Hallelujah Picassos live this Thurs, Akld

Hallelujah Picassos have been invited to play with our mates Labretta Suede and the Motel 6, back in NZ briefly from their New York base, one Akld show only - next they are off to tour Spain! Come check out some swinging rock n roll good times next Thursday.

Kings Arms, 8pm Thursday April 3, $20 presales at UTR.

It's gonna be good to jump onstage again, as we've been locked away indoors recording a few new songs, recently. Sounding pretty amazing too, if I do say so. Am doing a Dub Asylum remix of one of the songs also. First taster will be coming to your ears soon!


That video above is one I recently uploaded, taken from our spot at BFM's Private Function party, on August 20 1994, with an intro by Joel Tobeck.

This was filmed by TV3's music show Frenzy, thanks to Ross Cunningham for the video. Sound taken straight from the mixing desk, David Hornblow at the controls. Trivia: The Picassos also had a practice room in the same group of buildings, which had been a potato warehouse.

Eelman Records - Welli soul roots

Way before Fat Freddys Drop started ruling the capital, Wellington had been firmly embracing reggae and soul. Go back to the early to mid 1980s and you find a collective of Wellington cats who loved playing together in various combinations, in much the same way the current crop of musos in that city endlessly cross-pollinate.

The Pelicans (led by Bill Lake) were one of these acts, released on indie label Eelman Records.Other acts on the label include The Hulamen, The Economic Wizards, The Tombolas, Andrew Clyde Clouston, The Living Daylights and John Niland. The Hulamen's tune Working For A Living is a long lost Kiwi soul/reggae classic - have a listen, I digitised this off my vinyl copy. You can definitely trace a line from this to Fat Freddys and the Black Seeds.

Eelman Records discography.

Ring The Alarm playlist, March 29

MAW - MAW expensive (tribute to Fela)
Lonnie Smith - Straight to the point
Breakestra - Family rap
Mayer Hawthorne - Wine glass woman
Bettye Swann - Chained and bound
Lee Dorsey and the Meters - What you want
Nick Waterhouse - Aint there something money can't buy
Robb - Fourbyfour
Machito and his Afro-Cubans - Knock on wood
Ray Lugo and the boogaloo destroyers - El ritmo de nueva york
Henri-Pierre Noel - A fifth of Beethoven - the Reflex revision
Andrew Ashong - Love the way
Kraftwerk - Telephone call - remix
Fat Freddys Drop - Mother mother - Theo Parrish translation
Esther Phillips - Home is where the hatred is
Graham central station - Tell me what it is
JBs - 40th anniversary mix
The Emotions - I like it
Mickey and them - UFO
Henry Mancini - Shot  in the dark
Lee Thompson ska orchestra - Mission impossible
Damian Marley, Stephen Marley  -The mission
Lovejoys - Long lost lover
Horace Andy - Prophesy dubwise

Crate diggers: Qbert

via FuseTV, Q-Bert talks records, influences (Miles Davis, Picasso, and Devo), and picture discs. Very cool, humble guy. Go watch it now.

"Before hip hop I was heavily influenced by Devo," he says, telling a story of being exposed to the New Wave luminaries during an elementary school presentation. "Later I found out they were heavily influenced by Kraftwerk."

New Team Dynamite vid

Cool new video from Team Dynamite, part of the Young Gifted and Broke collective. Off their album Shepherd's Delight, which dropped as a free digital download last year, and recently got an official CD release. Filmed, directed & edited by Eddy Fifield.

Kiwi electro, 1984 flashback

IQU were a studio outfit who released a very cool EP in 1984, on Jayrem Records. The three track ep, is driven by the funky bass of Ryan Monga,with his wife Bettyanne (both of the South Auckland club band Ardijah) holding down the vocals.

I've never seen this video before - it looks like one of those fascinating videos that state TV used to make in-studio before the arrival of NZ On Air-funded music videos in 1991.

The most popular song off the EP was the title tune, Witchcraft, which used to get a lot of airplay on Radio 95BFM, back in the day, due to a few band members having DJ connections to the station, if I recall correctly.

Band members listed on the cover; Betty Monga, Paul Agar - vocals; Jon Lowther - keyboards; David Meech  -Guitar; Ryan Monga - Bass; Robert Mayo - Drums; Percussion - Jay Foulkes. Engineered by Mike Farmer, produced by Paul Crowther and ICQ. Recorded at Echo Park Studio, winter 84. Digitally mastered. ICQ Organisation: J Lowther, R Mayo, A Lamont.

Busy Signal

Spotted this via Duncan Greive on Twitter, who says "Busy Signal in a semi-biopic casually destroying every smash rap beat from 94-04." Hot damn.

3 white dudes who don't give a....

I get emailed a ton of press releases about new music. Some of them are intriguing, some are boring, and every once in a blue moon, you get one that is hilarious. Like this one, from a hiphop group called The White Boys...

"Andre Legacy, Beardo, and Dirt Nasty, are 3 white dudes who don't give a fuck about shit. Due to economic regalia's, they resorted to robbing and kidnapping and even assault with a deadly weapon on anybody who doubts them. Legacy, freshoutta jail said "Lets make a fuckin' 90's gangster rap album. I'm tired of all this emo pop rap." So they did. Using only 80's vintage keyboards and drum machines, they made an old school hip hop masterpenis. And if you doubt them, they will find you. And possibly cut you." 

Preview the album on iTunes. Contains offensive language.

Mo Kolours debut out now!

The very cool debut album from Mo Kolours has just dropped, on LP, CD and digital (pay what you like for digital at Bandcamp).

"There’s an exotic appeal to Mo Kolours and his music but there’s also something very British about this record. Mo Kolours follows in the footsteps of UK artists who have synthesised a variety of imported styles and added the indelible stamp of our rainy island, from The Specials and Cymande (who receive a tribute here in the form of Mike Black) to Massive Attack and Mala.

His humour reveals an idiosyncratic Britishness too, as when he shouts out forgotten budget rides such as the Datsun Sunny on Play It Loud (In Your Car) or titles his ominous environmental warning Natural Disasters Wish List."

One Handed Music add "If you're new to Mo Kolours you might want to check his three previous EPs. They are all on Bandcamp or on this handy Spotify playlist I made. Shout to The Beta Band.

Londoners will want to come to the album launch next week, featuring Mo live, a mighty merch table, and DJ support from Al Dobson Jr., Jeen Bassa, Reginald Ommas Mamode IV, Tenderlonious and me, Alex Chase.

Look out also for a Resident Advisor podcast dropping in the next day or two which features multiple exclusives from Mo & his crew."

Questlove loves lists

Questlove. Photo: Wired.

Drummer (The Roots) /DJ/music fanatic Questlove Thompson has dropped a ton of music lists for Wired, for a feature called "WIRED’s Guide to Music in 2014".

"OK, you’ve got 20 million songs in your pocket. Now what? With endless choice comes a serious challenge: cutting through all that noise to find the next song that will change your life. In this era, the real rock star are the curators—the people, tools, and algorithms that bring you the music you’ll love. With the help of special guest DJ Questlove, we’ve assembled the ultimate guide to discovering the ultimate tracks (including Questo’s personal favorites).Your perfect playlist awaits."

Wired also interviewed Questlove, got some cool stories out of him, watch below...

On record shopping...

On Technology killing (and creating) the DJ star...



Questlove talks about going out to DJ gigs with a 2 TB hard drive full of music, and sometimes he comes across a DJ who has opened for him who asks him what a song was, going "that was incredible, where did you get that from?" and Questlove says okay, I'm not selfish - you got 45 minutes give me your hard drive (and lets that kid have his music collection), and he says "I feel that the new version of that is each one, teach one - spread it around, so that it lasts forever..."

Nick Waterhouse - new album

I wrote a little about this great album from Mister Waterhouse a  month back, it's out now and it's a rocking good time. Listen below.

Turntable Lab's Michu Meszaros says "While Nick Waterhouse may get bound up with funk and soul revivalists like Sharon Jones, he's got his own thing going on. The Los Angeles based singer has pretty much nailed the early rock n' roll sound. 

There's plenty of deft guitar licks, precision honed rhythms and jump up piano work to go around. You get the sense that Waterhouse came to life in the 1950s and has pretty much stayed that way ever since. Along with his original material he covers songs from jazz singer Mose Allison, drummer Isaac "Red" Holt and garage-rocker Ty Segall. 

He sharpens up Allison's delivery on "Let It Come Down" and adds some dark sensibility to Segall's "It #3." Holly takes us back to another time, when rock n' roll was still finding its way."

Ring The Alarm playlist, March 22

Big Mama Thornton - Hound dog
Staple singers - Sitting on the dock of the bay
Dixie cups - Two way poc a way
James Brown - Funky drummer
Mighty Hannibal - Somebody in the world for you
Mark Ronson - No one knows
Dub funk association - Enter the chuzzler
Michael Prohpet -  Been talking
Junior Dan - Look out for the devil;
Jah Wobble - Get Carter
Ranking Joe - Don't follow Babylon - BAF meets Waiwan remix
Overproof sound system  -The model
Keith Lawrence - B-bwoy skank
Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte - DJ Kentaro remix
Opensouls -Falling in (Playing free, at Nixon Park, Kingsland this arvo)
Vibes alive - Mantra
Afrodisiac sound system - Fela spider rap
Ian Dury and the blockheads  -Reasons to be cheerful pt 3
Larry Graham - Sooner or later (instrumental)
Nick Waterhouse - It no. 3
Hannah Williams and the tastemakers - I'm a good woman
Kashmere stage band - Aint no sunshine - JRocc remix
Q-Tip - Manwomanboogie
VV Brown  - Crying blood - Andrew Weatherall remix

Machinedrum - Stirrin

Rebel MC - Comin on strong
Born Jamericans - Boom shak a-tack
Upsetters - Popcorn

New Mastersounds new album

" Légère Recordings presents "Therapy", the ninth studio album by The New Mastersounds, the now multi-national funk band originally from Leeds/England. With a new perspective in sound and vision, Eddie Roberts (Guitar), Simon Allen (Drums), Joe Tatton (Keyboards) and Pete Shand (Bass) recorded 12 fresh tracks in Denver/Colorado USA, aiming for a forward thinking sound mixing vintage funk with raw soul, smart jazz and original disco.

There’s quite the sonic spectrum on there: (spoiler alert!) Keb Dargey deep funk (Old Man Noises), Ramsey Lewis-esque souljazz (Morning Fly), old-school soul-pop (I Want You to Stay), classic Meters-y NMS (Monday Meters), some St Germaine-ish jazz house (When it Rains…), funky British silliness (Whistle Song, Slow Down), JB groove (Soul Sista), Doorsy mellow jazz (Detox), a protest tune (WWIII), and a contemporary pop song done in the style of a 1974 George Benson instrumental cover version (Bruno Mars’s Treasure). Produced, as all previous NMS titles, by our guitarist Eddie Roberts." Album out now, on CD/LP/Digital.

Living like this

Lord Echo, live in Akld!

From Lord Echo: "Here's a little treat in celebration of the Silo Session [Wynyard Quarter] show in Auckland on March 29th and the Japanese shows in Tokyo, Niigata and Kyoto on April 4/5/6. It's a live version of Street Knowledge that was performed in late 2012 at The Matterhorn in Wellington and you can download it for free! The band is killer."


\

LORD ECHO (live) | ELECTRIC WIRE HUSTLE (sound system)
with DJs ISAAC AESILI | MARA TK | TAAY NINH
Saturday 29th March @ Silo Park
Family Friendly Event | FREE ENTRY

www.silopark.co.nz

With a penchant for heavy rhythms moving through a fresh fusion of soul-reggae, afro-disco, latin-boogie and more, Lord Echo has been blowing stereos and minds internationally with the release of his 2nd LP‘Curiosities’. Mike Fab (The Black Seeds) is the man behind Lord Echo, and will be leading the live band with himself on guitar and mixing desk. He will be joined on stage by extremely talented vocalists Ria Hall(Fly My Pretties) & Leila Adu (as featured on the track 'Molten Lava'), Mara TK and Taay Ninh (Electric Wire Hustle) on guitar & keys, Issac Aesili (Funkommunity) on trumpet and Lucien Johnson (Shogun Orchestra) on sax.

Electric Wire Hustle will also be performing their sound system set, which should feature a mix of their own material and tunes to get the dancefloor started. Rounding out the musical line up the day will also feature DJ sets from Isaac Aesili and Lord Echo. Come down for a brew, a browse of the Silo Markets and a boogie in the sunshine on the last Saturday of summer.

Ring The Alarm playlist, Basefm, March 15

Betty Harris - Trouble with my lover
Tony Owens - Gotta get my baby back home
Shalamar - Right in  the socket
League unlimited orchestra - Love action
James White and the Blacks - Contort yourself - August Darnell remix
Nick Waterhouse - This is a game
Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - get up and get out
Jackson 5 - It' s great to be here - Kenny Dope remix
Chaka Khan - Life is a dance
Daddy Ous - Hard like a rock - Groove Corp remix
Morwell unlimited meets King Tubby  - Morpheus special - Kid loco remix
DJ Vadim - Watch that sound - JStar remix (DJ Vadim at Ponsonby Social Club 20 & 21 March, free!)
Fat Freddy's Drop - Hope -3 Generations Walking remix
Rae and Christian - Ready to roll
Antibalas feat Mayra Vega - Che che cole makossa
Lightning head - Bokoor sound special
Los Silvertones - Tamborito swing
Tyrone Taylor - Move up Blackman
Adrian Sherwood and Lee Scratch Perry - Kingston tower
Little John - Fade away
Prince Fari - Hello love brother
Lord Echo - The creator has a master plan
Takuya Kuroda - Rising son
New mastersounds - Treasure
Sly and the Family Stone - Same thing makes you laugh, makes you cry (Happy 70th birthday, Sly Stone!)
Janet Jackson - Don't mess up this good thing
James Brown - Shoot your shot

Let's boogaloo!

Let's BOOGALOO vol.6: Deep funk, Northern Soul and Dancefloor Jazz en El Barrio just come out recently, and there;'s some serious heat on it. Compiled by Dean Rudland, the track listing is well saucy - try Machito's take on Knock on wood. Out now on Record Kicks on CD/LP/digital. Listen...

Record Kicks say "After 4 years in the making finally a new chapter of RK's premier collection Let's BOOGALOO sees the light. This time legendary compiler Dean Rudland, who is responsible of dozens of wicked compilations on BGP, Kent and Blue Note, digs deep into mythical NYC latin boogaloo producer Bobby Marin's catalogue to bring you an explosive collection of (northern) soul, deep funk and latin jazz tunes from Spanish Harlem aka El Barrio. 

Bobby Marin has been one of the main contributors and a leading figure behind the latin Boogaloo movement in the mid 60s in New York producing and working close together with stars such us Joe Cuba, Eddie Palmieri, Machito, Riccardo Marrero, not to mention his own combo the legendary Latin Blues Band, recently sampled by DJ Premier as the hook to Christina Aguilera's 'Ain't No Other Man'. " 

As Rudland reckons "Bobby is part of a crowd that have sometimes been overlooked because they weren't central to the Fania Records story, but the music they produced told a truer story of what was going on on the streets of New York than the internationalist world view that was propagated by that label's owner Jerry Massuci". 

Longsy D vs Greg Churchill

Slacker, live at BFM, 1994

Auckland acid jazz band Slacker perform live to air from the Radio 95bFM reception area for the Sunday Jazz Show, back in 1994. Engineer: Jules Barnett.

Zenith

From Expansions Collective, who say "London based beatsmith Zen¡th may be a new name to many, but believe us when we say the boy has talent. We actually stumbled across his music by chance on one of our many late night Soundcloud trawls: ffuture was the first track that hit our speakers and we were immediately hooked.

"Capable of everything from downtempo jazz-infused beats to dancefloor ready synths workouts: Zen¡th is a young producer who is set to make a name for himself in 2014 and beyond. His full length Expansions debut “Midnight Club” is out now."

Oddball, angular jazzy beats and hiphop samples. Dip in.

Len Lye: Tusalava soundtracked

Animated image from Tusalava

"In association with 'Len Lye: Agiagiā', Mangere Arts Centre -Ngā Tohu o Uenuku is hosting a musical event, whereby new soundtrack compositions by Pacifika composers are presented with screenings of 'Tusalava'.

‘Tusalava’ is a 10 minute film made by Len Lye in 1929. Len Lye made 7,000 drawings which he photographed to create this stop animation. These drawings were influenced by Modernism but also by Māori, Aboriginal and Sāmoan art.

The original soundtrack for Tusalava was written for two pianos by Australian Jack Ellit but it has since been lost. The following composers have been commissioned to each create a soundtrack for ‘Tusalava’: Matatumua Opeloge Ah Sam, Matthew Faiumu Salapu aka Anonymouz and Poulima Salima.

Click to get your FREE tickets now, you need to book (first in first served) http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2014/new-compositions-tusalava/auckland/mangere

Mo Kolours: Little Brown Dog

I mentioned the debut album from Mo Kolours a few weeks back - it drops March 24. Here's the latest taster from it... mad steel drums too. Dig it a lot.

"With two weeks until the release of Mo Kolours' debut album, we bring you what might be our favourite song from the record: Little Brown Dog.

Mo takes this traditional American song somewhere wholly new, with steel-drums backing a sing-along tribute to his favourite canine. Typical? No. Incredibly catchy? You decide."

Ak record fair this saturday

The Record Collectors Fair returns to Freemans Bay Hall this saturday, 9.30am to 2pm. Entry is $5 per person (cash only). Children up to 12 are free if accompanied by an adult.

New Ikebe Shakedown album

Via Ubiquity: "Introducing “The Offering”, Ikebe Shakedown’s lead-off track on their upcoming album “Stone By Stone”. "The Offering" is on Ikebe Shakedown's much anticipated sophomore album "Stone By Stone". With their limited press 45 "The Beast b/w Road Song" selling out a few months after release and the Tujunga Remixes single with Brennan Green continuing to be a hot seller, the release of the new record could not come at a better time." Album drops 15 April.

Robb - Four by four

Robb are a band from Germany and Austria, and have their third release out very soon. But go have a listen to this gorgeous track from last year, definite soul vibe on the Electric Wire Hustle tip.... free download too. Watch the video for the song below...

Rai Dubs outta Portland

A while back I came across a cool ep by Gulls, on Portland label Boomarm Nation. I recently caught up on them, via Factmags's great list of the 20 Best Bandcamp Releases of 2103. Love lists! This is one of their recent releases, from January. Here's the story behind Rai Dubs...

"This is a collaborative release featuring El Mahdy Jr, Gulls, XJ, and Alter Echo. Beginning with a shared love of old school Algerian Raï music and audio deconstruction, we sampled several Raï classics from cassettes and youtube rips, resulting in 3 tunes and a dub. Heavy weight system pressure, poly-riddim and crunchy arid melodics dubbed up inna Boomarm style! Released in a limited run of 300 10' vinyls in hand stamped and printed sleeves." Listen below...

Liphemra

Liphemra is an LA-based singer/drummer, this is from her forthcoming mixtape "Part Three", out this northern spring. Another tune off it is Bloodwork featuring rapper MED.

Wah Friends Electric 2

This is a very cool comp drawing on WahWah45s dancefloor-orientated malarkey, have a listen...

"For 15 years Wah Wah 45s have been releasing music with a soulful feel, regardless of sub-genre, many of which have no doubt ended up as staples of your local underground party on a Saturday night.

That's right, Wah Wah don't just do acoustic soul, brass band funk, dub reggae and foot friendly jazz, we've been dipping our toes in the world of dance floor electronica for sometime and following on from the success of last year's compilation, we thought it was about time we brought you the second instalment of "Wah Friends Electric".

Volume 2 continues where it predecessor left off, covering the club friendly end of the Wah Wah back catalogue, from early deep house offerings from Aaron Jerome (the man behind the Sbtrkt mask) and blue eyed disco from Talc's night club dwelling alter egos Man / Boy featuring Girl, to more recent outings from Lea Lea, Paper Tiger and Scrimshire.

Add to that previously unreleased, and exclusive to this compilation, remixes from The Reflex and Noisses, as well as other homegrown greats such as Stubborn Heart and Debian Blak, not to mention Japanese dons Goth-Trad and Anchorsong, and you've got one serious second volume of dance music from the Wah Wah vaults." Out now. Check the Henri-Pierre Noël - A Fifth Of Beethoven - The Reflex Re-Vision.

Myele Manzanza Trio - US debut

2014.03.06 U.S. debut of MYELE MANZANZA TRIO @ the Blue Whale from Society Theory on Vimeo.

Myele Manzanza is currently Stateside, playing a handful of shows in his jazz trio format. His debut, in LA, featured guests expat Kiwi Mark de Clive Lowe, and Miguel Atwood Ferguson. Hes's also playing in San Jose (March 8), and San Francisco (March 9, at Yoshi's).

Ring The Alarm playlist, Basefm, March 8

Black Uhuru - Party next door
Sylford Walker - Deuteronomy
Prince Jammy - BQE dub
Prince Fari - African queen
Fat Freddys Drop - The raft - Steppers dub
Robb - Fourbyfour
New mastersounds - Treasure
Pacifican decendants - Tuesday blues
Machito and his Afro Cubans - Knock on wood
Patti Jo - Make me believe in you
Melodians steel orchestra -Voodoo ray
Screaming Meemees - Stars in my eyes pt 1
Kraftwerk - Tour de France - Francois K remix
Nona Hendryx - B-Boys
Prince Charles and the city beat band - Jungle stomp
Marijata -Mother Africa
Kaleta and Zozo afrobeat - Get up stand up
Mala - Como como - Theo Parrish remix
Mo kolours - Drum talking
Gwen McCrae - Funky sensation - MAW remix
Darondo - Didn't I -  Trishes edit
Chakachas - Jungle fever - Greg Wilson edit
Gloria Gaynor - Casanova Brown
Eddie Kendricks - It's not what you got

Hokis Pokis

Out on Luv N’Haight very soon: "Formed in 1970, Hokis Pokis was a seminal band in the New York disco scene with a handful of underground local hit singles including the highly-sought after “Nowhere” “Find What You’re Looking For” and “City Rhythm”.

Releasing several singles from the mid ‘70s all the way to the ’80s, Luv N’Haight has compiled all of Hokis Pokis’ musical output into an album which also includes 2 previously unreleased tracks. Remixed and remastered digitally from the original master tapes, the versions on the album are elevated from the already amazing originals with a cleaner sound and harder-hitting bottom end, bridging the gap between dancefloor fanatics in disco’s heyday to their modern day counterparts."

Out March 13, 2014. Preview below...

New Lee Fields album

"Soul legend Lee Fields has re-teamed with The Expressions for new album Emma Jean, out June 3 on Brooklyn’s Truth & Soul Records. Coming at a time when many new artists are trying to emulate the soul and swagger of the 1960s, Mr. Fields showers us with authenticity on the 11-track set, highlighted by first single “Magnolia.” Hear the refreshed cover of the JJ Cale track that embodies the late, great American singer-songwriter and the Tulsa Sound he helped create. Listen to Magnolia below.

Since releasing his first album in 1969, Fields has continued to make music for the last 45 years. And having been on the road, touring non-stop for the better part of the last decade, it's evident that Fields has hit an elevated stride both as a recording artist and live performer. His soul stirring live show is set to return to Austin’s SXSW Music Conference and Festival this month.

Emma Jean is the follow up to Fields’ widely praised first two Truth & Soul albums—2009’s My World and 2012’s Faithful Man. Lee Fields & The Expressions have forged a distinct soulful sound and a grown style with this album. They’ve pushed their sound in new directions, moving from being content as contemporary soul music royalty and instead delving into and exploring its next steps.

There's a sharper wisdom in the songwriting--from the having loved, lost, and learned vibe of “Don't Leave Me This Way,” backed by crooning guitar and wailing horns, to the sophisticated arrangements and studio acumen that's pared with Lee's straightforward sincerity in “Just Can't Win.” Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys wrote “Paralyzed,” and having Emma Jean mixed and partially recorded at his Nashville studio, country soul and bluesy rock are immediately noticeable. It brings a different kind of strut to the album, but Fields--born and raised in North Carolina--is right at home with the Southern soul sound. In fact, it feels like a natural progression: an organic, refreshingly pure next step.

Like past releases from this matchless pairing of Fields' warm-and-raw growl and The Expressions' switched-on and sharp musicianship, Emma Jean takes soul music in a familiar but updated direction. "He's 63 years old,” notes the album’s producer and co-owner of Truth & Soul Leon Michels, “he's so focused, and has been working non-stop - he's singing the best he ever has."

Saun & Starr: new on Daptone

Brand new 45 coming from Daptone, out March 25... they say "It is our distinct pleasure to present the debut release by two women who will forever change the Soul game: Saun & Starr [aka The Dapettes]. Like a two-headed Phoenix rising from the ashes of a bygone era when the duets of Sam & Dave, James & Bobby Purify, and Marvin & Tammi danced upon the airwaves, Saun & Starr have redefined the possibilities of what a great Soul duo can be.

Though they each posess a tone and style that commands attention, together their voices compliment each other perfectly, lifting their sound to elevations neither could reach alone –– harmonies and phrases playfully intertwining to form the architecture for a soulful fortress of vocal prowess. 

This is obvious to anyone who’s heard them backing up Miss Sharon Jones (on stage or on record) under the loving pseudonym “The Dapettes."

Though they are currently in the studio putting finishing touches on their debut full length album, two of their tunes have thankfully been committed to seven inch wax. The A-Side, ‘Hot Shot’ is a feel-good shaker that features the inexplicable range of Miss Starr Duncan Lowe, backed staunchly by the “Baddest Band in the Land”, The Dap-Kings. 

The flip, ‘Gonna Make Time’, showcases Saundra “Saun” Williams’ smooth, smoky vocal, atop a bed of deep low-rider soul. If this 45 ain’t your bag, please go lay down on a busy street. There’s no hope for you."