BEST OF

Tracklisting: 1 African Queen 7:15 2 Allez Allez 5:35 3 She's Stirring Up 3:40 4 Marathon Dance 2:58 5 Turn Up The Meter 4:40 6 Valley Of The Kings 5:38 7 Wrap Your Legs (Around Your Head) 4:55 8 Flesh & Blood 5:37 9 African Queen (Quiet Village Dub) 8:00 10 Allez Allez (Aeroplane Remix) 8:12 11 She's Stirring Up (An Optimo (Espacio) Drum Attack Mix) 6:54 12 Allez Allez (Lindstrom & Prins Thomas Remix) 12:05 Info: Allez Allez are one of those early 80s hidden gems of the Belgian new wave dance scene who shone so brightly for a few years (81  85) and then were gone  but not forgotten! Based around the writing and production nucleus of Brussels based Kristiaan Debusscher and Nicolas Fransolet a third dimension was added by American vocalist Sarah Osbourne and early hi-tempo hits such as ˜African Queen™, ˜Allez Allez™ and ˜She™s Stirring Up™ became global club classics. Allez Allez were the funky follow-up to the Brussels-based collective Marine. Meaning "well, well" or, with a different intonation "Go! Go!" Allez Allez were briefly a very successful act. The trademarks of Allez Allez were highly danceable and catchy rhythms, African influences and high quality singing. Together, this formed a powerful and funky mixture. The group were fronted by the American singer Sarah Osbourne, who came to Belgium with her group Repetition and signed to "Les Disques du Crépuscule", the same label as Allez Allez™s previous incarnation, Marine. The bands debut mini album ˜African Queen™ promptly went gold and in November that year they recorded a full album in the John Foxx™s studio with production handled by Heaven17-mastermind Martin Ware. šPromises™ was a more refined funk-album with soul-influences and the road for an international breakthrough seemed open. Then singer Sarah Osbourne left the group and married the singer of Heaven 17, Glenn Gregory (they divorced three years later). A replacement was found in the Afro-American Jackie Irwin of New York but she never managed to truly replace the sensual and flexible Sarah and although it was produced by the discoverer of Madonna, Mark Kamins, the following 12'' ˜Boom Boom™ flopped. Techno fans may also be interested to know that Sarah Osbourne (Gregory) later found herself in Detroit on the cusp of techno™s evolution and as well as painting a mural on the east wall of Detroit's legendary Music Institute, she also painted a cover for Rhythim Is Rhythim's ˜The Beginning™ and ultimately sang vocals on a number of Carl Craig tracks including ˜Crackdown™ and ˜As Time Goes By™ as well as on Heaven 17™s ˜The Luxury Gap™ album. Now, for the first time, some 25 years later, Eskimo bring you the Best of Allez Allez. Including bonus remixes from contemporary producer fans like Quiet Village (aka Matt Edwards and Joel Martin), Aeroplane, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas and Optimo (Espacio) you can check the funky, African-inspired new wave rhythms of one of Belgium™s finest dance exports. Press pictures of the band in the early 80s were taken by legendary photographer and now film maker Anton Corbijn, responsible for seminal pictures of Joy Division, U2 and Nirvana amongst others and the new Joy Division film ˜Control™. www.eskimorecordings.com - www.myspace.com/bestofallezallez