Banda Westfalica is a nine piece student percussion ensemble from the German city of Bünde. The students come together to learn to play percussion instruments such as marimba, bongos, cajón, cowbell and cachichi amongst others. When asked by their teacher for song suggestions, they started to rehearse „Carimbo“ by Schlachthofbronx. A video of their street performance of the song inspired Man Recordings to record their acoustic interpretation of six classic songs of the label catalogue for this outstanding EP. Sit down and relax and enjoy the vibrant grooves and sounds of Banda Westfalica!Banda Westfalica is from the city Bünde in the German area North-Rhine-Westphalia. "Banda" means "group" in Spanish and Portuguese, and it _s Latin rhythms that this nine piece student percussion ensemble is dedicated to. "Westfalica" is the ancient Latin word for the area of "Westphalia", located in the far Western part of Germany (where the famous German DJ WestBam also stems from thus calling himself "Westfalica Bambaataa"). Each Monday afternoon, this nine piece percussion ensemble meets up for class at Bünde _s music school. The students are aged fourteen to nineteen and come together to learn to play percussion instruments such as marimba, bongos, cajón, cowbell and cachichi amongst others. One of the classes students, Sönke Oberschmidt, aged fifteen, has been a huge fan of Man Recordings for a while, and when his music school teacher asked for student _s suggestions of preferred songs, Sönke came up with „Carimbo“ by Schlachthofbronx. The song was rehearsed various times and peformed live on a field trip of the music school. When the mobile phone video of the high street performance made it to Youtube, Schlachthofbronx soon found out about it and were enthusiastic. Shortly after, Man Recordings label boss Daniel Haaksman was in contact with Sönke and asked whether they _d be up for covering further songs from Man Recordings. Sönke and his ensemble rehearsed for weeks and eventually mastered to play live percussion versions of their favourite Man Recordings songs such as El Dusty _s „K Le Pasa“ (in the So Shifty version), Schlachthofbronx _“Tulum“ (and of course „Carimbo), „Hands Up“ by Daniel Haaksman, Beware & Motorpitch _“El Toro“ (also in So Shifty _s version) and last but not least „Cartagenera“ by Dutch Rhythm Combo, the solo-project of Daniel Haakman _s younger brother Felix. In autumn 2012 Daniel and Felix drove to Bünde to record the songs with a mobile studio set up. Now the mixdown of the recording weekend are finished and we are proud to present the debut EP by Banda Westfalica „Versions“. Since Tropical Bass is music often associated with heavy bass, rampant sampling, simplest melodies and sexist lyrics, it is actually often very musical, as these fine cover versions display in a very fascinating way. So sit down and relax and enjoy the vibrant grooves and sounds of Banda Westfalica!