Unlike the main Magic Wand label, the imprint's offshoot 'Special Editions' series is a little more fluid about what it releases, with some EPs sporting original productions - many of which are admittedly sample-heavy - as well as re-edits. That's the case for this second missive from Matsoaka (real name Matt Lundgren). So, while the EP begins with a genuinely gorgeous and Balearic original cut (the dreamy and slow-motion folk-rock of 'Butterflies', featuring the emotive and harmonic vocals of Butterflies), much of the rest falls into the "Balearic re-arrangement" category. In this camp you'll find the immersive, trip-hop style dreaminess of 'Faith', the mid-80s Yellow Magic Orchestra-style Fairlight-sporting electro of 'Gin Yuzu', and the dollar bin brilliance of 'Sheriff' (a take on a Japanese city-pop cover of a reggae favourite).

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Another Taste is back with their follow up album: Another Taste II delivers eight new cuts of boogie, funk, and obscure disco influenced productions, recorded live to tape. Comes with Download code.

After lighting up renowned clubs like KOKO London, Jazz Café London,Tresor Berlin, New Morning Paris, and festivals like Love Supreme (UK), Lost Village (UK), Nuits Sonores (FR), Hamburg Jazz (DE), Lowlands (NL), ADE Amsterdam - the band has surfaced from the studio anew, mixing myth with music.

If their debut record in 2024 was an introduction to their musical range, Another Taste II is the full immersion. The two-sided album plays like a neon-lit cab ride where the radio is set to groove. Expanding their palette with sharper songwriting, denser arrangements, and a fictional universe.

The album showcases Another Taste’s collective at full strength: Barend Lippens, Bobby van Putten, Bob Roche, Teun van Zoggel, Sarina Voorn, Diogo Carvalho, and Florian Verhagen. Together they summon a sound that is electrifying, communal, and unmistakably theirs, joined on “Peace Call” by Arp Frique and the Perpetual Singers, and bolstered throughout by a dedicated brass section.

Another Taste II is engineered and mixed by Bobby van Putten, mastered at The Carvery by Frank Merritt, with artwork and design by Timo ter Braak, Walt van der Veen and Robert Reinartz.

The new album presents a collaborative creation that’s both timeless and unpredictable, pulling listeners deeper into the band’s universe with every spin.

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Tracklist:

1.1Neredesin Sen
1.2Gönül Dagi
1.3Öldürme Beni
1.4Nigde Baglari
1.5Benim Yarim
1.6Sucum Nedir
1.7Gel Yanima Gel
1.8Zülüf Dökülmüs Yüze
1.9Gel Kacma Gel
1.10Bir Nazar Eyledim

Altin Gün, the Grammy-nominated Turkish psych-groove quintet from Amsterdam, return with their sixth studio album Garip — their most ambitious and diverse release to date, and a heartfelt tribute to the legendary Turkish folk bard Neset Ertas.

Neset Ertas (1938–2012) was a beloved icon of Anatolian music; a gifted singer, lyricist, and baglama virtuoso who carried the spirit of the ashik folk tradition into the modern era. Garip ("Strange" in English) features ten of his compositions, each reimagined and richly expanded through Altin Gün’s distinctive lens.

An electrifying live band with an ever-growing global following, Altin Gün push their sonic boundaries even further on Garip — weaving in lush Arabesque string arrangements, bursts of saxophone, glimmering synth balladry, and a fresh surge of tightly wound rock ’n’ roll.

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Since bursting onto the scene in 2018 with their debut album, On, Amsterdam-based Altin Gün have been at the vanguard of the 21st century revival of Turkish-influenced psychedelic grooves.

Coming straight out of the gate with a wah-wah and organ heavy sound that effortlessly captured the spirit of Anatolian 70s psych-funk masters like Baris Manço and Erkin Koray, they deepened and expanded their palette with 2021’s Yol, which brought synths and drum machines into the mix for a more 80s-influenced dream-pop vibe.

But no matter how far out they’ve gone, they’ve always maintained a strong link to the same Anatolian folk traditions that inspired those early pioneers. Founder and bassist, Jasper Verhulst says: “We’re doing the same thing a lot of those artists were doing, which is playing Turkish traditionals and songs written by folk artists.”

Now, with their sixth album, Garip, they’ve brought that connection to the folk source front and centre, showcasing a collection of songs all originally written by Turkish folk legend Neset Ertas.

Ertas (1938-2012) was a revered and much-loved Turkish singer, lyricist and baglama player, and a modern-day embodiment of the ancient ashik tradition of the folk-bard-troubadour. Throughout his long career, he recorded more than 30 albums and wrote hundreds of songs – some of which were famously recorded by the likes of Baris Manço and Selda Bagcan.

For Altin Gün's vocalist, keyboardist and baglama player, Erdinç Eçevit, interpreting a suite of Ertas’s tunes is a chance to get back to his roots.

“Both of my parents are from Turkey, from the same area he is from,” he says. “It's the music that I grew up with. When I was five, six years old, my grandfather always had cassettes by Neset Ertas and I used to listen to it all day long. Then I was too young to really understand the lyrics and the meaning, but I really liked the melodies.

Now, years later, Eçevit has fully immersed himself in Ertas’s lyrics – messages from the heart that are, he says, “stories about what he’s facing in life. The Turkish traditional music is the blues of the Turkish people.”

Nowhere is this better exemplified than on ‘Gönul Dagi,’ one of Ertas’s most famous compositions, here brought to life by Eçevit’s yearning, sensitive vocals.

“‘Gönul Dagi’ is about the pain of love, the storms of the heart and the loneliness of longing,” says Eçevit. “He’s expressing what rural Anatolia has always felt – that love is both sacred and sorrowful, a force of nature.”

In Altin Gün's hands, the tune becomes a languid funk-rock crawl with watery guitar, a loping bassline and a palpable hint of mystery deepened by luxuriant string arrangements provided by the Stockholm Studio Orchestra.

The strings feature on several tracks, touching on influences including Egyptian popular music, Bollywood soundtracks and Turkish Arabesque. But, as Verhulst explains, there’s another touchstone underpinning the sound. “There’s definitely a French Italian influence in those arrangements,” he says.

It's a prime example of Altin Gün's urge to cast their net wide and incorporate a far-reaching set of magpie musical directions.

Album opener, ‘Neredesin Sen,’ is a throbbing, bass led vamp with a strong early-80s Indie flavour that showcases the fluid chemistry between drummer Daniel Smienk and percussionist Chris Bruining. The closing track, ‘Bir Nazar Eyeldim,’ is a breathtaking ballad with Eçevit’s pleading vocals playing out over lush synth arpeggios and a sparse electronic rhythm. Along the way, the band also touches on proggy vibes, with Eçevit getting down and dirty on the synth’s pitch-bend, and a laid-back west coast ambiance. Check out Thijs Elzinga’s gorgeous slide guitar on the smouldering ‘Gel Kaçma Gel’ to dig just how relaxed they can sound.

Fans of Altin Gün's past work will find much to love too.

The Anatolian element is still strong – and not just in Eçevit’s aching vocals. Eçevit’s tight baglama figures are woven throughout, making a direct link back to those earliest influences on tracks like the smoky ‘Nigde Baglari,’ with its off-kilter folk rhythm and cavernous sense of the Anatolian steppes stretching out for miles.

“It’s our most eclectic album,” says Verhulst. “There’s a little bit of everything. The songs are harder to label. We wanted to do something different than what we’ve done before. Less in your face, less poppy, less obviously psych-rock. More just vibing.”

Garip is the sound of a band that’s constantly evolving. A mature musical unit with nothing to prove. A band that’s having a whole lot of fun.

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Dave Lee invites everyone to congregate at the piece of waste land behind his church where he also parks his combine harvester from time to time. Leading proceedings is 'Feel The Light' an extended super uplifting Gospel cut, filled with rousing horns, scorching organ solos and top tier sing-a-long vocal chants. The kind of record that really brings people together, much like the house of god. Flip the record and you're whisked away to the sunny shores of Rio with the Latin Jazz-Funk-tastic 'Further Tales Of Ladybug' a Wayne Henderson of The Crusaders fame piece that has, like the opposite side track been lovingly re-crafted from the stems by Mr Lee.

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Stepping up next in our Mr Bongo 12” Edits series, we’ve invited another legend of the game, DJ Nature, to craft a special EP of signature edits. Following editions by Dan Tyler and Nick The Record, Luke Una, and Danny Krivit, DJ Nature selects four prime cuts spanning modern soul, psychedelic funk, boogie, and leftfield disco, giving each his trademark tweak for today’s dancefloor.

In 1989, Bristol-born DJ Nature moved to New York, a city where he knew his raw and textured aesthetic would be more appreciated at the time. He immersed himself in the NY scene, frequently attending underground house and disco clubs to hear pioneers such as Larry Levan (The Choice), Louie Vega (Sound Factory Bar), and Tony Humphries (Zanzibar). That same year, being surrounded by a wealth of underground dance music, DJ Nature set up an export company to supply the Japanese market. “I have had a connection with Japan for over 40 years, beginning when I visited as part of Ray Petri’s Buffalo fashion house as a DJ. From there, I linked up with the Major Force crew and others,” he explains.

Having already been a record collector for 20 years, DJ Nature launched his own label, Ruff Disco Records, in 1992, releasing productions under his early moniker, Natureboy. Since then, Nature has gone on to become an underground DJ/producer legend himself, touring the world and releasing records on esteemed labels such as Golf Channel Recordings, Jazzy Sport, Hot Biscuit Recordings, and Futureboogie Recordings.

Reflecting his love of raw, independent disco, jazz fusion, and early house music, DJ Nature has chosen four tracks from the Mr Bongo archive that he felt had club-ready production ripe for an edit. First up, is an extended rework of the ultra-rare Chicago modern soul/disco joint ‘Straight Forward (Non-Stop)’ by P.J. City from 1986. Staying true and respectful to the original, DJ Nature tweaks and extends it so it feels like a longer take lifted from the original recording session. Next is a sublime version of Cuban band Grupo Los Yoyi’s 1977 track ‘Del Copacabana A 34’. Here, Nature extends and enhances the song, looping the more driving, hypnotic, spacey sections to let the energy brew and bubble to boiling point.

On the B-side, DJ Nature revamps a lesser-known gem from the Elite Records catalogue. Originally produced by Andy Sojka, Antoniou’s pulsating 1982 electronic disco groover ‘Sound On Sound’ is transformed into a peak-time cosmic boogie whirlwind. Rounding off the EP, he turns to the mysterious Marxist Love Disco Ensemble’s 2022 album ‘MLDE’, re-editing the quirky leftfield disco winner ‘Dust’ into a more DJ-friendly club track.

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