Soothe the Soul with Ikebe Shakedown

Just showing some love . . .

Because it's official, my good friends in Ikebe Shakedown just got signed to Ubiquity, and will be joining the likes of Orgone in brining the heat. "The Prisoner" is the B-side of Ikebe Shakedown's first single, and is one of my personal favorites. My friend wrote this song when he was obsessively watching the classic television show of the same name, which was gifted to him by his mom for christmas. True story.

Watch out for Ikebe Shakedown. Big love and congratulations, gentlemen.

Menahan Street Band- Karina

What the hey, here's the B side.

Menahan Street Band- Make the Road by Walking

I bought this 45 hot off the press in 2007. Duhnam was founded with much anticipation on my part. I knew this first single would be good, but I was blown away by actually how good. The first time I listened to this song on my turntable, I actually melted. No joke. One day I was browsing in the Salvation Army in chelsea. And I started to hear this very familiar and creamy riff. Then it came to me! Make the Road by Walking! But it was right smack in the middle of a hip hop song. I came to find out it was Jay-Z that sampled white boys from Brooklyn. 

As an aside, my good friends in Ikebe Shakedown are recording at Duhnam studios as we speak. 

The Daktaris- Quiet Man is Dead Man

Let's see. The Daktaris released Soul Explosion on the Desco label in 1998. I think it's somewhat safe to say that all this business going down in the mid the late nineties marked the start of the Brooklyn Afrobeat revival. For those of you not obsessed with all these increasingly less obscure Brooklyn labels, Desco predated and eventually melded into Daptone, once Gabriel Roth and Philip Lehman went their separate ways. 

Anyway, this was billed as being an authentic 1970s recording from Nigeria, but these dudes is white. As white  as a sheet. Which is hilarious. 

Enjoy!

Budos Band- Monkey See Monkey Do

A classic from The Budos Band I. This is my favorite tune off the album, and probably the most complex. Let me tell you, these dudes were high off of some Mulatu Astatke when they cut this track. I wish they would do more songs like this. Why is it that, nine times out of ten, the first album a group puts out is by far the best?