Browse by Label: ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)

Artist:	SHANTEL
Title:	Bucovina Club
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 001CD

Bucovina Club is a 2003 release, distributed in the US for the first time. Stefan Hantel, aka Shantel from Frankfurt/Main has firmly established himself as an all-around electronica producer with his previous albums Higher Than The Funk (K7!) and Great Delay. With Bucovina Club, Shantel presents sounds from Eastern Europe -- the brass bands of Macedonia and the gypsy swing of the Wallachei -- to the Frankfurt dancefloor. The tracklist features artists such as Goran Bregovic, Taraf De Haidouks, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Kocani Orkestar, and Boban Markovic Orkestar, established names in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, some of whom have actually played the now-defunct Bucovina Club.

Artist:	O.M.F.O.
Title:	Trans Balkan Express
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 002CD

2002 release. With flutes and stringed instruments, Jamaican dub techniques, laptop producing, kosmonautic lyricism and electronic sound engineering, Trans Balkan Express mixes the musical spice of the Southeastern European provinces with the club culture of the West. German Popov, aka Our Man From Odessa (O.M.F.O.) travels from Amsterdam via Berlin to the hinterlands of the EU, the Karpates, the Black Sea, right into the front garden of Asia. The result is an album featuring music located somewhere in-between space and a Balkan wedding, happily ignoring musical boundaries of any kind. Trans Balkan Express is where modernism dances with tradition, and where the "old" Europe flows into the "new."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 003CD

Courtesy of Berlin-based DJ and journalist Daniel Haaksman, Baile Funk is a reflection of Brazil's melting pot society, combining a mixture of funk, Miami bass, electro, rap, hip-hop, freestyle, bastard pop and MPB (Musica Popular Brasil). With bouncing-booty beats and Portugese raps, this is Brazil's contribution to world-wide Bass culture, paying homage to big fuck-off speakers set up by competing sound systems. In Rio some simple and spare elements do it all: A few rolling beats, one or two MCs, and the use of some minimal sampling or electronic sounds are enough to revitalise this exciting feeling that first appeared in the mid '80s. Haaksman has selected the finest funk tunes of recent years, including hits like MC Serghino's Pocotopocoto, Bonde Do Tiagro's O Baile Todo or MCs Naldinho & Beth's Tapinha. These songs were so big, they were sung in Rio´s soccer arenas. Plus, there's the underground anthems such as the Rick Rubin/Russell Simmons tribute Popozuda Rock n´Roll by De Falla. The 12" presents some of the highlights featured on this release.

Artist:	BOOM PAM
Title:	Boom Pam
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 005CD

This debut from Boom Pam is filled with magical surf guitars from Tel Aviv kicked by tuba and drums on an ecstatic Mediterranean spicy Balkan trip! Forget the daily headlines and immerse yourself in Tel Aviv's vibrant music scene. If there's a sound you can't find here in this offbeat Mediterranean metropolis, it probably doesn't exist. The music brewed up by the Boom Pam four is the acoustic equivalent of a high-energy drink. They already have a cult following in the Middle East, and now they have wowed European audiences in their gigs with Shantel at his Bucovina Club in Berlin, Frankfurt and Zurich. This CD, released worldwide exclusively on the Essay label, marks their recording debut. It is hard to categorize their music. So maybe we should invent a new category for Middle Eastern surf rock with a pinch of Balkan, a touch of irreverence and a lot of groove. Along with their two surf guitars, minimalist percussion and distinctive tuba comes a unique blend of Mediterranean, Balkan and Greek styles, sweetened with Jewish melodies and fattened up with cinematic circus music. The musicians are fed up with the klezmer cliche that still tends to be associated with Jewish music. "Nobody listens to klezmer," they say in unison. "Klezmer is the stuff that's sold in airport shops as 'the music of Israel.' Well, there is usually some klezmer in it, but that really isn't what's happening here -- that's what's popular outside Israel, but it isn't what's happening here. And there's a lot happening here."

Artist:	SHANTEL
Title:	Bucovina Vol. 2 EP
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.50
Catalog #:	AY 005EP

We've cut the waiting time for the next Bucovina Club anthology. The Bucovina Vol. 2 EP opens a window on the work of Shantel, the mastermind behind the Bucovina Club. Track 1: Shantel Feat. Mahala Rai Banda: 'Bucogeasca Dub' - The Kings of Mahala (Mahala = Gypsy district) got together with Shantel to produce their first CD (currently at number 3 in the world music charts). In the summer of 2004 Shantel and the Mahala Rai Banda wowed critics and audiences all over Europe with the Electric Gypsyland Tour. Here's a taste of Bucogeasca Dub that heats up the dancefloor to fever pitch. Track 2: Jewish Monkey's Feat. Boom Pam: Koshernostra Mix. This is a new version of the legendary dancefloor burner Bucovina by the Tel Aviv Jewish Monkeys and Boom Pam, remixed by Shantel. All we re going to say about the Jewish Monkeys right now is: watch this space. You'll be hearing a lot more from them soon, as well as from Boom Pam, who have just cut their first CD in the studio with Shantel and whose gigs have already taken Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne by storm. Track 3: Balkan Beat Box: Bulgarian Chicks. So who wouldn't want to get to know these Chicks and the white-hot Balkan Beat Box? The New York project by Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat combines the organic with the electronic, and couples sexy vocals with a beat that has set dancefloors vibrating from Jerusalem to every Bucovina Club in Europe. At the Transmusicales Festival in Rennes this number was on constant play from six in the morning, to the roar of an ecstatic crowd."

Artist:	SHANTEL
Title:	Bucovina Club Vol. 2
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 006CD

The follow-up to the critically-acclaimed debut album Bucovina Club. This dynamite collection curated by the renowned German DJ/producer Shantel (Stefan Hantel) sees him forsaking his old trip-hop stylings for the manic music of the Balkans. Serving as a sort of imaginary soundtrack to Frankfurt's amazing, vodka-fueled, gypsy-rave all-nighter club, the now-defunct Bucovina, Shantel's eclectic mix of clubsounds, future funk, Roma ballads, Balkan brass and freestyle electronica are now legendary across the dancefloors of Europe. Digital teams up with analog, beat embraces melody, tango goes lyrical -- and it ain't over til the samovar sings. Shantel's former life as a producer of downtempo and electronica has taught him to fly in the face of convention by treating local Eastern European and Balkan music in the same way as hiphop and all kinds of club music, making them just as much an integral part of today's youth and pop culture. There's nothing clichéd about this new wave of music -- and not a bobble-hatted world music purist in sight. On Bucovina Club Vol. 2, five of the fifteen tracks are exclusive original recordings and five are exclusive mixes. Shantel's own tracks feature stars of the gypsy and Balkan music scene: Boban Markoviç and his son Marko, Jony Iliev, Vesna Petkovic, and the all-star line-up Bucovina Club Orkestar. The exclusive remixes feature Mahala Raï Banda, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Sandy Lopic Orkestar and French-Romanian actress Rona Hartner (of Tony Gatlif's movie Gadjo Dilo). The other tracks present a host of famous artists and some newcomers such as: Dr. Nelle Karajlic, Balkan Beat Box, Slonovski Bal and Goran Bregovic. Bucovina Club Vol. 2 is pure naked euphoria, placing a direct and visceral punch that really gets people moving. The parties take up where the ecstatic raves of the house and techno generation left off.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats Vol.2
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.50
Catalog #:	AY 006EP

"Baile Funk is music from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Bouncing booty beats with Portuguese raps that make 50 Cent look like a wimp. Baile Funk is a reflection of Brazil's melting pot society, merging a mixture of funk, Miami bass, electro, rap, hip-hop, freestyle and bastard pop. Baile Funk is definitely the latest craze. After the huge success of the now deleted first Baile Funk 12" here's No. 2. Two tracks are drawn from our Rio Baile Funk - Favela Booty Beats CD compilation which was put together by Daniel Haaksman. Two others are taken from our CD compilation Senor Coconut presents coconutfm. On coconutfm Senor Coconut, the alter ego of German Electronica wizard Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart) presents what he discovered during his long stay in Chile and various other Latin American countries: alternative Latin American styles which are mostly still unknown to the West even though they are very popular to the local crowds. For this EP he selected two Baile Funk floor fillers: Vanessinha Pikachu is the creator of the popular 'Dança do Pikachu' dance style and Malha Funk brings here a vibrant homage to James Brown."

Artist:	SENOR COCONUT
Title:	Coconut FM
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 007CD

Subtitled: Legendary Latin Club Tunes. On Coconut FM, your host is Señor Coconut, the alter-ego of the legendary German electronica wizard Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart, Atom, etc.). Released by Germany's Essay Recordings, the label behind the popular Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats and Bucovina Club compilations -- Señor Coconut takes you through a tour of Latin America's alternative electronic music. Welcome to the Cocovina Club: congas and Casios? Puerto Rican rap and Spanglish splutter? Booty beats and Spanish guitars?! This must be Coconut FM. No, not Chilean microhouse, or Mexican psychotrance... we're talking genres like funk carioca (baile funk), cumbia, reggaeton, and oddball fusions of them all. Señor Coconut has explored these alternative dancefloor sounds -- music you might call Latin mutant disco -- and has pulled together a collection of songs from all over Latin America, from the Caribbean to the Southern Cone. All these genres share a common ground: they're all music of the people -- of the favela, the barrio, the villa. Funk Carioca is Rio's version of Miami bass, a furious fusion of electro beats and Portuguese rapping, shot through with rave, shameless samples, and bonkers sound effects. Six hot tracks from Vanessinha & Alessandra, Malha Funk, Os Carrascos, DJ Alexandre, Bonde Neurose, and Vanessinha Picatchu. Funky, fast, cheap and out of control -- it's adrenaline for the airwaves. Reggaeton -- the bastard child of Jamaican reggae, American hip-hop, and Panamanian and Puerto Rican barrio culture -- is one of the fastest-growing styles around. Tracks range from Tego Calderon's lazy "Cambumbo" to Peter Rap's electro-funk flavored "Punta." Also, Don Atom himself, aided by the Chilean rapper Tea Time, melts down reggaeton in a vat of acid techno. Cumbia -- originally a Colombian genre, took root in working-class villas and morphed into cumbia villera. It may sound the most traditionally "Latin" of any of the music here, but tradition, as Coconut FM proves, is a twisted path indeed. Gladys weighs in with kooky circus antics, and Los Pibes Chorros takes cumbia into gangsta territory with their boyz-in-da-villa anthem, "Llegamos Los Pibes Chorros." Whatever the case, wherever you come from, prepare to be surprised. If you're a Latin music aficionado, this record will give you a cross section of styles you won't likely hear in any one place. Coconut FM's signal picks up an urgent, strident cheekiness you probably haven't heard since rave's earliest days.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Rio Baile Funk: More Favela Booty Beats
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 009CD

After the wildly successful international bombast of Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats, here comes another round of mutant hip-hop, raw grooves and mad breaks that will transport you to another imaginary party with big speakers in some hot and hidden Rio slum. It's been a while since the DJs from the black music balls in Rio started cutting and pasting Miami bass beats, African drumming, samba, Bahia carnival tunes and incredible sampling from Front 242 to Dire Straits. Blended with lyrics about crime, love, guns, faith and everything else, this is music that didn't need TV or radio to become popular. More Favela Booty Beats illustrates the changes that have occurred in Rio favelas ever since the first edition grabbed global dancefloor attention. One of the first tracks on this CD, "Rap de Caxias," by MC MDY, gives a good introduction: over some beats that sound like a cross between musical heritage of Miami, Rio and Salvador, he names the stars of the funk carioca and the favelas they belong to with celebratory abandon, from Rocinha to Vidigal to Jacarezinho. Then, Mr. Catra, the James Brown of the booty beats, represents with two of his strongest tracks: the overtly sexual "Vem Nha Nha" and the claim for loyalty "Cabelo Voa." If he had a women's counterpart, it would be Deize Tigrona, who comes in collaboration with Edu K, with a new version of "Sex-O-Matic," remixed by DJs Mavi and Sany, two of Rio's best kept funk secrets. Mr. K delivers AGAIN on this mix with "Hot Mama," another track from his album Frenétiko, which gets an insane remix by Bonde Do Rolê, whose reckless crossover of booty beats and rock will draw everyone's attention. There's MC Sabrina, the young diva who provides beautifully-sung vocals on her track, and MC Cula with country and western and Brazilian folk music samples, praising the joys of having sex in the horse-riding position. It's the Kama Sutra with beats! And there's still more music to keep you busy: "Vascão 2000," by Dennis DJ is a curious reworking of a football team hymn with mutant Miami bass beats, and the rhythm-fuelled "Jiu Jitsu," "Catita" and "Dança do Dedinho" with gunshots making the breaks will bring to life the REAL Rio. All these tracks paint a vivid and colorful picture of what is like to be inside this big, exciting, and often paradoxical party called Funk Carioca. And now get that booty started!

Artist:	VA
Title:	More Favela Booty Beats EP
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.50
Catalog #:	AY 009EP

The Rio dance craze gets a fresh treatment by Daniel Haaksman. Baile Funk is music from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Bouncing booty beats with Portuguese raps that make 50 Cent look like a wimp. Baile Funk is a reflection of Brazil's melting pot society, merging a mixture of funk, Miami bass, electro, rap, hip-hop, freestyle and bastard pop. From Black Orpheus to City of God, the idea of life in a Rio de Janeiro favela has changed substantially, and so has its soundtrack. Now, it's time for booty beats, the mutant hip hop that you've probably heard somewhere -- the raw groove with mad breaks and shouty lyrics that you can never understand, steering you towards an imaginary party with big speakers in some hot and hidden Rio slum. It's been a while since the DJs from the black music balls in Rio started cutting-and-pasting with Miami bass beats, African drumming, samba, Bahia carnival tunes and pop music -- incredible sampling that veers from Front 242 to Dire Straits. Then the MCs, most of them raised in the favelas, came in with rhymes about their everyday life -- meaning sex (fun on a low budget), crime, love, guns, faith and anything else. Put all this together and you have funk carioca. Here's the 12" taste of the album: VA - Rio Baile Funk: More Favela Booty Beats.

Artist:	AMSTERDAM KLEZMER BAND
Title:	Remixed
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 010CD

The Amsterdam Klezmer Band started as a trio that mostly played in the bars and on the streets of Amsterdam. Since forming in 1996, they have evolved into a pack of seven musicians who perform with the heritage of klezmer music, the intensity of a punk band and the inspiration of all kinds of Gypsy and Balkan dance music. Now popular guests at numerous international festivals, dance events and pop clubs, the DJs who love them finally pay them tribute with Remixed! -- thirteen original and electrifying remixed Balkan & klezmer tracks from well-known European DJs Shantel (Bucovina Club), DJ Yuri Gurzhy (Russendisko), Stefan Schmid (Zuco 103) and many more. Along with 6 remixes out of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band repertoire you will also find 7 brand new and original tracks especially recorded for this album! The idea arose after releasing nine albums to look for new ways of displaying their musical taste. After some shared club dates with DJs and creative experiments with drum computers and samplers they decided to invite some exciting DJs and producers to work on their material. The Amsterdam Klezmer Band is an energetic and poetic stage act whose refreshing approach to klezmer and Balkan music transcends the traditional aspects of this music resulting in a very lively mix of Eastern-European sound. The band endeavors to breathe new life into this traditional music with passionate performances, spectacular live shows and a good dose of street credibility. The remix artists on this album give the Amsterdam Klezmer Band a vigorous treatment that will induce frenetic, uncontrollable movement. Klez dance!

Artist:	SHANTEL
Title:	Disko Partizani Remixes
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	AY 010EP

Shantel's "Disko Partizani" is a worldwide anthem of the Balkan pop movement. The video has over 1 million clicks on YouTube and MySpace, and is in heavy club rotation in France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Turkey and the Netherlands. Featuring exclusive and strictly limited remixes by Yamaha vs. Electrico, Marcus Darius and Tricky Cris, and Dublex Inc.. "Disko Partizani" is a place where electro, house, freestyle, hip-hop and dub-heads shake hands, drink vodka and rock out.

Artist:	SENOR COCONUT
Title:	Yellow Fever!
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 011CD

This is the latest installment in the vaunted legacy of Señor Coconut (Atom Heart, Uwe Schmidt), the world's only German/Chilean "electrolatino" interpreter of pop standards. This time out, Coconut -- famous for his laptop-mambo and acid-merengue covers of Kraftwerk, Sade and Michael Jackson -- is back with a proper Latin big band, fronted by the inimitable Venezuelan singer Argenis Brito, to pay homage to Kraftwerk's Eastern counterparts in the annals of techno-pop pioneers, Yellow Magic Orchestra. Making the orchestra that much more magical, all three of YMO's members -- Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto -- make guest appearances on the album. And rounding out the barmy, mixed-up social club, the album features a host of distinguished collaborators from all corners of the electronic-music world -- including Towa Tei, Burnt Friedman, Mouse On Mars, Akufen, Schneider TM and Nouvelle Vague's Marina -- in a series of playful, cryptic interludes that aim to crack open, once and for all, the mystery of Señor Coconut. Active from 1978 to 1983, YMO was, in many ways, Japan's answer to Kraftwerk, exploring the ways that pop songcraft could be rewired for a new era of circuitry. What distinguished them in their early years from their button-pushing, synthpop contemporaries around the globe was their intense, questing musicality -- YMO shrunk entire musical worlds to fit their motherboards. Depending on the selection, in YMO you can hear disco, jazz, funk, balladry, show tunes? You get the idea. "Yellow Magic" features a piano solo ripped straight from the Afro-Cuban tradition; "Pure Jam" sounds like a breakdancer's remake of Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles. It probably goes without saying that the same "globalizing" questions Schmidt explored in his Kraftwerk versions were in many ways already answered in YMO's own recordings, which combined Japanese technological advances with Japanese worldly curiosity, filtered through that country's geographical and cultural distance from the West. Is it any surprise, then, that in listening to Señor Coconut's mambofied versions, and then going back to the originals, it turns out that there was a sultry Latin streak running through YMO's chips all along? YMO's relentless sonic inquisitiveness -- which led all three members on to distinguished solo careers and powerhouse collaborations in pop, neo-classical, experimental music and soundtracks -- provides ample material for Schmidt and his collaborators. Once again, Coconut has convened a talented ensemble of Latin jazz players on vibraphone, marimba, double bass, horns and percussion, and Argenis Brito is back on the mic, crooning as only he can.

Artist:	O.M.F.O.
Title:	We Are The Shepherds
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 012CD

O.M.F.O. -- Our Man From Odessa -- is the master of crossover par excellence. Born in the port of Odessa (Ukraine), German Popov emigrated to Amsterdam in 1989. As an explorer, German Popov loves to travel around Central Asia making live recordings of everything from the traditional songs and melodies of the steppes to the modern restaurant bands of Tashkent with their tinny keyboard sound. So welcome to electronic Walachia, where folk meets Kraftwerk and where bizarre instruments and electronic sounds combine to create a whole new musical dimension. With his ideas and his musicians he bravely goes where no human ear has dared to go before. Futurism meets folklore imaginaire: ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in Eastern European space. His first album on the Essay Recordings label, Trans Balkan Express put him in the international spotlight and none other than Borat, (the controversial Kazakhstani journalist character invented and portrayed by British-Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen) has chosen two tracks from the album -- "Money Boney" and "Magic Mamaliga" -- for the soundtrack to his latest film. Produced by Atom TM and O.M.F.O

Artist:	BINDER & KRIEGLSTEIN
Title:	Alles Verloren
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 014CD

This is the debut album by Austrian artist Binder & Krieglstein on Essay after two previous albums on Austria's own Zeiger Records. For a while, the most hyped line-ups and projects on the Austrian music scene had names such as Kruder & Dorfmeister, Dzihan & Kamien, Pulsinger & Tunakan. These were simply the names of the movers and shakers who put the Vienna Sound on the music map in the '90s and came to represent a whole new pop/electronic image. So when the name Binder & Krieglstein appeared, it was bound to make you think that this was just another similar act jumping on the bandwagon. Far from it: the very name itself encapsulates the wit and self-irony of Rainer Binder-Krieglstein from Graz. It may sound like a duo, but there's only one person behind it. "Punky lo-fi with attitude, trashy electronic sounds and a generous smattering of humor," is how the Austrian radio station FM4 described his debut album International. Samples, loops and sounds all held together by the drumming and musical vision of Binder-Krieglstein. Anything goes: electronic, brass band or pop. Pure eclecticism? A streetwise lust for life, more like. Minimalism to the max. An urge to capture atmospheres, attitudes and moods and serve them up in distilled form to a surprised and delighted audience. Binder & Krieglstein leaves room for everything from quirky folk guitar and idiosyncratic double bass to moody downtempo grooves, swinging jazz textures and straight tech-house beats. The new album produced by Shantel for Essay Recordings, has the title Alles Verloren, which, in German, means "all is lost." But don't be fooled into thinking it's all gloom and doom. Binder & Krieglstein combine local German pop with various influences from hip-hop and reggae to polka, creating a unique style with lyrics in German and English. Listeners might be reminded a little of Manu Chao or Beck.

Artist:	SHANTEL
Title:	Disko Partizani
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	AY 015LP

Limited edition vinyl: two 180 gram vinyl 12"s, cover printed on high quality 350 gram cardboard. CD version will be released on Crammed Discs, worldwide. Renowned German DJ/producer Stefan Hantel, aka Shantel from Frankfurt/Main, has firmly established himself as an all-around, world-class electronica producer. After pioneering the concept of Balkan clubbing with his now legendary Bucovina Club parties and albums, Shantel moves on to the next level and releases Disko Partizani (his first solo album in seven years), which lays the foundations for an innovative new brand of pop music. This is the sound of new Europe, incorporating vibrant influences from the emerging new frontier that stretches all the way to Mitteleuropa, the Southeast, Greece, Turkey and beyond. The album features great performances by a host of musicians from southeast Europe and by Shantel himself, who also appears on lead vocals, gracing several tracks with an unexpected, elegant deadpan delivery. Disko Partizani sees Shantel successfully synthesizing his experiences as a producer, musician and DJ to create catchy, energetic and festive pop songs, full of hooks and surprises. Eastern European elements are adopted with real respect for their cultural roots, and then fused and transformed into a new form of urban music that works as an interface between East and West. Venerable melodies and rhythms -- some of them dating back to the Byzantine Empire -- are rejuvenated and used as a new source of inspiration for modern, trans-European pop, a welcome alternative to some of the more worn-out Anglo-Saxon musical models. Shantel conceived these songs while traveling, and found inspiration in the most unlikely locations: a railroad station in Romania, a highway stop in Greece, an airport terminal in Istanbul, an Arabic café in Tel Aviv, a taxi stand in Sofia, the back seat in a Mercedes Benz belonging to a Macedonian gypsy king, backstage in London, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. Some may define it as belly dance meets hip-hop, electronica-fuelled Balkan stompers, Klezmer reggae rock'n'roll tunes, etc., with lyrics in English, Romanian, Serbian, Rom (Gypsy) and so forth. Whatever this is, it is joyful madness.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Auf Der Anderen Seite/The Edge of Heaven OST
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	AY 016CD

This is the soundtrack to the German-Turkish film, Yasamin Kiyisinda (trans. The Edge of Heaven), directed by Fatih Akin and scored by Shantel. Linked by death, the fragile lives of six people connect on emotional journeys toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The music for this drama is like a soundtrack to a road movie. Accompanying the film's protagonists, the music oscillates between traditional tracks from Istanbul and the Black Sea (home of the much too short-lived singer/songwriter Kazim Koyuncu, who wrote the main track) and European club and dub sounds. Acclaimed Bucovina Club mastermind Shantel followed these diverse cultural traces to compose a haunting, atmospheric score chock full of exclusive, unreleased tracks in which he fuses each different influence in his unique style. Featured artists include Shantel, Sezen Aksu, Kazim Koyuncu, Sevval Sam, Nese Kara Böcek, Selim Sesler, Ahmet Kaya, John Bullard, Yusuf Kaba, Mackali Hasan Tunc, The Rootsman, Binder & Krieglstein, Birol Topaloglu, Rona Hartner and DJ Click.

Artist:	BOOM PAM
Title:	Puerto Rican Nights
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	AY 018CD

Tel Aviv's Boom Pam returns with a second album for Essay Recordings. Puerto Rican Nights is made up entirely of cover versions of the beloved tunes they've been playing live throughout the years, and which are now officially being released for the first time. As the band explains, "Our mix really describes Tel Aviv... a place where people from all over the world meet. This sound is a sharp cocktail of all the different styles that collide here. And we try to bring them all together." Their music is a prolific dialogue between East and West, with an almost hypnotizing virtuosity and eloquence that moves you. Each member of the band differs from the other and plays an equally important part within the exchange of their artistic personalities. Whether it's their great version of "Shayeret Harochvim" with Maor Cohen (originally a song by Israeli folk pioneers Dudaim), which they turn into a country/surf/Israeli rock version, their theatrical version of "Marylyn Jones," a song from an Israeli Hassidic comedy, with the charismatic singer Dror Romem, or sticking tight to the groove of Tomer Yosef's "Ani Rotze Lazuz" ("I Want To Move"), Boom Pam hold onto their roots, while pulling up others deep from the Balkan underground. There are three great tunes which Uri found on his parents' old cassettes from their days in a Balkan dance group: the first is the dramatic opener "Ushest," and the second is "Krai Dunavsko," in which they flow freely from Greek music to dirty rock 'n' roll, and the third is "Chervoné Coralé." They also bring Dick Dale to life with their speedy version of "The Wedge," drawing new connections between American surf guitar and the glissando sound of Arabic quarter tones. "Longa Sultaniyegah" is an old Turkish song which Uzi learned from his brother. "Ay Carmela" appears in two shiny versions, one instrumental and the other with singer Italo Gonzales. The song was part of the soundtrack to the Israeli movie Comrade, and the section starring the band is included as a bonus video, along with the video for "Dalida." The instrumental version of the song "Boom Pam" is also here, since it has become their personal trademark. Boom Pam are: Uzi Feinerman (guitars, banjo, harmonica & vocals), Yuval "Tuby" Zolotov (tuba), Uri Brauner Kinrot (guitars, saxophone & vocals), Dudu Kohav (drums & percussion).

Artist:	VA
Title:	Goya 1
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	GOYA 001CD

Edition Goya, a new subsidiary imprint in collaboration with Essay Recordings presents the first volume of a regular compilation series celebrating the impending opening of a spectacular new club for adults in the heart of Berlin called "Goya." Thousands of guests will be treated to a stunning 15-meter high hall incorporating two galleries. Goya will be the fusion of the biggest cocktail bar in the world and THE premier dance location with 2,300 shareholders already signed on, among them many well-known faces and musicians like Pat Appleton from De Phaz; African singer Lokua Kanza; German jazz-trumpeter Till Brönner; Canadian-Mexican singer Lhasa; the Nighthawkes, Quatro Nuevo, DJ Shantel and Yello. The initiator of Goya is renowned musician and DJ Peter Glueckstein, whose concept of Goya is avant-garde and out front, putting music first. During the club nights there will always be two DJs working together, spinning well-produced music. Every three months the label will publish a compilation reflecting a constantly evolving melange of global beats, jazz, soul, tango, flamenco, hip hop, baile funk, Balkan beats, salsa, Cuban folk, Indian pop and tango crossover. The soundtrack to Vol.1 features timeless, rare and unknown tracks and mixes by Angelique Kidjo paying tribute to Gershwin; Lokua Kanza singing in German; and the original composer of the Sesame Street melody Ingfried Hoffmann delivering the sounds of Brazil. Shantel has a double feature as an artist and remixer and Sarah Vaughan gets the tango treatment by Gotan Project and so much more.

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Artist:	VA
Title:	Goya 2
Label:	ESSAY RECORDINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	GOYA 002CD