Vitali Potchekin
Track changes so much with every bar - absolutely awesome! Great mash up of raw funk and boogie sound. Love it!
Favorite track: PREACHING TO THE CHOIR.
In a world awash with negativity and fear, you are invited to climb aboard the Mocambo mothership where all colours and creeds are celebrated. The Mighty Mocambos have returned - stronger, tighter and hungrier than ever.
Carrying blistering funk lines in their fingers and worldly influences in their hearts, the unique and distinctive Mocambo sound is not one to be confused with retro bands trying to recapture an era. Eschewing traditional recording methods, this DIY crew are
committed to driving forwards, and 2066 sees them at the height of their powers, broadcasting a call for unity.
After reaching new audiences worldwide and earning critical praise for their two long players on Brooklyn’s Big Crown Records in their tropical guise as Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the band have reassembled and refocused in their original form, the workhorses behind dozens of 45s on the Mocambo label and beyond. Crossing generations, this album introduces some of the world’s youngest funk talent to step up and rub shoulders with soul and rap legends, soul sisters, an elder statesman composer/arranger and a brand new emerging artist out of New York.
As with all Mocambo releases, the two sides of the record have been meticulously sequenced by the
band. Side A welcomes us aboard with joyous instrumental stomper Preaching To The Choir, and a call to build bridges from Mocambo chanteuse and percussionist Nichola Richards, duetting with emerging rap talent, New York MC JSwiss. B-girls and b-boys are called to the dancefloor as Superstrada and Concrete Stardust commence, all buzzing synth lines and relentless drums. New Jersey legend and Big Crown associate Mr Lee Fields is guest of honour for Where Do We Go From Here before a horn workout brings us to a close with Macumba. It’s time for a breather.
The B side kicks off with the grand return of the Golden Girl of Funk, Gizelle Smith, a sister who’s been busy taking on the world. Composer and presenter Peter Thomas narrates a Return To Space to mark the centenary of the debut of his score to sci-fi show Space Patrol, which first broadcast in 1966. We’re back down to Earth and the mean streets for the furious drums and car chase workout of Golden Shadow. Today slows down the pace for a reflective ballad with Nichola front and centre - and here’s the next generation: the Mocambo Kidz sing along to their parents’ instrumentation for Here We Go, a new kids’ block party anthem... with no sleep ‘til bedtime. The album closer makes it clear that the Mocambos are nowhere near powering down as Ice T and Charlie F unk bring their A-game for an old school attack which, since you’re up bouncing anyway, gives you no excuse not to flip the LP and drop the needle right back on to Side A. Onwards!
A summation of their journey so far and a celebration in anticipation of what’s to come, the album is set
to take its place in a legacy of open minded, organically recorded music, showering listeners with the crew’s maze of tantalising sounds pulled from funk, afro, hip hop with cinematic composition and storytelling.
(Agent J, Groovement Radio)
credits
released October 18, 2019
A MOCAMBO PRODUCTION
The personnel is: Sascha Weise, drums & percussion; Victor Kohn, bass; Björn Wagner, guitar; Hank Dettweiler, organ, clavinet, synthesizer, mellotron, mini piano & glockenspiel; Bernhard Hummer, baritone & alto saxophone; Ben Greenslade-Stanton, trombone; Sebastian Drescher, trumpet & flugelhorn & Nichola Richards, percussion & vocals.
Additional musicians: Paul Elliott, percussion; Martin Fekl, clavinet on 2066 Return To Space; Josh Kaiser, bass on Today & Bounce That Ass; Danny Kimaz, flute on 2066 Return To Space & Bounce That Ass; Sebastian Nagel, guitar on Where Do We Go From Here & Philipp Püschel, trumpet on 2066 Return To Space.
Recorded on 16-track tape at Mocambo Studios, Hamburg.
Arranged by Björn Wagner & Bernhard Hummer.
Mixed by Steffen Wagner in New York.
Recording engineer: Hank Dettweiler
Co-producer, re-mix & mastering engineer: Def Stef
Mastercut by Martin Sukale.
Bounce That Ass remix co-produced and mixed by Josko Kasten.
Ice-T & Charlie Funk appear courtesy of EBE Nation.
Front cover photo: Tom Roeler
Back cover photos: Melanie Dreysse, Sesse Lind, Holger Menzel, & Jonathan Huntsche, Robert Adam Mayer
Cover Design & art direction: Lasse Singelmann
Like so many others, this came like a bolt out of the blue and, even though it's well before payday, I had to have this astonishing album on vinyl to prove it exists. The feel of the tunes makes me feel like the Impressions do, Curtis Mayfield, the big spaces and instinctive horns and stuff drifting in and out. Great grooves and I can see lots of ghosts nodding along to this with big smiles on their faces. At last! Anthony Cottrell
The worldwide artists assembled here, from the '60s to the present day, tap into the idea of music as a connection between human and divine. Bandcamp New & Notable May 13, 2016