Tag: Neal Sugarman

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past 15 years, Finnish indie soul label Timmion Records have developed a reputation for being one of the preeminent soul labels in the international scene, as they’ve released some of the most exciting batches of material around. Interestingly, the Finnish indie label has developed and enjoyed a long-held kingship with world famous soul label, Daptone Records centered on mutual respect and a shared love of all thing soul music. While Daptone has distributed a number of Timmion Records titles internationally, the Brooklyn-based label will be partnering with the Finnish label on a much larger scale.

With the forthcoming release of Bad Education, Vol 1. on July 19, 2019, Daptone Records hope to give wider exposure to the Timmion Records catalog with a carefully curated list of 10 of world famous, Brooklyn-based label’s favorite Timmion tracks over the past few years — both released and previously unreleased. Interestingly, the compilations’ first single is Wanda Felicia’s slow-burning, classic soul ballad “Until You’re Mine.” Centered around an simple, two-step inducing arrangement featuring mournful horns, soaring organ keys and shuffling drumming, the track is spacious enough for Wanda Felica’s effortlessly soulful yet emotionally raw vocals (which express heartache and longing simultaneously). “Timmion Records has secured their place in the history of Soul music as one of the great indie labels creating raw emotional, soulful music, and Wanda Felicia’s ‘Until You’re Mine’ is proof of that,” Daptone Records co-founder Neal Sugarman says in press notes. “Her singing is raw and natural without relying on the added inflection and vocal acrobatics that most modern singers have adapted to cover up for the lack of a solid melody that good, simple song writing should have. Wanda and the Timmion production team have clearly nailed it, once again!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Daptone Records Release an All-Star Collaboration to Celebrate Their 100th 45RPM Single

The renowned indie soul label Daptone Records was founded back in 2001 when its founders, Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman wanted to build a new home for their bands’ respective releases after Desco Records folded. Shortly, after label’s founding, Roth, Sugarman, Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones and a collection of artists found an unassuming, beaten up, two family 19th Century brownstone in Bushwick, Brooklyn that would eventually become the home to their new label and their famed House of Soul Studios. And through the release of 50 full-length albums and about 100 singles on 45RPM, the Brooklyn-based soul label built a globally recognized reputation for its discerning tastes and uncompromising standards of quality, realizing exceptionally well-crafted and thoughtful soul records, made by a close family of musicians, who share a common musical philosophy, vocabulary and integrity. 

Since their formation, the label has sold over a million records from their roster of artists including JOVM mainstays Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, The Budos Band, Antibalas, Menahan Street Band, The Sugarman 3 and Naomi Shelton. Although many of the label’s artists have never quite achieved mainstream pop status, the label’s roster have managed to influence artists and labels around the world, including the likes of Amy Winehouse, who worked with The Dap Kings on her seminal album Back to Black, as well as Mark Ronson and Jay-Z, who have tapped the label’s sound for some of their biggest hits. 

Daptone’s 100th 45RPM release is slated for a June 28, 2019 release. And interestingly, the  A-side single “Hey Brother,” which is credited to the Daptone Family features a a historic and unprecedented collaboration of the label’s roster of incredible talent, including the late and beloved monarchs of the soul, Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, as well as Saun & Starr, The Frightnrs, James Hunter, Naomi Shelton, Amayo and Lee Fields performing together for the first and only time on record. The single finds each of those artists singing a powerful and much-needed message of righteousness and brotherhood over a What’s Going On Marvin Gaye-era like groove played by members of The Dap Kings and Menahan Street Band. 

Written and recorded by The Frightnrs, “Hey Brother (Do Unto Others)” initially appeared on their acclaimed full-length debut, Nothing More to Say. With the band’s Dan Klein tragic death from ALS just before the album’s release, the label and its artists felt it would be both a thank you to the label’s deeply devoted fans and a fitting tribute to Klein to re-imagine the track as a soulful, All-Star team-like collaboration. Sadly, in the aftermath of the deaths of Charles Bradley, Dan Klein, Cliff Driver and Sharon Jones, the single has become a meditative and loving tribute to all of the artists they’ve lost in a tremendously short period of time. 

“Everybody seemed to really love the idea of being together on a record like that,” Gabriel Roth recently told Billboard. “Every one of those singers that I asked, after I explained what we were trying to do. they really jumped through hoops to try to make it happen.”