Listen to “Sunny (Mercury Edit II) here

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The dark days were through with Bobby Hebb’s love-a-thon, one of the most soul-driven songs ever written and loved. “Sunny” is a transformation of love itself now topped with a modern cherry by Swiss producer, Mercury. Doubtful was any fan of this heartful Motown hit that the sun could shine brighter, but those quick, tribal drums give Read the full story

Listen to “Madoff Made Off” Here

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Brooklyn’s Afrobeat band, Zongo Junction enliven a whole new meaning of the a world-wide scandal with “Madoff Made Off.” The transglobal soundscapes confuse the senses with Kings of Leon guitar riffs moving into congas and Read the full story

Listen to “Lagos Speedway” here

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The African sounds of Captain Planet‘s Speakin’ Nuyorican EP is a salsa fiesta partnered with a a hip-hop record. The Brooklyn-based DJ returned to Bastard Jazz Recordings to give us more where 2005′s Gumbo Funk EP came from. Read the full story

Listen to “Good Man” here

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Get out the time machine, Raphael Saadiq is back with his new rock-infused LP, Stone Rollin’. As you’ll see, he’s remained faithful to the retro soulful roots that caught our attention in his 2008 hit album, The Way I See It. The old-school  inspirations have always been there for this music veteran who started as member and founder of Tony! Toni! Toné about 20 years ago. He started from a more R&B-inspired style with delicious Stevie Wonder-esque tracks like “Still Ray” on his first album as Raphael Saadiq in 2002. And now, a well-rounded artist to a T, Raphael has created a vintage gem with his single, “Good Man.”
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photo by Jamil GS

It’s almost Friday so I thought I’d bring a little R&B groovin’ to our weekend.  I happened upon this “cinematic soul” act by accident last week and cannot stop listening.  El Michels Affair is the creation of two former band mates  Leon Michels and Nick Movshon.  They along with eight other former members of the deep funk revival band,  The Mighty Imperials, came together to form an impressive dectet utilizing of more than twelve different instruments.

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Onra hails from France and is a swell producer of the, how you say, “hip hop” music? While he lists most of his influences as classic mainstream acts the likes of Dr. Dre, DJ Quick, Diamond D, and Reza, it would appear that somewhere along the way some funk crept in there. Cool little side note, for his fourth release, Chinoiseries, which debuted in late 2007, he used only Chinese and Vietnamese samples. Since then he has continued expanding his sound library and moved on to manifest another seven releases and has a full-length album planned to drop this May.

Listen to “Long Distance” here

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