Flamingo Star – Nothing Sweeta

BUY from JUNO Records

Not only Café Del Mar-Legend José Padilla is among his fans, but also colleagues like Ralf and Foh from Mo´Horizons with whom he not only shares his Hometown (Hannover), but also an affectation for danceable music with substance: Latin meets Disco, exotic beats meet vintage funk and soul vibes, jazz hits the dancefloor and this is just the beginning…

It is for a reason that his fellow campaigners and fans know him by the name of Matthias “Hit” Becker, because the multiinstrumentalist and composer behind the Band/ Project FLAMINGO STAR has a unmistakable feeling for Hooks and Grooves – his music makes you tap your feet just as elegantly as it sneaks into your ears.

After his celebrated debut-longplayer I Wouldn’t Wait No Longer (peal 017, 2007) and dozens of very prominent compilation-placements (for example on José Padilla’s Bella Musica Series as well as several Brazilelectro, Brazilution and Bar Lounge Classics), the man from a different (Flamingo) star went AWOL for a while, traveling – as it turned out – in outer space. Although out of range of our tracking devices he was by no means inactive, but rather phoned home (like E.T.) every once in a while to play us some new great melodies. And so it happens that just about five years after his first, FLAMINGO STAR’s 2nd longplayer Nothing Sweeta is to finally see the light of day under our earthly autumn sun.

For the title track, Matthias’s old friends Ralf and Foh aka Mo’Horizons created an excellent “Hippie remix”. The vocals belong to Jazz Diva Alison Degbe, formerly based in Cologne and now living in Munich. She and Matthias met over two years ago in the course of a peacelounge Label Event. Apparently they hit it off well, musically, because Miss Degbe ended up performing not just one, but four (and a ‘half’) Songs on the album as a featured artist: Apart from “Nothing Sweeta”,Alison lends her trademark voice to the ballad “There’s A Place” and also sings the Blues-inspired “Leave Me Alone” as well as the midtempo jazz number “No More Trouble” and last, but not least – backing vocals for Rafael Wilke’s happy summer song “Won’t You Come Into My Life”. Rafael sings another potential FS hit, namely “Cosmic Plan”. This one takes off as a BlueEyed Soul-Pop-Ballad and – while airborne – the track evolves into a heavy grooving Vintage Funk-number. Another ‘old’ musical companion and vocalist for Flamingo Star is Marco Hauburg, whose strong, soulful and versatile voice can be heard on “The Messengers”, a massive space-funk downtempo track also featuring Matthias himself working the vocoder.

Instead of going into greater detail on each and every one of the sixteen tracks of NOTHING SWEETA, we want to direct your attention to one of the few pieces where the master’s voice can be heard (again, filtered through some space age technical device): “Saw A UFO Today” best described album’s secret theme song. This Retro-Disco-Boogie Track with a classic ‘Roswell’-feeling can be watched on video (Youtube) as well as on various Web TV and other music channels.

Tracklisting:

01. Nothing Sweeta (feat. Alison Degbe) 03:31
02. Saw A UFO today 03:43
03. Sooner Or Later 03:58
04. There’s A Place (feat. Alison Degbe) 04:00
05. The Messengers (feat. Marko Hauburg) 04:31
06. Lovely Dream 04:02
07. Won’t You Come Into My Life (feat. Rafael Wilke) 03:51
08. Un Poema Con Amor 04:13
09. Leave Me Alone (feat. Alison Degbe) 03:34
10. You Don’t Know 04:32
11. No More Trouble (feat. Alison Degbe) 04:52
12. Syncrostar 06:11
13. Cosmic Plan (feat. Rafael Wilke) 05:35
14. Cornelita 03:58
15. Old Pictures 05:04
16. Nothing Sweeta mo’horizons hippie remix 04:25

additional credits:
04 drums : Dirk Erchinger
05 bass: Margot Gontarski, vocoder: FS
06 vocoder: FS
07 chorus: Alison Degbe, vocoder: FS
08 trumpet: FS
10 bass: Margot Gontarski, vocoder: FS, claps: Sugarhat
13 drums: Dirk Erchinger, perc: Marc Amadeus Figge, bass: Björn Teubner, chorus: Iyabo & Nina
14 additional drums: Lars ‚Soulsurfer’ Heindorf

Nothing Sweeta will be released on CD und Download

(with iTunes Bonus Track “Only Dancing”)

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