Welcome to Candyland, somewhere between a sugar rush and a lucid dream?

Merov', Evock, Occibel and Roulade 2000 have cooked up some sugar-coated, syrupy tracks, sweet enough to rot your teeth?

Best enjoyed as part of a healthy diet.

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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2025 repress

Tracklisting
A1 Chlär - Exoskeleton
A2 Chlär - Sauve Moi
B1 Chlär - Lick Your Soul
B2 Chlär - Body Whispers

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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Germany
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Amateur Girlfriends Go Proskirt Agents was originally released in 2001, and soon got the "classic" stamp. Tracks from this album is still on the top 10 streaming numbers for Xploding Plastix. Now, the full tracklisting from the album is finally presented on a deluxe double vinyl version, with 6 bonus tracks! With their mixture of obscure jazz-samples, cool beats, melodic feel, an "anything goes"-mentality and quite a bit of humour, Xploding Plastix created their own unique style. A kind of older Amon Tobin meets Scott Walker on a smoke filled sleazy jazz-club. Throw in an exquisite taste for film-noire, and we are getting closer. This is Balearic beats, lo-fi, state of the art fuck-upz, simply sweet! NME wrote: "Meanwhile, over at Jam, Norwegians Xploding Plastix - two nutcases with lots of small boxes and a terrible name - are offering upheaval of a different kind. Theirs is a big, disorienting future-jazz racket, splicing DJ Food's mad drums, Aphex Twin's time signatures and The Herbaliser's moodiest, cinematic bits. Awesome."

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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A glowing homage to golden era City Pop. SAUCY LADY's signature buttery melodies & love filled lyrics sung in her native Japanese, over SLYNK's rich boogie synth basslines. On the flip U KEY, completely flips the song into a sweet ode to 80s Japanese funk w/ live instruments.

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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NRV010 welcomes back Jay Tripwire with a focused, four-track EP that leans into what he does best: groove-led, understated club tools built for long blends and sound systems. The release is anchored by Tripwire’s signature restraint and flow, alongside a Sublee remix that strips the material back even further, emphasizing hypnosis, reduction, and low-swing momentum. This is functional, confident material — no excess, no forced moments — designed for selectors who value flow, patience, and control over obvious drops. For DJs who play: minimal / microhouse / deep tech-influenced selectors who prioritize groove, tension, and longevity over peak-time theatrics.

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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The Flying Hats - the Leeds quartet responsible for one of the standout albums of the year - return in phenomenal form with Blender / Hot Cakes, two previously unreleased cuts of the highest calibre

Tracklist
1. Blender
2. Hot Cakes


Listen: https://listen.k7.com/37f72239-3d41-4cd6-90a6-34a68773f33b

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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This latest Ma Ze Music release thrives on chemistry and colour. A tight, heavy-limbed groove anchors the VuVuVu & Mervalice single 'Keyif' with punchy drums, gluey synths and fuzzed guitar lines spiralling into psychedelic funk territory. Over the top, Mervealice's voice brings warmth and soul while cutting through the haze with effortless authority. What began as a spark of shared intuition between artists quickly becomes something richer, folding Middle Eastern rhythmic sensibilities into a modern psych-funk framework. The result is spontaneous and well-tuned, equally hypnotic in its vocal form and stripped-back instrumental.

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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Jonny Liebeck Group features Jonny Liebeck (keyboards/synths), Tom Mason (electric bass), Andrew McLean (drums), and Santiago Morales (congas). The A-side is a breezy jazz-funk tune full of Rhodes textures and a groovy rhythm, while the B-side is a reinterpretation of Piero Piccioni's "Isole del Tramonto" from the film "In Viaggio con Papà".

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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Germany
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Two sides, each lasting 8 minutes and 50 seconds. A clash that resonates in friction, united by the materiality of vinyl - if only for a time. Or at best, a rapprochement, like in cinema. On side A, a MIDI composition by Xavier Robel for synthesized piano, based on La Monte Young's tuning system for The Well-Tuned Piano. Mouse clicks, boxing gloves, vibrancy, and mischief. On side B, a positively insistent On-U Sound-flavored rhythmic investigation, produced by Androo in response to Xavier Robel's composition (one he hadn't asked for). From sparse elements, a kaleidoscopic pulse unfolds - as dub seeps within a fog of electroacoustic fluctuations.

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
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DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
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It is with great joy that we present the Mr Bongo edition of Marcos Valle's 1983 self-titled masterpiece. A pure vintage that features the ultimate Brazilian-boogie cult-classic ‘Estrelar’ and iconic 80s cover art that sees a gloriously sun-drenched Marcos dressed in a pink v-neck t-shirt surrounded by a generous selection of deadly-looking neon cocktails.

The album was produced by the legendary Lincoln Olivetti and Marcos' brother Paulo Sérgio Valle. It showcases a real who's who of Brazilian music at the time, with stellar performances from vocalists and musicians such as Rosana, Serginho Do Trombone, Robson Jorge and Oberdan Magalhães to name but a few. This was Marcos’ second album, after having moved back to Brazil from his time living in Los Angeles, and that US influence is evident through its prominent boogie, soul and funk sounds. It also features collaborations with the US singer-songwriter, composer, pianist, keyboardist, and record producer, Leon Ware, who co-penned three tracks including 'Estrelar'. To complete the album there are tracks such as 'Fogo Do Sol', which is pure AOR / Balaeric vibes, and tracks that are more MPB and pop-inspired, making a well-balanced track list for both home-listening pleasure and dancefloor business.

What could we do to give one of Marcos' most celebrated albums the treatment it deserved and produce the most definitive re-issue possible? The answer was to enlist the services of Miles Showell, Abbey Road Studios Mastering and lacquer-cutting engineer and all-around audio-magician, to cut a special half-speed master edition. Miles had previously worked his half-speed magic on our Arthur Verocai album re-issue, and once again we are totally blown away by the richness which Miles has brought out in his mastering technique. He has enhanced the listening experience and taken this wonderful album to another level.

To celebrate the release we have pressed up several versions; both standard master, and Miles' half-speed mastering editions on Black vinyl, alongside special limited edition Rose and Mint-Green coloured vinyl variants that were inspired by the audacious-looking cocktails on the cover - sheer 80s excess!

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Gatefold Sleeve

M’Bamina – African Roll (1975)
The story of an album born between Africa, Italy, and the nightclub culture of the 1970s
In the heart of 1970s Italy — a country undergoing profound social change and a music scene just beginning to open itself to distant sounds and cultures — an extraordinary, almost improbable story took shape. It is the story of a group of young African musicians who found their way to Europe, of a Turin nightclub that became a crossroads for communities and experimenters, and of an album which, released in small numbers and largely unnoticed at the time, is now considered a rare jewel of Afro-fusion.
The band called themselves M’Bamina — an ensemble of musicians from Congo, Cameroon, and Benin, who arrived in Italy in the early Seventies. Settling between northern Italy and the Pavia area, they began performing in small clubs and community events, bringing with them a vibrant rhythmic heritage: African polyrhythms, call-and-response vocals, funk-infused bass lines, and Caribbean or Afro-Latin colours absorbed along their musical journeys. Their raw, contagious energy on stage quickly drew attention.
Meanwhile, in Turin, another story was unfolding. There was a venue becoming almost legendary: Voom Voom, one of the city’s liveliest nightclubs, run by Ivo Lunardi. The club attracted an eclectic crowd — students, artists, foreigners, night owls — and Lunardi quickly understood that the dancefloor wasn’t just a place for music, but a melting pot for a new kind of cultural energy. Out of this vibrant atmosphere came his idea: to turn the club’s name into a small independent record label, Voom Voom Music, capable of capturing the spirit of those years and giving voice to unconventional projects.

When Lunardi heard M’Bamina, he immediately sensed that this was the sound he had been searching for: fresh, different from anything circulating in Italy at the time, and capable of blending African tradition with funk and European sensibility. He brought them into the studio.
Production was handled by Lunardi along with Christian Carbaza Michel, while the engineering was entrusted to Danilo Pennone, a young sound technician with a sharp, intuitive ear.
The recording sessions — held in Turin in 1975 — produced a remarkably warm and direct sound. The music feels almost live: grooves rooted in African tradition, but open to funk-rock structures and modern arrangements. It is a natural fusion, never forced. Tracks move between tribal rhythms, funk basslines, light electric guitars, congas and Afro-Latin percussion, with call-and-response vocals and melodies that echo both Congolese tradition and the lineage of Latin jazz. Not by chance, one of the album’s most striking tracks, Watchiwara, reinterprets a Latin standard through M’Bamina’s own rhythmic language.

The album was titled African Roll — a name that was already a statement of intention. It is African music that “rolls,” that moves, adapts, transforms within a new geographic and cultural setting. It is not strictly Afrobeat, nor Congolese rumba, nor Western funk: it is a spontaneous, hybrid blend, shaped more by lived experience than by any calculated aesthetic program.
When African Roll was released, the world around it barely noticed. Distribution was limited, and 1970s Italy had yet to develop a cultural framework for receiving such music. The national music press rarely paid attention to African or “world” productions. The album slipped into silence — though the band’s own story did not.

M’Bamina continued performing across Europe and Africa, even sharing a stage in Cameroon with none other than Manu Dibango. By the late Seventies, they moved to Paris, signed with Fiesta/Decca, and recorded a second LP, Experimental (1978). Meanwhile, the peculiar record they had made in Turin began to resurface quietly among vinyl collectors, Afro-funk enthusiasts, and DJs hunting for forgotten grooves.
That is when the album’s fate began to shift.

Over the decades, African Roll emerged as an almost unique document: a snapshot of an intercultural Italy before the word “intercultural” even existed, a fragment of migrant history, a spontaneous experiment in musical fusion born far from major industry circuits but rich in authenticity. Original copies began commanding high prices on the collector’s market, and the album became recognized as one of the hidden classics of European Afro-fusion from the 1970s.
Today, more than fifty years later, this reissue finally restores visibility and dignity to a project that deserves to be heard, studied, and celebrated. It is not simply an album: it is the testimony of a rare cultural encounter, born in an Italy unaware of how fertile such exchanges would one day become.

It is the story of a visionary producer, an extraordinary band, and a fleeting moment in which music, migration, and nightlife came together to create something genuinely new.
African Roll is — now more than ever — the sound of a bridge: between continents, between eras, between cultures. A record that, after rolling far and wide, has finally come home.

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