Thelma Houston
Any Way You Like It

On the fourth album of his fusion cycle for the man from the Black Forest, George Duke substantially expanded the number of his colleagues. As before, drummer Leon “Ndugu” Chancler beats as the heart of the rhythm section, and the Brazilian couple, Airto and Flora are again on board. The ten tracks perform a stylistic balancing act. The jittery funk of Chariot and the smooth ballad Someday show off Duke’s soulful vocal flair. Flora Purim crowns the complex Look Into Her Eyes with her spheric sound as she and guitarist George Johnson take care of business on this stratospheric piece with its bluesy electric shuffle. With two high-voltage guitarists (Daryl Stuermer and Byron Miller), That’s What She Said points to the tie between rock and funk. The most eye-opening outing occurs with star guitarist Lee Ritenour stomping on Rokkinrowl, I Don’t Know, and its Hendrix parody. Sister Sirene shows that, naturally, the typical dreamy Duke instrumentals are not left off the album. An almost animistic soundscape is woven into the fabric of Mashavu, and Giant Child Within Us – Ego is a small fusion suite encompassing the spectrum from the classical to the Zappaesque finale. The title piece is indeed a blues, dished out pure and simple – a far cry from the sounds of the preceeding piece with its mountains of synthesizers. Rather, the sultry delta heat, the acoustic simplicity and raw truth of the song prevail – the blues.

From the meeting of the legendary Tsugaru Jamisen maestro Chisato Yamada with volcanic mind of the composer Tasheshi Terauchi and his Oriental Fantastic Orchestra, a collaboration and a unique record, a conceptual work, is born in which innovative songs transcend the boundaries of traditional music by mixing modernity, rural and electronic atmospheres, local arias and contemporary music. A record with strongly evocative and cinematic sounds. Comes with obi and a two-panel fold out sheet with original liner notes of the time translated in English that explains in an exhaustive way the inspirations from tradition and popular music and the very accurate digital recording techniques of the time that make it a record sought after by audiophiles looking for sounds unedited in the Western tradition. Originally released in 1981.

Reconnected is compiled from Harold Lucious’ addictive 1990 release Connections, a visionary mix of soulful house, New Jack Swing and RnB, an American predecessor of street soul.Deeply connected to music from an early age, Harold started his music career in the early 70s at the age of 16. He sang in his first group, The Final Seconds, who pressed a 7” single in New York City in 1973. The group would go on to record a full album called Neo Cosmic Blues, but never had the chance to press it. They would continue to perform and write together throughout the 70’s and searched in vain for a label to work with.During that time, Harold landed a guest spot on the legendary Brother Ahh record Move Ever Onward, set up by his manager who was Brother Ahh’s sibling. Harold is listed as having played koto, but really he provided background vocals. Throughout the 80’s, Harold worked at WBI radio programming talk shows. On air, he would act out modified scripts to Richard Wright novels like “The Outsider”.Connections was his effort to finally release a record after years of recording and playing music. Experimenting with dance music he came up with an album that was inspired by his love of house music and RnB. He sold the record out of his backpack, ending up with boxes of copies that were eventually destroyed when he had to move from his long-time apartment in Brooklyn. Few of the original LP remain, and it has become almost impossible to find.Reconnected is a remastered redux with four songs taken from the original LP, Mixed Signals is honoured to introduce Harold’s music to a contemporary audience around the world. Reconnected is compiled from Harold Lucious’ addictive 1990 release Connections, a visionary mix of soulful house, New Jack Swing and RnB, an American predecessor of street soul.Deeply connected to music from an early age, Harold started his music career in the early 70s at the age of 16. He sang in his first group, The Final Seconds, who pressed a 7” single in New York City in 1973. The group would go on to record a full album called Neo Cosmic Blues, but never had the chance to press it. They would continue to perform and write together throughout the 70’s and searched in vain for a label to work with.During that time, Harold landed a guest spot on the legendary Brother Ahh record Move Ever Onward, set up by his manager who was Brother Ahh’s sibling. Harold is listed as having played koto, but really he provided background vocals. Throughout the 80’s, Harold worked at WBI radio programming talk shows. On air, he would act out modified scripts to Richard Wright novels like “The Outsider”.Connections was his effort to finally release a record after years of recording and playing music. Experimenting with dance music he came up with an album that was inspired by his love of house music and RnB. He sold the record out of his backpack, ending up with boxes of copies that were eventually destroyed when he had to move from his long-time apartment in Brooklyn. Few of the original LP remain, and it has become almost impossible to find.Reconnected is a remastered redux with four songs taken from the original LP, Mixed Signals is honoured to introduce Harold’s music to a contemporary audience around the world.