Best of BBE 2011

Been a remarkable 15th year for us here at BBE Records and to celebrate
we’ve put together some of our favourites from the last 12 months
as a little reminder of the incredible musicians and producers who’ve
waltzed through the golden gates of BBE Mansions and graced us with
their talents.

Kicking off with Stephanie McKay, who has been described as “A living
reminder of the old black musical world that Jackson’s wondrous talent
came from.” Her collaboration with Australia’s finest hip –hop export
Katalyst delivers this glorious soulful – reggae nugget. From Clyde Otis’s
attic John Morales, torch in hand, saved the master tapes for us to
enjoy, of 1960 ‘s underground soul sensation Jean Wells, included on her
long player are all the recordings by this phenomenal talent including
previously unreleased material, lovingly transferred from the tapes @ M
& M studios NYC.

Crossing continents from Australia to America into Northern Europe 18
year old Norwegian Mathias Stubø brings us lush downtempo electro-
acoustic deep disco vibes before we travel into West Africa. Taken
from Richy Pitch’s ‘Ye Fre Mi Richy Pitch.’ ‘Dey Suffer’ was recorded
and produced in Accra, Ghana. The beautiful words & vocals come
from Yasmeen, daughter of the legendary West African producer Faisal
Helwani (Hedzolleh & Bunzu Sounds). It describes the emigration out of
Africa, which has created a ‘brain drain’, with qualified people leaving
for wealthier pastures. As Yasmeen explains: – ‘Africans love their
motherland, but she’s suffering so we all leave to find better fortune
elsewhere’.

Super talented Canadian producer, singer, song – writer Slakah The
Beatchild fuses soul with hip hop on ‘Something Forever’, while
Elephancycle is the eponymous track of Bara Bröst’s recently released
album. It is a new interpretation of the 1920’s cotton club hit “Mini the
Moocher”. Bara Bröst had the pleasure of working with the indie band
SICKCITY singer Conan Kowalski, adding new flavour & zeitgeist to the
well-known story of Mini the Moocher.

Luis Radio & Raffa Scoccia’s ‘Organismo’ and Alex Dimitri South ‘Africa’
fuse ancient primal percussion with modern dance floor etiquette to
bring us these 2 remarkable tribal anthems.

Git’s experimental Hip Hop project gets more than a wink while Marc
Mac produced T.R.A.C ‘Step’s Rite On In.’ The combination of Marc
Mac’s melodic production and TRAC’s exceptional lyrics make this and
the whole album an addictive listen. Bara Bröst dubs out on a rework of
Georg Levin’s ‘Everything Must Change ‘and Mr Peabody Records from
the windy City serve up the ultra rare ‘Three Way Situation’.

Keeping it soulful Elijah John Group, the wonderful Sandy Barber
rescued at the same time as Jean Wells’ masters and Jesse McFall and
The Funk Elegant Orchestra are top quality ultra rare tunes brought to
life once again, re-mastered and sounding as fresh as the mornings milk
so many many years after they were first recorded.

BBE veteran compiler Keb Darge teamed up with his wife, Little Edith
to bring us Legendary Wild Rockers another rocking collection of long
forgotten and rare recordings of rockabilly surf and exotica and we’ve
chosen Stormy Gayle’s ‘Brass In Africa’ as our favourite.

9-piece, Chicago-based brass group Hypnotic Brass Ensemble re-
interpret Johnny Pate’s ‘Shaft In Africa’ also covered earlier in the year
by Visioneers.

We play out with Sylvan Morris, recording and mixing engineer at
Dynamic Sounds, Treasure Isle, Studio One (1968-1974) and Harry J
Studio. Here he teams up with Andy’s All Stars, taken from the David
Rodigan’s ‘Dubwize Shower’

So much amazing music, dig deeper, and find out more by checking the
full releases.