The Pyramids return

From Strut: "West Coast jazz mavericks, The Pyramids, led by their inspirational bandleader, Idris Ackamoor, return with a new album on Strut. The band met while in school in Ohio in the 1970s, where one of their teachers was renowned pianist, Cecil Taylor. Having disbanded in 1977, the group re-united in the 2010s following acclaim for their three independently released 1970s LPs from jazz aficionados and record collectors.

Recorded in Max Weissenfeldt’s analogue Philophon studio in Berlin, 'We Be All Africans' is a sparkling set of Afro- jazz-funk fusions, from the infectious chants of the title track to the reflective “Epiphany” and the yearning, mournful future single, “Silent Days” featuring the brilliant vocals of Bajka. The album is released 27th May 2016 on Strut Records.

The Pyramids have been hand-picked by Floating Points to open the West Coast leg of their recent US live tour."

Fruity bizz from Pains People

"Two new tracks mark the end of painspeople's time in Malaysia; Callossum's Table and shadness. The rest of the tracks are archival and were recorded between 2004 and 2012 in Auckland - New Zealand, and Batam - Indonesia."

Ring The Alarm playlist, May 21

Bohannon - Do the everybody get down
Flame and the sons of darkness - Solid funk
World wonders - Funky washing machine
Scott Davis and the movements - New York apple jack
Third guitar - Baby don't cry
Mark Holder and the positives -Whatever's fair
Bacao rhythm and steel band - Jungle fever
The Tibbs - Next time
Diamond Joe - Gossip gossip
Major Lance - Monkey time
Barkays - Sang and dance
Carlton Basco - Dont chain my soul
James Brown - World (part 1)
Chilites - Stoned out of my mind
Don Owen - Determination
Conquest - Action
Dennis Edwards - Dont look any further (Bobby Busnach edit)
Roy Ayers - Get on up get on down
Gwen Guthrie  -Seventh heaven
Newcleus - Jam on revenge (dub version)
Double Dee and Steinski - Lesson two (pt1)
Soul II soul - Back to life
IQU feat Betty Anne Monga - Witchcraft
Patea Maori Club - Poi-e (Peter Mac disco drums edit)
Tubbs - Five day night (Fat Freddys Drop remix)
Black seeds - Make a move (Downtown Brown remix)
Salmonella dub - Johnny (Dubmariner remix)
DLT feat Teremoana - Beautiful remix
Jahlicious - Something (Beatlicks remix)
Lewis McCallum feat Francis Kora - First date
Sulata - Never
Dub asylum - My sneaker collection weighs a ton

Soulful debut delights from The Tibbs

Check out these awesomely soulful cats from Holland: "Record Kicks are extremely proud to present one of the hottest new names on the retro soul scene; The Tibbs! This combo is one of the most fascinating retro soul acts to ever come out of the Netherlands.

From the Motown’ish opener ‘Dog Days’ and floor-shaking tracks ‘Get Back Tuesday’ and ‘Next Time’, to the deep soul of ‘Wild Way’ and funk stormer ‘Suffocated’, singer Elsa Bekman - supported by a super tight big band - will impress everybody with her unique raw, gritty vocals.

Their debut album 'Takin Over' was produced by Paul Willemsen (Lefties Soul Connection), recorded at the Electric Monkey Studio in Amsterdam and mastered in Nashville by soul veteran Bob Ohlsson. 

The Tibbs started in 2012 taking inspiration from the golden age of soul music. In 2014 they self-released a demo EP and also released a 45 on German funk label Tramp Records. 

Help NZ Musician magazine’s online future

"NZ Musician is celebrating this NZ Music Month with a Boosted.org.nz crowdfunding campaign to help fund the magazine’s new website.

NZM editor Richard Thorne describes it as the 27-year old magazine’s most important re-invention yet – developing an exciting new online presence in combination with ensuring future accessibility to the mag’s valuable archive of our music industry’s recent history.

www.nzmusician.co.nz first went online in the mid 1990s. The last major website build included uploading most of NZM’s artist features and wider industry news dating back to 2000, an ever-growing archive that’s a rich resource for research into pretty much any aspect of Aotearoa’s popular music industry.

“After close on three decades in print, and two decades online, we are completely reshaping, redesigning and reinventing www.nzmusician.co.nz in a way that will propel the magazine/website into the future.

"Some of the aspects that particularly excite us are the opportunities to include lots more music and video content, and to work more closely in the future with others passionate about championing local music, organisations like IMNZ and the various student radio stations.”

The NZ Musician website crowdfunding goal is just $10,000 – and halfway through the campaign half of that figure has already been pledged.

“The new site will provide a much enhanced, responsive version of the support for budding and established local musicians nzmusician.co.nz always has. Information, artist features, industry news, interviews, reviews, opinions, music, videos, education, instruments, directories, podcasts, apps, blogs, discussions, playlists…”

The bi-monthly magazine will this year reach issue number 170. Multiply that by the ten or more acts featured in each issue and NZM hopes that it shouldn’t be too hard for their $10,000 crowdfunding target to be reached by May 31, the end of NZ Music Month.


If you want to help them out, go to boosted.org.nz/nzmusician

Ring The Alarm playlist, May 14

Cherelle - Saturday love
Prime time - Make your mind up
Inner life and Jocelyn Brown - Aint no mountain high enough
Issac Hayes - Music to make love by
Sylvester - Over and over
Incognito - Fearless
Nicola Conte - Bossa per due
Maxwell implosion  - Follow my riddim
Suizen - Cartesian space (4D mix)
Charles Bradley - Aint it a sin
Jimmy Hughes - What side of the door
Muddy Waters - Tomcat
The Uptights - How long must I wait for you
The Originals - Goodnight Irene
The Four Tops - I got a feeling
Martha and the Vandellas - One way out
Gene Chandler - A song called soul
Isley Bros - I know who you been socking it to
Oliver Sain - London express
Elder Statesman - Montreaux sunrise
Grace Jones - She's lost control (dub version)
Johnnie Osbourne - African wake
The Wailers - Black progress/say it loud
Quantic  - Make dub not war
Bacao rhythm and steel band - Police in  helicopter
Definition of sound - Wear your love like heaven
3rd Bass - Ace in the hole
La Toya Jackson - If you feel the funk
Ramsey Lewis - Living for the city

Brassy Bob James styles

Henri-Pierre Noel x the Reflex remix

"Wah Wah 45s return to the 12” format to bring you three incredible re-works from French disco don The Reflex, for our very own legendary Canadian/Haitian keyboard wiz Henri-Pierre Noel, plus an additional remix exclusively on the digital version.

Henri's "Funky Spider Dance" is a percussion heavy bomb that The Reflex has turned into an even more dance-friendly destroyer. His rework of "A Fifth of Beethoven" takes its time to build into another heavy hitter. Last, but not least,The Reflex’s Revision of "Back Home… Sweet Home" is a modern Island Funk masterpiece with organ and tropical guitar riffs making way for sunny brass stabs all underpinned by foot friendly beats.

The original versions of "Funky Spider Dance" and "Back Home… Sweet Home" can be found on Henri’s "One More Step" LP, and his take of "A Fifth of Beethoven" was recently available on 7-inches of wax – all on Wah Wah 45s of course. "The Reflex Revisions" all appear here together on vinyl, in fact anywhere, for the very first time!"

Out now on vinyl/digital 

Ring The Alarm playlist, May 7

Skull snaps - Its a new day (Shoes edit)
El Michels Affair - 4th chamber
Lee Fields and the Expressions - My world
The Noteables - Funky frog
Sly and the family stone - Dance to the music
Eric B and Rakim - Don't sweat the technique
Marc Rapson - The kalimba
Ronny Jordan - The jackal (illest mix)
Shateish - I'm leaving
Major Lance - Hey little girl
Ted Taylor - Ramblin Rose
Bill Doggett - Pimento
Esther Phillips - Just say goodbye
Markeys - Honey pot
Sheila E - Love Bizarre Pt 1&2
Janet Jackson - What have you done for me lately?
George Kranz - Trommeltanz (din daa daa)
Grace Jones - Feel up (extended version)
Arken - Step off
Jean Jacques Perrey and Luke Vibert - White knight (black in the day)
Block 16 - Electrokution (Daniel Wang and Brennan Green evolusive mix)
African Head Charge - Some bizarre
Manu Chao - A cosa (Prince Fatty remix)
Alice Russell - Humankind (Grant Phabao remix)
Smashproof - Ordinary life (Moody boyz dub)
MAW - Zoe
Moneyman and the super 5 international - Life
Lightning head - NPG