name a few, but the album still manages to sound like her own creation, overflowing with fresh grooves and rampant creativity! The very kind people at her label Tokyo Dawn Records, allowed us to select a track for you to listen to, enjoy and download for free:
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Norway’s foremost soul performer, Jarle Berhoft, is about to release his second solo album titled “Solidarity Breaks” during the coming months coinciding with a European tour to promote it. On this one he has gone from using a full band to playing, singing and producing most of the tracks himself with a few select collaborators. The result is a much more varied and tighter sounding record than his first one, but it’s still nowhere close to hearing him live which I highly recommend if you have the chance!
The invisible friends from Venezuela are back with a mini-album of tasty leftovers from their previous release “Commercial”, this one is funnily enough called “Not So Commercial” (out February 8.). To be honest, this is not their absolute best stuff, but as always there are some really sexy tracks to be found including the tribute song “Corduroy” that really nails the sound of the Acid Jazz pioneers from back in the day. You can listen to a complete preview at the Nacional Records website.
The Austrian born jazz singer and multi-instrumentalist Lylit has just released her first EP as a soul performer, with a full album to follow early in 2011. She was picked up by the Kedar Entertainment CEO Kedar Massenburg (who has signed among others Erykah Badu & D’Angelo) after she sent her demo to the labels of artists she admired. You can listen to one of the tracks from the EP called “The Plan” below:
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We’re not trying to start a negative trend here, but the same sentiments are worth repeating for the new Lyrics Born album (out October 26.) that were mentioned about the upcoming Jamiroquai release; A return to form. This man and his music has played an important part in keeping the origins of hip-hop alive for new generations. That does not in itself mean that change is not good, but as his previous album showed, he lost a great deal of soul and depth because of it. Even so, Lyrics Born has definitely deserved a second chance.
So far, the two tracks that have been revealed from the new Jamiroquai album (out November 1.), “White Knuckle Ride” (video) and “Blue Skies” (video) show no signs of them returning to their funk, soul and acid jazz roots that many of their fans (including me) had hoped they would do since their departure or escape? from Sony/Columbia. With over 10 tracks still to be heard, there might be room for more adventurous material, the two songs mentioned above being typical radio-friendly single fodder.
The new 30th anniversary album from Incognito (“Transatlantic RPM”) will be released worldwide on July 27. Featuring such artists as Chaka Khan, the legendary Leon Ware, Al McKay of Earth Wind & Fire and the former bass player/song writer in Jamiroquai, Stuart Zender, hopefully it will be an amazing release!
Under the right circumstances, I’m a sucker for some smooth grooves as long as they are tight, funky and have plenty of soul. Down To The Bone has been providing their fans with just that for almost fifteen years, and their new album will be out in Europe / South Africa / Australia / New Zealand: June 27., USA / Canada: July 19. and Japan: July 20. Below you can preview their first single “Music Is The Key”:
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