Tempers
No Favors

YUMA HARA, a rare talent who combines the DNA of Quincy Jones, Roy Ayers, and others in the "jazz x soul x funk" style with the fresh sense of a 20-something and outstanding performance skills, is now releasing his second album in analog format! This is a masterpiece of true multi-talents who not only composes, arranges, produces, but also plays most of the instruments by himself!

This long-awaited inaugural release from DJ Fred Spider's Voom Voom Records visits an iteration of the legendary South African jazz funk ensemble of the 20th century. Spirits Rejoice recorded two incredible jazz fusion albums in the late 70’s with amble lashings of funk and soul. As the currents of popular music shifted in the 1980s, the group got behind a modern dance side project led by guitarist Paul Petersen and produced by the genius Patric Van Blerk.The result was Doctor Rhythm and an album entitled I Feel It Rising from 1981. Based out of Cape Town's premier vintage vinyl emporium, Voom Voom presents the album's sultry slow-burner "I'm So Strong Now" (paired with a modern remix) and well as two versions of the disco-boogie swinger "Hook It Up" written by the pianist Mervyn Africa (the original track alongside a Fred Spider & Simbad edit and a crisp rework by DJ Turmix from NY to boot). The result is an essential dancefloor release documenting what is surely South Africa's best take on band-driven New York boogie from the disco years. Calum MacNaughton (Sharp-Flat Records/As-Shams-The Sun)

Welcome return for this very sought-after rare electro 12' from tiny Harlem label Express Records. Big with the Cosmic crowd as well as on the early hiphop scene, this is an extremely cool low-slung synth-heavy electro groover with a hypnotically smooth lead vocal, given a sharp percussive edge by the rattling congas and ticky-time chorus. Written at a time in rap music history when the introduction of synthesizer technology created a wild flurry of creativity, this futuristic track by Barry Michael Cooper (who went on to write the screenplays for movies New Jack City and Above The Rim) was Teletron's only ever release. Film's gain was sadly music's loss as this was, and still is, a boundary-pushing, floor-filling monster. Don't sleep!