Andrea True Connection
More, More, More / What's Your Name, What's Your Number

On its' original release in 2002, Tony Allen's HomeCookin album was arguably a little overlooked. Like its' predecessor, 1999's Black Voices, the set updated the legendary drummer's Afrobeat sound for a new millennium. As this timely reissue proves, it was a particularly successful exercise. The album's genius lies in the Nigerian sticks-man's combination of traditional elements - most notably his loose, skittish polyrhythms, guitars and punchy horns - with elements of future-jazz, modern soul (see the brilliant Eska collaboration, "What's Your Fashion") and hip-hop. British rapper Ty excels himself on a number of killer cuts, though it's a more traditional Allen style dancefloor workout - the sublime "Crazy Afrobeat" - that really stands out.

IPA BOOGIEGet The Music NowAcid JazzIpa-Boogie's self titled album is a super rare one that is super expensive even if you do manage to find a copy. Thankfully, for the first time ever on 7" vinyl, Acid Jazz kindly serve up short versions of 'Get The Music Now' and 'Africa', which both come from said full length. These are some of the only recordings known from this obscure band, and they first came in 1978 but still sound ahead of their time. This release, it is also worth noting, kicks off a new 45 series from Acid Jazz entitled Albarika 45, which will focus on many rare singles and unknown versions throughout the forthcoming year.

ITOPIASunshine LoveWackie's USThe original 1981 12" of Itopia's 'Sunshine Love' is one of the most sought-after cuts in the Wackie's catalogue, with copies regularly changing hands for three-figure sums online. This 12" includes the two key cuts from that 12", the synth-sporting, electrofunk-era vocal reggae gem original mix of 'Sunshine Love' - all super-sweet group vocals, hybrid live/electronic grooves and colourful electronics - and the dub style 'Version', which boasts some seriously squelchy synth-bass. Over on the flip there's a chance to cop Itopia's upbeat 1984 reggae club-rocker, the similarly synth-splashed 'Keep a Rockin', plus one of the original 'Sunshine Love' flipsides, the NYC synth-skank that is 'Get Over'. In a word: essential.

The follow up to the highly acclaimed reissue of the first volume Ethiopian Hit Parade. This 2nd volume features 'Ethiopian Hits' from 1972 to 1975. The track layout is Identical reissue to the original vinyl"After releasing around fifty 45 rpm singles and his first 33 rpm album (Ethiopian Modern Instrumental Hits AELP 10, re-released by Heavenly Sweetness HS092VL), Amha Esthèté set about compiling his best 45s on a series of now legendary albums (the originals are impossible to find) in 1972. The first four volumes of Ethiopian Hit Parade were released in September and October 1972, with the fifth volume appearing in January 1973. You are the proud owner of Volume 2.It is worth reminding ourselves that when Amha Esthèté set up his Amha Records label in 1968-69, it was in defiance of a state monopoly designed to regulate the imports and production of records by an imperial decree of July 1948. This extravagant state privilege had produced only 78s of traditional music , which though thrilling, excluded anything at all modern. To the best of our knowledge, only sixty-seven of these prehistoric discs were pressed in Great Britain between 1955 and 1961 and released by His Master’s Voice. They were supposed to be part of celebrations of Emperor Haile Selassie’s silver jubilee . . . even though 33s and 45s had existed since 1948 and 1949 respectively! Such incompetence and servility, combined with a rejection of an effervescent contemporary music scene, were symptomatic of the decadence surrounding the end of an era.An audacious, funky outlaw, a music lover and an entrepreneur in tune with the baby-boomer generation, young Amha Esthèté (he was only twenty-four when he launched his label) will be remembered as the instigator of a peaceful revolution thick with soul and rock’n’roll.After the acclaimed reissue of the first volume Ethiopian Hit Parade. Here is the second volume that include all the greatest Ethiopian Hits from 1972 to 1975. Identical reissue to the original vinyl which is extremely rare and expensive.The opening track of the compilation is the song Tezeta Slow and Fast by GETACHEW KASSA were featured on the album Ethiopiques, Vol. 10: Ethiopian Blues & Ballads. and originally released on 1972. The other tracks on this second volume celebrate such pioneers of modern Ethiopian groove as Abayneh Degene, Tèshomè Meteku, Menelik Wossenachew Mulatu Astatqe and Muluken Melesse, alongside “tradi-modern” singers representing Amhara and Oromo culture, so rich and so long marginalized."s

Cosmic discooooo !