Doron aka Dj Kobayashi is co-founder of Batov Record, host of B-side Sessions on Soho Radio, musician in the group Gypsy Hill and vinyl digger since 1990. Specialist in rare grooves with delicious melodies of Middle-East music but not only. Also familiar with electronic music and edits, his selection for Star Wax reveals vintage records as well as records recently released but in limited editions and therefore difficult to find.

The Gaslamp Killer / Nissim 7inch (Cuss Records - 2023)

The album’s core is “Nissim” (later featured in Grand Theft Auto V). An ode to Gaslamp’s deceased grandfather and older brother co-written with Amir Yaghmai (of Julian Casablancas’s The Voidz), “Nissim” is also a poignant reminder that you don’t need floor-quaking bass to move millions. Gaslamp brings the beat scene to the bazaar, accompanying Yaghmai’s emotive plucking of the yiali tambur with a propulsive breakbeat barrage. As he does on the rest of Breakthrough, Gaslamp synthesizes his disparate influences to create intensely personal music, the impulsiveness of his live sets sacrificed for an even deeper connection. So long as we have the means of playing music, Breakthrough will show listeners that sound is limitless.

Airto Moreira / Peasant Dance Edits 7 inch (Solo 500 - 2023)

Virgin Land is an album by Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist Airto Moreira (who was credited simply as "Airto") featuring performances recorded in 1974 and released on the Salvation label.

This is just one of those tunes that make you get up and dance like a madman!

V-A / Hamam House 6 (Hamam House – 2021)

Warehouse belly dance rave energy by NYC favorite Jacques Renault and two lefty haus cuts by Afacan taking a dip tru the electronics of the mystical journeys tru time and space. There is not a greater feeling than dropping a Middle Eastern tune on a western dancefloor and everyone is digging it!

Hamlet Minassian/ Armenian Pop Music Lp (Dom – 1979)

A winsome and dizzying spin on disco-pop, recorded in westernized Iran during the last moments before the 1979 revolution. All but criminalized in the wake of Ayatollah Khomeini's theocratic repression, Hamlet Minassian's solo masterpiece is a testament to the Middle East's forgotten dance music culture. This six-song, 44-minute LP hybridizes Euro attitude and Armenian traditional songs to create a long, hypnotic proto-house, seemingly beamed in from another dimension.

Buttering Trio / Little Goat 7inch (Raw Tapes 2017)

Little Goat was conceived in 2012, it is our twist for the Pakistani Sampled melody, with a pinch of Hebrew goat storytelling. On top of the folk melody we laid the beat which we recorded out of an old Farfisa. The bass, flutes and synths were all recorded lo-fi and outdoors, during the making of the live video clip for the song. Additional claps and farm vibes were recorded at ‘Kol Hakampus Studios’. The oud solo was sampled from an old recording, found in our personal recordings database.

Tsvia Abarbanel / Soul Of The East 7inch (Recorded in Tel Aviv en 1970)

This is one of the rarest, most exotic recordings to ever come out of the Middle East. This lost and forgotten record is the true meaning of east meets west and is bound to leave you craving for more. In the late sixties, Israel had a large Yemenite community in which original folk artists started blending western instrument into traditional songs. The biggest name of the time was the innovative Aharon Amram, who was the first to introduce electric guitars, bass, Farfisa organs, and drum kits to traditional Yemeni rhythms, conventionally played by tapping fingers on an olive-oil tin can. Tsvia Abarbanel and 'Piamenta's Guys' took a few steps ahead into the unexplored territory of Yemenite jazz. The synergy between Albert Piamenta, one of Israel's leading funk and jazz arrangers, and Tzvia Abarbanel with her extraordinary voice and haunting melodies, is something like Mulatu Astatke meets Yma sumac.

Kutiman / Saluf 7inch (Siyal music – 2020)

Kutiman is one of my favorite artists from Israel! It was so hard to choose a tune and I'm such a big fan, I think everything he does its incredible! I strongly recommend leaving everything and going check him out f you don't know his work.

Cassiano / Cuban Soul Lp ( Polydor - 1976)

A true Brazilian Soul Gem that’s as rare as hen’s teeth is being reissued and finally the world will be able to bask in the sunny arrangements that made Cassiano‘s music so ephemeral.

it’s all about the incredible song Onda. This is literally the by-the-beach anthem and a song I could listen to on repeat for hours on end. Complete with Albatros squawks and wave sounds this incredible opus to relaxation and vibes (onda) is the perfect blend of a driving bassline and subtle percussions all driven by a disco sound almost submerged in beach water and sunshine.

Flammer Dance Band / Lørdag Kveld Ep (Lyskestrekk Records - 2020)

If you're looking for some fiery funk and soul with a live psychedelic twist, look no further than Flammer Dance Band's 70s textured, organic percussive rhythms with sweaty psych funk and hypnotic cosmic vibrations - resulting in a postrhythmic, nigh-goofy Afrobeaty sound for the future. This is one of my finds during lockdown, and thank god for this ep! They blow my mind! I couldn't wait till the gates open again and we could party! I had waited almost a year to drop this on the dance floor, and when I did it did not disappoint! 

Text by DJ Kobayashi / photo header by Hootananny Brixton