We are excited to see the 360 ALLSTARS high-powered show will be in Sydney in a few months & will be hosted by everyone’s favourite hype mc. MIRRAH REFLECTS.
As well as hosting our gigs over the years, MIRRAH is also a part of some amazing musical and creative projects including this dope street-circus show that has been touring the world.
The show has been seen by over 1 million people around the world & sold out everything from BROADWAY, EDINBURGH FINGE FESTIVAL & SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE.
It features everything from BEATBOXING, MC’S, BMX, BREAK DANCE, DRUMMING & more & showcases a stellar cast of World Champion and World Record-holding artists & athletes.
360 ALLSTARS is a spectacular fusion of the extraordinary artistry that emerges from street culture. Add to this a stunning live soundtrack delivered by award-winning musicians, coupled with spectacular video projections, 360 ALLSTARS is as aurally exciting as it is visually astounding. A magnificent, colourful & astonishing expression of a generation that has reinvented the circus, 360 ALLSTARS is a revolutionary production that will leave you dizzy with excitement!
Wherever you are this Christmas we hope you are enjoying it with friends and family, here is a little CHRISTMAS FUNK playlist we put together a few years ago featuring holiday inspired FUNK, SOUL & HIP HOP by the likes of KURTIS BLOW, JAMES BROWN, TLC, SHARON JONES, WYCLEAF JEAN, ALOE BLACC & more.
Back in 2009 we connected with JAH TUNG when we were putting together a mixtape with Sydney-based music, he sent us some music he was working on which we have had on heavy rotation since. We connected again a few years later at gigs & slowly watched him grow in his craft as a musician & artist making dope home-grown Reggae & Roots music like this release from 2019 ‘QUEEN ALPHA’.
The release performed by Jah Tung with backing vocals from Yasmin Forester Everyday Riddim is a musical homage to a connection with a rare and righteous, Ethiopian Empress.
After many interruptions over the last few years, filming for this storyboard video was delayed and reformatted until finally, we are excited to bring you this charming video to compliment the classic song and to pay tribute and respect to the beauteous Ethiopian cultures, traditions and peoples. Sending love and light to all the Ethiopian community worldwide, now and always. Unity is strength! Gratitude to all those who helped this track and video off the ground!
We are loving this dope new release by our creative brother DJ JUZZLIKEDAT who has been releasing a stack of refined soul & jazz-infused original cuts under his musical production moniker JuzzOne.
The new cut is such a silky listen with effortless grooves, production, & polished vocals from Marcus Del Mar. Definitely the kind of sound you would expect from a dude who has spent his life digging for cuts & honing his ears.
We have seen brother DJ JUZZLIKEDAT doing his thing as a DJ for years, he was one of the main selectors who got on board & provided musical guidance to help us launch SOUL OF SYDNEY from those early days as a blog back in 2009. We used to listen to his Radio Shows, Podcasts & spent countless hours watching to his sets around Sydney, we all connected through music & it was him & a handful of others that really gave us confidence in what we were trying to do in those early years when we were just running a funk blog.
It’s such a mad feeling to see friends and fam doing their thing in life!
This new musical project is out on Inner Tribe Records, we highly recommend checking it out & heading to the launch party this weekend.
It been dope to see our local HIP HOP bar HUSTLE & FLOW doing these dope jams around the corner from our place. If you are around, they are hosting a SUNDDELY SMOOTH SUNDAY – CHRISTMAS PARTY celebration throwing down some dope HOP HOP, FUNK & REGGAE joints.
A tribute to 1980’s R&B singer JOYCE SIMS who sadly passed away last month aged 63. This homage is a hand-picked collection of classic jams from one of the finest voices of 1980’s R&B, freestyle, soul.
Joyce is most well known for her single Come Into My Life, which reached the top 10 in the US Billboard R&B Chart, and UK Singles Chart in 1987.
She went onto release several more tracks in the following years, such as Lifetime Love, Walk Away and Looking For a Love.
We hope you enjoy this mix remembering the music of the late JOYCE SIMS.
SOUL OF SYDNEY Mix 393
Tracklist 1. Joyce Sims – Don’t Let This Feeling die 2. Joyce Sims – it wasn’t easy 3. Joyce Sims – come into my life 4. Joyce Sims – come into my life (remix) 5. Joyce Sims – who’s crying now (club mix) 6. Joyce Sims – who’s crying now (radio mix) 7. Joyce Sims – all about love 8. Joyce Sims – crazy love 9. Joyce Sims – walk away 10. Joyce Sims – lifetime love 11. Joyce Sims – I surrender 12. Joyces Sims- all and all 13. Joyce sims – looking for a love (club version) 14. Joyce sims – here we go again 15. Joyce sims – I love you more 16. Joyce sims – walk away (house club mix) 17. Joyce sims – take caution with my heart (basement rock mix)
It is great to finally hear the finished version of this release which features some excellent friends of ours on production & vocals. Local legends OYOBI have come together with SUNDAY SANCTUARY host (& Soul of Sydney crowd favourite) ANDREW BUKENYA for this dope release which has been released on Groove Scooter Records. –
Two more unmissable OYOBI cover versions pressed to vinyl and exclusive to this 45. On one side they team up with soul vocalist BEN SEKALI for a gospel-tinged, Black Lives Matter-themed rethink of the overlooked Gap Band & Stevie Wonder tune ‘Someday (We’ll All Be Free)‘.
On the flipside, gregarious and much-loved Sydney singer (& Sunday Sanctuary) host ANDREW BUKENYA – who was one of George Benson’s back-up vocalists when he last played the Sydney Opera House – reciprocates the love Benson showed him on tour by covering the tune that propelled George Benson afresh into the British top-20 back in 1986: ‘Shiver‘.
Released on Groovescooter’s THR33-Thirty Seven imprint on 7″ vinyl.
Includes unlimited streaming of Someday / Shiver 7″ Vinyl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
It is lovely to see such amazing music coming out of our city, check out more from everyone below:
We love hearing new Sydney music, especially when it is from our good friends & creative fam.
Many will recognise Sam Hunter from various gigs we have all done together.. we all met a while ago through MIRRAH… he was her HYPE MAN, who popped up on stage as a guest a few times at our gigs as a teenager at some of those infamous GANG OF BROTHERS open mic NYD sessions & he has been one of a resident hosts on rotation at our own jams & DJ gigs over the last few years.
It’s been so mad to see this immensely talented, hard-working kid just grow in his craft, from emcee, singer, and musician away from hosting FUNK jams… the dude is such a mad creative force who is part of some pretty dope musical projects.
Check out this latest musical release he put out that hits right in the heart…. The a new release that came to fruition through some impromptu studio sessions in mid-2022 with MC SAM HUNTER, producer, Delipres, & vocalist JHELISA who all met through mutual friends & organically started to work on a few song ideas.. like it was all supposed to be.
Listen to the new release YOUTUBE & be sure to catch SAM HUNTER doing it live around town at his residency at HUSTLE & FLOW & a host of other venues.
Lovely to see our good friends GROOVE SCOOTER hosting this excellent FILM SCREENING of “Getting It Back – The Story of CYNAMDE” later this year at the GOLDEN AGE CINEMA for the ELECTRONIC MUSIC CONFERENCE (EMC)
GETTING IT BACK: THE STORY OF CYMANDE AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE Presented by Groovescooter for EMC Festival • 6.00pm, Fri Nov 25, 2022 • 8.10pm, Fri Nov 25, 2022 Hold tight for more sessions/cities
+ DJs in the bar playing Cymande and rare-groove gems till midnight
Fresh from SXSW and it’s London cinema debut, these Australian Premieres are the only chance to see this new film locally. Some call CYMANDE “the greatest band you’ve never heard of.” But even if you’re not one of the band’s legion of rare-groove collector fans around the globe, you’ve no doubt heard their signature tunes DOVE, BRA and THE MESSAGE a thousand times via samples in some of your favourite hip hop tunes. Cymande’s message-music is utterly unique, magical and irresistible. Formed in the early 70s, the group of BLACK CARIBBEAN musicians who first came together in South London, shared a common love of rhythm and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined JAZZ, FUNK, SOUL, AFRO-TROPICAL and CALYPSO grooves to form a sound unlike any other; both meditative and danceable. Their fusion of inspirations quite literally changed lives and shaped the development of music worldwide for the next five decades. Endorsed by every subsequent music movement since, and sampled by a who’s-who of hip hop (including THE FUGEES, WU TANG CLAN, DE LA SOUL and QUEEN LATIFAH) Cymande first found success in the USA and so many assumed they were African-American. They were instead the first British group to headline at New York’s famous APOLLO THEATRE, while everyone from AL GREEN and RAMSEY LEWIS to MANDRILL invited them to tour the States in the first few years of the seventies, also scoring them a coveted performance spot on TV’s SOUL TRAIN program. Back in Britain during those racially turbulent times however, they were largely met with indifference. Becoming disillusioned, they disbanded. But the music lives on, and as new generations of artists and producers imbibed or reworked the band’s pioneering sounds in fresh ways, the band were encouraged to return to touring and recording after forty years. For the first time on film, this is their story.
STARRING Cymande, Mark Ronson, Norman Jay MBE, Jazzie B, DJ Maseo of De La Soul, Jim James, Nicky Siano, Louie Vega (Masters At Work), Stones Throw’s Peanut Butter Wolf + many more, this is a story that goes beyond music to look at concepts of adaptation, racism, survival, ageing and revitalisation.
Groovescooter regularly premieres new music documentaries in Australia and also releases great music. Head to https://www.groovescooter.com/ for more info and sign up to our newsletter for giveaways and exclusive offers.
SOUL OF SYDNEY: Feel-Good FUNK SOUL DISCO & beyond. 