Kalita

Review: The Kalita crew step up with another finely chosen reissue gem from the history of African dance music, this time welcoming Ghanaian disco maestro Okyerema Asante to the fold with two utterly infectious party starters laced with ample feel good vibes. "Sabi (Get Down)" is a slinky groover with a killer bassline and sweet guitar licks for the heads down crew to bust out some serious moves. "That's My Girl" is a more sizzling affair with a brighter outlook, riding high on soaring brass and woodwind and packing a heartfelt message of love that everyone can vibe with.

Review: She may be best known as a TV and radio presenter, but Nigerian star Julie Coker also enjoyed a short but successful music career. She released two albums of note - highlife-focused 1976 debut "Ere Yon (Sweet Songs)" and 1981's more disco-centric "Tomorrow" - both of which now fetch eye-watering sums online. This fine retrospective showcases cuts from both of those sets, with the many highlights including the spacey, delay-laden highlife cheeriness of "Re Hese", the Clavinet-sporting disco-funk-goes-pop bounce of "It's All For You", the low-slung but rising, gospel influenced brilliance of "Gossiper Scandal Monger" and the heavily percussive, off-kilter goodness of album closer "Iyo-Re". You might also notice the intro of 'Ere Yon', which was recently sampled to great effect in Anderson .Paak's "Saviers Road"!

Review: Kalita's latest must-have 12" mines a notoriously obscure and hard-to-find private press seven-inch single, NYC outfit Cross Island's 1978 45 "East of the Apple". It's that record's alternative "Just a Little Different" mix that everyone's after, so that takes pride of place on side A. It's a percussive, low-slung affair - all heavy bass, Kong style Latin hand percussion and deep electric piano motifs - topped off by vocals espousing the virtues of Long Island. Glaswegian re-edit king Al Kent offers up an extended, more celebratory revision of the track on the flip, stretching out the intro drums before unleashing the song's more celebratory, life-affirming musical elements. He also delivers a remix of previously unreleased cut "Wave", a bustling disco-funk number full of crunchy Clavinet lines and soaring disco orchestration.

Review: Kalita's obligatory Record Store Day offering is something rather special: synth-funk visionary couple Emerson and Leora Sandidge's mythical unreleased album finally sees the light of day, following Emerson's sole private press seven-inch single release way back in 1988. Those two tunes ("Sending All My Love Out" and "Why Are You So Cold?") make the cut on this belated debut set, alongside six other previously unreleased recordings from the same sessions. Their take on electrofunk, boogie and '80s soul is colourful, soulful and synth-heavy, with the included tracks veering from up-tempo club workouts (see "Raw Deal Cocaine Kills") and fizzing dancefloor pop workouts, to sugary ballads and seductive slow jams. In other words, it's a more than tidy selection of rare and unheard gems.

Review: Kalita Records are proud and honoured to announce the first ever and official reissue of Kallaloo's sought-after 1982 disco single 'Star Child', accompanied by interview-based liner notes. Originally released on Jeffrey Turpin's Trinidadian record label IDA, 'Star Child' has since become highly sought-after by both DJs and collectors alike as an invisible, yet astonishing piece of Caribbean disco. Unable at the time to gain the traction and success that it deserved, we hope that this re-release provides an opportunity to bring such a great record to a much wider audience.

Kallaloo consisted of various Trinidadian musicians including Keith Alexander and Peter Wayne Barkley. Keith had been well-respected as a member of the Trinidadian group Impact, and was later to become an in-demand producer and composer under the name of Keith Diamond, responsible for various hits by Billy Ocean, Donna Summer, Starpoint and Melba Moore. In contrast, Peter was a well-known recording session drummer, but after 'Star Child's' release he moved to North Carolina to pursue other interests and "was never heard from again".

'Star Child' was recorded at Right Track Recording, in mid-town Manhattan, New York. As Jeffrey recalls, the atmosphere in the studio was "great", with "everyone upbeat, the cream of the crop just looking for that break... everyone was talented and just wanted the chance to express their own ideas". Five hundred copies of the record were released on IDA with a white label design, and they were sold both in Brooklyn, New York and Port of Spain, Trinidad. It was also released on a red label, however this was not to Jeffrey's knowledge at the time.

Jeffrey explains that the reason why the record didn't fare well at the time was because of the difficulty in getting the song played on the radio. As he recalls, radio stations were much more likely to play 'radio versions' of songs which lasted for a couple of minutes, rather than five or seven minute 'extended' versions such as 'Star Child', which were more suitable to a club environment. In addition, as Jeffrey explains, radio airplay is a "political business", and also within a short while band members such as Keith got their own breaks, and the Kallaloo era was over as quickly as it had started.

Review: In 1983 a group of Nigerian musicians in London headed into a studio in Hoxton Square and recorded their sole LP: a boogie and disco-infused set called 'Electric Murder'. The album was released the same year on a tiny Nigerian label, meaning that copies of this obscure classic have been sought after ever since. As this beautifully packaged and produced reissue proves, 'Electric Murder' has lost none of its lustre. Highlights come thick and fast throughout, from the slap-bass heavy celebration of opener "Funky Boogie Woogie" and the deep disco brilliance of "Electric Murder", to the low-slung, delay-laden disco-funk gem "Shake" and sugary, synth-laden slow jam "April's Girl", a track that boasts some suitably super electric piano solos.

Review: Kalita are excited to announce as their second release of 2020, the first ever official re-release of Cameroonian singer Jeannette N'Diaye's 1981 disco masterpiece 'Makom Ma Bobe', backed by an extended edit courtesy of Mendel! Originally appearing as one of three tracks on 'Mut'a Mbamba', her 1981 single released on Cameroonian producer Jojo Ngalle's record label Disques Jojo, 'Makom Ma Bobe' has recently exploded as one of the most sought-after Afro-disco records out there, with prices becoming ever exceedingly eye-watering and copies ever harder to find. Now Kalita come to the rescue, offering a loud and remastered 12" single for all. If that wasn't enough, the single is also backed by an extended edit of 'Makom Ma Bobe', courtesy of Netherlands-based DJ and producer Mendel! It's fast, it's euphoric and it's lasers are to die for. What more could you want?

Review: Steel City Connection were not, as the name might suggest, an unlikely disco act from Sheffield, but rather a heavyweight combo from the American equivalent, Pittsburgh, who released a sole, now highly sought-after private-press single way back in 1978. "Steel City Disco" has long been regarded as a "holy grail" amongst collectors of rare disco, hence this essential reissue from Kalita Records. The title track is certainly something of a beast - an inspired fusion of disco-funk tropes, spiraling Latino horns, jazz-funk style male harmony vocals and sustained organ chords that will wind their way through your subconscious. Excitingly, the flipside boasts a previously unreleased extended version of the similarly fine workout "Dansation".

Review: Kalita Records has thus far proved adept at sniffing out obscure, overlooked classics and reissuing them. Their latest "flip" is as rare, little known and hard-to-find as they come: a one-shot 1985 Caribbean boogie cut from Bahamian musicians Stirling March (now a minister and gospel singer) and bassist Rocky Rolle. "Under Cover Lover" is bright, breezy and sun-kissed, with jaunty synthesizer lead lines and hammered-out piano parts dancing above a tasty groove that fully showcases Rolle's boogie bass skills. Stirling March's lead vocal is superb too, with the Bahamian slickly delivering the loved-up lyrics with aplomb. The flipside "Instrumental" version is typical of New York style boogie dubs of the period, with more attention on the drums, bassline and ricocheting vocal snippets.

Review: Kalita has already served up some seriously good reissues, but their latest may well be the most essential yet. It's the first licensed reissue of Vance and Suzzanne's sole single from 1980, "I Can't Get Along Without You" - a Larry Levan favourite that was only ever pressed in small quantities first time around. In it's A-side vocal form, the track is a deliciously warm and loved-up duet that mixes rich, mid-tempo New York disco grooves with some of the heady, glassy-eyed musicality of Philadelphia soul. It's genuinely magical - a super-sweet cut that sounds like end-of-night gold. Like the original 1980 private pressing on Vanton Records, the Kalita edition is backed by the similarly sweet, atmospheric Instrumental Mix, but this time we're also treated to a never-before-seen press photo, and extensive interview-based liner notes.