Cynthia - Let's Dance With Cynthia / Once Again
"Surinam is one of the least known countries in the Caribbean region, and even fewer people are aware of the South-Asian community living here. Nevertheless the “Hindustanis”, as they are locally known, are among the musically most productive communities in the world, with an enormous output of mostly self released music. And like anywhere else, the disco craze of the 1970s also left its footprint here. While most Indo-Surinamese music is folk oriented, the young singer Cynthia Bhikharie recorded in 1980 two stunning slices of Caribbean Disco that have a completely unique take on the genre The unusualness and minimalism of these tracks are reminiscent of that other Indo-Caribbean disco UFO: Lata Ramasar’s The Greatest Name That Lives. And they share some other features too. Besides the original records being possibly even rarer than the Ramasar 12”, both musical projects were also directed by musical fathers who involved their whole families in the music production, and who released their prolific output on self-run labels. Both fathers groomed their daughters into stars, making occasional excursions into to the realm of disco. Cynthia’s Indo-Surinamese take on disco is as close to the Amazon as it is to India. It’s bass loaded and deeply tropical, with a sound hinting as much to dub as to Bollywood disco.
LIMITED 12” EDITION IN HEAVY PVC SLEEVE. The new Amsterdam based label VINTAGE VOUDOU focuses on re-releasing a carefully picked selection of rare tropical music on vinyl, paying special attention to sound quality and print work. Vintage Voudou was founded by Alex Figueira, originally as a club night in Amsterdam dedicated to vintage tropical dance tunes. In 2013 he joined forces with Edo Bouman , opening the Vintage Voudou record shop in the heart of the Red Light district in Amsterdam. Alex Figueira also runs a studio and leads two bands, FUMAÇA PRETA and CONJUNTO PAPA UPA . Edo Bouman founded the label BOMBAY CONNECTION RECORDS on which he issued among others the enigmatic Indian proto-house record TEN RAGAS TO A DISCO BEAT by Charanjit Singh. Let's Dance With Cynthia is Vintage Voudou’s second release, after Basa Basa’s Homowo." -Rush Hour