It is said, study, work hard and life shall reward.
Be good unto others and life will be kind to you.
The question is, can you break free from the external constraints of control or do you negotiate your release.
Should one endure the seemingly eternal struggle, wielding equality as a spearhead of revolution ?
Or do you count your loses and move on to a new world where the lessons of the past are acknowledged ?
A fresh start without the weight of having to shield your liberty.
A place where all past wrongs can be made right and the tentacles of evil can not reach.
A world where legacy can be held in esteem. More

Hard to pigeonhole and constantly fresh the sound of Dego is as real as it gets…..and once again he shows it in this new offer 'The Negative Positive' album!
A balance between inspired ballads like 'Recovered Memories' featuring 2000 Black's new artist Samii and subtle instrumental pieces like 'She Is Virgo' or anthemic jams like 'This Is A Message To You' [this time featuring Nadine Charles] till futuristic opuses like 'Stained With The Tears On Their Faces'.
This is another step into authenticity in Dego's constant quest for the future of Black Music.
all songs produced by degomixed by Matt Lord
rhodes,pianos,analogue synths & bass by dego
guitars and additional production by Matt Lordcs50 on 'The Whole Truth' by Mr Mensahflute on 'She Is Virgo' & bass on 'This Is A Message To You' by Kaidi TathamBLACK LP007 2000BLACK More

After a steady stream of releases from the 2000 Black label which serve as a first course, Dego returns with his third album ; A full length LP of his contemporary adventures in modern sound. This album combines Dego's consistent forward looking musical explorations with a host of instrumental and vocal collaborators introducing us to new talents and reminding us of those we may have heard before. Dego continues to find new perspectives within the musical landscape.

Collaborating with singers and songwriters all expressing a distinct sense of where, collectively, we are now. There can be no doubt that this is a time of questions in every way, changes in the world and industry that will affect us all. How and what role music plays in this journey is explored as with any artist in a personal and pensive way from a tear to a smile. There is no preaching here, only statements and explorations. Individuality and sonic diversity combine and reflect the many inspirations and evolutions of style. Cooking up a strong and distinct genre-defying mix of soul, two step, funk, jazz, boogie and R&B, all dance music's that focus on heritage and natural rhythms.

Listening to the music is a relief and delight for lovers of groove and song-craft. It's a 21st century statement accessible and raw, whilst highly advanced in sound design and production. Holistic in breadth and deep in vision, it provides a way into this music for many, and challenges the cultural conversation about jazz without compromising or pandering. Music that utilizes a raw and sincere true openness narrative. More

DEGO is no stranger on NEROLI, having blessed the label with various EPs as Nutmeg in the early 2000s and more recently with monster songs like ‘Find a Way’ and ‘Don’t Stop (Let It Go)’ as Dego & the 2000 black family. This time he comes back Solo with a fierce funky double A sider! Both songs here show how he is like no other out there More

Whenever Dego releases a 12" change occurs. Music changes. Producers switch gears. Panic sets in. Tidal-wave size ripples echo throughout time forcing shapes to be thrown and bodies to be bounced. Where words alone can not convey emotions, Dego speaks through his music, healing all that are willing to open their ears. Through some bizarre twist of fate? Luck? Hard work? Dego and Blueberry Records have come together on a 12", where we believe such epic words are necessary to guide this space vessel to it's intended home - the heart and mind of the passionate music lover and the desperate soul of the everyday human seeking ascension. Opening with Nuts! the 4th quarter addition to the EP, Dego lines up the dance floor in his sights, takes aim and slays you. The play between rhythm and synth is so cold yet so hot, it's the tiger balm your dance partner has been aching for. Could Murder A Burger has made the rounds in Blueberry HQ for a little while, finally landing on this ep with it's thoughtful piano movements and load bearing bass. Could power a steam engine and serve a cup at the same time. Flip side opens with Celestian Ditton a possible ode to the hifi of yesteryear, slow burning, ever charming and romantic. Warm and embracing, analog and rolling. Closing out the EP is a remix from FaltyDL "The force is strong with this one" a quote from Dego himself. Paying respect to the master, maintaining integrity with added funk and scatting. Yes, scatting. More

The debut solo album reveals dego’s profound love for the simple physical pleasure of a perfect beat, but also his boundless curiosity for reinventing the most sophisticated elements of classic funk and electro.
Even within a single song, dego manages to take listeners on a journey across time. “Late Night Fright,” for example, begins by harkening back to the heyday of dub and drum ‘n’ bass, the club ori-ented music of dego’s youth, before slowly dissolving into a dreamy jazzy soundscape, mirroring dego’s own musical evolution. Elsewhere on the album, Dego joins forces with a carefully-selected roster of singers and instrumental collaborators. “We Are Virgo” is a collaboration with jazz multi-instrumentalist Kaidi Tatham, that blends several time signatures, drawing on a rich palette of analog synthesizer sounds. A funky tangle of old-school acid house arpeggios, mixed with a bouncing soul groove, featuring vocals by up and coming British singer Obenewa, “All That She Knows” Guests include Georgia Anne Muldrow, Taylor Mcferrin, Sharlene Hector and many more. More

Sampler 12² from Dego's (4Hero) forthcoming CD on 2000Black ³A Wha¹ Him Deh Pon? A1: Late Night Fright - Heavy track, growling synths with quick percussions and a deep kick drum piercing through. Big! B1: Love & Hate You - Slower beat, with a hypnotic synth line. Awesome vocals and a funky, deep bass!! Brilliant! B2: Not In My Disco - Again with a hypnotic synth, funky and super deep bass! Drums and percussion are excellent, shuffling throughout the song with feel of garage about them.
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Sounds Familiar is celebrating a decade in dance music by releasing 3 LP's throughout 2023. Titled "Familiar Sounds", after vol 1 released in April 23 which featured the likes of Dego Kamma & Masalo, Aleqs Notal Feat Anu, Kai Alcé, Retromigration and Hugo LX, the second volume of the trilogy will be out on September 1st.


Collecting six new tracks that join the dots between elastic acid house and candle-lit piano jazz, Familiar Sounds Volume 2, features Kaidi Tatham, Carista, Gigi Testa, Zopelar, Alex From Tokyo and K15, on a 12" that reaches into all corners of the roster's electronic jazz-influenced sound.

The album begins with Kaidi Tatham's upstart summer anthem 'Misguided Youts'. Built on a piano vamp and an infectious horn line, the track eases into a consummate piece of future fusion, stirring the melting pot of London's jazz and broken beat heritage into the kind of soulful jam that has rightly earned him his legendary reputation.

Things take a deep dive on track two with Carista tweaking the dials to deliver a slice of rubbery four-to-the-floor dancefloor business. Rattling snap-back snares give her track 'Love Me Right' a kind of early hours dynamism, the dream-like vocal sample drifting across a room of loose and swaying bodies.

Gigi Testa rounds out the A-side with shuffling outernational house track 'Summer Snow'. Integrating his passion for global rhythms, the Rush Hour affiliate and Organica record shop owner channels the shimmering opulence of the Amalfi coast on what is an indulgent boat party of lush pads and sun-dappled melodies.

Opening the B-side, Zopelar delivers the jazzy, disco-infused house of 'Arapuca'. There's a skittish energy to Zopelar's latest offering, which wriggles and jives between muted trumpet improvisations, George Duke's 'A Brazilian Love Affair' and the kind of in-the pocket synth work he is known to have among his arsenal of musical skills.

Up next, Alex From Tokyo weaves in the striped back influence of his former Berlin home into the techno-pop landscape of his Japanese upbringing, heading in to go out on the cosmic club cut 'Wa Galaxy'.

Closing out the LP is DJ, producer and man of many monikers, K15. Putting on his jazz hat perhaps most associated with his work as Culross Close, 'Autumn' is a solo piano ballad that brings the exuberance of high summer to a reflective end, demonstrating just how varied and open-minded the world of Sounds Familiar is.

Familiar Sounds Vol. 2 follows the release of Vol. 1 earlier this year and ahead of the final instalment in December 2023. Keeping it in the family, all three volumes will feature spot-varnished artwork and creative direction by Sounds Familiar logo creator and long-time collaborator Tyler Askew.
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Restock.

Sounds Familiar, with its ‘Music First’ approach will be celebrating it’s 10 year milestone with a series of club nights worldwide complimented by several collaborations, most notably a special music project –

‘Familiar Sounds’

Familiar Sounds consists of 3 albums, each with 6 exclusive tracks curated especially for this occasion by the Sounds Familiar artists. Vinyl and digital formats will be released throughout 2023.

Artwork and creative direction courtesy of OG Tyler Askew, the SF’s logo creator who has been working with the brand since its inception.

Crafted and distributed by SF’s partner Mother Tongue the first of the 3 volumes drop on the 21st April exactly 10 years since the Sounds Familiar launch in 2013.

Familiar Sounds Volume 1 features music from Dego, Kamma & Masalo, Aleqs Notal Ft. Anu, Kai Alcé Retromigration and Hugo LX

The second and third album will be available in July and October 2023. More

Cast your mind back to February 2020 for a moment, when Berlin-based French-Irish sound artist Zoë Mc Pherson released their last album "States of Fugue". The world seemed less tangled somehow, and yet Mc Pherson's precision-engineered fusion of exploratory sound design and visceral club pressure seemed to hint at a cataclysmic event none of us were really expecting. Only a few weeks after its release the world changed forever, and the majority of us were grounded - forced to consider our lives and the movement (or lack thereof) surrounding us. The philosophy of this extended time period is welded into the bones of "Pitch Blender", Mc Pherson's supple third album. They have learned plenty in the last two years, and infuse all of that anxiety and spiky emotionality into a spread of tracks that sound as powerful in headphones as they do over a well-tweaked soundsystem, soldering vocals, environmental recordings and instrumental flourishes to unpredictably pneumatic, cybernetic beats.

Anyone that's caught one of Mc Pherson's energetic live performances over the last few months will have an idea of what "Pitch Blender" is made of. They're an artist who's somehow able to match the raw energy of post-punk and no-wave music with the brain-altering potential of the best experimental club tracks, vocalizing an incongruous post-lockdown reality over beats that sound as if they're in a permanent state of flux. 'On Fire' splutters to life in a frenetic patter of drums that blur into oddly soothing hoover sounds, snaking lysergically towards a drop that's teased constantly, and never comes. We're forced to wait until 'The Spark' for that, fighting through choppy, pitch-mangled guitar and rolling beats until a gruesome kick drum forces its way through the psilocybin mists and heaving Bristol-inspired bass clonks. Backed up with just the inverted traces of recognizable breaks, this vigorous pulse lies at the heart of "Pitch Blender", the driving force that powers Mc Pherson's sound even when it's only hinted at.

'Blender' is the moment where Mc Pherson show their full hand, using crackling sound effects, ghost vocals and uneven rhythms to build a textural landscape that's so evocative you can almost taste it. Squealing modular synth effects sound like gameshow buzzers being triggered in another dimension and propel the track forward - it's club music, just about, but Mc Pherson's motivation is world-building, and their world is colorful, abstract, and dizzyingly surreal. "Obsolete user," their voice echoes over driving airlock kicks. But they take a swift left turn with 'Lamella', reducing the kinetic club rhythms to a longing simmer and letting loose with powerful vocals, intoning with robotic, gender-fluxed intensity. On 'Wait', New York City's clacking crosswalk signal - already an effective club track on its own - is transformed into a reminder to slow down, juxtaposed with booming sub-heavy kicks, acidic synths and effervescent percussion that rattles in time with the vibrations. It's foley rave, built for pure psychedelic intensity to blur the line between real life and sonic fiction.

One of the album's most galvanic tracks, 'Power Dynamics' curves a double-time rhythm around breathless HQ sound design squiggles until it hits a polyrhythmic crescendo, striking a queasy balance between rave hedonism and ritualistic hand drum energy. It all builds towards eerie closing track 'Outside' that acts as an important wind down, spotlighting Mc Pherson's ability to operate outside of the rhythmic spectrum, using cinematic scrapes and flickering neon synths to create music that's tense but never terrifying. The track feels like the end credits of a particularly bewildering movie - something between the cyberpunk dystopia of "Ghost in the Shell" and the vivid, sky-scraping beauty of "Koyaanisqatsi". Mc Pherson has managed something special with "Pitch Blender": mashing together genres with rare focus, and sharpening their engineering skills to a fine point, they've concocted an antidote to contemporary malaise - a wakeup call that's begging us to loosen our limbs and move. More

Sounds Familiar returns with the latest instalment of 7InchNails - its home-grown series of 45s, filled with unique jams from some of the most exciting producers around.

Following on from releases by Kaidi Tatham and Dego, up steps London-based DJ and producer K15 for two timeless and sophisticated pieces of future jazz. On the A side, ‘Demo Of Heart’ opens with a dazzling keyboard riff, recalling the sunset vibe of fusion giants like George Duke, Herbie Hancock or Azymuth’s Jose Roberto Bertrami, before breaking out into a syncopated, serpentine jam that feels just about ready to melt into the horizon.
On the B Side, K15 brings a Latin heat to the table, with clipped and skittish percussion dancing around a set of lush chords that open into a lysergic stepper, buoyed, as the title ‘Tomorrow’s Promise’ suggests, by a sense of hope and moving on. More

Chicago’s own Specter of Tetrode fame joins the Sounds Familiar family and series of 45s with a double A-sider. ‘Circus Time’ is an hipnotic disco stomper, while ‘Concrete Jungle’ will please all the afro-funk headz! TIP More