Nautilus
Lady Day & John Coltrane

Hot and groovy jazzfunk that turns every dancefloor into a simmering witch cauldron on Side A, meeting silky soul pop ballads on Side B. A catchy and memorable affair that will give you goosebumps as long as you are a fan of funk and soul on the threshold from the 1970s to the golden era of pop, the 80s. For fans of Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Stanley Clarke, Hot Chocolate and the likes. It's the first album of the later Blues legend Mel Waiters. DETAILS: Swirling synthesizers drag your mind into space, the slapped bass guitar throbs like a frantic pulse and there are hissing percussions that back up the slick drum sound. Here we go, straight forward into the 1980 album by the MEL PRODUCTION BAND, a private release that reaches high prices if a copy ever appears for sale somewhere and that comes as a product of it’s time. This is club music made for discos, soul pop that has all the great trademarks, as those tunes that would storm the charts only a few years later, it heads into two different directions with two steaming, yet slick power funk songs successing the intro on side A and three soul pop ballads on the flipside. While these B Side tracks invite you to dive into an ocean of lush melodies and complex arrangements that form accessible and especially memorable tunes with overwhelming vocal performances, the three jazzfunk compositions on the A side make you jump up from your seats and dance your soul out. The slapped bass guitar can be found in all three tracks, the vocals are a mix between singing and shouting in a joyful, euphoric way. Mostly simple phrases get repeated over and over again to create something like a disco mantra for everybody who is in for a wild dance. It is all glitter here and and a never ending party. You still find musical greatness in these dance songs, for the performance is just wild and the musicians are up on par with the greatest of their genre, tight and determined, still passionate in their playing and they truly love their music, their funk. So, this is a beast first and then turns into a beauty for side two. Since the original private press simply never ever turns up these days, this new reissue on EVERLAND MUSIC is more than welcome to rediscover this rare gem. Take your time to listen and take your time to dance for this album is a great occasion for both. The sound on this record is clean and slick, but vibrant. The music has the real feeling, everything is handmade and you can hear it. Even the synthesizer carpet sounds like coming from the gifted hands of a real keyboard wizard. A blast to spin on your turntable.

During the various pandemic lockdowns of 2020, BBC Radio Wales suggested to multi-instrumentalist Carwyn Ellis that he joined forces with their National Orchestra of Wales and Brazilian band Rio 18 for a one-off, audience-free concert. In the end, Rio 18 were not permitted to travel, so instead their contributions were recorded remotely and assembled by Ellis and his producer Shawn Lee, to which the orchestrated parts were then added live. Despite this complex recording process, the results are stunning: sublime songs, sung in Welsh, with an attractive mixture of Brazilian rhythms and instrumentation, soaring orchestration and attractive melodies aplenty. It has a conceptual theme - it's meant to be a sort of musical day in Rio - but that doesn't really matter; what matters is the music, and it's uniformly spellbinding.

Israeli DJ and collector Elado is back on New York City's Razor N Tape with some more rare edit action. On the A-side of Elado Edits Part 2 we have the sweltering Latin vibes of 'Big Baba' followed by the low slung affair that is 'Disco Hummus'. Over on the flip, there's an awesome disco cover of The Beatles on 'Sun' and one more late night dancefloor heater in the form of 'Simba'.ELADOElado Edits Part 2Razor-N-Tape

Ernesto Djedje is rightly known as the king of Ziglibithy and has been since not long after he first made his mark back in the 60s. He started out as a guitar player and leader of Ivoiro Star, before eventually going it alone and moving to Paris. He later returned to his native Cote d'Ivoire in 1974 and created his own musical mix of funk, soul, Makossa and disco before dying in odd circumstances in 1983. This Roi Du Ziglibithy, LP was first released in 1997 and now gets reissued on Analog Africa. One of his best-known works, it's a perfect example of his unique fusion sound.La notoriété d’Ernesto Djédjé commence à croître à la fin des années 60, lorsqu’il devient le guitariste et le leader du groupe Ivoiro Star, fondé par Amédée Pierre, star du dopé, le style musical phare de l’époque. Agacé par la « congolisation » de la musique ivoirienne qui s’opère au sein du groupe, Ernesto quitte le groupe et émigre à Paris en 1968 pour enregistrer ses premiers 45 tours arrangés par Manu Dibango. Ces enregistrements reflètent l’ambiance musicale de l’époque, dictée par deux courants musicaux de la scène ivoirienne : la musique traditionnelle, incarnée entre autres par Amédée Pierre d’une part et la musique importée des États-Unis, du Cameroun et du Zaïre d’autre part. Et si la première tendance est généralement négligée, la jeunesse s’approprie la seconde. C’est dans ce contexte qu’Ernesto va puiser l’inspiration pour une nouvelle formule. De retour en Côte d’Ivoire en 1974, Ernesto forme l’orchestre des puissants Ziglibithiens. Diabo Steck (batterie), Bamba Yang (claviers et guitare), Léon Sina (guitare) et Assalé Best (chef d’orchestre et saxophone) deviennent le noyau dur du groupe et commencent à combiner les rythmes et les chants du peuple Bété avec le makossa, le funk et le disco pour créer un style musical à la fois ivoirien et international. Il a appelé son expérience “ziglibithy” et ses deux premiers albums, immortalisés en 1977 à Lagos et publiés sur le label Badmos, ont pris l’Afrique de l’Ouest d’assaut, faisant d’Ernesto Djédjé une icône du jour au lendemain et l’une des légendes de la musique africaine. Ernesto Djédjé meurt dans des circonstances mystérieuses en 1983, à l’âge de 35 ans, choquant toute la nation ivoirienne. Bien que la fin soit survenue brusquement, Ernesto a eu le temps en 5 albums de cimenter son héritage comme l’un des artistes les plus novateurs que la Côte d’Ivoire ait jamais produit. La chanson « Zighlibitiens », apportée en Colombie par un mécanicien aéronautique au début des années 1980, rencontrera un énorme succès sur la côte caraïbe. Enflammant les fêtes locales les plus insolites, le disque est devenu l’un des plus recherchés dans cette région du monde. Ainsi, alors que le ziglibithy a pratiquement disparu des ondes de son pays natal, de l’autre côté de l’Atlantique, son feu continue de brûler. Pressage en édition limitée sur vinyle gatefold 180g.NiniZiglibithiensBliwana Golozo