If you're anything like us, you're a big fan of Record Store Day. Now in it's fifth year, the April date is a special time to get all sorts of exclusive, vinyl-only, limited-edition stuff that record geeks sweat over. Last year we offered a 500-run 7" single from Dennis Coffey, featuring an exclusive Steinski remix.

This year, we're serving up a full album worth of heavy psychedelic funk, in the form of the rare self-titled Ugly Custard LP. Originally released in 1971, the album has become a cult classic among vinyl diggers – a dense, heavy, psyched-out set from a short-lived side project put together by UK library and film music composer, Alan Parker (of KPM 1000 series fame). It also includes work from ace session players Herbie Flowers (bass) and Roger Coulam (organ) & Clem Cattini.

Check out the amazing "Custard's Last Stand" for a taste, and look for the limited edition vinyl at participating stores on April 21st.

Ebo Taylor is a stand up guy, and his new album Appia Kwa Bridge (recorded once again with Afrobeat Academy & esteemed guests Tony Allen, Oghene Kologbo and conga maestro Addo Nettey a.k.a. Pax Nicholas) is perhaps his most personal to date. We caught up with him in Berlin (where the album was recorded in the famed Lovelite Studios) for an interview in which he discusses the inspiration behind the music, and demonstrates the highlife guitar style, which he employs with such grace.

What more could there possibly be to say about Fela Kuti? For many of us, Kuti’s music has been the primary entry point to the incredibly fertile terrain of hybrid African music. But aside from the obvious honor of having the privilege of releasing some of the first unheard Fela recordings in over twenty years, the fact that these recordings even exist in the first place is something of a marvel.

In 1984, Fela Kuti had planned to leave Nigeria to tour abroad, but was arrested and imprisoned on dubious charges of “currency trafficking,” preventing him from leaving the country. It took two years, and efforts from Amnesty International before Fela once again was able to share his music with the world. The music featured on this album was recorded the year of his release, live at the Fox Theater in Detroit.

The songs featured here, the shortest clocking in at 29 minutes and 35 seconds, aren’t among Fela’s best known compositions, though they did feature on studio albums with the Egypt 80 band. It’s in these unbridled live performances though that the material truly comes alive, complete with audience interaction, the incredible musicianship of the band, and Kuti’s inimitable vocal stylings. It’s evident that the audience as completely entranced.

Fela Kuti – Live In Detroit is a document of one of the greatest performers of the 20th Century, and we’re honored to be able to share it with you. The album will be released on Strut on May 8th on Strut Records internationally, and via our friends at Knitting Factory in the US. The Strut release will be a double CD / four vinyl / digital format.

CD1:
01. JUST LIKE THAT 29.35
02. CONFUSION BREAK BONES 40.54

CD2:
01. TEACHER DON'T TEACH ME NONSENSE 34.04
02. BEASTS OF NO NATION 38.49

Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 - Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense - Live In Detroit (Edit) by Strut

Ebo Taylor is a towering figure in the field of African music. The fact that, well into his 70s, he continues to tour and record speaks loudly to his dedication to his craft, and to the worldwide excitement over his music. Appia Kwa Bridge will be the second new studio album of his since 2010, recorded again with Berlin's Afrobeat Academy.


On the new record, Ebo takes a personal approach, both in the subject matter, and the musical inspiration. “I wanted to go back to a highlife feeling with this album,” he explains. “The songs are very personal and it is an important part of my music to keep alive many traditional Fante songs, war chants and children’s rhymes.”


We're honored to be able to share new music with you from a man and musician of Ebo's stature. Appia Kwa Bridge will be released in April, and Mr. Taylor will be performing internationally this Spring.

With his two-disc collection of alternative dance music (which he claims could be called "Trevor's Teenage Years") coming soon, the man behind Output Recordings, Playgroup, and too many excellent record sleeve designs to count sits down to tell us a little bit more about the aforementioned teenaged years. His discussion of exposure to London club life as a fourteen-year-old make us nostalgic for one of the golden eras of nightlife. The music on Metal Dance just makes the the feeling hit that much harder...

Ottowa's finest, afro/jazz/cosimic/funk collective The Souljazz Orchesra are marshaling their troops for a series of North American shows this winter. This will be their first major American tour, and our first chance to see them since releasing their amazing Rising Sun album in 2010. They're going to be joined by some excellent acts on certain dates, including Zongo Junction, The Funk Ark and others. Full info on the band's site. See you at the shows!













January 21st - Ottowa, ON @ Mavericks
February 15th - Providence, RI @ Fete
February 16th - Boston, MA @ Scullers Jazz Club
February 17th - Burlington, VT @ Nectar's
February 18th - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
February 20th - Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
February 21st - Washington, DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel
February 22nd - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
February 23rd - Kalamazoo, MI @ The Strutt
February 24th - Chicago, IL @ Double Door
February 25th - Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
April 21st - Ottowa, ON @ Babylon

Trevor Jackson, known for his work as Playgroup and the incredibly influential Output Recordings, has the kind of crates that even hard core collectors envy. So when he came to us with the idea of collecting some of his favorite rarities from the under-explored world of 80s industrial & post-punk dance floor material, we couldn't say no. Having already gotten into the groove with our Fac Dance collection of material from the legendary Factory label, we knew this would be something special. The two-disc collection covers recognized masters such as Cabaret Voltaire & Nitzer Ebb as well as names that we know are going to be new to quite a few listeners. If the term EBM (Electronic Body Music, coined by Kraftwerk's Ralf Hütter) means anything to you, you're in for a treat. If not, there's a world waiting to be discovered...

Tracklist *Updated*:

CD 1

1. The Bubblemen – The Bubblemen Are Coming
2. 400 Blows – Pressure (Club Pressure)
3. Cabaret Voltaire – Seconds Too Late
4. Neon – Voices
5. Pete Shelley – Witness The Change (Dub version)
6. Shock - Dream Games
7. Executive Slacks – The Bus (EP version)
8. Analysis - Surface Tension
9. Nitzer Ebb – Control I’m Here (Clouston’s Controlled Edit)
10. DAF – Brothers (Mix Gabi)
11. Portion Control – The Great Divide (Dub)
12. Stanton Miranda – Wheels Over Indian Trails (Dub)
13. Jah Wobble – Invaders Of The Heart (Exotic Decadent Disco mix)
14. SPK – Metal Dance
15. Fini Tribe – De Testimony (Collapsing Edit)


CD 2

1. Alien Sex Fiend – Under The Thunder (Ignore The Dub)
2. Hard Corps – Je Suis Passee (Dub)
3. Naked Lunch – Slipping Again
4. Secession – Touch (Part 4)
5. Severed Heads – Dead Eyes Opened
6. The Cage feat. Nona Hendryx – Do What Ya Wanna Do (Dub version)
7. Yello – You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess (UK promo mix)
8. Ledernacken – Amok!
9. Nash The Slash - Womble
10. John Carpenter & Alan Howarth – The Duke Arrives – The Barricade / The President At The Train (Extended version)
11. Diseño Corbusier – Golpe De Amistad
12. Schlaflose Nachte - Move
13. 23 Skidoo - Coup (In The Palace)

VINYL
1. Cabaret Voltaire – Seconds Too Late
2. Neon – Voices
3. Diseño Corbusier – Golpe De Amistad
4. Analysis - Surface Tension
5. Hard Corps – Je Suis Passee (Dub)
6. DAF – Brothers (Mix Gabi)
7. Jah Wobble – Invaders Of The Heart (Exotic Decadent Disco mix)
8. Yello – You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess (UK promo mix)
9. Naked Lunch – Slipping Again
10. SPK – Metal Dance

For all its inventiveness and artful genre-bending, it's easy to forget that the convergence of post-punk, dance music and funk typified pioneered by many of the Factory groups and others in the early 80's was motivated as much by the desire to have fun as by anything else. The spontaneity and sometimes outright goofiness really comes across watching the vintage footage of A Certain Ratio in their video for "Back To The Start," an excellent slice of disco-fied noise (complete with spontaneous percussion breakdown) from 1981.

"Our Latin Thing" is one of those classic films (like "Wild Style," "The Harder They Come," etc.) that captures a place and time that can only be returned to in memory, and in original documents like these. Centered around an incendiary gig at one of promoter Ralph Mercado’s fantastically popular Thursday night jams at the Cheetah in New York in August 1971, the film documents the raw Nu Yorican Latin sound at its zenith. Starring certified legends including Willie Colon, Ray Barretto and “El Cantante” Hector Lavoe and directed by Oscar-winner Leon Gast (‘When We Were Kings’), the footage is spliced with atmospheric street scenes on rubbish-filled stoops and crumbling bodegas in Spanish Harlem.


To celebrate the film’s first official release on DVD by Strut / Fania, Shook and Strut present an exclusive London screening at La Bodeguita, a vibrant restaurant and venue in Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre, on Wednesday 30th November at 8.00pm. Come have some drinks, eat some rice & beans, and celebrate an essential cultural document.


OUR LATIN THING (NUESTRA COSA)
+ DJ Duncan Brooker (Strut)

Wednesday 30th November 2011
Doors: 7.00pm / Film: 8.00pm

La Bodeguita • Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre • London SE1 6TE

Tickets: £5 door / £4 in advance at www.ticketweb.co.uk
Info: Jez Smadja at Shook: info@shook.fm / Facebook: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186683444749323

Mulatu Astatke has had a fairly breakneck touring schedule of late, and that shows no sign of letting up too soon. This November he'll be heading south of the Equator with his band for a series of shows in Australia and New Zealand. The legendary Ethiopian composer and vibraphone player will be joined on each date by the Black Jesus Experience.


19/11/2011: Melbourne - The Arts Centre
20/11/2011: Perth - Freemantle Festival, Freemantle Town Hall
25/11/2011: Auckland -The Power Station
02/12/2011: Sydney - The Factory Theatre

Truly a towering figure of calypso and Caribbean culture in general, Trinidad's Mighty Sparrow is well in need of an in-depth anthology. In January, we'll be releasing a two-disc collection spanning one of his most creative periods, the early 60's through the mid-70's. Sparrowmania! presents a picture of an incredible and prolific entertainer, offering on-point social commentary ("Kennedy And Krushchev," "Ah Diggin' Horrors," "The Slave"), bawdy songs full of double entendre and vice ("Big Bamboo," "Congo Man," "What's The Point Of Getting Sober") and genre-expanding hybrids ("Try A Little Tenderness," "Calypso Boogaloo"). Liner notes courtesy of David Katz provide context and history, and the music speaks for itself.



Track List:
CD 1
1. Bongo
2. Zinah
3. Fool Fool Fool
3. Calypso Boogaloo
4. Congo Man
5. The Slave
6. Kennedy And Krushchev
7. Ten To One Is Murder
8. She’s Been Gone Too Long
9. Mi Son Cha (Sparrow & His Troubadours)
10. Sweet Loving
11. Shango Man
12. Oriental Touch
13. Ah Diggin’ Horrors
14. Try A Little Tenderness (with Byron Lee)
CD 2
1 Bois Bande
2. Sparrow Dead
3. Renegades
4. Picong Duel (Sparrow and Melody)
5. Jook For Jook
6. Lion & Donkey (Re-Match)
7. Marajhin
8. Big Bamboo
9. Sparrow Come Back Home
10. Rose
11. No Money, No Love (Live At The Hilton, Barbados)
12. Letter From Miami
13. Dancehall Brawl
14. What’s The Use Of Getting Sober

Originally available exclusively on Factory Records' US-only 1987 compilation 'Young, Popular And Sexy,' Shark Vegas' "Pretenders of Love" is something of a lost gem. With production that recalls New Order's mid-80s output, it's a satisfying slice of electronic pop from a Berlin group that has since slipped below the radar. This track along with many other choice bits from the Factory camp will appear on our FAC. DANCE compilation, a two disc collection of 12" dance mixes and overlooked tracks from Factory Records' early forays into dance music, out in October.

Shark Vegas- Pretenders Of Love (FAC. DANCE) by Strut

You can pre-order the full MP3 album on iTunes

It's been some time, more than eight years, since we got the Strut crew together in London for an evening of fine music and revelry. The time has come once again, and we're going to do it up in proper style! We'll be taking to the decks on the deck of the Tamesis Dock, moored at Albert Embankment, with a crew of label friends and family, and some special guests. This will our grand re-entrance into the London nightlife, so look for more events on the horizon. Come raise a glass and give summer a final hurrah to the finest sounds in disco, soul, afro-funk, and everything in between!


STRUT RECORDS BOAT PARTY
The Tamesis Boat Dock, Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP
(between Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge)
Sunday 25th September 2011
DJs Duncan Brooker, Toni Rossano, Christine Indigo, & special guest Bill Brewster
4.00pm to 12.00am
Tickets: £5 all night – on the door. Book online at www.ticketweb.co.uk