076° .TOGO N’KUDODODZI (Souvenirs du Togo) - selected by My Old Friend Fred Martin.

In August, My Old Friend Fred Martin went to Togo for a month on a digging trip.
Here is a small part of the best tracks he found there! Enjoy!

LMN-003 DE FRANK and his Professionals "Psychedelic Man" - Lp reissue

It’s official! We’re so happy and proud to announce that our 3rd release is the fantastic “Psychedelic Man” by De Frank and his Professionals.
Ultra rare Afro-Funk Holy Grail from Ghana, recorded in 1976 and now re-issued for the first time in a fully official DeLuxe edition, remastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, in hard ‘paste-on’ cover and limited to 500 copies!
Pre-order your copy now!
Release date: September 17th

075° .BAILINHO BOM - Tempero Brasileiro vol.04 selected by Edson Carvalho.

It is with the utmost happiness that we received a couple of days before a new ‘digging-into-Brazilian-music’ lesson by master-digger and close friend Edson Carvalho!
We are proud to present "Bailinho Bom", fourth volume of the ‘Tempero Brasileiro’, Edson’s series focusing on rare and under-the-radar Brazilian 7 inches, also known as compactos. This volume brings 29 Brazilian Soul and Funk - and anything that fits between - tracks from 1970 to 1977.

074° .COCOLO - Bel-Biguine selected by My Old Friend Fred Martin.

Digging deeper and deeper into early Caribbean recordings!
Freshly back from another trip to French West Indies island Guadeloupe, My Old Friend Fred Martin has selected the very best of the new founds in this Bel Biguine / Dirty Jazz style that we love so much!

073° .CARNIVAL BACCHANAL. Calypso Jazz from Trinidad & Tobago - selected by Kimi and Shota.

Saturday 3rd of February 2018, on TV, reporters wondering about the reasons of such a mild winter… Global warming says one, the Chinese says another as he heard it from a president’s mouth… Well someone should tell them, they are all wrong! This wave of heat is coming straight from the Caribbean and South America where the last details are getting fixed for next week, the CARNIVAL week ! !!

And well, we are very pleased to present to you what might be - we hope so - your 2018’s Carnival soundtrack! A deep and beautiful selection of ultra rare Calypso Jazz 7 inches coming straight out from Trinidad and Tobago and selected by our friends from Japan- Kimi A.K.A Vintage R&B DJ Kimi-Hiro Oue based in London and Shota A.K.A TOKYO SABROSO crew Shota Mamiya based in Tokyo.

072° .ATIKA. Spiritual Caribbean Jazz - selected by My Old Friend Fred Martin.

Last summer, My Old Friend Fred Martin gets into a flight straight to Pointe-à-Pitre to spend a couple of weeks on a holiday digging trip...
We are very proud to share with you the first selection to came out of this digging trip, fruit of hard work in getting it prepared and done. 7 rare tracks of Spiritual Jazz coming straight out french west-indies, a pure relaxing Caribbean breeze!

LMN-002 FRANCISCO “Biguine Lélé avec Francisco" HPR-50 - Reissue // Shipping Now!

Let's start this new working year on the good foot!
Here finally is our second and new release!
And we have to confess that we really are quite thrilled to announce this new “vinyl only” reissue, Francisco’s second Hit Parade album, a Biguine Jazz holy grail now available again in a great thick deluxe “Paste-On” hard cardboard edition!

Check but be quick, 500 copies only, no repress!

071° .A ORILLAS DEL MAR un retrato de Barranquilla selected by My Old Friend Fred Martin.

To start the summer on the good foot!
Here is a selection of tracks found in Colombia by My Old Friend Fred Martin while a trip over there on late 2016! The comp’ is focusing on Barranquilla and more specifically on the huge and diverse musical culture of this fantastic port city of northern Colombia, located at the edge of the Caribbean Sea, and famous for his colourful Carnival! Uepa!

070° .SÃO OS DO NORTE QUE VEM - Tempero Brasileiro selected by Edson Carvalho.

We are very proud and happy to present to you all the third volume of the Tempero Brasileiro serie by São Paulo's master digger and close friend Edson Carvalho.
This time he offers us 2 hours of the purest love, heat and swing that come from both North and Northeast regions of Brazil.
Côco, Carimbó, Baião, Ciriá, Forró and the likes. Enjoy!

069° .DESCONSTRUÇÃO a portrait of São Paulo's musical scene.

Our overseas brazilian friends at Goma Gringa has just launched their first ‘international’ release, a 10 tracks compilation made in partnership with Antal (Rush Hour) out of Goma Gringa’s references. Metá Metá, Rodrigo Campos, Thiago França and others, the compilation aims at portraying São Paulo’s boiling contemporary scene.

068° .MELODIAS DA UMBANDA - Afro-Brazilian melodies selected by LesMainsNoires.

I used to say that Brazil is Africa’s little sister. As a matter of fact, It is really impressing to see how African roots are present basically everywhere in Brazilian traditional and popular culture. Throughout the country’s five centuries of history, those roots has evolved, being blended with other cultures, other influences, result of the encounter between African slaves, European settlers and Natives.
This mix of influences over several culture is called syncretism.
Actually, the notion of syncretism is usually used for religion. And the Brazilian religion par excellence is the Umbanda, which blends African traditions with Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and South Americans Natives beliefs.
The compilation that we are presenting to you now is a collection of early recordings (1930-1957) resulting of Umbanda’s tradition, sometime authorial, some of those tracks are also sometime exact retranscription of Umbanda’s praise and invocation - named Ponto - to specific Orixás.

LMN-001 . EDMONY KRATER et ZEPISS "Tijan Pou Velo" - LP OUT NOW.

So that’s it! Here we are!
After 7 years feeding the blog with our musical and graphical researches, Les Mains Noires is now officially also a record label!
Humbly and unpretentiously, we’ll try to offer you on physical format - vinyl only - super selected official reissue of wonderful forgotten music from the past.
In a first moment, we’ll focus on a place we deeply love, the French West-Indies island of Guadeloupe and Martinique!

And so, for our first release, we are very proud and happy to present to you “Tijan Pou Velo”, a stellar gwo ka jazz fusion masterpiece recorded in 1988 by Edmony Krater, a former member of Gwakasonné (one of the most famous Gwo Ka modern group from Guadeloupe) with the help of the group Zepiss.
Through this long time underrated album, Edmony pays a tribute to the heroes of traditional music from Guadeloupe, starting with Marcel Lollia better known as Vélo.
Check it out!

067° .TEMPERO BRASILEIRO "A Hora e a Vez do Samba" - selected by Edson Carvalho.

If you’re following us, you can only remember of São Paulo’s master digger Edson Carvalho and the portrait we made of him! That portrait came along with a selection of 7 inches named “Tempero Brasileiro”.
Well, good news, Edson is back with another “Tempero Brasileiro” extensive selection of 30 rare tracks, this time focusing on the different Samba’s style and once more made out of 'Compactos' only!
Samba Jazz, Sambalanço, Bossa Nova, Samba Soul and Afro Sambas bliss on menu for this 80 minutes delight that will please your ears and make your day!

066° DIRTY CARIBBEAN JAZZ Vol.04 - selected by Les Mains Noires

Keeping on the French West Indies matter and four years after the previous volume, we are very happy to now present to you the 4th Dirty Caribbean Jazz volume!
It could actually be volume 3.2 since this selection is again 100% focused and composed of recordings from Guadeloupe and Martinique islands.
45 minutes made of the 13 best tracks from the 60’s and early 70’s we found in the last 4 years! Biguine Jazz, GwoKa, Guaracha, Serenade, Afro-Guajira and more… Enjoy!

065° BEL BIGUINE LA - selected by Les Mains Noires

At last! At last a new French West Indies compilation! And not the least!
We are very happy and quite proud to present “Bel Biguine La”, a special selection focusing on rare early Biguine dirty recordings from Guadeloupe and Martinique from late 50s and 60s!

12 rare tracks accompanied by liner notes about the songs, the musicians and the incredible Disques Emeraude, very first record label to record Guadeloupian music in Guadeloupe and run by Robert Mavounzy’s brother, Marcel Mavounzy.