MF Doom MM Food (Limited Pink & Green Vinyl Edition)

Metalface Records has released the first complete & remastered version of Operation: Doomsday containing the original album, alternate versions, b-sides and instrumentals - 42 tracks total - with all new artwork.

The best album from one of the all-time, hip hop greats - totally essential.

Highly recommended latest offering from Quasimoto. Infectious , funky, psychedelic and raw! featuring MF Doom. ANOTHER MADLIB INVASION!

Classic MF Doom LP finally gets re-issued: all fans of Doom's projects such as 'Victor Vaughn', 'King Geedorah' & 'Madvillian' need this LP.

Essential underground hip hop that recalls the break-filled golden era of the early 90s!

Highly recommended - no hip hop fan should be without this essential album!

Kevin Martin (aka The Bug) and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) have collaborated on a unique project bringing together new, exclusive and in-demand cutting-edge digital music by electronic futurists such Harmonic 313, Diplo, Roots Manuva, South Rakkas Crew and The Bug alongside music from the pioneering electronic scientific dub and radical producers of the Jamaican digital dancehall revolution in music - King Jammy, Steely and Clevie, Sly Dunbar, Prince Jazzbo, King Tubby, Dave Kelly, Firehouse Crew and many more.

Like the music of The Bug himself (whose seminal ‘London Zoo’ album is an apocalyptic mixture of dancehall, dubstep and grime), the new digital producers featured here all create work that is contemporary (whether dubstep, acid, hip-hop, electronic) and yet linked in some way back to Jamaican dancehall - especially the new digital styles that exploded out of Kingston in the 1980s with King Jammy’s revolutionary computer-based sounds.

Producer King Jammy learnt his trade under the greatest of all dub producers King Tubby, and this music constantly references back to the origins of dub - but whereas Tubby’s revolution used echo-chambers and analogue tape-splicing, the Jamaican producers featured here were the first to use and embrace computer technology.

The double album comes in limited edition heavyweight deluxe hardcover 2-CD card-casing complete with a limited-edition graphic novel by Italian comic book designer Paolo Parisi (whose books include subjects as diverse as John Coltrane and Chernobyl). This specially commissioned graphic novel is a science-fiction vision of the future of digital music, featuring King Tubby, Steely and Clevie, Jammy, Jazzbo, complete with Alien Sound Lord Abductors, Aural Freedom Fighters and Digi-Dub Voyagers!

There are also two super-heavy, super-loud, deluxe gatefold double-vinyl editions (with the first copies also including a limited edition graphic-novel in volume 1 and a free poster in volume 2).
Invasion of the Killer Mysteron Sounds brings together the most exciting electronic producers in Jamaica with current sound artists in the UK and beyond who all create music based on revolutionary sounds in 3D – Dancehall, Digital and Dub.

 PITCHFORK REVIEW HERE

Soul Jazz Records' journey into Dub and beyond, released to coincide with the new DVD film. Featuring an array of both legendary and current artists and producers connected to Dub.

This monster double CD / triple LP is a lightning journey through Dub featuring Jamaican originators such as King Tubby, Lee Perry, Prince Jammy and Bunny Lee, alongside electronic futurists and Dubstep artists such as Kode9, Harmonic 313 (Warp) and LV (Hyperdub), as well as hip hop pioneer Roots Manuva and original junglist Congo Natty. Musical worlds collide as Francois Kervorkian meets Jamaican DJ legend U-Roy, and German techno giants Rhythm & Sound meet Cornell Campbell.

This album is a celebration of all things Dub and related, featuring rare classics alongside new tracks from the pioneers and futurists of this electronic musical form.

REVIEWS
The Times 

All-time classic Hip Hop album from BDP produced by Scott La Rock & KRS ONE. An essential purchase from a legendary hip hop group that pioneered the fusion of reggae and hip hop!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unreleased roots instrumental gem from Augustus Pablo on the "Cheater" rhythm from 1972 produced by Clive Chin.

Album debut from young, exciting jazz quartet Sneaky Jesus, based in Poland. 'For Joseph Riddle' merges concepts of contemporary Polish Jazz and breakbeat oriented styles of UK and US jazz with ideas and energy derived from punk and funk! Highly recommended!

This is Soul Jazz Records’ new journey into the heart of New Orleans and a guide to the city’s finest Funk music produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s.’ Featuring everyone from The Meters to Eddie Bo, Lee Dorsey to Betty Harris, this is a who’s who of the Crescent City’s most famous and most funky! 

The city of New Orleans has deep musical roots that stretch back to Africa. New Orleans first gave birth to Jazz music, a Black musical form centred on rhythm, improvisation, freedom and collectivity at the turn of the century. Similarly in the late 1960s New Orleans Funk came to define a unique sound, mixing Caribbean rhythms, New Orleans second-line syncopation and rhythm and blues, all played by the Big Easy’s finest musicians. 

Whilst Jazz and Funk music spread throughout the world, many African-American musical traditions remained within the city limits such as Mardi Gras and Carnival, Saturday Night Fish Fries, Funeral Marching bands and much more which partly explains why New Orleans music is so unique. 

The album comes with extensive sleeve-notes, exclusive photography and more, and is an essential guide to the musical landscape of New Orleans and - together with Soul Jazz Records’ earlier New Orleans’ releases - presents the definitive story of New Orleans Funk.
Although on the mainland coast, New Orleans is also surrounded by lakes giving the city an island feel. Similarly its proximity to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti and the other West Indian Isles means that Latin and Caribbean musical influences are in its veins as much as American musical traditions. The upside of this city’s isolation is that New Orleans musical traditions flourished away from those of the rest of America. A thriving city full of artists, musicians, singers, producers, record companies, studios (well one studio actually) led to a 24-hour, 7-day a week musical life, playing in clubs, bars, brothels, carnivals and parades. 

The downside of the cities isolation from the rest of the US was that the city never developed a solid music industry to back up the creative over-supply. Whilst New York had Atlantic, Detroit had Motown, Memphis had Stax, Chicago had Chess, Los Angeles had Modern, New Orleans had a multitude of small businesses fighting for space - and often each other. Without the marketing, promotional weight, business nouse and financial clout, New Orleans labels found it hard to get the nationwide distribution necessary to fill the million-odd jukeboxes throughout the country. So whilst every family in America knows the music of Gladys Knight or Smokey Robinson few could tell you about – let alone hum a tune from - Benny Spellman, Inell Young, Warren Lee….This is far from being a reflection of the artists creativity or musicality - as anyone can tell you New Orleans melodies are the catchiest of all - more it is a reflection of the limitations of the local music industry. Some New Orleans artists became successful throughout the US such as Fats Domino in the 1950s and in the late 1960s The Meters and Lee Dorsey, but many artists remained within the city limits. 
This makes for a fascinating goldmine of music released by a complex myriad of small labels run mainly by New Orleans producers, promoters and artists themselves. New Orleans Funk 2 brings together many of these artists along with text, sleeve-notes and photographs that gives social and historical context to the incredibly funky music of New Orleans.

Classic jazz funk album produced by the brilliant Mizell brothers! Features "Music Is My Sanctuary" and "Carnival De L'esprit"!

Sola Terra bring some other-worldly, bruk, jazz fusion vibes from a cosmic quintet known as The VV Experience! The band find a sweet spot between the likes of The Comet Is Coming and Herbie Hancock while sharing the same energy and vitality as their contemporaries and label mates Ebi Soda - absolutely essential release!

ONE OF OUR FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF 2008!!!!

Long awaited album from Benga. Features the mighty 'Night' feat. Coki, 'E-Trips', 'Crunked Up', '26 Basslines' and many more bass shaking nuggets! Being championed by Mary Anne Hobbs, Gilles Peterson, Pete Tong and just about everybody else who's heard it! This has to be the most complete album in the scene so far. Highly recommended!

All-time rare groove jazz funk anthem! Serious Creed Taylor production on Kudu (the label he ran after CTI) recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's 1974. All star line-up includes Bob James, Phil Upchurch, Harvey Mason, Eric Gale.

London, UK based trio return with their third, essential album release!

The beauty of 'Better Times' (broken up into "colour references" that are "suggestive of mood and tone"), lies in the "openness to form and structure these tunes, whilst a sense of groove and melodic development is maintained throughout. The confidence and versatility of the musicians is key, and so is the interaction between them, characterising a natural flow of unfolding musical ideas."

Stunning album of Brazilian folky-rock! Recorded in 1971 and with tracks included on the recent Soul Jazz records' 'Brazil 70" album, this is an absolutely 100% essential album of post-tropicalia Brazilian folky-rock. Seriously deep music that sounds like Crosby Stills and Nash/Joni Mitchell-style US folk rock but with its roots in Brazilian jazz pop! Simultaneously rootsy and polished love songs from two people in love - this is Joyce's first and best album! Very highly recommended!

Album features Ernie K Doe’s ‘Here Come The Girls’, The Meters, Eddie Bo, Professor Longhair, Lee Dorsey, Wild Magnolias and more.

This is the definitive collection of New Orleans Funk featuring acknowledged masters next to some of the earlier artists who shaped the meaning of funk. The album is also filled with many rare, sought after and undiscovered funk tracks. It covers the period from the emergence of New Orleans Funk in the early 1960's through to the mid-seventies.

The record is an essential part of anyone in any way interested in Funk's record collection. It has some vital ingredients in it that you can't find elsewhere. With the sound of the New Orleans Funeral March Bands, Mardi Gras Indian Tribes and Saturday Night Fish Fries all as inspiration New Orleans Funk developed into a unique sound. 

New Orleans is a port town. Originally owned by the French, this was where many slaves were brought from the West Indies. Many of these slaves came from Haiti and brought with them the religion of Voodoo and its drums and music. It became one of the first parts of America to develop a strong African-American culture leading to the invention of Jazz in the early 1900s. 

A main feature of Jazz in New Orleans were the Jazz Funeral Marching bands. Solemn Brass bands accompanying a coffin would, on burial, be joined by a second line of drummers and dancers which would turn the event into a celebration of the spirit cutting free from earth. This African tradition is strong in New Orleans and still goes on to this day. The backline drums play a syncopated style that is neither on the beat nor the off-beat. It is these rhythms that are the basis of New Orleans Funk. 

The album comes with a booklet presenting a historical explanation to how and why this music came about, and with lots of information about the people involved.

Reviews:
"A Perfect Primer For Funk Fans" Q (Top 5 albums of the year)
"Probably the finest compilation that Soul Jazz has released. Essential" Time Out

100% stone cold classic roots album, recorded at the Black Ark by Lee Perry with an all-star line up of musicians.

Deluxe Edition double album - Record 1 is the classic 'Heart of the Congos' album in all it's glory, digitally remastered with the addition of the bonus track 'Don't Blame On I'. Record 2 is entitled 'The Best of the Rest', and features another 11 great tracks

Ltd. Edn. Dayglo sleeve + ORANGE VINYL 2xLP, + mini-fanzine/ Ltd. Edn. Dayglo sleeve + BLACK VINYL 2xLP, + mini-fanzine/ Dayglo CD + Slipcase + Booklet

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Soul Jazz Records new ‘Cold Wave’ is a new collection of current electronic artists who have all been shaped by the early European cold wave artists of the late 70s and early 80s.

This is the first release of Soul Jazz Records’ new Cold Wave overview and a second volume will be released just four weeks later.

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This first edition of Cold Wave comes in two vinyl editions – a one-off pressing orange coloured vinyl edition and a black vinyl edition. Both come as heavyweight double vinyl housed in bespoke individual inner sleeves and the limited edition first pressing of this album comes with its own free pull-out fanzine on the groups featured. The CD edition comes with artist booklet/fanzine and slipcase. All editions are printed in special dayglo colour finish.

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These first artists created new electronic musical landscapes as well as pursuing a stubborn D-I-Y aesthetic, often releasing material on cassette and pioneering use of lo-fi technology, primitive drum machines and home-recording techniques. As part of this continued evolution today many of the artists featured here also self-release their own material, run labels, publish fanzines, or are part of wider musical collectives.

Aside from the first electronic, no wave, and post-punk artists cited as influences –Suicide, Patrick Cowley, The Normal, Martin Hannett, Laurie Anderson, Public Image – this new generation of artists also show an exquisitely open source of electronic and disparate influences, everything from Underground Resistance to Purcell, from Scientist to New Beat and more besides.

Most of the featured artists are based in Europe and include Krikor, Dissemblance and VQOA from France, De Ambassade from the Netherlands, Moisture from Sweden, Kriedler from Germany, Céline Gillain and Carcass Identity from Belgium. One exception is FIT Siegel out of Detroit, connecting the electronic pathways of Europe to the Motor City.

All of the bands featured here make distinctive contemporary music out of the 80s roots of the first cold wave movement.

The mighty Madlib returns with volumes 3 and 4 of his fantastic beats albums together on one CD! Both installments are based around his love for Indian music and he has clearly been digging in the crates for those Bollywood breaks as both volumes are packed with percussive exotic funk samples from Indian movies! 

Highly recommended!