Guts
Estrellas

2021 repress!This compilation is a dedication to the short lived recording industry in Angola, a brief moment of history between 1969 and 1978 in which three recording companies produced approximately 800 records, mostly singles. They are rare jewels, each song with a significant story and feel behind it. Check!The unique blend of incomparable musicianship, passionate delivery and regional rhythms that make these tracks so combustible are no accident. An exceptional set of circumstances existed in the history of Angola before Independence that created the giant leap in the style and standard of bands and recordings of the time.When Portuguese repressive measures prevented the small Turmas, street musician groups, from being able to perform in Carnaval celebrations in 1961, a Portuguese civil servant, entrepreneur and Angolan music fan named Luis Mont's was already in a position to capitalise on Luanda's need for a live music scene. His self-designed "Kutonocas", Sunday afternoon live music festivals, delighted a Luandan population hungry for a communication between the city and musseques (townships). It also forced groups to adapt to a different style of playing that would accommodate large stages and broader audiences. They equipped themselves with electric guitars, and fed on the musical influences from Cape Verde, Congo and the Dominican Republic, while staying patriotically true to their own musical legacy and unique rhythms.The intimacy of those participating in this musical revolution meant they playfully and professionally wanted to trump each other's style; communication between the groups was frequent as everyone studied each other's records and concerts and players were under a lot of pressure to outdo each other due to the limited recording and performing opportunities. Development of skill and ingenuity was a must, as well as addressing the highly politicised climate. The optimism of Independence can be heard in these recordings; a common goal between the audience and musicians.Upon reading the characteristically generous liner notes of this new Analog Africa release, you will be given more hints of the crucial melting pot that allowed this short period to have such an outstanding productivity. For the linernotes, acquired in coordination with the National Library of Luanda and the art magazine "Note E Dia" Analog Africa head honcho Samy Ben Redjeb has managed to collect newspaper clips, extremely rare pictures of the bands on stage and printed interviews from the 70s.The stunning pages of passionate photography and artistic design also include interviews with many of the original artists and their families, biographies of the three labels that made it all possible, and of Luis Mont�s, who was the pulse of the live music scene in Luanda.You will hear exciting music blazed with the anticipation of emancipation, tracks fuelled with a sense of unity, community, importance and immediacy.This addictive, outlawed music from Angola shakes and grooves with the smoothness of staccato machine gun fire. Do yourself a favor and submerge yourself into some of the most the addictive music created by mankind!

Sophomore Menahan Street Band album.In addition to their role as the official house band for Brooklyn-based Dunham Records, Menahan Street Band has received critical praise for their oft-sampled 2008 debut album Make The Road By Walking (sampled by Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Kid Cudi, Curren$y and more) and for backing breakout soul singer Charles Bradley on his 2011 debut album No Time For Dreaming (co-written and produced by MSB co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Brenneck)."Vibe is a quintessential element in what I'm going for," says Brenneck of creating the album. "Vibe, mood and emotion." Those three elements are all over The Crossing, from the opening drum roll of the ominous title track, through the final burst of wah-wah guitar on the closing "Ivory and Blue." The Crossing takes you on a cinematic instrumental journey through a nocturnal landscape of moods and emotions, propelled by funky, hip-hop-influenced grooves and dream-like horn and keyboard melodies.Despite Menahan Street Band's deep connections to the Brooklyn soul scene, The Crossing isn't soul music per se… it's more like "dark night of the soul" music. "I recorded a lot of it from midnight until the sun came up, all the weird synthesizers and slide guitar," Brenneck notes. "A lot of it was really moody, just me going slightly out of my head in the middle of the night. And that was the mood I wanted to evoke when people listen to it, to put them in deep thought - your mind should wander into some weird places when you're listening to this."Recorded over a period of nearly two years, The Crossing is an 11-track sonic testament to the fruitful creative relationship that exists between band: Brenneck, drummer and band co-founder Homer Steinweiss, bassist Nick Movshon, trumpeter Dave Guy and tenor saxophonist Leon Michels. The five members have been playing together in one project or another since the early 2000s, when they were all members of The Dap-Kings. Antibalas keyboardist Victor Axelrod, a former Dap-King himself, played organ on two of the album's tracks, while The Budos Band's Mike Deller contributed piano."Originally MSB was just about us wanting to make some music for ourselves that was outside of the tight-knit formula of the music we were playing in the Dap-Kings and Antibalas, and wanting to embrace the fact that we grew up on hip-hop and classic rock," adds Brenneck. "There's a discipline that goes into playing Fela's music, and that goes into playing James Brown music; we love that to death, and we studied it hard in order to be able to play it with any sort of authenticity. But I love Neil Young, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, and we all love Wu-Tang and the early RZA productions as much as we all love Stax and Motown. With MSB, we can really let all these influences show."The Crossing's more mature and expansive sound is also the result of the place where it was recorded. Dunham Sound Studios is the all-analog recording studio Brenneck built four years ago in Brooklyn with Steinweiss which was funded by a royalty check they received after Jay-Z sampled the title track of Make The Road By Walking for his 2007 hit, "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is…)". Other artists that have performed/recorded at Dunham Sound and with Menahan Street Band include Mark Ronson, Rufus Wainwright, Cee-lo Green, Theophilus London and Diane Birch, among many others.