Rome has a secret heartbeat, an underground and urgent pulsation whose memory is preserved within the walls of old recording studios, in the tales of veterans, and most of all in the grooves of the soundtracks of Cinecittà. Music that has always flirted with poetry.
Pete Molinari is a poet, and that's why his words perfectly blend with this pulsation.
That's why producer Luca Sapio chose to record "Wondrous Afternoon" among his Blind Faith Recordings and Maestro Piero Umiliani's Sound Workshop. The result is an album with a strong cinematic impact. The lesson of Motown applied to the sound of Rome.
Backed by Luca’s crack band better known as the Italian Royal Family, Pete Molinari sings with great expressiveness and soul, embedding his words like precious stones, exposing them in all their fragility and strength to the listener.
CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
Once more the music composed of Maestro Piero Piccioni’s is better than the movie.
A wonderful kaleidoscope of psychedelic oddness favors the composer’s jazz roots and strong percussion work, but also features delightful bursts of source music as well as the self-contained brilliance of the occasional set pieces—including background scores for the experimental productions of the Off-Broadway world.
This highly addictive score, impossible to find in the originally release on LP by RCA in 1970, can finally benefit from a meticulous restoration work from the original master tapes, thanks to the involvement of the Piccioni’s family.
It’s exactly like buying a copy in 1970 without any compression and digital artifacts.
Marco Tiso is one of the best kept secret of the Italian soundtrack world.
Mostly known as a conductor and arranger he is also an awarded jazz pianist who played in countless records.
During his forty-year career, in addition to conducting the RAI orchestra at its highest level with veterans such as Carlo Pes, Antonelli Vannucchi, Roberto Podio, Maurizio Maiorana, Dino Piana, Oscar Valdambrini, Marco Tiso has also served as the director of the orchestra for the prestigious Sanremo Festival for six times.
In case you don’t know who is Pete Molinari consider that when Rock Legend Bruce Springsteen was asked during an interview at the Toronto Film Festival about what music he was listening to these days, the superstar said:
“Pete Molinari – and if you don’t know anything about him, he’s great.” Surely you do not doubt the boss!
Fronted by the singer/guitarist Lora and the multi-instrumentalist songwriter Alex, Lora & The Stalkers are in hurry.
They feel the urgency to run their new flashy album, the perfect soundtrack for this fraught and uncertain present we are all stuck in.
A fistful of songs field by Lora’s mixture of seriousness and childish mischief, lights and shadows of a present where all’s fair, no holds barred to see what tomorrow will bring.
Norman Petty, E.S.G. , Brian Wilson, I Love di Arthur Lee, Buddy Holly, Chromatics are just few tracks you will find in their schizoid path.
Drop randomly the needle: everything is strictly recorded by analog gear, no virtual synths, no gimmicks, no tricks, never follow a trend , never strike a pose. Everything is authentic and perfectly in line with their new label motto: “ Buy today with no fear of obsolescence tomorrow”.
A singer who has “soul” can be said to have sensitivity and heart and the ability to emotionally move the listener. This feeling cannot be created with gimmicks or special effects in a recording studio. Nor can it be taught, it is an inbuilt quality one is born with.
Martha's voice touches you right down to your “soul”, she never takes any of the songs presented to her for granted, creating her own unique interpretation of each song on this new album, backed by her band ‘The Italian Royal Family’.
Lyrically the album is very much inspired by the socially and politically conscious records made by the likes of Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Curtis Mayfield in the mid-70s.
Every once in a while an album comes along, and this is one of them, that is beyond what is currently fashionable at any given time, which evokes the best sounds of the soul golden era, combined with Italian soundtracks of the 60s; infuse them together and you get a funk/soul masterpiece, showcasing one of soul music’s most precious gems- Miss Martha High.
What can you do with just an electric bass?
We asked that tough question to one of the most highly demanded Italian bass player: Mr. Pierpaolo Ranieri.
Surprisely he gave us the proper answer with a solo devastating album called "I am a peacock".
No harmonic instruments, no fancy chords, just bass, drums, modular synthetizers, spring echoes and samplers.
The result is a dark boomey cinematic record. An hypnotic music experience with a very weird thrilling tensive attitude.
Four strings shimmering galore spreaded in a heavy-psych music library not for the faint of heart!
"Fasiya” magnifies this crosscultural exchange where looking at the roots to shape the future is the key point.
Baba constantly explores new sounds, and as a result, has electronically transformed his traditional ngoni into one of the wildest fresh sounding lead instruments to hit the music world in years. The result is an organic music corner stone that fueled by new and vintage obscure gear panoramize a new sound directed at anyone who wants to lost himself in a vibey sonic garden, but most of all at anyone who can feel the beat, that basically means everybody.
Rarely does a singer appear carrying within him the gift of universal appeal that towers above tastes and trends. Sugaray Rayford is such an artist.
His 2017 debut with Blind Faith Records, candidated to the Blues Memphis Awards as Best soul album, impressed critics all around the world, collecting stellar reviews and massive airplays.
There was a time when a Texan soul singer need only jump on a Greyhound to find a producer and killer house band qualified to cut some authentic, new-aged soul. Sugaray Rayford, a singer by the power of Bobby Blue Bland and Solomon Burke, has found his graceland in another continent, across the pond and over the valley, in the European city of Rome. Blind Faith Records, headed by Italian celebrità band leader/producer Luca Sapio and his crack session unit entitled the Italian Royal Family.
WAXPOETICS
Terrific composer, conductor and piano player, with more than 300 soundtracks written and recorded, Piero Piccioni definitively the most eclectic, iconic and vibrant composer of the 20th century in Italy.
We are so proud to unveil one of his lost gem, the obscure and mysterious Camille 2000 from the infamous 1969 movie directed by Radley Metzger.
"Many hard to get soundtracks and releases often boast being “mastered from the original recordings” but often times are only dubs of records but Blind Faith Records has gone the extra mile by digging into the vaults for the original master tapes and giving the release a top job on the sound. Housed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve, poster insert and double vinyl, this is definitely one for the crates if you’re into Italian soundtracks and Easy Listening"
NOSTALGIA KING
Miss Martha High: one of the best kept secrets in soul music!
A key member of James Brown's inner circle on many of his most famous live performances and one of his most enduring and trusted female vocalists. She sings the unforgettable soprano note at the beginning of the 1974 US R’n’B ‘The Payback' and remained by his side for over thirty years. Martha was a true friend, confidant and supporter of The G.O.S. but she was just too young and shy to overtake the other soul divas.
Today is a different picture! Martha finally stepped out the shadow with a solo album that do justice to her super talent.
"The 71-year-old's new album showcases her crystalline vocal, and blends straight-up, old school soul balladry and cinematic weirdness. Alongside the vintage Stax/Atlantic motifs, you can sense Morricone's '60s lounge-cool Italian funk soundtracks"
UNCUT MAGAZINE
Most fans of the blues believe it was born in the Mississippi delta shortly before 1900. They are definitevely wrong.
The blues had its roots in other forms of older black music that are traced to the music of West Africa. In that sense, Mali music constituting the DNA of the blues and the griots can be identified as the direct ancestors of the rural bluesmen. Baba is one of the last greatest griot alive. His voice evokes the lost vibe of the deepest and wildest side of west Africa. With the help of the soulful voices of Djeli Mah Damba Koroba and Djana Sissoko, respectively his mother and his young daughter he recorded this little afro gem called “Three Gees”.
"They are the voices of the past, the present and the future living in the twilight zone where the malian roots blooms into a new sound of hope and happiness"
ROLLING STONE FRANCE
Hey fellas!!!! New episode online and it came from Manchester a straordinary mix of soul music from the 60’s, 70’s right through to the current day.
Here we have 20 tunes which Mr. Sykes is currently enjoying playing and he have put some of them into his sets. Really sure you enjoy them!
Follow Darren Sykes
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