‘Alma de Cuba - The Soul of Cuba’ is a collaborative album of versions recorded in Havana Cuba, and Liverpool UK. It features Cuban Conguero Roberto Santamaria, nephew of Mongo Santamaria, Grammy winning Afro Latin Percussionist. The album is the unique mixture of Cuban ‘Old Guard’ and UK’s top young Funk and Soul pioneers, 6ix toys. Alongside Havana’s finest they create a colourful tapestry of Afro Latin flavour, rooted in Deep Funk and Soul.
“In Cuba, you can not escape the music. Skin on skin is the most original sound you can create. It is magic. When I sit behind the congas and start moving my hands it is pure pleasure. The conga and me, we are one.” - (Roberto Santamaria)
The album features the sounds of Havana and street musicians as we experienced them on our journey through Havana’s rich musical culture in 2010. We made many friends including Orlando ‘Cuba Jazz’ Sanchez who guests on ‘We No Speak Americano’. Guest vocalists alongside Roberto, who gives an unabashed rework of ‘Praise You’ in to his Cuban ‘Cornbread’, give the record further international reach. Faroese singer Greta Svabo Bech gives a golden performance of ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’ as well as a unique take on ‘Black or White’. Whilst Argentina’s Cata Pereda takes on ‘Song 2’ in her native tongue.
It was an honour and pleasure to work with this international cast, and bring these diverse backgrounds and styles together. We are all very proud to present ‘Alma de Cuba’.
Future Funk - Available on itunes
E.P. Future Funk on iTunes
1. Light Cycle ft. Bangon!
2. Another Day ft. Greta Svabo Bech
3. Tomorrows Children ft. MC Kwasi
4. Another Day - Fredo’s Deeper Mix
5. Tomorrows Children - Beatmonkeys Remix
With a move away from more traditional production values Future Funk includes 3 fresh original tracks and 2 remixes.
Like previous releases it comes with vocal collaborations from some great friends...
Home town MC and Big Dada rising star ‘BangOn’ supplies vocals in his trademark style on ‘Light Cycle’, drawing upon drum n bass influences and a heavy Baritone Riff.
Faroese songstress Greta Svabo Bech (of Liverpool’s ‘Picture Book’) hot on the heels of her massive hit with Deadmau5 - Raise your Weapon, has created ‘Another Day’ with the band. An epic love ballad with her beautifully evocative Scandinavian vocal.
Also featured is M.C. Kwasi of Friends and Family and the host of Glastonbury’s Jazz World/ Westholt Stage, with the bouncy up tempo gypsy inflused ‘Tomorrow’s children’.
Remixes come with a deep lo fi mix of ‘Another Day’ from 6ix toys Producer & DJ Fredo, and The Beatmonkeys round off with a remix headed straight to the dance floor.
Our new Album of versions ‘Alma de Cuba’ (The Soul of Cuba) - available iTunes 21 November 2011....
I first travelled to Cuba in 2005. I couldn’t have imagined 5 years later I could return and record an album with people I was yet to meet from both sides of the Atlantic.
On my second day I walked across Havana. This took 5 hours. Faded colours turn to grey and the smell, almost unbearable in places. Central Havana is an area the guide books forget to tell you about.
I wasn’t there for Buena Vista, I wanted the sounds of Havana’s youth, travelling from Hackney in the UK, Central Havana felt on the right track. The music a melting pot of styles - Afro, Latin, Funk, Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz, Reggae, Salsa and everything in-between.
I rented an apartment in Central Havana and stayed for a month, there I met Roberto Santamaria. Roberto is Nephew of the great Mongo Santamaria, and himself a wonderful musician. Mongo was the Grammy winning Percussionist who took the sounds of Cuba to the Street Jazz of New York in the 1950s. He worked with Dizzie Gillespie, Tito Puente and John Coltrane, and created hits including Watermelon Man, after working with Herbie Hancock.
I spent a month with Roberto and made great friends with people who showed me the side of Havana Culture I had hoped for. Concerts every day at 4pm and 10pm, my imagined love affair with the city was reality. In Roberto’s words, ‘You cannot escape the music’. Which is certainly true...until the Pope dies, and a staunchly Catholic country goes in to mourning. Three days of no music, and the strain of everyday life laid bare again. Time slowed down in Havana.
Shortly after this trip I moved to Liverpool, met the 6ix toys boys and all this happened....
Fred
Live Studio Jam *24/10/2011*
So we've been jamming new material in the studio with the rhythm section. Going to be doing a few of these videos as we play with new ideas and grooves before turning them into studio album number 2. We got Jake on the Bass, Tom on Keys, Fred behind the mixing desk and camera and new blood! Oli and Mike on Drums and Guitar... Bringing much excitement :)
Future Funk released *17-10-11*
In preparation for the fine tuned Deluxe 2012 6ix, through Autumn we are dropping our unreleased back catalogue starting with ‘Future Funk’ 17th October.
We have been on a hiatus the past year, travelling and absorbing the world as it vibrates around us. This has involved all sorts of brainstorming, both where our sound is headed, and how we hope to arrive there. So 12 months on since our last release, we feel the track firmly beneath the carriage again and are flying ahead in the studio jamming our LP, the follow up to our debut album..
Next week we will start uploading videos of us playing new material from the LP. We have been filming sessions here at the studio with a couple new additions to our line up... Yes - fresh blood. We will start to introduce them and some new tracks to you with these videos. We are enjoying a fresh and casual approach to this new material and loving getting under the skin of these new tunes. Watch this space!
New Website *15-10-11*
You're here so you know, but our new site is starting to go live. Please forgive any teething problems and delays we might have understanding how it all works, cos the guys who have done this for us are bloody clever, i mean, i am editing this from my phone? All we have to do is use HTML on a browser page. A doddle since we all went through years of myspace pain. This however is friendly, and with a pretty interface too, so Ben and Seiji, thank you and big love to your clearly enlarged temporal lobes.
