PUNK 45 The Scabs Amory Building E.P. (1979)

Surely one of the best punk records ever! Los Angeles 1978 double-sider - KILLER indeed!

INSANE and awesome record from one of the first and finest San Francisco punk bands ever! Originally released in 1978 on Chris D's own Upsetter Records. Bespoke reproduction with open out double-sided 4 page sleeve. Out of print for 30 yrs! Four tracks of raw energy for ten quid - or u can buy the original for a few £100! The bomb!

Cleveland punk at it's rawest and finest! John Morton's X - X (x blank x) - intense punk from the electric eels founder. Released here with Morton's own stunning artwork in this bespoke exact reproduction Punk 45, originally came out on Drome Records in 1980. The bomb!

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 release documents the first radical underground punk bands to come out of France including Metal Urbain (the first group ever to be signed to Rough Trade Records), Marie et Les Garçons, Asphalt Jungle, through to the earliest experimental cold wave/minimal wave electronic groups such as Kas Product, Charles de Goal and A3 Dans le WC who emerged at the start of the 1980s.

The accompanying large 44-page outsize booklet shows how punk in France emerged out of the country’s history of rebellion and revolution (from Serge Gainsbourg to the Paris ‘68 riots) as well as a love for American punk and proto bands like The New York Dolls and The Stooges, and was kick-started by witnessing the first UK punk bands (including the Sex Pistols who played in Paris in Sep 1976).

It also explains how French revolutionary, artistic and intellectual ideas influenced the birth of punk in both New York (Dadaism and Surrealism, Rimbaud and Voltaire) and in Britain (Situationism), how Paris based art collective Bazooka influenced the work of Jamie Reid and The Sex Pistols, and more besides. 

The booklet features extensive text, exclusive photography as well as interviews with key French figures in the movement including Marc Zermati (Skydog Records), Patrick Eudeline (Asphalt Jungle), Michel Esteban (Ze Records) and Eric Debris (Metal Urbain).

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 album comes as a heavyweight double vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve, inserts, full sleeve notes + download code and also as a deluxe CD pack + 50-page outsize booklet and as a digital album.

This is the latest in Soul Jazz Records’ Punk 45 series which documents punk around the world, following on from earlier releases Punk 45: Kill The Hippies (USA punk), Punk 45: There Is No Such Thing As Society (UK punk and post-punk), Punk 45: Sick on You (proto-punk), Punk 45: Burn, Rubber City Punk (Akron), Punk 45: Extermination Nights in The Sixth City (Cleveland) and Punk 45: Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils (Los Angeles) as well as the book Punk 45: Singles Cover Art of Punk with Jon Savage

REVIEWS

Read PITCHFORK article here

‘Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils’ is the new instalment of Soul Jazz Records’ Punk 45 series featuring an array of first generation Los Angeles punk bands including X, The Germs, The Zeros, The Urinals, The Weirdos through to second generation hardcore groups like The Circle Jerks, Adolescents and T.S.O.L.

Unlike the other major cities of New York and London, Punk in Los Angeles was pretty much ignored by the major record industry. As bands sprang up, Los Angeles punk gave rise to a wide range of its own DIY independent records with labels like Dangerhouse, Bomp!, What? And Upsetter documenting the nascent emerging scene.

Original Los Angeles punk came in two distinct phases. The first punk groups (c.77-79) all centred around The Masque club in Hollywood, and the birth of the first ever hardcore groups who emerged in the surrounding Los Angeles suburb and beach areas (c.1979-81), mixing punk, skate and surfer ideologies. This album includes music from both periods.

‘Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils’ documents this in detail. The 64-page outsize CD booklet features extensive notes, exclusive photography from celebrated original photographers Jenny Lens, Melanie Nissen (Slash magazine) and Edward Colver, original cover art as well as interviews and features on bands and labels (including The Urinals, Flesh Eaters, Dangerhouse, Posh Boy, Frontier, Upsetter and more!).

The deluxe double vinyl comes in gatefold sleeve, inner sleeves, insert + free download (+ full sleevenotes and photography). This is the sixth Punk 45 release on Soul Jazz Records and follows on from the earlier releases covering punk from Cleveland, Akron, UK, USA and proto-punk, as well as the book Punk 45 – Cover Art of Punk written in collaboration with Jon Savage.

Soul Jazz Records’ massive deluxe 400-page Punk 45s cover art book edited and compiled by Jon Savage (author of the seminal book on punk, England’s Dreaming) and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records).

The book includes introduction and text by Jon Savage, numerous interviews, features and articles from the likes of Richard Hell, Seymour Stein (Sire Records), Geoff Travis (Rough Trade), Peter Saville (Factory), Martin Mills (Beggars Banquet), Dave Robinson (Stiff Records), Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), Martin Moscrop (A Certain Ratio) as well as exhaustive biographies, band line-ups and more to create an in-depth study of punk during its formative years.

This book features the original full-size singles cover art of hundreds of punk groups - everyone from the pre-punk roots of The Stooges, MC5 and New York Dolls on to punk's birth in New York (Ramones, Talking Heads, Voidoids, Dead Boys) and London (Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks) and then its rapid growth around the world. Included are hundreds and hundreds of rare, classic and stunning sleeves that collected together for the first time chart the rise of punk between the years 1976-1980.

This new Punk 45 album is a collection of tracks of twisted, raw and energized proto-punk music from the early 1970s, ahead-of-its-time music which led the way for the birth of punk in the second-half of the 1970s.

This new album is compiled and has extensive sleeve-notes by Jon Savage.

Punk 45: Sick on You! One Way Spit! After the Love & Before the Revolution: Proto-Punk 1969-77 is the third volume in this series, following on from the two earlier albums as well as the massive 400-page Punk 45s cover art book published last year.

While the first in the series, Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself!, focused on the rise of underground punk in America, and the second album, Punk 45: There is No Such Thing as Society did the same for punk and post-punk in Britain, this album draws upon some of the stripped-down hard garage and post-glam sounds of mainly obscure bands that existed in the early 1970s - that were to prove the template for the forthcoming punk movement.

This is a unique and fascinating collection of proto-punk tracks from across the USA - Cleveland’s Electric Eels, San Francisco’s Crime, Los Angeles’ Zolar X, Baltimore’s George Brigman and more – as well as from the UK –  with Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash 101ers, the speed- induced r’n’b of the Count Bishops and others also included.

As usual the album comes complete with text, biographies on each of the bands, exclusive photos and original record artwork.

The album is released on CD with outsize large booklet and thick slipcase and limited-edition super-loud, super-heavy double vinyl edition complete with full sleeve-notes and free download code. These Punk 45 releases are also the first that Soul Jazz Records are making available as worldwide digital releases.

'Top 50 best reissues of 2014" Rolling Stone magazine

Soul Jazz Records' new 'Punk 45' album Burn, Rubber City Burn charts the rise of the music scene in the mid-west city of Akron, Ohio at a time when the city and the rubber industry it was associated with was in deep decline.
Featuring a fantastic collection of Akron groups including Devo, The Bizarros, Rubber City Rebels, Jane Aire, Chi-Pig, The Waitresses and more.
The album comes complete with extensive text as well as exclusive photos and original record artwork. CD comes with large booklet and thick slipcase. Vinyl edition is on deluxe gatefold double-vinyl with free download code.
The album follows on from Soul Jazz Records' earlier Punk 45 albums about USA and British punk (Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself! and There Is No Such Thing As Society) as well as the cover art book Punk 45.
Burn, Rubber City Burn, coincides with the release of as a second album about Ohio’s early punk scene, Extermination Nights in the Sixth City – featuring the music scene of nearby Cleveland.
REVIEWS:
 “Soul Jazz Records’ story of American punk opens up a whole 1970s history that is still underexposed.” The Guardian
Read PITCHFORK piece on the album here.
Read Quietus feature here

Soul Jazz Records' new 'Punk 45' album charts the rise of underground punk in the mid-west city of Cleveland, Ohio, which for many people is the true birthplace of punk music in the mid-1970s.
Featuring a fantastic collection of punk 45 singles from Cleveland groups including Pere Ubu, electric eels, The Pagans, Rockets From The Tomb, Mirrors, X–X and more.
The album comes complete with extensive text written by Jon Savage as well as exclusive photos and original record artwork. CD comes with large booklet and thick slipcase. Vinyl edition is on deluxe gatefold double-vinyl complete with with free download code.
The album follows on from Soul Jazz Records' earlier Punk 45 albums about USA and British punk (Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself! and There Is No Such Thing As Society), pre-punk (Sick On You! One Way Spit!) as well as the deluxe cover art book Punk 45.
Extermination Nights in the Sixth City coincides with the release of as a second album about Ohio’s early punk scene, Burn, Rubber City, Burn – featuring the music scene of nearby Akron.
REVIEWS:
“Soul Jazz Records’ story of American punk opens up a whole 1970s history that is still underexposed.”  The Guardian
Read PITCHFORK piece on the album here.
Read Quietus feature here

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 album charts the rise of underground punk and post-punk in the UK from 1977-81.
Punk 45: There is No Such Thing As Society. Get A Job, Get A Car, Get A Bed, Get Drunk! Underground Punk in the UK 1977-81 is the second volume in this series, released following on from Soul Jazz Records’ recent massive deluxe 400-page Punk 45s cover art book edited and compiled by Jon Savage (author of the seminal book on punk, England’s Dreaming) and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records).
While the first album in this series, Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself!, focused on underground punk in America, this album charts the rise of punk and post-punk in Britain in the years 1977-81.
This new Punk 45 album features a collection of seminal, classic, obscure and rare punk and post-punk singles from the likes of The Art Attacks, The Mekons, TV Personalities, Swell Maps, and many more – charting the rise of independent music and Do It Yourself culture that exploded in Britain in the wake of punk.
The album comes complete with text, biographies on each of the bands, exclusive photos and original record artwork.
The album is released on CD with outsize large booklet and thick slipcase and is also available as a limited-edition super-loud, super-heavy double gatefold-sleeve vinyl edition complete with full sleeve-notes.
Vinyl comes with free download code.
Also available as worldwide digital release.
Review:
"Famous punk bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash grabbed headlines as they captured the spirit of discontent in mid-Seventies Britain. Meanwhile they inspired thousands of teenagers to learn the very rudiments of music, shout about one thing or another and, if they got their act together, record a single or two before disintegrating. Punk 45: There Is No Such Thing As Society proves what diamonds in the rough those singles so often were."
THE TIMES ****
MORE REVIEWS:
"wide and smart collection of the fascinating scene ...  A companion piece to a substantial and enlightening first volume" Sydney Morning Herald

******** "witty, wonky compilation" Uncut

“rarities and underground gems” Le Monde, France

“pure energy” l’Express, France

“This compilation is yet again a wonderful collection of the cultishly revered...” Neue Züricher Zeitung, Switzerland

“A great journey into a world in which music represented attitude – attitude and risk.” Westzeit, 

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 album charts the rise of underground punk across the United States of America in the years 1973-1980. The album coincides with the release of Soul Jazz Records’ massive new deluxe 400-page Punk 45s cover art book edited and compiled by Jon Savage (author of the seminal book on punk, England’s Dreaming) and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records).

Watch Guardian newspaper video review here.

Read Guardian newspaper 2 page album feature here.

Read Quietus feature here.

The Punk 45 album features a collection of seminal, classic, obscure and rare punk and proto-punk 45 singles from the likes of Pere Ubu, The Zeros, The Randoms, Electric Eels, The Pagans, The Deadbeats, The Lewd and many more - a  lightning rod journey across the states of America - Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Akron, New Orleans, Philadelphia – tracing the rise of punk music in these various towns and cities. The album comes complete with extensive text, biographies on each of the bands, exclusive photos and original record artwork.

The album is released on CD with outsize large booklet and thick slipcase and is also available as a limited-edition super-loud, super-heavy double gatefold-sleeve vinyl editions with full sleevenotes. This is also the first release that Soul Jazz Records are making available as a worldwide digital release.

Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself! The American Nation Destroys Its Young - Underground Punk in the United States 1973-80 is the first in Soul Jazz Records’ Punk 45 series of album releases coinciding with the new book and will be followed at the start of next year by Punk 45 Vol. 2 Underground Punk in the UK.

REVIEWS:

"Soul Jazz's excellent compilation, Punk 45,  …intelligently compiled and beautifully annotated..."  Alexis Petrides, The Guardian

*****  Mojo

 “rarities and underground gems” Le Monde, France

“remarkable”  Les Inrocks, France

“pure energy” l’Express, France

“A project very much in the tradition of this label: twenty-one crackers… a fat high-gloss booklet with educationally valuable liner notes and many beautiful pictures... Very poignant, very good.”  SKUG, Austria

“…whoever is in search of an introduction to the US punk scene… should get ready for their exams now with this CD and its very comprehensive booklet.” Ox Magazine, Germany 

"nothing less than a historical chronicle…opulent" WDR 5, Germany 

Superb hardback 188-page book with loads of text, photos, artefacts, record labels etc written by Noel Hawks.

With contributions and quotes from (wait for it): King Jammy, Bunny Lee, Dennis Alcapone, Bob Marley, Paul Khouri, Graeme Goodall, Horace Andy, Burning Spear, Augustus Pablo, Marcia Griffiths, Jojo Hookim, Derrick Harriott and many many more!

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'An absolutely crucial survey of the origins of the Jamaican music industry replete with chapter and verse quotes from many of the pivotal movers and shakers.

"A wealth of new information, expertly marshalled: this is a book whose time has come!" STEVE BARROW (Rough Guide to Reggae).

This is a limited-edition book, DO NOT MISS OUT!

New KILLER 100% essential MASSIVE 450+ pages book about the history of electronic music.

'Mars by 1980' is written by the very groovy David Stubbs, author of the classic book about German Rock ('Future Days') as well as - more importantly - sleevenotes to our own Deutsche Electronische Musik albums!

From the beginnings of electronic music in the world of avant-classical composition, up to the cosmic funk of Stevie Wonder, Giorgio Moroder and others, on to 80s pioneers and a current trawl through underground electronic music this book is the bomb!

Featuring Kraftwerk, Suicide, Delia Derbyshire, Sun Ra, Steve Reich, Joy Division, Aphex Twin, Prince, Miles Davis, Brian Eno and about a squillion more!

Original secondhand US hardback book w/dustjacket in good condition

Original secondhand hardback book, stickers on cover. Nice hard to find out of print book!

Collectible original a4 small book on Japan (the group not the country!) in good condition

Original secondhand hardback book w/dustjacket in good condition, name of previous owner stamped on side

Man like Diplo travels round the world innit - pretty good. Original secondhand paperback book

Out of print original secondhand book in good condition

Cuba in photographs. Secondhand original hardback book in good condition

Original secondhand hardback book w/no dustjacket ex-library

Excellent book on deep Brazilian Macumba. Original secondhand out of print paperback in good condition

'This is the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers' Edmund White, Washington Post

When Arthur Montana, world-renowned 'Emperor of Soul', is found dead in a London pub, his grief-stricken brother looks back over thirty years in the lives of their group of friends: from their childhood spent preaching and singing in Harlem churches, to their struggles with war and poverty, and their encounters with wealth, love and fame.

1971 collection, original hardback book w/dustjacket, ex-library w/stamps

Secondhand paperback in good condition

Cajun style - secondhand out of print paperback cookery book in good condition (tear to dustjacket)

Cajun style - secondhand out of print paperback cookery book in good condition

Secondhand hardback book in plastic sleeve, ex-library w/stamps

100 COPIES ONLY

VERY HEAVY Deep dubby, dancehally, very twisted, electronic beauty! THIS RECORD IS HEAVY!

Super moody white label from KRIKOR with hand-stamped label/hand-stamped sleeve 7" ONLY available here!

DO NOT MISS OUT!!

Secondhand hardback book w/dustjacket in good condition

Cajun style - secondhand out of print hardback cookery book in good condition

Secondhand paperback book

Secondhand small paperback book

Secondhand large format paperback book in good condition

Seminal punk from Akron, Ohio. Two KILLER tracks of early raw punk from the rubber city packaged in miniature 7" replica of the Bizarros/Rubber City Rebels original shared release. Awesome and heavy!

INSANE and awesome record from one of the first and finest San Francisco punk bands ever! Originally released in 1978 on Chris D's own Upsetter Records. Bespoke reproduction with open out double-sided 4 page sleeve. Out of print for 30 yrs! Four tracks of raw energy for ten quid - or u can buy the original for a few £100! The bomb!

Surely one of the best punk records ever! Los Angeles 1978 double-sider - KILLER indeed!

Cleveland punk at it's rawest and finest! John Morton's X - X (x blank x) - intense punk from the electric eels founder. Released here with Morton's own stunning artwork in this bespoke exact reproduction Punk 45, originally came out on Drome Records in 1980. The bomb!

This new Punk 45 album is a collection of tracks of twisted, raw and energized proto-punk music from the early 1970s, ahead-of-its-time music which led the way for the birth of punk in the second-half of the 1970s.

This new album is compiled and has extensive sleeve-notes by Jon Savage.

Punk 45: Sick on You! One Way Spit! After the Love & Before the Revolution: Proto-Punk 1969-77 is the third volume in this series, following on from the two earlier albums as well as the massive 400-page Punk 45s cover art book published last year.

While the first in the series, Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself!, focused on the rise of underground punk in America, and the second album, Punk 45: There is No Such Thing as Society did the same for punk and post-punk in Britain, this album draws upon some of the stripped-down hard garage and post-glam sounds of mainly obscure bands that existed in the early 1970s - that were to prove the template for the forthcoming punk movement.

This is a unique and fascinating collection of proto-punk tracks from across the USA - Cleveland’s Electric Eels, San Francisco’s Crime, Los Angeles’ Zolar X, Baltimore’s George Brigman and more – as well as from the UK –  with Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash 101ers, the speed- induced r’n’b of the Count Bishops and others also included.

As usual the album comes complete with text, biographies on each of the bands, exclusive photos and original record artwork.

The album is released on CD with outsize large booklet and thick slipcase and limited-edition super-loud, super-heavy double vinyl edition complete with full sleeve-notes and free download code. These Punk 45 releases are also the first that Soul Jazz Records are making available as worldwide digital releases.

'Top 50 best reissues of 2014" Rolling Stone magazine

Posthumous release of 'There Is No End' by legendary Afrobeat drummer, Tony Allen! The album features guest vocal appearances from the likes of Danny Brown, Sampa the Great, Lava La Rue, and more.

BACK IN STOCK!! never officially released,dub plate of all dub plates from channel one, this limited 7" with company sleeve.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation’s seminal 1975 album Tales of Mozambique in an expanded double album/single CD/digital format, fully remastered and with the inclusion of two bonus rare single-only tracks, full sleevenotes, exclusive photographs and interview.

Count Ossie is the central character in the development of Rastafarian roots music, nowadays an almost mythical and iconic figure. His importance in bringing Rastafarian music to a populist audience is matched only by Bob Marley’s promotion of the faith internationally in the 1970s.

Count Ossie’s drummers performed on the first commercially released single to integrate Rastafarian traditional music with popular music: the vocal group The Folkes Brothers’ groundbreaking song ‘Oh Carolina’, recorded for producer Prince Buster in 1959. In 1966 his drummers greeted the momentous arrival of Haile Selassie at Kingston airport.

His legendary jam sessions up in his Rastafarian compound in the hills of Wareika, Kingston, are famous for the many Jamaican musicians who attended including The Skatalites players – Roland Alphonso, Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Lloyd Knibbs – and many others.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari formed in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970, a union of Count Ossie’s Rastafarian drummers – variously known as his African Drums, Wareikas or his Afro-Combo – and the saxophonist Cedric Im Brooks’ horns group, The Mystics.

The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the defining group in bringing authentic Rastafarian rhythms into the collective consciousness of popular music, their unique music is at once rooted in the deep traditions and rituals of traditional drumming and chanting alongside a forward-thinking, even avant-garde, artistry influenced by the likes of John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders and other pioneering African-American jazz artists radicalised and charged by the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Tales of Mozambique is a truly unique and fascinating ground-breaking album.

Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari are the central group featured on Soul Jazz Records recent "Rastafari - The Dreads Enter Babylon” a collection showing the influence of Rastafari in Reggae and Jamaican popular culture.

Soul Jazz Records will also be releasing Count Ossie and The Rasta Family 'Man From Higher Heights’ in the near future.

* Bonus tracks

REVIEWS

" All roads in Rastafarian roots music lead to Count Ossie.He’s the lead character in this compelling subplot, the musician who was one of the first to put Rasta tenets into the heart of popular music.

He did so from his camp in the hills above Kingston, Count Ossie and his drummers casting a spell on the musicians who gathered to check him out and then went on to spread the word about the powerful nyabinghi rhythms and mesmerising percussion.

This is a reissue of the 1975 album Count Ossie made with his Rastafarian drummers and saxaphonist Cedric ‘Im’ Brooks’s group The Mystics.

It’s a groundbreaking, majestic work, by turns righteous in tone and joyous in execution. It’s the sound of Ossie and his ensemble narrating a history lesson and you’d be daft not to want to find out more."  IRISH TIMES

Soul Jazz Records’ massive deluxe 400-page Punk 45s cover art book edited and compiled by Jon Savage (author of the seminal book on punk, England’s Dreaming) and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records).

The book includes introduction and text by Jon Savage, numerous interviews, features and articles from the likes of Richard Hell, Seymour Stein (Sire Records), Geoff Travis (Rough Trade), Peter Saville (Factory), Martin Mills (Beggars Banquet), Dave Robinson (Stiff Records), Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), Martin Moscrop (A Certain Ratio) as well as exhaustive biographies, band line-ups and more to create an in-depth study of punk during its formative years.

This book features the original full-size singles cover art of hundreds of punk groups - everyone from the pre-punk roots of The Stooges, MC5 and New York Dolls on to punk's birth in New York (Ramones, Talking Heads, Voidoids, Dead Boys) and London (Pistols, Clash, Buzzcocks) and then its rapid growth around the world. Included are hundreds and hundreds of rare, classic and stunning sleeves that collected together for the first time chart the rise of punk between the years 1976-1980.

Wicked, mid-80s style boogie/proto-house vibes from the mighty Benedek!

New edition of this seminal album available as a 1000 copies edition only on new premium RED vinyl!

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'A truly phenomenal artist.' GILLES PETERSON

'Steve Reid is one of the greatest drummers. He is a musical genius' KIERAN HEBDEN (Four Tet)

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As a radical jazz artist, Steve Reid played with an extraordinary group of artists – including Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, James Brown, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Dionne Warwick, Archie Shepp, Chief Bey, Olatunji, Arthur Blythe, , Dextor Gordon, Gary Bartz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sam Rivers, Leon Thomas, Lonnie Smith and Horace Silver!

Reid was born in the South Bronx, and grew up in Queens, New York. He played in the house band at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, accompanying James Brown, as well as playing in Sun Ra's Arkestra. He lived next to John Coltrane, worked in a department store with Ornette Coleman, had a son who played drums with NWA. He began his career as a teenager in the 1960s as a drummer at Motown when he played on Martha and The Vandellas "Heatwave" (aged 14).

At the end of the 1960s Reid was sentenced to four years in jail as a conscientious objector of the Vietnam war. On his release from prison in 1974, he formed the Legendary Master Brotherhood and started the independent record label, Mustevic Sound, to release his debut LP Nova in 1976. This album is released in its entirety and with full original cover art here. Nova was the first in a series of stunning independent records he released in the 1970s.

At the start of the 21st century, his career took a new twist when Steve Reid began a successful collaboration with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). Hebden referred to Reid as his ‘musical soul mate’, resulting in a number of joint albums.

Steve Reid died in New York in 2010. Subsequently the Steve Reid Foundation was set up in his name, to help aspiring musicians and artists.

‘Conquering Lion’ stands as one of the few truly essential albums of the roots era. As devotional as anything by Burning Spear, as polemical as Bob Marley, and as militant as the Mighty Diamonds, the album also communicates a haunting spiritual quality that is uniquely its own. Amazingly, for such a coherent work, the tracks were recorded over a period of at least four years, yet come together to present a single coherent vision. The album was first issued in Jamaica by Micron, and in the UK with a different tracklisting as ‘Ram-A-Dam’ on the Lucky label in 1976. Here the album is presented for the first time in expanded form, together with its dub counterpart. Vivian ‘Yabby You’ Jackson is often portrayed as a strange, otherworldly figure. Yet his life was filled with two opposing forces, the spiritual and the earthly. Even as Yabby was yearning for a higher plane of existence, he was scratching out a difficult living in the ghetto. Whilst warning of sinful secular behaviour, he was working at the race track taking bets. As well as creating some of the most powerful and heartfelt music to come out of Jamaica, Yabby was busy cutting deals with studios and musicians, and hustling round the record shops to sell his products. And these contradictions seem to have fuelled some of his best music, pushing him into places that other artists shied away from.

* CD Bonus Tracks

‘Bunny Lee, the Hit Maker from Jamaica.’

Soul Jazz Records presents this collection featuring the heavy 70s roots reggae of Bunny Lee – a living legend, one of the last of the great Jamaican record producers who helped shape and define reggae music in the 1970s from a small island sound into an internationally successful musical genre.

From teenage fan to young record plugger for Duke Reid, Sir Coxsone and other early pioneering Jamaican musical entrepreneurs, Lee has spent his whole professional life inside the Kingston music industry. In the 1970s he rose up to become one of the major record producers in Jamaica alongside Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, and the other ‘small axe’ producers, who broke the dominance of the ‘big tree’ producers that had ruled Jamaican music in the 1960s.

Featuring some of the heaviest Jamaican artists including Johnny Clarke, King Tubby, Dillinger, Prince Jazzbo, Tommy McCook, The legendary Aggrovators (featuring Sly and Robbie), The Mighty Diamonds and more, the album is a rollercoaster ride of rare, deep and classic 1970s roots, dub and DJ sounds.

During this era ‘flying cymbals’, crashing reverbs, dark echoing thunderclap gunshots and other ‘implements of sound’ filled his record productions as Bunny Lee explored the outer limits of dub with his friend King Tubby in the mix on wild versions that accompanied any 45. A Bunny Lee record provides a creative and mysterious hidden guide to reggae music itself, a double-sided three-minute intangible history lesson etched in wax.

Bunny Lee was one of the first Jamaican producers to travel to England in the late 1960s, at the beginning of the nascent British reggae music industry as record companies such as Trojan, Pama and others began licensing Jamaican music in the UK to supply the expanding West Indian communities living up and down England. Lee encouraged other Jamaican producers to do the same, including Lee Perry, Harry J and Niney the Observer, and also became a conduit between the British music industry and numerous younger Island-based producers - a frequent flyer reggae ambassador, a musical courier exchanging tapes for royalties.

His first recordings in the late 1960s were mainly rock steady but as the 70s approached the music soon began to mutate and slow down into ‘reggae’ as the sound became heavier, more roots-y and the sound itself began to change with the explosion of dub. Lee was at the forefront to this dramatic musical shift into roots reggae, and by this time had become a major producer, capable of working with whoever he chose as world-famous singers, DJs and musicians lined up to work with the charismatic man. Lee also employed a fluid but stable set of crack session musicians who he named The Aggrovators.

Most of the recordings featured here come from the mid-70s, a time when Bunny Lee was definitely ‘in the zone,’ releasing heavyweight singles at an almost unstoppable rate. Bunny Lee’s career stretches over five decades and he has upwards of 2,000 production credits on vinyl.

Did you work all night?

‘Yeah man, night and day. One weekend I remember, I go in a Channel One on a Friday night and I never come out ‘til Monday morning. Just send out to get food and ting.’ Bunny Lee

This album comes with extensive sleevenotes, an interview with Bunny Lee, and exclusive photography. The album is available as a massive triple LP vinyl + download code, house inner, full notes, as well as deluxe CD pack with 24-page booklet, and digital album.

This latest instalment in Soul Jazz Records’ successful Deutsche Elektronische Musik series delves deeper into the German nation’s vaults to bring a fascinating new collection that again brings together a selection of classic German electronic and rock groups, including Neu!, Cluster, Popol Vuh, La Düsseldorf, Agitation Free, alongside a host of rare tracks by lesser known artists which includes Michael Bundt, Bröselmaschine, Dronsz, Achim Reichel and others.

The music of Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3 ranges from the introverted pastoralism of Hans Joachim Roedelius and Bröselmaschine, to the angular and futuristic electronic experimentations of Klauss Weiss, Pyrolator, Deuter, Michael Bundt and others, to the proto-punk of La Düsseldorf and the heavy space, progressive and cosmic rock of Missus Beastly, Niagara and Dyzan.

The music on Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3 was all recorded in the 1970s up to the early 1980s, at a time when forward-thinking German electronic and rock groups were searching for a new musical identity in order to separate themselves from both the cultural legacy of post-world war two Germany as well the ‘cultural imperialism’ of USA and UK rock. In this process German groups created some of the most unique and inspired music, the defining motorik beat alongside a host of ethno-musical influences from far afield – including Turkey, India, Brazil – as well as the musical and futurist possibilities of developments in electronics and technology itself.

Deutsche Elektronische Musik 3 is released as a heavyweight 3xLP, deluxe double CD pack and digital release. The new extensive sleevenotes are by David Stubbs, who is the author of the acclaimed book, ‘Future Days: Krautrock and the Building of Modern Germany’ (Faber & Faber).

“A near-definitive guide to some of the world’s most extraordinary music’’ ***** The Guardian

"There are many potential futures contained within this exemplary Soul Jazz compilation" The Quietus

Soul Jazz Records are re-releasing keyboardist Eddie Russ’s seminal debut deep jazz LP Fresh Out (and the first album ever released on Soul Jazz Records!) in a new limited edition COLOURED vinyl 1000 copies worldwide (+ free download code) and new CD edition.

Eddie Russ's Fresh Out was independently released in Detroit in 1974 and has remained a collector's item ever since. Russ was an important figure to emerge from the vibrant underground jazz scene that thrived in Detroit in the early 1970s, existing in the cultural and economic desolation of the city after the departure of Motown in the late 1960s.

This scene included the musical collective Tribe (including members Wendell Harrison, Marcus Belgrave, Phil Ranelin, Harold McKinney and Doug Hammond) and Kenny Cox’s Strata Records. Eddie Russ’s Fresh Out was first released in 1974 on the independent Jazz Masters record label.

As well as including the classic jazz dance cut The Lope Song, Eddie Russ’s Fresh Out featured the debut of the group The Mixed Bag who subsequently recorded for both Tribe and Strata Records. Eddie Russ released two further classic jazz funk albums in the late 1970s, See the Light and Take a Look at Yourself.

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 release documents the first radical underground punk bands to come out of France including Metal Urbain (the first group ever to be signed to Rough Trade Records), Marie et Les Garçons, Asphalt Jungle, through to the earliest experimental cold wave/minimal wave electronic groups such as Kas Product, Charles de Goal and A3 Dans le WC who emerged at the start of the 1980s.

The accompanying large 44-page outsize booklet shows how punk in France emerged out of the country’s history of rebellion and revolution (from Serge Gainsbourg to the Paris ‘68 riots) as well as a love for American punk and proto bands like The New York Dolls and The Stooges, and was kick-started by witnessing the first UK punk bands (including the Sex Pistols who played in Paris in Sep 1976).

It also explains how French revolutionary, artistic and intellectual ideas influenced the birth of punk in both New York (Dadaism and Surrealism, Rimbaud and Voltaire) and in Britain (Situationism), how Paris based art collective Bazooka influenced the work of Jamie Reid and The Sex Pistols, and more besides. 

The booklet features extensive text, exclusive photography as well as interviews with key French figures in the movement including Marc Zermati (Skydog Records), Patrick Eudeline (Asphalt Jungle), Michel Esteban (Ze Records) and Eric Debris (Metal Urbain).

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 album comes as a heavyweight double vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve, inserts, full sleeve notes + download code and also as a deluxe CD pack + 50-page outsize booklet and as a digital album.

This is the latest in Soul Jazz Records’ Punk 45 series which documents punk around the world, following on from earlier releases Punk 45: Kill The Hippies (USA punk), Punk 45: There Is No Such Thing As Society (UK punk and post-punk), Punk 45: Sick on You (proto-punk), Punk 45: Burn, Rubber City Punk (Akron), Punk 45: Extermination Nights in The Sixth City (Cleveland) and Punk 45: Chaos in the City of Angels and Devils (Los Angeles) as well as the book Punk 45: Singles Cover Art of Punk with Jon Savage

REVIEWS

Read PITCHFORK article here

This album coincides with the massive new exhibition Soul of A Nation - Art in the Age of Black Power at Tate Modern, London.

Watch Channel 4 news piece here

Read Guardian feature here

The album shows how the ideals of the civil rights movement, black power and black nationalism influenced the evolvement of radical African-American music in the United States of America in the intensely political and revolutionary period at the end of the 1960s following the assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and the rise of the Black Panther party.

Featuring groundbreaking artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Ayers, Don Cherry, Oneness of Juju, Sarah Webster Fabio, Horace Tapscott, Phil Ranelin and many others, Soul of A Nation shows how political themes led to the rise of ‘conscious’ black music as new afro-centric styles combined the musical radicalism and spirituality of John Coltrane and radical avant-garde jazz music alongside the intense funk and soul of James Brown and Aretha Franklin and the urban poetry and proto-rap of the streets.

The Soul of a Nation exhibition draws on the links between Black art forms – art, music, poetry - and how they came together during the civil rights and black power era as part of the wider black arts movement across the United States.

Iconic African-Amercian revolutionary figures such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis, John Coltrane, Muhammad Ali all appear in the radical artworks of Barkley L. Hendricks, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Lorraine O’Grady and Betye Saar.

Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records) will appear with the curators on the panel of Jazz for Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power discussion at the gallery as part of the show. You can book a ticket for this event here

The Soul of a Nation album comes with extensive sleeve-notes and exclusive photography in a large 36-page outsize booklet and slipcase. Double gatefold vinyl album edition comes with full colour inners + bonus download code and includes full sleeve-notes/photography.

Read More Reviews of the Soul of A Nation Exhibition:

Independent

Time Out

The Telegraph

Frieze

BBC News