Habibi Funk
By Kit Macdonald
Habibi Funk is a long-running, Berlin-based label founded and run by Jannis Stürtz and Malte Kraus which specialises in reissues and accompanying booklets of Arabic funk and soul bands from the 1960s to the 1980s. Stürtz founded the label after being inspired by a trip to Casablanca in 2002, where he bought an album by the Moroccan rock and funk singer Fadoul, who, he subsequently learned, had died in 1991. He found the artist's family and got permission to reissue the record, splitting the profits 50-50 with them, and the Habibi Funk label was born.
Being a Western curator of sounds from the Global South has become a delicate occupation in recent years (just ask the artist/label now known as Awesome Tapes and previously known as Awesome Tapes From Africa) but Stürtz has successfully addressed the political aspects and potential concerns about what he does, and the fairness and positivity underpinning his label is clear to see. This DJ set will find Stürtz playing label classics new and old, while the Parisian DJ Kléo, aka Clélia Zida, will bring boogie, early Chicago house, analogue electronics and more in her support slot.