The collective that includes the Poets of Rhythm, Whitefield Brothers and Karl Hector & The Malcouns present a series of rare funk, jazz, soul and world-psych singles compiled as an album. Presale at Stones Throw Feb. 6th. Worldwide street date Feb. 28th.

It’s been nearly fifteen years since the vinyl-only releases by the various ensembles helmed by Jay and Max Whitefield – also known as the Whitefield Brothers and the nucleus of the revered Poets of Rhythm – were collated onto an Original Raw Soul album. The last – 1997’s More Original Raw Soul – largely contained the duo’s heavy funk and soul… well before the aughts’ Deep Funk revival that one could argue began with these two German siblings’ earliest recordings.

Fitting, then, that this – Original Raw Soul III – looks back at recordings dating back over twenty years but never once sounds dated or dull. There’s the garage funk of the early Poets incarnation the Bus People Express; the deep jazz of vocalist Bajka gigging with a Max Whitefield ensemble; the pan-African psych-jazz of the Whitefield Brothers. And that’s just three of the ensembles contained within. Original Raw Soul III’s sixteen tracks that span the gamut of forty years of musical innovation, recorded over the past twenty years, and presented anew today.

Contains two previously unreleased songs by The Transgressors, which also released on a 7” in conjunction with this album. Download one – the garagey funk number “Money For Born Money For Die” – below.

Download: Transgressors “Money For Born Money For Die.”

Our buddies over at Paris DJs are quickly becoming the go-to guys for offering up the next-to-impossible. First they tracked down the Natural Yogurt Band and posted a mix of the 70s oddities that influenced their Tuck In With… album – and now they’ve gone and tracked down Karl Hector and gleaned a mix of modal jazz from each corner of the globe.

Karl Hector & The Malcouns’ Tamanrasset EP is out now.

Download the Mix : Karl Hector at Paris DJs
Tracklist and More: Karl Hector at Paris DJs.

Available now at Stones Throw’s webstore: an exclusive pre-sale of the latest from Jay Whitefield’s Karl Hector & The Malcouns. Tamanrasset, a five-song, vinyl-only EP continues The Malcouns study of psych-funk and, of course, is influenced by all sides of the African diaspora.

This EP comes with original artwork by renowned graphic artist Kevin Lyons, hand screenprinted by Hit & Run. If you want a peek at the process, check out how the Hit & Run folks got down on one of Madlib’s recent Madlib Medicine Show releases here.

Buy: Karl Hector & The Malcouns Tamanrasset.
Download: Karl Hector & The Malcouns “Girma’s Lament.”
More Information: Karl Hector & The Malcouns Tamanrasset.

Buy it here.

Produced by: Whitefield/Curulija/Myland
Recorded by: Curulija/Whitefield at 45 Studios
Additional Recording by: Jochen Ströh at Lovelite
Executive Producer: Jay Whitefield

Mastered by Kelly Hibbert for Sumosound, Los Angeles, CA.
Artwork by Kevin Lyons. Screenprinting by Hit & Run.

A1: El Gusto 2:48
(Z. Curulija)
A2: Tamanrassett 3:24
(Curulija, Myland, Whitefield)
A3: Mhamuth (Live at Lovelite) 3:48
(T. Myland)
B1: Girma´s Lament 2:55
(J. Whitefield)
B2: Wajeerta Hoose (The Lower Wajeer) 4:59
(B. Baral, Maxamed Suleebaan Bidde)

12″ EP. 2011. NA 5076.

Buy it here.

01.When The Sun Breaks Through
02.Nyx
03.Followed Path
04.Transition >J<
05.Sahara Swing
06.Psycles
07.Transition >I<
08.Koloko Pt. 1
09.Debere
10.Transition >Z<
11.Jabore Pt. 3
12.Mystical Brotherhood
13.Timely Interuption
14.Transition >B<
15.Mellow (Version)
16.Rush Hour
17.Transition >W<
18.Toure Samar
19.Passau Run

NA5031 CD, 2LP – July 9, 2008

Produced by Jay Whitefield

Afrodelic Kraut Funk from the minds behind the Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers.

Now-Again Records follows up The Heliocentrics’ percussive excursions into the astral realms of psychedelia with an album of Afro-tinged funk music originating from the Southern Sahara and recorded in Germany.

Karl Hector has, to date, only appeared on one 7-inch, from 1996, as the leader of the Funk Pilots. For this album, he has teamed up with Jay Whitefield (producer and guitarist for the Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers, and founder of the now defunct Hotpie & Candy Records) and Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija, founders of The Malcouns.

Alongside Bo Baral, other members of the Poets of Rhythm and crack Munich- based session musicians, Whitefield, Myland and Curlija have crafted nearly twenty tracks that follow the musical roads that Hector has travelled. The underlying groove that ties these ideas together, of course, is as rooted in James Brown as it is Fela Kuti. As informed by Mulatu Astatke of Ethiopia as it is by Jean-Claude Vannier and Can. This is an album of the world. Not “world music” but that will appeal to any culture ever transfixed by rhythm on “the one.”