The Heliocentrics Vinyl, CD & tapes by The Heliocentrics at Norman Records

13 Degrees Of Reality was the Heliocentrics second album originally released in 2012. Their debut Out There had been a magnificent mix of funk, jazz, krautrock and Music Concrete but the band took things further on an album which took in influences from Afrobeat and Latin music. They have many admirers with Madlib, DJ Shadow and Mulatu Astatke all self confessed fans of their work. Now is the time to join that queue if you haven't already. 

Hot on the heels of their joyous collaborative 2LP with Afrobeat trailblazer Orlando Julius, London's leftfield funk heroes Heliocentrics are at it again, this time on an LP with Melvin Van Peebles, a filmmaker, musician and author best known for his Brer Soul trilogy of albums in the '70s and for writing, producing, scoring, directing and starring in the 1971 film 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song'. The result is an interplanetary space/love odyssey which the band consider their defining work.

The Heliocentrics pull tracks from their collaboration with Gaslamp Killer (the HELIO X GLK EP) fully into the light, with a set of selections recorded in their old Quartermass Studios. This stuff kicks out real funky and real psychy, drawing the listener into grooving space journeys. Tasty stuff. LP release on Now-Again.

Soundtrack to The Sunshine Makers, a documentary from the makers of Searching For Sugarman about two notorious LSD producers in the 60s and the beginnings of the war on drugs. The Heliocentrics are regular releasers through the once sub-label of Stones Throw, Now-Again. Their mix of psychedelic rock, jazz, funk and hip-hop is perfectly placed for a soundtrack such as this.

The Heliocentric, renowned for their collaborations with Mulatu Astake and Dj Shadow (among others), here add a new singer to their rich international brew, in the form of Barbora Patkova from Slovakia. A World Of Masks is another adventure in sound, mostly improvised, from a group who contain multitudes. Out on Soundway.

One of the legendary pioneers of Afrobeat, Orlando Julius was among the first Nigerian musicians to mix-up highlife with American R&B in the mid '60s. Here he teams up with encyclopaedic experimental funk adventurers, The Heliocentrics. Going straight to the roots of Julius' earlist experiences and drawing from the rawness of some of his earliest compositions, the group gives the songs a progressive reworking with inventive new arrangements and a liberal sprinkling of psychedelia.

Lloyd Miller teaming up with The Heliocentrics, eh? Wonder what that’s going to sound like. Oh wait … yep, exactly like that. (OST) finds the hip young jazzers breathing new life into Miller’s East-gazing style. The group’s Sun Ra-indebted modalism proves a good foil for the Middle Eastern/Arabian explorations of Miller. Out via Strut.