Lee ‘Scatch’ Perry Disco Devil Vol. 4 (6 More Classic Discomixes From The Black Ark Studio 1977-9)

Black Ark Vol. 2 is another piece of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s limitless musical puzzle.

"It’s a bedrock of deep and heavy rhythms recorded around Jamaica =just before the demise of Perry’s famed Black Ark Studio. Black Ark Vol. 2 is the follow up album to the acclaimed Black Ark In Dub that unsurprisingly for an Upsetter release, took a different path.

More vocal oriented, the album features extended dubwise cuts of (former wife and co-producer) Carol Cole’s ‘Ethiopia’, The Originals ‘Got To Be Irie’, Junior Byles ‘Mumbling & Grumbling and The Inamans remake of the Bee Gees hit ‘How Deep Is your Love’, along with an alternate take of the Silvertones roots classic ‘Give Thanks’ with flute overdub and a couple of solid covers from Third World lead vocalist Bunny Rugs.

Originally released in 1981 the hard to find Black Ark Vol. 2 remains a frozen sonic timepiece, captured at the beginning of the end of one era and poised at the start of another."

KILLER RARITY!! Bargain priced!

Very rare Upsetters & Vin Gordon album 'Musical Bones' was first released in the U.K. in 1975 only on a white-label pressing without a sleeve on Dip records (£400+). Only 300 were made at the time.

Superb Studio One rhythm recuts, deep, deep funk cuts - sparse, raw and edgy - CLASSIC Lee Perry!

The title is a play on word 'Trombone' being the instrument of the lead artist Vin Gordon. Produced by Lee Perry at The Black Ark, Kingston, raw Jamaican roots music 1975. Don't miss..

From the man who played trombone on the all time classic Studio 1 anthem "Real Rock" comes forward with the long over due reissue of his first solo album originally released in 1980 by Joe Gibbs. Produced by Errol Thompson and featuring eight tracks of tuff rockers rhythms, two Don Drummond covers plus a medley of "Real Rock & Fiddler Rock" Very hard to find an original now..Don't let this go..

Volume 5 of the Disco Devil Discomix series featuring deep roots vocal cuts from Junior Murvin, Twin Roots, Watty Burnett, Keith Texon & Michael Campbell.

3rd instalment of the Disco Devil Black Ark series featuring Max Romeo, Jolly Brothers,Leroy Sibbles, Devon Irons and more.

Second volume of Lee Perry's rare 12" mixes from The Black Ark, late 70s recordings featuring Junior Delgado, Jolly Brothers, Hugo Blackwood, Dr Alimantado, Watty Burrnett, Devon Irons and Sangie Davis. Come 12" full colour picture sleeve.

Seminal dub album produced by Winston Edwards.  In 1974 Edwards left Jamaica to reside in the UK and through his strong connections with such reggae luminaries as Joe Gibbs, Lee Perry and King Tubby began to travel back and forth between London and Kingston (JA) to bring back recordings to issue on his Fay Music label here in the UK.  In 1974 he released this controversial, seminal dub set, shunned by some at the time due to the spurious marketing device employed.  The whole album appears in fact to have been mixed at Tubby’s, while the rhythms were possibly built at Perry’s Ark and maybe Gibbs’ studio, but at this length memories are stretched.  Now of course, it sounds like what it is, a classic early Tubby’s dub album, musical, tuneful, heavy dubwise set with Vin Gordon’s unique trombone lines well to the fore.  Essential dub. 

Volume 5 of the Disco Devil Discomix series featuring deep roots vocal cuts from Junior Murvin, Twin Roots, Watty Burnett, Keith Texon & Michael Campbell.

3rd instalment of the Disco Devil Black Ark series featuring Max Romeo, Jolly Brothers,Leroy Sibbles, Devon Irons and more.

Second volume of Lee Perry's rare 12" mixes from The Black Ark, late 70s recordings featuring Junior Delgado, Jolly Brothers, Hugo Blackwood, Dr Alimantado, Watty Burrnett, Devon Irons and Sangie Davis. Come 12" full colour picture sleeve.

Collecting 5 classic discomixes from Lee Perry's Black Ark Studio from 1977-79 featuring full original Upsetter 12" mix from 1977 of "Disco Devil" with an unreleased Seven Leaves 12" mix of Lord Creator's "Such Is Life" plus Junior Murvin's killer "Roots Train" all nine minutes of it.

From the man who played trombone on the all time classic Studio 1 anthem "Real Rock" comes forward with the long over due reissue of his first solo album originally released in 1980 by Joe Gibbs. Produced by Errol Thompson and featuring eight tracks of tuff rockers rhythms, two Don Drummond covers plus a medley of "Real Rock & Fiddler Rock" Very hard to find an original now..Don't let this go..

KILLER RARITY!! Bargain priced!

Very rare Upsetters & Vin Gordon album 'Musical Bones' was first released in the U.K. in 1975 only on a white-label pressing without a sleeve on Dip records (£400+). Only 300 were made at the time.

Superb Studio One rhythm recuts, deep, deep funk cuts - sparse, raw and edgy - CLASSIC Lee Perry!

The title is a play on word 'Trombone' being the instrument of the lead artist Vin Gordon. Produced by Lee Perry at The Black Ark, Kingston, raw Jamaican roots music 1975. Don't miss..

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

2nd of two brand new tunes from veteran Jamaican roots singer Willi Williams on top form for producer Roberto Sanchez..Check it!

Welcome return of Jamaican singer Willi Williams with the first of two tunes recorded with Roberto Sanchez. This one on the same riddim as Shanti Yalah's "Creation pt.II

The third release on Tradition Disc, Nat Birchall & Al Breadwinner return with a killer all analogue 10 track dub album mixed & recorded at Bakery Studio in Manchester.

Title track from their 1982 album repressed here with two hard Dub Plate cuts from the time. Produced by Donovan Germain, all new Revolutionary Sounds 12" come with full colour company sleeves. Limited press.

Ska two sider featuring The Skatalites and Eric Morris on clean repress

His debut single recorded at The Black Ark around 1975 with version on the flip. Limited repress only 340 pressed and all signed & numbered by Easton Clarke.

Back in stock..

To celebrate 100 years of the Theremin, super producer Gaudi and friends have created an album of Theremin infused dub. Developed in 1920 by Russian physicist Léon Theremin, the Theremin is an electronic device which works with magnetic fields and consists of one metal antenna controlled without physical contact. Predominantly a fairly niche instrument, it has featured in several styles of music since its creation, from classical works to sci-fi movie soundtracks, pop and rock. Gaudi was supported in this tribute by five of the world's top dub producers - Mad Professor, Adrian Sherwood, The Scientist, Dennis Bovell and Prince Fatty. All hugely respected individuals who have been representing the best of international dub production for the last 50 years, they have provided the riddims that underpin Gaudi's Theremin playing on this astonishing project.

Great upbeat collection of six Dennis Brown's 12" discomixes from his work with Joe Gibbs & Errol Thompson featuring classic as his version of Slave Driver, Man Next Door, Oh What A Day plus the 7" killer version of Open Up.

Limited repress of Light Of Saba's first killer roots single originally released in 1974 with "Words Of Wisdom" backed with "Peanut Vendor".

The Chosen Few’s 2nd album originally released in 1975 aka “Everybody Plays The Fool” full of killer soulful funk reggae J.A. style with cover versions of Kool & The Gang, Betty Wright, Smokey Robinson and more, plus bonus track “children of the night” originally not on LP. Limited version with full colour poster with vinyl only.

Shipping 25th April

For the first time released on seven inch single is the 1982 roots tune from Wayne Jarrett with Roots Radics in full effect. Backed by a frightening dub mixed by Overton "Scientist" Brown, recorded and mixed at Channel One, produced by Henry "Junjo" Lawes.

Bunny Lee recorded a massive volume of remarkably consistent music in the 70s. This compilation brings together rare and unreleased cuts that put the listener bang in the middle of a typical recording session, complete with false starts and studio banter.

Linval Thompson is represented by two unreleased tunes, and is also heard in the runup to 'Tommy's Vibration'. Once the 'flying cymbal' sound had taken off, Bunny often recorded a 'flyers' and a straight version of the same rhythm: 'Tommy's Vibration' is a classic but little known Tommy McCook instrumental on the flyers cut of Linval's 'Jah Jah A The Conqueror'. 'Ethiopian Rock' is a total scorcher, the only recorded tune by the deejay Jah Smile, before Bunny persuaded him to turn to singing and changed his name to Barry Brown.

In a healthy spirit of competition, Bunny often tried out different singers on tunes that he thought would hit, hence Ronnie Davis's soulful take on Johnny Clarke's 'Every Knee Shall Bow', Johnny's version of Horace Andy's 'Better Collie', and Johnny and Horace sharing vocals on 'No Man Is An Island', all unreleased until now. 'No Babylon Shall Escape In This Time' has Johnny Clarke and 'Bongo' Herman Davis recorded over the original version side of Johnny's 'None Shall Escape The Judgement'. 'Life Of My Own' is a beautifully constructed lament by a singer who neither Bunny nor various expert ears have managed to identify: at Bunny's suggestion he is credited as 'The Raver'. 'War Zone' and 'Keep On Running' are examples of Tubby's mixes that have had further effects dubbed on elsewhere; sound systems and foreign record labels occasionally did this to manufacture their own specials from existing mixes. 'Jamaican Fruit Of African Roots' has recently been the subject of the fascinating documentary 'Shella Record: A Reggae Mystery'; the Lennox Brown cut here has only just been discovered. Also included are two stinging dubplates by Cornell Campbell: the first is aimed straight to the head of Arrows sound system, while the second, recorded in the early 80s, sums up the vital partnership of two of Jamaica's musical giants:

* previously unreleased ** CD bonus track

Soul Jazz Records’ new release ‘Soul of A Nation: Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher’ is a powerful new collection of radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap made in the era of Black Power (1969-75).

This is the second ‘Soul of A Nation’ album released by Soul Jazz Records to coincide with the exhibition ‘Soul of a Nation – Art in the Age of Black Power’, critically acclaimed and enormously successful when it opened at the Tate Modern in London last year (as was Soul Jazz Records’ accompanying first album ‘Soul of A Nation – Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power 1968-79’). The blockbuster international exhibition is now at the Brooklyn Museum, New York and then travels to Los Angeles in 2019.

This new album features a number of important and ground-breaking African-American artists – The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry, Funkadelic, Gil Scott-Heron and more – alongside a host of lesser-known artists all of whom in the early 1970s were exploring new Afrocentric poly-rhythmical styles of music – radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap – while at the same time exploring the Black Power and civil-rights inspired notions of self-definition, self-respect and self-empowerment in their own lives.

During this era African-American jazz musicians ripped up traditional definitions – rejecting the term ‘entertainer’ to redefine themselves instead as ‘artists’. They worked outside of the mainstream music industry perceiving this artistic relationship to be fundamentally exploitative and politically flawed. Artists instead formed their own pan-arts community-centric collectives, set up their own record labels, ran concerts in alternative performance spaces – art galleries, parks, lofts, community centres – all as a way of taking control of their own creative destinies.

At the start of 1960s jazz musicians had embarked on an intense period of musical experimentation as artists John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry sought to dismantle the traditional definitions of jazz by creating new music that broke free from its establishment shackles. By the end of the 1960s, forward-thinking African-American jazz musicians had absorbed the ideas of this radical and avant-garde path but also began to introduce many new elements – not just civil rights concepts of freedom but also black power ideas of self-respect, righteousness and anger.

Their music developed into a radical and intense Afrocentric mix of jazz, funk, soul and street poetry, all in search of a new musical language that could better represent artistic African-American cultural expression.

All of the featured artists here were involved in this search in different ways; A shared sense of Afrocentric collectivism joined the dots between the deep avant-garde experimentalism of The Art Ensemble of Chicago (here featuring soul singer Fontella Bass singing the powerful ‘Theme de Yoyo’) to the hyper funk psychedelia of George Clinton’s Funkadelic.

The poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and Sarah Webster Fabio performed with a backdrop of street funk and heavyweight percussion laid down the template for the birth of rap. The Har-You Percussion Group, a group of young Harlem teenagers, showed how government-sponsored social initiatives helped create great art and music. Gary Bartz and The Oneness of Juju offer spirituality and cosmology. Collectives like The Pharaohs and Detroit’s Tribe add deep jazz and street funk in equal measures. And so on.

Influenced and radicalised by Black Power and civil rights, all these artists were involved in creating – in the words of the Art Ensemble of Chicago – ‘Great Black Music: Ancient to Future.’

This album is available as heavyweight triple vinyl (+free download), full and extensive text, exclusive photography, with house inners, and as deluxe CD with slipcase, 40-page outsize booklet and jewel case.

Back in stock after an age..Niney's earthy roots classic from 1971 backed with Dennis Brown's "Lightning & Thunder" One of three new represses from "Observers" that haven't been around for a while..

Superb recount of a Heavyweight boxing match between Joe Frazier & George Foreman in Jamaica 1973 by Joe Lewis aka Rupie Edwards. Using Errol Dunkley's heavy riddim "Down Below" with version on the flip. Don't miss..

Great rockers recut of "Creation" from Shanti Yalah with Spanish producer Roberto Snachez at the controls.

Soul Jazz Records are issuing the awesome deep jazz album Rhythmatism (1976) from the legendary Steve Reid long out of print in a new edition very limited 1000-copies COLOURED vinyl (+download code) and CD.

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‘Steve Reid is one of the greatest drummers.

He is a musical genius’ KIERAN HEBDEN (Four Tet)

‘A truly phenomenal artist.’ GILLES PETERSON

‘Steve Reid reflects the spirit of a generation- Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, the Black Artists Group.’ THE WIRE

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Drummer and composer extraordinaire Steve Reid’s Rhythmatism is one of his deepest and most radical of albums of all time and features some of the heaviest jazz players - Arthur Blythe ‘AKA Black Arthur’, Charles Tyler, David Wertman and others – joining Reid. The album was originally released on Reid’s own Mustevic Sound label in 1976

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 in 1976. Rhythmatism is released in its entirety and with full original cover art here and is one of 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.

Bob Marley's first ever single, released on Island records in 1962. Produced by Leslie Kong for his Jamaica label Beverley's.