“RARE & LOST TAPES” is a collection of singles by the legendary group CORTEX never released on album.
This album brings together previously unreleased and rare recordings such as "Les Oiseaux Morts" (Alternative Take 76) released only as a Test Pressing, "Mary & Jeff" (Fender Rhodes Version 77) recorded for TV, or "Californie" & "Stevie" released for the Side Project CARIBOU in 7Inch...

A1 - Californie
A2 - Moanion
A3 - Stevie
A4 - The sky is grey i'm so blue
B1 - Psychose
B2 - Mary & Jeff (Fender Rhodes Version 77')
B3 - Les oiseaux morts
B4 - Les oiseaux morts (Alternative Take 76') More

French avantgarde Jazz-Funk pioneers Cortex released three milestone albums during the seventies including the iconic Troupeau Bleu. Their music has been sampled by Hip Hop artists such as MF Doom, Wiz Khalifa, Lupe Fiasco and Rick Ross and as a consequence is still very much alive today.

Trad Vibe Records proudly presents a first time re-issue of their double sider 7inch single from 1976 Les Oiseaux Morts / Back To Life. We are sure that you will enjoy the melancholic beauty of “Les Oiseaux Morts” and the harmonica driven disco funk of “Back To Life”.
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Very first version of the first single by Cortex, reissued as 7inch for the 1st time. “I remember that I and Alain Gandolfi wanted to put ‘Mary & Jeff’ on the A side, but the producer decided to set ‘L’Enfant Samba’ instead because he thought that the voice of Mireille would be more selling than my piano… 6 months after, at the beginning of 1976, ‘Mary & Jeff’ was a hit in a lot of Disco clubs and radios!” (Alain Mion).

Limited to 500 copies.

La Rue 4:23
Automne (Colchiques) 2:35
L'Enfant Samba 3:00
Troupeau Bleu 5:00
Prelude A "Go Round" 3:52
Go Round 1:20
Chanson D'Un Jour D'Hiver 5:20
Mary Et Jeff 2:40
Huit Octobre 1971 4:22
Sabbat (1ère Partie) 1:00
Sabbat (2ème Partie) 3:15
Sabbat (3ème Partie) 0:26
Madbass 2:50 More

"Pourquoi" is the 3rd and the rarest album which had been recorded by the French legend of Jazz Funk, Cortex. This new edition, using the original master tapes, is realised by Trad Vibe Records. "Pourquoi" was initially recorded in 1978. It sounds like a new side of Cortex: songs are mainly composed around the voice and the various keyboards of the band leader, Alain Mion, who also played bass lines on synthesizer. More, the band gave up the live recording to use the beloved Stevie Wonder or Quincy Jones' technique of "re-recording". But, in spite of these changes, their groove remains as spontaneous as powerful. So, the band collaborated with great backing vocals and other session musicians, such as the great Italian trumpet player Giulio Didio who performed the funky horns arrangements. There is plenty to enjoy on every track: the ending chorus of “Sans Toi” song (which has been written by Alain Mion for his wife, Mireille, and is probably the flagship track of the album) comes with a brilliant Rhodes solo to lead the listener to one of the most emotion-loaded moment of the recording. Whereas “Le Visionnaire” song sounds with disco echoes, “Pourquoi” song browses in melancholy and “Pauvre Star” is groovin’ high with its clavinetbass- drums rhythmics that reminds George Benson...

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“Volume 2” is the 2nd and rarest album which had been recorded by the French Jazz-Funk band legend, Cortex. The obscure French jazz group that's been a favorite of funky collectors for years! Reissued last in 2002 by Follow Me Records, it’s now reissued by Trad Vibe Records under official license from Alain Mion. It really is another absolute killer album of dope Jazz-Funk tracks! Unlike their first album it's all instrumental (save for a few chants on "Poxa") and lean even more heavily on the groove side, in a funky Blaxpoitation kind of way. The group's got a strong fusion-driven groove on this set – with plenty of tight drumming, hard riffing, and spacey keyboards that give the tunes a nicely soulful finish.
The best tracks are actually the mellower ones, which have a nice use of space and sound – creating strong little patterns of groove that stand out from the rest of the tracks. Lots of work on Fender Rhodes, mini korg, Hammond, and clavinette – and titles include "Poxa", "Datura", "Regina", "Mister J", "Efficace Swing", "Oh Lord", and "Devil's Dance".

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This new edition is the first realized directly from the original master tapes. Great care has been given to the 24 bits transfer respecting original sound. Recorded on July 15-16, 1975 at Damiens Studio, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
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“Volume 2” is the 2nd and rarest album which had been recorded by the French Jazz-Funk band legend, Cortex. The obscure French jazz group that's been a favorite of funky collectors for years! Reissued last in 2002 by Follow Me Records, it’s now back in stock in a final limited repressing of 500 copies, reissued by Trad Vibe Records under official license from Alain Mion. It really is another absolute killer album of dope Jazz-Funk tracks! Unlike their first album it's all instrumental (save for a few chants on "Poxa") and lean even more heavily on the groove side, in a funky Blaxpoitation kind of way. The group's got a strong fusion-driven groove on this set – with plenty of tight drumming, hard riffing, and spacey keyboards that give the tunes a nicely soulful finish. The best tracks are actually the mellower ones, which have a nice use of space and sound – creating strong little patterns of groove that stand out from the rest of the tracks. Lots of work on Fender Rhodes, mini korg, Hammond, and clavinette – and titles include "Poxa", "Datura", "Regina", "Mister J", "Efficace Swing", "Oh Lord", and "Devil's Dance".

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After the hot first single with Sadat X (Brand Nubian) & El Da Sensei (Artifacts), Moar present the full LP Boom Bap Mentality featuring the legendary Dumi Right (Zimbabwe Legit), the underground Finsta (Finsta Bundy), the explosive duet Dirt Platoon, le real Mc Napoleon da Legend, Rita J from Chicago, LS Brigandes from NYC & the newbie & homie Miss Kraze from Nantes (France).

All beats produced by Moar on the MPC’s & SP1200 with many taste of Jazz, Soul & Sera Groove vinyl samples ! Cuts by Moar himself & Dj Impact (Switzerland).
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On its 14th album RAMZi addresses the Gremlin’s Paradox. Feeding the ‘World Fuzion Music’ frequencies, above every category and for all hearing ears, the beat-wielding imp meets each new quest with a sharp-toothed smile and a moon tan glow.

This new multi-quest pathfinder on FATi imprint was aided by Dave Biddle on sax, Loic Reeves-Blizzard on guitar and Zach Frempton on keyboard. More

On Albacete Knife Al Wootton offers up four hardware tracks of raw percussion and
ambience dubbed out to infinity. Drawing on the Post-Punk elements of his Holy Tongue project and transmuting them for the sound-system deejays, the EP covers low slung steppers, trance inducing percussion trips, psyched out Goa beatdowns and mutoid hardcore reductions. Raw and bristling psychedelic techno dubs for out there heads and feet. More

Sweet Music Volume II is the long awaited follow up compilation from one of Nigeria’s most adored 80's artists, Dizzy K. Falola. Featuring the most sought after tracks from his last three albums this double LP has both the dance floor feet movers he was known for and some more experimental African pieces but it's all glazed with that 80's Nigerian boogie sound we've come to love. With restoration by Colin Young, and Vinyl Mastering by Frank Merritt at The Carvery the pressing is a beauty. Only pressed in a small quantities. This is one you don't want to miss!

A1 - Who's The Other Guy
A2 - No Dime
A3 - Afrikan Jamboree
B1 - Who's The Other Guy (Mix)
B2 - Traffic Jammer
B3 - Tiwa N' Tiwa
C1 - Hold Me Tight
C2 - Bad Boy
C3 - Ambushin'
C4 - No One Loves (Like You)
D1 - Love Is All
D2 - Dance Afrika
D3 - Coming Home More

* Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the seminal 'Valley of the Shadows', this special edition run is presented on 180g yellow vinyl.

* In 1993, Andy C & Ant Miles set out about creating a fourth release for the newly established Ram Records, now just a year old. With Hardcore still prominent in the clubs around the world, The Touch features rollercoaster bass swoops against energetic breaks flowing around the main sung vocal "c'mon and touch me".
An early sign of the precision arrangements that became synonymous of Ram's early sound that followed over for many years. Whilst going through the remaining samples in the sampler that had not been used on the A side, the pair suddenly went on a tangent with one of the drum breaks.
Experimenting with the new time stretch function in the Akai sampler, they soon had a shuffle groove layered and moving. With Ant Miles' sculpted and edited arpeggio bell line sample, a new overall sound and vibe was beginning to emerge out of their studio Atari ST computer.
Utilising an original organic analogue string pad, the haunting sinister vibe became complete. With the vocal from the BBC QED documentary 'Glimpses of Death' - "I felt, like I was in a long dark tunnel" all that remained was one of the most memorable pounding bass lines to sit underneath it all.
The result was an instant impact on the scene, heralded as one of the first anthems of the Jungle genre. Multi award winning and the track that cemented Andy & Ant and their label Ram Records within the scene.

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For their second LP ‘Elios’ on Periodica Records, musical collective “Parbleu” - led by Andres Balbucea and Andrea De Fazio - reach towards realms both astral and ancient to present a solar sonic suite of sky-seeking exotica inspired by the mythological adventures of Helios. Elemental grooves anchor textures of cosmic magic and faraway fantasy, wherein panoramic conga and bongo displays lead to limbo line hysteria and fat-bottomed bass grooves slide through layers of galactic grease. Phaser riffs and flangers arps fly in unison, lyrical runs dart and dash through flourishes of baroque Turkish psychedelia, and as moonbeam lasers fire over thrilling balearic escapes, Iberian reeds dance joyously amidst jangling six-string sunstrokes.

Captured in part at the West Hill Studio, the album is an evocative and polychromatic display of sight and sound, one where Arabian strings riding a desert wind dub skank give way to passages of cinematic folk funk, or elsewhere to sections of pompous progressive rock and angular jazz fusion. And as with Parbleu’s first LP ‘Danse Cette Zik,’ there is an awe-inspiring display of vocal talent across ‘Elios,’ as soft-soul seances, choral pop communions, 60s soundtrack spirituals, Italo diva poetics, and intoxicating call-and-response spells rain down over the mystical melodies and dancefloor dynamite.

A1 - Elios
A2 - Pour Cette Liberté
A3 - Si Tu Veux Vivre Ou Pas
A4 - Sababa
B1 - J'Entends Pas
B2 - Je Le Ferai
B3 - La Guillotère
B4 - Calima More

Tracklist:

1. Dora Morelenbaum - Japão
2. New York Community Choir - I'll Keep My Light in My Window (12” Mix)
3. General Lee - Pleasure
4. The Drive - Africa Bossa
5. Chiemi Eri - Okosa-Bushi
6. Manny Corchado And His Orchestra - Pow-Wow
7. Sven Wunder - Easy Going
8. Dina Ögon -Bakom Glaset
9. Vee Gees – Talkin
10. Mave & Dave - Do You Really Want My Love
11. Hazel Scott And The Braza Brasil - Ye-Me-Le
12. Inês Soares - Um Amor Para Toda A Vida
13. Haréton Salvanini - Estrada
14. Copa 7 - Copa Sete No Samba
15. Mirna - A Volta
16. Dina Ögon - Tombola 94
17. Unknown Artists - I Do You Love
18. Ash Soul, Inc. - I Do Love You
19. Ponderosa Twins Plus One - Bound
20. Matty - Blood 21. Shira Small - Eternal Life

Curating and ordering the tracks for a Mr Bongo Record Club is always special. You’re reminded of the feelings you had when sitting at home with a cassette player on pause trying to compile the perfect mixtape to impress the latest object of your affection, or that friend with whom you share a musical kinship and spark off each other’s latest discoveries. Hearing old tracks for the first time or diving into the most upfront selections keeps the fires burning and passions alight.

Here, for volume six, we present recent finds and treasured classics from Brazil, Sweden, the USA, South Africa, Portugal, Japan, Trinidad and Tobago, and Canada. We have included selections by the Brazilian rising star Dora Morelenbaum as well as from heritage-Brazilian musicians and vocalists Haréton Salvanini, Copa 7, and Mirna. There’s also the wonderful Brazilian-not-Brazilian take of 'Ye Me Le' by Hazel Scott And The Braza Brasil, plus sublime gospel from the New York Community Choir. We’ve picked disco and soul rarities by General Lee and Ash Soul, Inc., and for the first time on vinyl, an incredible psych-pop song by the illustrious Matthew Tavares. There are cuts from some of our favourite contemporary Swedish musicians, Sven Wunder and Dina Ögon too. This compilation is packed full of gems that are plucked from differing times and spaces, but somehow all gel together beautifully. We hope you love them too.

Artwork illustration by Nicolas Burrows. More

Summer is now upon us, and with it one of our dearest dancefloor artillerymen returns to Timedance.

Ploy's « For when we haven’t slept » stands as a mission statement for the party athlete, it is a celebration of weekends ran like both a sprint and a marathon and its three tracks narrates the spirally craze that keeps you out and makes the dancers forget the sole existence of their beds.

Starting with the first hits of strobe lights on a Saturday night, as the energy rises and the dancefloor manically comes together (Crazy BB ), it then moves on to a welcome and slightly hectic high octane after-party (Rose) before rolling all the way through to the sheer moments of lustful euphoria that defines the best Sunday sessions (Finally).

Bass pressure and intoxicating techno collide seamlessly without falling into the traps of forced seriousness, while hints of hook-laden house music keep the groove at peak levels, so the bodies can keep moving, beyond sleep and exhaustion and into the final stages of pure frenzy, for when we haven’t slept. More