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Guadeloupe 1986. The football World Cup has all the islanders' eyes riveted to their TV sets. At every half-time breaks, local TV channel RFO broadcasts a music video on repeat: "Tou't Jou Pa Min'm". Max Rambhojan, the local singer responsible for this monster tune, has arrived. In the video, he effortlessly sings and kickstarts a joyous street party with his band, Show Man, his dancers, kids, friends, family, and what seems like the whole neighborhood. The song will gain cult status from then on, cementing the power of the "Zouk Chiré" sound, a high tempo version of Zouk, highly influenced by Guadeloupe's Carnival mass drum bands. Max self-released his first solo album on vinyl in 1985, enrolling some of the best musicians the scene has to offer: his band leader King Klero, Guy Jacquet of Les Vikings De La Guadeloupe fame on production duties, Ramon Pyrmée on synths, Claude Vamur on flute. In 1992 a new solo album follows. By then the artists have familiarized themselves with computers and the sound has gone full-on digital. In that album Max records an updated version of his "Tou't Jou Pa Min'm" anthem to great effect. Reducing Max Rambhojan to a Zouk artist would be a mistake. He's first and foremost a master of Gwo-Ka, a musical practice born during the transatlantic slave trade and performed by all ethnic and religious groups of Guadeloupe. It has never ceased to exist and has become a major part of the Island folk music culture. Max Rambhojan was schooled as a kid by Gwo-Ka pioneer Guy Conquette, and quickly joined the backing band of another legend, Ti-Sélès. That sound is the root of his particular style, especially vibrant on two tracks in his repertoire: "Cécilia" and "On Jou Matin", both featured on this release's B-side. A touch of spiritual jazz is also palpable, allowing a magical vibe to spread, giving birth to some of the deepest music from this era. In 2019, Max still performs Gwo-Ka every week-end in Guadeloupe and also hosts a show on local radio Media Tropical, 88.1FM. Secousse and Hot Mule present those four lost gems, carefully restored and remastered. Gatefold sleeve.
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HTML 001LP
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Hot Mule & Secousse presents a reissue of N'Draman Blintch's Cosmic Sounds, originally issued in 1980. Tired of reading the words 'classic', 'masterpiece', 'missing link', 'cult', in every press release? Just trust Hot Mule & Secousse on this one; there is no choice but to use those words and urge you to (re)discover one of the ultimate Afro-disco lost classics. How could such a masterpiece stay in obscurity for so long? Well, no one knows where N'Draman is. He's presumed dead, and so is Mr Patrick, the label owner, an ex-football player who turned his focus into fashion after suffering a career ending injury. Selling jeans from an outlet in Monrovia (Liberia), he only ventured in the music business for a short period of time, releasing a handful of incredible albums on his Cosmic Sounds imprint. The word on the street was that Nigerian legend William Onyeabor was somehow involved with the production of the album, or maybe playing synths on it. Both were inaccurate, although N'Draman Blintch's previous and first record Cikamele (1979), was indeed recorded at Willfilms, Onyeabor's studio. And some of the musicians playing here were also key members in his pool of session musicians. Cosmic Sounds is many things: psychedelic, politically engaged, funky to death, full of synths, with artwork to die for, a perfect crossover of African and western culture: music for the body and soul, cosmic disco before the genre even existed. Did DJ Danielle Baldelli hear it? Was it ever played by Larry Levan or David Mancuso? In a pre-Internet era, it's unlikely but not impossible. Hot Mule & Secousse are honored to release this gem and have treated the task with utmost respect: both artwork and audio were restored by specialists, and liner notes were written by Temitope Kogbe, Afro-funk expert who runs the Odion Livingston label, founded with legendary producer Odion Iruoje. 38 years after its original release, the world is finally ready to hear Cosmic Sounds in all its glory. Gatefold sleeve.
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