Sound Affects
Bottletop's compilation album series, Sound Affects, sets out to generate funds for Bottletop's projects but it also attempts to go beyond this.
By bringing you a selection of the best music from areas of the world that we are supporting, we are able to give you a crucial snapshot of the culture through the music. We then take this a step further by recruiting exciting DJ'd and producers to rework the music, adding a unique, contemporary edge which both creates new music and a hybrid sound of our culture merging with theirs.
Volume 1: Africa
The original material on disc 1 comes primarily from Ghana and Nigeria. Afrobeat, which came to the fore in the late sixties, with artists like the great Fela Anikulapo Kuti, is an African sound fusing swing, jazz, funk, rock and soaring vocals with traditional native rhythms. The ten tracks we finally chose for this album stand alone as a unique body of work, created by many of Afrobeat's most accomplished artists.
Remixers include Adam Freeland, Paul Oakenfold, Quantic, Way Out West and Radio Slave.
Volume 2: Brazil
Sound Affects: Brazil was compiled with the support of Mr Bongo Records and sets out to cross the lush musical soundscape of Brazil, in terms of both classic and contemporary tracks across a range of styles including samba, funk carioca, bossa jazz and baille funk.
Remixers include Fatboy Slim, Jazzanova, Fink, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Nu:Tone and Bonobo.
The remixes on both albums are an eclectic combination of tracks for the dance-floor, car and lounge alike. With the added complication of having to work with old material, often without any parts, the job of remixing the music was never going to be easy. Despite this, each remixing artist eventually found his own way in to the music, often using varied production techniques. The outcome speaks for itself. These outstanding artists have donated their time and energy to Bottletop, bringing us an exciting new spin on African and Brazilian music in the process.
"Album of the Week" - Independent
" Amazing Music" - Bob Geldof
"Exhilarating" - Michael Eavis
" A dance 'must have'!" - Paul Oakenfold
"A truly inspirational album for a groundbreaking charity" - Fatboy Slim
This is what Harry Johnstone from leading Music and Culture website 'Mondomix' thought of Sound Affects:
"Bottletop have produced two albums, the first, ‘Sound Affects: Africa’, focused on Ghanaian and Nigerian Afrobeat, and the second, ‘Sounds Affects: Brazil’, is a compilation of the country’s classic and contemporary sounds. Both albums also feature high profile remixes, tracks contributed for free by the likes of Fatboy Slim, Bonobo, Adam Freeland, Paul Oakenfold and Quantic.
Both compilations are full of old rarities, such as Ghanaian keyboard player Ernest Honny’s 1973 ‘Psychedelic Woman’. The African album also contains celebrated saxophonist, flautist and composer Kayode Olajide’s ‘Olufela’ and fellow Nigerian legend Orlando Julius’ anti-racism song ‘Selma to Soweto’. The album is a valuable resource for those looking to explore deeper into the realms of the renascent Afrobeat genre, whose popularity has lately been revived with the rise of Fela Kuti offspring Seun and Femi and the acclaimed re-emergence of Tony Allen.
The enormously diverse Brazil album was put together with the help of the specialists at Mr Bongo Recordings. The first track by Amazonas, ‘Batida do Corpo’, is Portuguese for Beat of the Body – all the strange percussive sounds evoking jungle canopies are made by people. ‘Cosinha II’ was produced by Dom Um Romão, the bossa-jazz drum stylist who played with the likes of Sérgio Mendes and Astrud Gilberto. ‘Ingeção’ by favela songstress Deise Tigrona captures the energy and originality of the contemporary Brazilian music known as Funk Carioca. Using rapid beats and the horn riff from Rocky, this track was a big inspiration for British artist M.I.A....
The Bottletop model has credibility. Combining great music, hip fashion and the loftiest ideals, Bottletop funds sustainable community projects to effect real change at a local level - who wouldn’t back them?"