Tatsuro Yamashita
Greatest Hits! Of

Le premier album d’Ikebe Shakedown est massif. Enregistrés aux Dunham Studios à Brooklyn avec l’aide de membres du Budos Band, ces morceaux sont bruts et solides et offrent une variété de sons différents. Ikebe Shakedown, groupe instrumental de huit musiciens basé à Brooklyn, mêle harmonieusement l’émotion brute et la passion du funk africain des années 60 et 70 avec les cuivres et les rythmes dansants de la musique soul américaine pour créer un son totalement nouveau. Avec ses cuivres dynamiques soutenus par une section rythmique percutante, Ikebe Shakedown vous fera danser à tous les coups ! S’inspirant de groupes légendaires tels que The J.B.’s et The Meters, Ikebe Shakedown cherche également à laisser sa propre marque sur la scène de Brooklyn dans la veine de groupes plus contemporains comme The Budos Band, Antibalas et The Menahan Street Band

They Say: “Documentary and industrial underlays for current themes of modern life”.We say: Mind-blowing, percussion-heavy, Afro-tinged, cosmic-disco library bomb.This is the one. An absolutely outstanding record from 1983 and definitely one of the hardest to find on the collectable German library label, Coloursound. The Now Generation (Percussive Underscores) is comfortably one of the very best library records full stop.The record comes galloping out the gate with a pair of rapid synthy-eurodisco bombs - the title-track and “Panama” - before slowing down to a woozy pace on “Inorganic Matter”. “African Nightclub” sounds like it reads, and is a particular favourite of Prins Thomas. Indeed, it was used to great effect on his seminal Cosmo Galactic Prism mix for Eskimo back in 2007. It’s followed by the dark, druggy, slow motion industrial groove of “Grease Plant” before “Southerly” lifts the tempo to close out side A with its Latin funk strut of bells and melancholic keys.For us, though, it’s all about the opener to side B: “Mechanical Heart”. Seven minutes of building, mid-tempo disco-funk joy, deceptively explosive, club-ready gear for body and soul. The back cover dryly describes the track as “Guitar and percussion, light industrial underlay”. Hmmm. How about, “after finally emerging from a particularly heavy week jamming in a sunless, lawless German warehouse, Chic warily press record on a wayward, illicit instrumental for basement gatherings”. Just wait for those drums at the 3 minute mark…The beatless ambience and menacing stabs of the proto-electro “Chemical Threat” follows, before the open drums and incredible fills of the metronomic “Steady Going” and fantastically monotonous funk breaks of “Nepal Trek” round out this sensational set.This is a library masterpiece in no uncertain terms, full of synth funk, afro beats, exotica, leftfield madness, dance floor dynamite and all-around greatness.As with our KPM and Themes re-issues, the audio for The Now Generation comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metalic silver glory.