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Uptown Funk Empire
The Empire Strikes Back Again

The Empire Strikes Back Again

Labels

Soulab

Catno

SOULABLP002

Formats

1x Vinyl LP

Country

Europe

Release date

Jan 1, 2020

Styles

The Uptown Funk Empire’s album The Empire Strikes Back was released in the year 2009 and it has quickly become a sure value of the modern Soul-Funk scene. This album composed and produced
by Bruno Hovart aka Patchworks still sounds really funky 10 years after its initial release. The success of its 2019’s reissue confirmed that it got a timeless flavor. The full-length version of this album contained 16 tracks in the CD & Digital format but for technical
reasons only 10 tracks were included in the vinyl edition. And due to public demand, we are now happy to release the missing tracks in vinyl with an exclusive track, the rightly titled « Party ». The Empire
Strikes Back Again, so let’s have an other funky good time with Uptown Funk Empire… Tracks as « Boogie », « You’ve got to have Freedom » or « N.O.W. » have now become anthems. They have brought back the Funk to the dancefloors from around the world and this with the help of Dj’s such as Kerri Chandler, Moodyman, Joey Negro, Ashley Beedle, Tony Humphries, Mr V, Dj Simbad, Femi Fem, Dj Cam, Dj Bobbito, Jazztronik, Recloose, Rich Medina, Rainer Truby, Kid Loco, Yam Who, Mad Mats, Dj Kawasaki, Dj Junior…just to name a few. But this album is not only dance-floor oriented, one important part of its charms is due to a bunch of good ballads and tasty down tempo tracks as: « I’m A Manchild », « I Guess That You Don't Mind »,
« Celestial Blues », « Please Mister Postman » playlisted by radios as Jazz Fm, BBC6, Radio Nova, KCRW, Deutschland Radio Kultur, Couleur 3, WBAI, FM4, KX Radio, Superbly FM…and enjoyed by a
lot of Soul Boys & Girls in their bedrooms. And last but no least, the Uptown Funk Empire’s track « I’m A Manchild » was included in the
soundtrack of the film « Focus » with Will Smith…and it was greatly cool for a funky cat to have shared a movie with the Prince of Bel Air !
This album is a pleasant proof that funk & soul Music can always sounds good & alive in our time, once again thanks to Patchworks and its Uptown Funk Empire alias.

Media: Mi
Sleeve: M

$45*

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*Taxes included, shipping price excluded

A1

Take You Out

A2

I’m A Manchild

A3

I Guess That You Don't Mind Feat. Jrm

A4

Please Mister Postman

B1

Good Time (Bye Bye Mr Dynamite)

B2

Walkin Like The Ginger

B3

Party

B4

Last Trip To Nowhere

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When his mother brought Stanley Turrentine’s Salt Song LP back from a trip to Canada, Julien Lourau, then a teenager, was impressed by the scope of the sound and the groove of the saxophone. He was also charmed by the lush arrangements and funky sound of the record, typical of releases on the CTI label. Created by producer Creed Taylor, CTI left an imprint in the minds of 70s jazz fans much like Blue Note did in the 60s, and it even ended up releasing work by artists who started out on this mythical label such as Stanley Turrentine and Freddie Hubbard. The two even shared the same sound engineer, the great Rudy van Gelder.Yet CTI, though highly prolific during its 15 years of activity, has not benefitted from the same aura as its predecessor.“To breathe life into this album, I listened to a wealth of CTI releases and discovered some I had never heard before. I noticed, oddly, that many of today’s musicians know very little about CTI - a label unfairly considered as minor.”The choice of tracks was determined by Julien’s personal tastes, always keeping in mind a desire to help people discover them yet focusing on the joy of actually playing them too.“The album is made up of 9 pieces. Mathieu Débordes got everything down to the nearest note before we even attempted to play them. CTI didn’t hold back in fuelling their compositions with brass and violins, but I erased this aspect and pared things down to a bass, drums and two keyboards.”English drummer Jim Hart, someone Julien worked with during his London years, propels the group - from hard-bop polyrhythms with “drum & bass” inflections to a reworking of classic Red Clay.Sylvain Daniel on the bass and Arnaud Roulin on the analogue keys are two musicians close to the saxophonist, and that he met when they were students in 1999 while organising a master class at the Conservatoire de Nantes. Since then, they have become his esteemed companions.The collaboration with young pianist Léo Jassef began on this recording, where he also plays the Prophet 5. The dynamic and overlap of the many keyboards played by Arnaud and Léo bring the record a richness of timbre and harmony that the strings and brass provided on the CTI recordings.For the final track on the record, Julien called upon his friend of 30 years, guitarist Bojan Z, for a fresh, Gospel take on Love and Peace, a track recorded by Quincy Jones in 1969, which here, is dedicated to Bojan’s recently departed brother.“When it comes down to it, this album really is as I had imagined it, with, luckily, a few unexpected turns. I created a playlist I then claimed as my own. But in the end, I must admit that I would have loved to have composed some of these tracks.”