Their second album “Rincon Boyz Goes International” which contains the mega hit “Porfin tin un homber!” (Finally there is a man!) was an instant success and became the number one song of the year 2010!

“Rincon Boyz Crème de la Crème” is the name of their 3rd release which receives massive airplay on all local radio stations. The Boyz’ very own distinctive sound that they developed over the years became even more distinguished.
In 2011 the lead singer of Rincon Boyz won “Rey di Tumba” during Aruba Carnival.

At the moment they’re busy recording their 4th album which is supposed to be released at the end of April especially for “Dia di Rincon” (Rincon Day) a huge international folk festival held on Rincon, a town on the island of Bonaire on the 30th of April and where the majority of the musicans originate from.

Nowadays, thanks to their enormous popularity and success at home and abroad, the group performs almost every day including every Sunday which was the only day during the week that they’ve originally intended to perform!
Two of their albums are now being released internationally by Faluma. “Rincon Boyz Goes International” and “Rincon Boyz Crème de la Crème” will be made available worldwide digitally in May 2011. We’ll keep you posted.

Faluma proudly presents the latest album “The Last Badjohn of Calypso” of the 2010 Calypso Monarch of Trinidad & Tobago, Kurt Allen. With his sharp-tongued political commentary “Too Bright” (featured as live and as studio version on this album, he overwhelmingly convinced the audience as well as the jury.
Kurt Allen began his career as a Calypsonian in 1983 at the Junior Calypso Monarch competion in Trinidad with the song “The Budget”.
From early he displayed his skills as a composer, writing songs for himself as well as his counterparts.
In 1999 he also started to sing Soca and instantly copped Soca Monarch title with the uptempo track “Dus’ Dem”.
The title of Calypso Monarch of Trinidad and Tobago 2010 is another peak of his career as an artist.
The talent for music seems to run in the Allen-Family, Kurt Allen’s daughter Choc’lat Allen is very prominent herself in the music scene in the homeland of Soca & Calypso as well as youth activists and one of the youngest CEOs of a nonprofit organisation (Caribbean Vizion) ever heard of.
Father and daughter share the idea of entertainment with a deeper message. Hence you will not only be intrigued by the beautiful music but also by witty lyrics with a dash of humour and a lot of food for thought on Kurt Allen’s ingenious 2010 album.
“The Last Badjohn of Calypso” is now available in all major download stores. You can find the download links on our label blog.

Enjoy Kurt Allen’s winning Calypso Monarch performance here:

Hi Gerald, maybe you can start by introducing yourself

I’m Gerald Clarinda and I’m from the Netherlands Antilles. For those of you who don’t know about the Netherlands Antilles, we are a former Dutch colony consisting of six islands in the Caribbean, three of them close to the coast of Venezuela and the others are on the other side of the archipelago close to Puerto Rico.
We play all different kinds of music on these islands. Throughout the centuries everybody from different countries passed by…except Germans…nah just kidding, we do have some Germans living there. And everyone left their influence behind. That is typical for all the Caribbean countries, for example the African influence is everywhere. So through the years it makes a remix, a nice remix. We could call it that way.
I come from a big family of musicians. I started music when I was three or four years old. I was playing folklore music.

What kind of folklore music?

Our folklore music has a typical African style bass with a little European touch. We have the Vienna waltz for instance. We also call it the waltz, but it is Africanized. We have the Mazurka, we have a polka (done our way) and the “hardcore” African folklore played with African drums with words in Papiamentu.

Papiamentu, our local language is a mix of different languages with a Portuguese base. According to our history, one of the first settlers on our islands were Jewish people from Portugal. During the time of the inquisition, they all fled to Holland and from Holland to the Caribbean. So they came with a Portuguese slang. Then everybody else came and everbody did their contribution to the language and it became Papiamentu. This is basically a language everyone can understand, and that is why we use it in our folklore music.
When I was young, I had many aspirations. I wanted to become a pilot, that was always my dream.
The music was in my genes and went automatically and I never thought that I would do something big with it. But a cousin of mine went to study on another island, and there he played with a very popular band of that time. I loved that so I said hey, I would like to try that too.
That is what gave me the inspirations to go more deep into music. I took piano lessons and I taught myself a few things.

What instrument did you originally play?

I used to play the xylophone, and also percussion. The african style of drums. Then afterwards I started to take piano lessons and I learned to play the bass. I used to play trumpet before…you name it.

After college I didn’t have the financing to go and study to be a pilot, so what I did was go to the States and do music college. That is where I did my jazz music, I played bass. Then I went back to Aruba and played in a hotel then started playing with a band that was quite popular at that time.

What was the name of the band?

The band was called S-United and we used to play soca. Not only soca, we would also play compa, merengue, and stuff like that. Maybe also a little salsa, but mostly soca. We played mostly soca because in Aruba, there were lots of West Indians, who came in the beginning on the former century to work at the refinery, so of course they brought music with them.
In Aruba we have 56 years of carnival, so I grew up listening to soca. I was really fortunate to be born and raised there, with all these cultures. My neighbor in front of me was Indian, the one in the back Haitian, next to me was Antillean, left to me was Dominican. So we had a little bit of everything.

I finally got a scholarship for a university in Holland, so I went there to study to become a pilot. I did that for two years, but I realized I was more busy with music than doing the piloting stuff. I would do my schoolwork during the week, and travel to play on the weekends.

What kind of music were you playing while you were studying in Holland?

I went to lots of jam sessions. I’d just say I was a musician then go and participate and do some networking. By that time I started to do a lot of freelancing. At that time I used to read music very good. Now i’ve gotten lazy. In those days you could put a newspaper in front of me and I’d play it! Because of that, there were a lot of people interested. They’d call me for a lot for salsa & merengue gigs and various other styles of music. Then after the two years I went back to Curaçao to do my piloting job.

In Curaçao I was mostly into jazz. The folklore thing was nice, but I wanted to do something different. Something that I could train for and develop myself. After a while I went back to Holland and got a good job with KLM. During the beginning of KLM I had some off-time so I went to study a world music course at the Rotterdam conservatory for three and a half years. There they didn’t teach you not to mix, but they give you all the information, the history. That was the start of my experiment.

I was still freelancing with all kinds of different musicians, then I went to play with this band called Cachito La Ritmica 93′. It was a band of mostly Dutch people, a lot of guys from the conservatory. The main vocalist was a guy from Uruguay called Cachito Vaz. He is the one that sang on my first international hit called “Solo Tu y Yo”.

In 99′ I finally started to record my own stuff as a soloist. I started my first recording called Cachumba. I sent it to a record label in Holland and they loved it and they said they wanted to buy it immediately.

After my first album was released on this label, we had grown a lot of attention from abroad. By now the band had grown apart, so I kept the name (because it was a part of me), and with that we developed it into what we are now. It was a really nice period. We were really busy, playing all over the place.

Were you still doing this pilot job?

Yeah! I organized my schedule most of the time so I could be at all my gigs. It worked out very well. With La Ritmica we have about 9-10 albums, 2 or 3 singles and 2 DVDs. We had songs that grew a lot of attention internationally. We are still trying to go forward, and now we are at Faluma!

What does La ritmica stand for?

We consider ourselves as representatives of the Caribbean. That’s why we came up with our concept of Caribbean fusion. Caribbean fusion is just the Antillean culture.
If you hear a merengue or salsa band, they play only merengue or salsa. When they try to play something different it sounds a bit funny. But with La Ritmica, we are made of many different cultures and have been able to fuse these different sounds together, and that is the itentity of La Ritmica. That is the message we would like to bring forward with our music to the world.

I think the main difference to others is, you don’t try to copy these cultures, you are really part of them

That’s right we are really part of this cultures and it reflects on our language, our food, etc.

Do you see new influences? Where do you wish to be in the future?

We’d like the keep going the same way we are going. Continuing to fuse the affluences and try to be heard on all the islands. Our biggest wish is to perform a tour each year on all the islands in the whole archipelago. Start in Miami and finish iin Aruba, passing through Cuba, St. Martin, Trinidad and so on. We are going to be there soon, I hope. I have a feeling. It’s just a matter of continuing. It’s not easy, but that is the aim. I think that being with you guys at Faluma is an interesting platform for people around the globe to get to know our music and culture.

Are the other band members from the same islands?

Our rhythm section is mostly Antillean. We have two germans on our brass section. We have a cuban playing the trumpet. One of our lead vocalists is from columbia. He is a very important part of our band when we are performing to the latin tunes. Especially the salsa stuff. If you really want it to sound latin, you need a latin vocalist.

I really find it interesting that there are so many different languages on your album, do you really speak them?

I speak all of the languages. It think that is also part of growing up around all these cultures, you really pick up the languages. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll make a Caribbean song in German! That would be nice.

Are you writing most of these songs?

Sometimes I do, sometimes people from outside. Mostly arrangements and compositions I do, so most of the sounds you hear, thats me.

So how do you start when you want to do a new song?

It comes just like that. Most of the inspiration comes when I’m a t 20 thousand feet. My eldest daughter lives in Aruba, and I haven’t seen her in many years, and I started writing a song called “Thinking of You,” simple as that. I just had the theme but I didn’t work it out. So yesterday I had a dream, and I dreamt of her and the tune came again, the melody, lyrics and everything… “When I see the stars, I think about you. When the ocean is between us, I think about you”…

Speaking of the lyrics, what are you talking about in your songs?

It depends, songs that I really do like are socio-political. Not hardcore political, but stuff that reflects all people. But I also make songs about carnival. They are fun and not so intellectual. We also made one about the gulf war, the Americans going to Iraq. I really liked the military vibe of the tune and we associated it with carnival.

So can we also see La Ritmica in the carnival environment?

Yes, this year we will be part of the Rotterdam carnival. We used to sing on the mainstage but not in the parade itself so this will be the first time we participate in the street parade

Thanks a lot for the interview, Gerald and we plan to see you at the Rotterdam carnival for sure!
Check out his releases available in all major download stores:

http://label.faluma.com/our-partners/la-ritmica/

and his latest tune “Disiz da Bomb!” that did very well at St Marteen and Berlin carnival:

Gerald – The bomb by Faluma

As the name implies Faluma Africa specialises on the sound of the African continent. Fully aware that this is an extremely wide and versatile field, Faluma Africa intends only to pick out some pearls of the sheer enormity of musical output from this vast geographic unit.
With the background of being specialists for Caribbean music such as Soca, Calypso, Rasin and Reggae, Faluma always kept in mind the great influence especially West African musical traditions had on all Caribbean music styles. Brought to the West Indies with the slaves, the rythms of the lost motherland are still present in the contemporary Caribbean music.
Building a musical trans-atlantic bridge is a major aim of Faluma Africa. Thus the label not only releases and distributes music of African artists, but also plans to connect artists from both parts of the world for fruitful cooperartions, remixes and creative exchange.
Therefore the second release of Faluma Africa, the world cup compilation Laduma! is going to feature artists from Africa, the Americas and Europe in fantastic musical unity.

However first of all Faluma Africa proudly presents “Pink Chokolate!” by the Namibian superstar Lady May.

Her sound is packed with modern international influences and traditions of her country. For this unique blend of Afropop, R&B and traditional music from her home, the north of Namibia, Lady May was awarded at the pan-African Channel O Music Award in 2008 and 2009. She had a guest appearance at Big Brother Africa, that made her even more known all across the continent. Faluma Africa now makes her music available worldwide and we want to spread the word: this young lady is hot, her music is hot and y’all should know it!
Her outfits, dancing skills and stage presence are as infamous as they are captivating. There is no way to escape her and there is no way you want to get away once you’ve met this bundle of energy! Be sure to be seduced by her extraordinary voice, her laugh, her style, her music!

Please find the download links on label.faluma.com.

Lady May – Dingori by Faluma

Lady May – Allergic by Faluma

Although Faluma is specialized on Soca, Calypso and Pan, we are open for all the other beautiful musical styles the Caribbean islands offer to the world. When we met Gerald Clarinda earlier in 2010 it was obvious in an instant that we share a vision with him and his band La Ritmica.
The islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, the last two still forming part of The Netherlands Antilles, is where the majority of La Ritmica’s band members originate, were for centuries and still to this day is a meeting point for different cultures such as Indigenous, African, Dutch, Spanish, English, Portuguese and many others. This cultural melting pot clearly reflects in the music of La Ritmica, which is a fresh blend of Latin, French and British West Indian music performed on a solid base of Afro Antillean folk music, with a touch of Jazz and R&B. This unique concept is known as Caribbean fusion and this is also the name of the band’s latest release. The idea of incorporating all the great influences, traditions and musical styles of the Caribbean to one beautiful sound – just the way La Ritmica is doing it – is wholeheartedly supported by Faluma.
While keeping a special love for the smaller islands, we’ve featured artists from all over the Caribbean and beyond. Our goal is to popularize and push these sounds around the globe. We think Caribbean music speaks a universal language. It is easily understood around the world, no matter what language the lyrics are in. It is the feel good, body groovin’, waist rollin’, sound that just makes you want to move!
La Ritmica definitely speaks this language, and stands for a wonderful unity of Caribbean and other beloved sounds. The bandleader Gerald Clarinda is an extremely versatile musician. He is not only proficient in the musical folklore of his birthplace, the Netherlands Antilles, but he also studied Jazz in the US and is an expert when it comes to the fusion of all kinds of Latin-American, Afro-Cuban and various other Caribbean styles.
Some of the songs on La Ritmica presents Caribbean Fusion are performed in Spanish and some in Papiamentu, the national language spoken on the Netherlands Antilles. It is La Ritmica’s latest release that is now made digitally available throughout the net in cooperation with Faluma.

This release was recorded live in 2008 during the celebration of “Dia di Boneiru” or Bonaireday, a yearly event held on every first Sunday of September, celebrating the national day of the island of Bonaire. In this production, La Ritmica introduces their new concept Caribbean Fusion, a mixture of all the Caribbean rhythms with Afro Dutch Antillean folk music and contemporary music which results in a crispy, tasty and innovative sound with heavy rhythmical grooves!

The second release of La Ritmica that is being made available for download by Faluma is Subie!, the latest hit single by La Ritmica that features the Antillian rappers K-Liber4Life. Subie! introduces a fresh blend of New York-salsa, merengue , Arubian and Antillian folklore music, soca, hip-hop and modern Brazilian music.

These two 2009 releases are just the start – we have many more albums by Gerald and La Ritmica in the pipeline. We’ll keep you posted about that!

We hope you’re as excited as we are! Caribbean Fusion and Subie! can be found at the Faluma Download Store and Caribbean Fusion is also available as DVD & CD here. And will be hitting all download stores April 9! Let’s get this party started off right!

Let’s all play a “wicked jab” and get the maddest riddim of 2010 here!

However this isn’t all: Island Traffic Ent are producing riddims like crazy and gave us another two with loads of fantastic tunes to distribute digitally. Both plus two bonus tracks are compiled on a sampler called No Control: Pot Turn Down Riddim and Rum & Gall Riddim. The Pot Turn Down Riddim is packed with more crazy jab jab tunes and has the power to make the crowds go mad, while the Rum & Gall Riddim is a little more mellow, just right do wine your waist accompanied by – well, rum and girls!
Go and get the riddim compilation here and loose control!

KAGE AND TREZUM – SUSHI (Pot Turn Down Riddim ) by Faluma

SHARRIE – HEAVY T BUMPER (Rum & Gall Riddim) by Faluma

You can read on about the Island Traffic crew on Yo!Magazine.

In case you ever wondered how soca with Swedish lyrics might sound, please listen to Farmor Sväng (Nani Wine) and enjoy!

Farmor Sväng (Nani Wine)


Please find the download links here:
Soca Rebels feat. Shirlane Hendrickson – Raw Soca
Soca Rebels – Soca Nation