BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - MR BONGO
1983 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
2LP - KING UNDERGROUND
2008 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
RED
1LP - MR BONGO
1971 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - PUBLIC DOMAIN RECORDINGS
2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
2LP - MR BONGO
2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - MR BONGO
2006 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
2LP - MR BONGO
2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
12 INCH - MR BONGO
2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - MR BONGO
2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
7 INCH - MR BONGO
2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - MR BONGO
1976 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - MR BONGO
1976 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - MR BONGO
1978 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
7 INCH - MR BONGO
2022

SOLD OUT
3LP - SOUNDWAY RECORDS
2012

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - EXPANSION
2020

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - SELECT RECORDS
1991 => 2023

BIS => 2025 05 02
1LP - SELECT RECORDS
OPAQUE WHITE PRESSING
1988 => 2022

PRE ORDER => 2023 10 27
1LP - P-VINE
1975 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
7 INCH - EXPANSION
1977 => 2022

BIS => 2025 05 02
OPAQUE GREEN
1LP - NOW AGAIN
1974 => 2021

BIS => 2025 05 02
1LP - NOW AGAIN RECORDS
1976 => 2021

BIS => 2025 05 02
2LP - NOW-AGAIN RESERVE SERIES
1969 => 2021

BIS => 2025 05 02
2LP - NOW AGAIN
2020

1LP - NOW AGAIN
2021 01 22

BIS => 2025 05 02
1LP - NOW AGAIN
2015 => 2021

BIS => 2025 06 13
1LP - VAMPISOUL
2022

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - BBE
2020

BIS => 2025 05 16
3LP - BBE RECORDS
2021

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - DYMOND MINE RECORDS
2022

BIS => 2025 05 02
1LP - TUFF KONG RECORDS
2019 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
7 INCH - MR BONGO
2022

BIS => 2023 04 28
ORANGE
1LP - EBALUNGA!!!
1968 => 2021

BIS => 2023 04 28
3LP - EVERLAND
COLORED VINYL - HOUSED IN WOODEN BOX
2022

BIS => 2023 04 28
1LP - EVERLAND
2022

BIS => 2023 04 28
2LP - EVERLAND
2022

PRE ORDER => 2022 09 23
2LP - MR BONGO
2022

BIS => 2025 06 06
RED LIMITED
1LP - LEWIS RECORDS
2020

BIS => 2025 06 06
RED LIMITED
1LP - LEWIS RECORDS
2020

BIS => 2025 05 02
2LP - CRATE DIGGAS PALACE
2004 => 2022

BIS => 2024 02 02
12 INCH - FLY ALGARIC
RSD 2022 - DROP 2
2022

BIS => 2025 05 16
2LP - BBE
2019

BIS => 2025 05 02
1LP - NOW-AGAIN RECORDS
2021

BIS => 2025 06 06
2LP - WORLD PSYCHEDELIC FUNK CLASSICS
2010

BIS => 2025 05 02
1LP - NATURE SOUNDS
2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
CASSETTE - MOFUNK RECORDS
2023

BIS => 2025 06 06
RSD 2023
12 INCH - NATURE SOUNDS
PICTURE DISC
2023

BIS => 2024 02 02
1LP - KINGUNDERGROUND
2021

BIS => 2025 05 30
1LP - ACID JAZZ
2021

BIS => 2023 10 06
2LP - ANALOG AFRICA
2010

BIS => 2025 05 16
2LP - NOW-AGAIN
2014

TRACKLIST
A1 Introduction
A2 Push Na Ya
A3 El Gusto
A4 Transition >S<
A5 Karadeniz
A6 The Spirit Of Gine
B1 Transition >T<
B2 Girma's Lament
B3 Sharpville Massacre
B4 Samai Thaqil
C1 Jo Nibunga
C2 Omebele (Makossa)
C3 M'Hammad
C4 Transition >A<
C5 Who's Foolin' Who?
C6 Transition >C<
D1 Hymnin S
D2 Bring It On Down
D3 Mission Control
D4 Kaifa Part 1+2

DESCRIPTION
Karl Hector aka the German producer and guitarist JJ Whitefield, Whitefield is the visionary behind the Poets of Rhythm and the Whitefield Brothers, the ensembles whose rough analog sound and return to the funk archetypes of the late 60s to early 70s paved the way for labels like Daptone, Truth & Soul, Timmion. Whitefield, along with Thomas Myland and Zdenko Curlija, founded Karl Hector and The Malcouns in the early 2000s. Their debut, Sahara Swing, saw release on Now-Again in 2008. The album swung with influences from across the African diaspora and set the stage for a cult, but influential following. Festival promoters intrigued by the possibility of resurrecting the careers of once forgotten African mavericks from Ghana's Ebo Taylor to the progenitors of Zambia's Zamrock scene brought Hector and crew across Europe playing festivals for ecstatic fans. A grueling tour schedule made recording a follow up album to Sahara Swing quite the challenge, and as a result, the band opted to release limited edition, hand-silkscreened EP's, which continued to show their deft handling of musics from Eastern and Northern Africa alongside Western psychedelia, jazz and funk. Whitefield gave himself 2013 to finish the album that would become Unstraight Ahead, which will see release on Now-Again this summer. Unstraight Ahead finds the band exploring territories even outside of the expansive scope of Sahara Swing. On this album, the West African sounds of Ghana and Mali meet the East African sounds of Mulatu Astatke's Ethiopian jazz and are tied together with the groove heavy experimentalism of The Malcouns' 70s Krautrock godfathers: Can, of course, but also more obscure and equally adventurous groups like Agitation Free, Ibliss and Tomorrow's Gift. We look to Middle Eastern funk and psychedelic fusions, and to various ethnic records for sound and phrasing, Whitefield states. We're trying to combine the global experimentalism of Krautrock with the backbeat of funk. This explains how songs in uneven meters 5/4, 7/8 always sound so accessible and natural on Unstraight Ahead. It's mainly an instrumental affair, but guest artists appear throughout, from across the African diaspora to those from the worldly Krautrock forebears of their German fatherland: it's Marja, daughter of Embryo founder Christian Burchard, whose vocals open the album. It's an album out of time, one that couldn't have been made in the era its aural aesthetics reference, as its scope is so broad. But it's an album focused by funk and an ambition to expand funk's reaches. The Malcouns including Poets of Rhythm songwriter and vocalist Bo Baral - created their own instruments to fashion an album that stands alongside the great albums of its progenitors but charges Unstraight Ahead into a curious musical future.

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - MUTUAL INTENTIONS
2023

PRE ORDER => 2023 10 27
1LP - P-VINE
1967 => 2023

PRE ORDER => 2023 10 27
2LP - P-VINE
2023

PRE ORDER => 2023 10 27
1LP - P-VINE
1974 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - MOBILE HOME RECORDINGS
2022

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - RRC
2022

BIS => 2025 05 16
3LP - BBE
BLUE VINYL
2022 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - BBE
1986 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - BBE
1979 => 2022

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - BBE
2023

PRE ORDER => 2023 05 26
2LP - BBE
1980 => 2023

PRE ORDER => 2023 05 19
2LP - BBE
1974 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - BBE
1978 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - BBE
1978 => 2018

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
3LP - BBE
2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
7 INCH - SOMEOTHASHIP
COLOR = ORANGE CRUSH
2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - ACE RECORDS
2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
7 INCH - PANGEA INTERNATIONAL RECORDING
2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - NOW-AGAIN RECORDS
1972 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
COLOR = NEON VIOLET
1LP - TCF MUSIC GROUP
2022

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
COLOR = NEON GREEN
1LP - TCF MUSIC GROUP
2022

BIS => 2024 02 09
1LP - TIMEC / PARIS DJS
2018

BIS => 2025 06 06
RED VINYL
1LP - OVO SOUND
2016 => 2021

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1CD - BANG!
2008

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1CD - VAMPISOUL
2007

1CD - BRIXTON
SKA

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
COLOR = BLUE
LIMITED - 7INCH - COLD BUSTED
2020 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
140G CUSTOM ICY BLUE VINYL IN A STANDARD 12” JACKET
1LP - BACKWOODZ STUDIOZ
2021 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
LIMITED EDITION RED VINYL PRESSING 
1LP - NOW AGAIN
2020 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
LIMITED EDITION YELLOW VINYL PRESSING 
1LP - NOW-AGAIN RECORDS
1975 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1CD - COALMINE RECORDS
2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1LP - INNOVATIVE LEISURE
2016

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1CD - BRIXTON
2022

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1CD - BRIXTON
2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - ACE
2023

BIS => 2025 04 25
1CD - KENT
1970 => 2023

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
1CD - ACE
2023

12 May 2023
2LP
Mr Bongo Records
Brazil/Tropicalia

BIS => 2023 12 01
7 INCH - MR BONGO RECORDS
2023

20 October 2023
LP
Mr Bongo Records
Brazil / Bossa Nova / Samba / Jazz

13 October 2023
LP
Mr Bongo Records
Brazil / Bossa Nova / Samba / Jazz

BIS => 2023 12 01
2LP - MR BONGO RECORDS
2023

BIS => 2024 02 02
PINK INDIE ONLY
2LP - MR BONGO RECORDS
2023

2LP
RCA Records Label
2015
SOUL / FUNK / R&B INTER.

BIS => 2 / 3 WEEKS
2LP - S.M.A.L.L.
2003 => 2019

2LP
Saint Records/Columbia
2016
SOUL / FUNK / R&B INTER.

2LP - THIRD PARTY
1995

2LP
Epic
1998
RAP FRANCAIS

1LP
Tan Cressida/Columbia
2019
RAP INTERNATIONAL