Cumbia Cumbia 1 & 2Various Artists

Cuba: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 2 is the new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that takes off in exactly the same vein as the much-acclaimed Vol. 1 - exploring the many styles that came out of Cuba in the 1970s as Latin and Salsa mixed with heavy doses of Jazz, Funk, and Disco to create some of the most dancefloor-friendly music every made!

The album comes as a heavyweight 3xLP and deluxe 2xCD set, complete with extensive sleeve notes, and is jam-packed with heavy bass lines, synth and Wah-Wah guitar funk combined with the heavyweight percussion, powerful brass lines and the all-encompassing Latin rhythms of Cuban music known throughout the world.

Much of the music on this album is featured in the deluxe large format book ‘Cuba: Music and Revolution: Original Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90’, released by Soul Jazz Books and also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records), featuring the music and record designs of Cuba, made in the 30-year period following the Cuban Revolution.

The music on this new album features a host of rarities from legendary Cuban artists such as Los Van Van, alongside Grupo De Experimentación, Farah Maria, Ricardo Eddy Martinez, Juan Pablo Torres, Grupo Sintesis and Orquesta Riverside, most of whose names remain largely unknown outside of Cuba but have long been favourite club tracks and secret-weapons in Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker's record boxes!

The music on this album reflects the most cutting-edge of Cuban groups that were recording in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s – all searching for a new Cuban identity and new musical forms reflecting both the Afro-Cuban cultural heritage of a nation that gave birth to Latin music - and its new position as a socialist state. Most of the music featured on this album have never been heard outside of Cuba.

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Both Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker have been involved in Cuban music for more than two decades – Gilles Peterson with his many Havana Cultura projects for his Brownswood label and Stuart Baker with a number of Soul Jazz Records albums recorded in Cuba. This Soul Jazz Records album is released in conjunction with Egrem, the Cuban state record company, and has been put together after the many crate-digging trips that both compilers have made on the streets of Havana and beyond in Cuba stretching over a 20-year period, searching out rare and elusive original Cuban vinyl records.

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REVIEWS of CUBA: Music and Revolution vol. 1:

"We already have a strong contender for 'compilation of the year'. Put together by devout crate-diggers and Cuban music enthusiasts Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records)" JUNO

"It's abundantly clear that these compilers are at the very top of their game. Everything here was previously unheard outside of Cuba, making this a feast for the curious" Vinyl District

"Priceless comp that goes far beyond Buena Vista!" UNCUT

Great unreleased selection of dubplates from King Culture, selected by Twitter Box for this limited press of 250 only. Featuring Jackie Mittoo, Augustus Pablo, Rod Taylor, Zen Bow, Mr Dallas & King Culture. On limited 250 Purple vinyl

More rare roots dubplate action from King Culture as selected by Tweeter Box, Volume 4 on limited press Picture Disc featuring Barry Brown, Rod Taylor, Everett Cooper, Stamma Rank & King Culture.

Disco Hamam with their seventh, crucial instalment of the 'Disco Hamam' series! Turkish and Middle Eastern disco edits, expertly adjusted by the likes of Rune Lindbaek, Tushen Rai, Paralel Disko and Afacan Sound System!

It's another essential Hamam House scubdown! Twisted new wave, EBM and proto-house adjustments from Afacan Sound System and Jacques Renault!

Mad Professor opening up the vaults of Ariwa Studios with this wicked compilation of Lovers Rock featuring Davina Stone, Patricia Smith, Tony Bejamin, Deborah Glasgow and many more.

Music from the motion picture double-feature 'Grindhouse'! Tarantino's 'Death Proof' features gems from the 60s and 70s by the likes of Jack Nitzsche, Pino Donaggio, Ennio Morricone, Willy DeVille and more!

Nyege Nyege Tapes foray into the world of Tanzanian Singeli, the breakneck dance strain that's quickly moved from Dar es Salaam throughout the world. Following 'Sounds of Sisso', a compilation that focused mostly on the Tanzanian capital's Sisso Studios, this set highlights recordings from Duke's Pamoja Records. And while its predecessor brought attention to the producers, 'Sounds of Pamoja' showcases the wide variety of MC talent under the Pamoja Records umbrella, with production mostly handled by Duke.

Z Records’ 'Under The Influence' series gives a musical platform to record collectors that may be unknown to the general public but are hardcore enthusiasts who have built some of the best collections of soul, funk and disco; this time selected by a London-based DJ, dancer and record collector, Alena Arpels.

Originally pressed on vinyl in very small quantities, these 19 records were issued between 1970 to 1983. Many of the tracks included in this compilation were never commercially released, but given away by the artists to family and friends instead. Killer selection!

A CLASSIC set of productions and remixes from the US house/garage legend, Todd Edwards, who was a huge and important influence in the genesis of UKG! Features classic remixes for the likes of St Germain, Indo, Robin S., MJ Cole plus his own classic productions such as 'Saved My Life', 'Winter Behavior' and loads more!

N.B. Vinyl tracklisting:

A1. St Germain - Alabama Blues (Todd Edwards Dub Mix) A2. Indo - R U Sleeping (Todd Edwards Mix) B1. Sound Of One - As I Am (Todd Edwards Mix / Version) B2. Kim English – Tomorrow (Todd Edwards Dub)

C1. Daft Punk - Face To Face C2. Todd Edwards – Shut The Door D1. Todd Edwards – Push The Love D2. Todd Edwards – The Dream

Out-of print since its initial release over 8 years ago and not reissued and it features a monster 2 and a half hours of music!

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Very Limited Edition Super Deluxe Heavyweight Box Edition (includes 4 LP + Insert + 2 Art prints + individual inners + download) + excellent extensive sleevenotes (by David Stubbs, writer for Wire/Guardian and author of the definitive ‘Krautrock’ book) + lots of exclusive photos. This is a one-off pressing of 500 in UK/1,500 copies worldwide.

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Includes seminal German groups: Can, Faust, Neu, Amon Duul II as well as a host of lesser known groups and artists such as Agitation Free, Broselmachine, Niagara and many more! And as well as the original pioneers, Deutsche Electronische Musik 2 also features many of the second wave of German electronic artists and groups from the late 70s and early 80s (DAF, Asmus Tietchens, Rolf Trostel) who successfully connected new wave, minimal synth and a European post-punk avant-gardism with the earlier more established Krautrock pioneers who began at the start of the 70s.

The first seeds of German rock and experimental electronic music were planted in 1968, as students and workers in Paris, Prague, Mexico and throughout the world demonstrated against mainstream society, the war in Vietnam, imperialism and bourgeois values. The birth of a counter-culture, drug experimentation and social change expanded musical worlds. Germany experienced its own cultural revolution fuelled by these worldwide student and worker revolts and by a generation’s desire to rid itself of the guilt of war.

Many German youth turning their back on mainstream society. From the opening of the first collective/cooperative in 1967, Commune 1, in Berlin, to the formation of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group and the bombings, kidnappings and killings of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (RAF), young Germans sought out new values and a lifestyle outside of ‘the system’. These cooperative and communal experiences led to a number of new radical German bands including Amon Duul, Faust and Can.

Many artists and musicians believed a complete rejection of everything musically that had gone before was also necessary in order to build a new identity for German culture. At this time German music meant ‘schlager’ music – insipid pop music that hardly confronted the country’s recent historical events.

Holger Czukay and Irmin Scmidt of Can studied music under the radical avant-garde composer Karheinz Stockhausen and Conrad Schnitzler studied art under the conceptual artist Joseph Beuys. German rock groups were as interested in musique concrète and serial compostion as they were in the psychedelia of Pink Floyd or the rock, soul and jazz music played by resident American forces.

From this beginning German rock music began an evolutionary journey of experimentation. Electronic music became a pathway to notions of space and the cosmos. Conversely, the emergence of communal living led to a number of musicians setting up live/work spaces in rural areas and developing a ‘pastoral’ outlook, with musical ideas engaged closely with nature.

German electronic music, kosmische music, cosmic rock, space music. The objectives were to create new music, ‘free’ from the past. A music that gave seed out of the cultural ‘nothingness’ that young Germans felt as a consequence of Germany’s role in the Second World War. A generation who grew up stifled by the recent history of Nazi atrocities, the guilt of their parents’ generation and their disillusionment at the reintegration of old Nazis into mainstream society.

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Deutsche Elektronische Musik:

"A near-definitive guide to some of the world's most extraordinary music." ***** The Guardian

Second part of MOV's Trojan compilation series, which celebrates the best works from the legendary reggae label Trojan Records. It was compiled by Laurence Cane-Honeysett, who also wrote the linernotes. Some of Trojan’s finest are featured on this compilation; as there are The Gladiators, The Melodians, The Gladiators, Ken Boothe a.o. 750 individually numbered copies on orange vinyl. The package also includes an exclusive Trojan / Music On Vinyl coaster.

Gone back from 2021-06-18 to 27/08/2021

On Vinyl’s Trojan compilation series, which celebrates the best works from the legendary reggae label Trojan Records. It was compiled by Laurence Cane-Honeysett, who also wrote the linernotes. Some of the artists featured on this compilation include Stranger Cole, The Pioneers and Alton Ellis. 750 individually numbered copies on orange vinyl. The package also includes exclusive Trojan Records and Music On Vinyl coaster!

**ESSENTIAL REPRESS!**

Something to warm your spirit and purify your soul via Z Records - David Hill returns with another brilliant compilation of soul gospel! 60's, 70's and 80's, sweet-soul crossovers, and funk-flavoured gospel, with much of the production rooted in disco and boogie. Clark Sisters, Ricky Womack, Shirley Caesar and more. Complete with track by track liner notes!

Soul Jazz Records’ new Studio One collection ‘Fire Over Babylon: Dread, Peace and Conscious Sounds at Studio One’ features a stellar selection of 70s roots music – classic and rare tracks recorded at Clement Dodd’s musical empire at 13 Brentford Road in the 1970s.

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Rastafarian-inspired Roots music was an ever-important aspect of Studio One’s output from the start of the 1970s onwards and this album features many of the ground-breaking groups and artists that established the sound of Jamaica during this decade and beyond.

Featured here are seminal artists such as Freddie McGregor, The Wailing Souls, The Gladiators, Horace Andy, Devon Russell, Cedric Brooks, Count Ossie, Judah Eskender Tafari alongside a host of lesser-known rare cuts made at Studio One from artists such as The Prospectors, Viceroys and Pablove Black.

Studio One and founder Clement Dodd’s connection with Rastafarianism dates back to the early 1960s, with Dodd accompanying members of the Skatalites up to the hills of Kingston to listen to the music of the Rastafarianism Count Ossie and his drummers. The album sleevenotes discuss how Clement Dodd’s musical links, as well as his role in heading the most important record label in Reggae, are in many ways linked to the beliefs of Rastafarianism.

This album is released as a heavyweight black vinyl double-album with gatefold sleeve, full notes and download code, deluxe CD with full booklet and slipcase and digital album.

The Lost Maestros Collection is a collaboration between Deviation Records and the independent Malian label Mieruba, which has been working since 2010 to ensure that this golden age of Mande music does not fall into obscurity.

'The Lost Maestros Collection' focuses on musical riches of Mali, and more particularly the music of the Mandé region, cradle of the great griot families,. Highly recommended!

**Featuring amazing music from British jazz legends such as Don Rendell, Michael Garrick, Neil Ardley, Ian Carr, Dick Morrissey, Harry Beckett and more!**

A deep dive into the one of most collectable jazz catalogues in the world, a selection of some of the rarest and most sought-after recordings from the 60s and 70s, a time when British jazz began to find its own identity. Drawn from the iconic labels of Decca, Deram, Argo, EMI Columbia/Lansdowne Series, Fontana, Mercury and Philips.

Tramp Records' top 'Can You Feel It?' series continues with some rare and obscure modern soul, disco and boogie originating from countries as diverse as Barbados, Guyana, Germany, and the US.

Cold Wave #2

Ltd. Edn. Dayglo sleeve + PURPLE 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 second release of Soul Jazz Records’ new Cold Wave overview.

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This second edition Cold Wave #2 comes in two vinyl editions – a one-off pressing purple 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 from France, Beta Evers and L.F.T. from Germany, Lena Willikens, Job Siffre and De Ambassade from the Netherlands, Toulouse Low Trax from Germany, Dave I.D. and Broken English Club from the UK, and V.C.V.S from Georgia

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

Some of the rarest gospel funk records from Greg Belson’s amazing collection featuring everything from the laid back breakbeat laced “I Don’t Want to Be Alone by Allen Gauff Jr to the high octane and socially-on-point take of the Gospel classic ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ by the Gospel Ambassadors to drum break funk of the Wearyland Singers ‘If You See Me Doing Wrong” to the sublime soulfulness of Zella Jackson’s “Days Are Just People.

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.

'Oz Echoes' peels away another layer of Australia’s ‘80s DIY hive mind. The Oz Waves successor exposes a deeper circuit of micro-run cassettes, community radio archives and irrationally abandoned studio sessions, as Steele Bonus sequences a 10-track compendium of drone pop, psycheelectronics and agitated tape cut-ups. Highly recommended!

Expanded version of the best-selling TV advertised album from 1973, comprising 55 of the biggest reggae hits of the late Sixties and early Seventies.

The double disc collection includes numerous chart-busting hits and dancefloor-fillers, performed by some of the greatest Jamaican performers of the era, including such legendary artists as Desmond Dekker, the Maytals, Dave & Ansel Collins, the Pioneers, John Holt, Greyhound and Bob & Marcia.

Guaranteed to bring a touch of warm Jamaican sunshine to even the coldest of days, “The Best Of Reggae” is sure to brighten up any occasion, 365 days of the year!

UNBELIEVABLE new compilation of deep spiritual music by John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and other groundbreaking Impulse Artists.

"Orange and black. Fire and ebony. Fury and pride. Wearing its signature colors proudly and raising its exclamation point high, Impulse! Records was the go-to label for music that harnessed the searching and political stand-taking of the Sixties. Launched in 1961, Impulse grew to become an inherent part of the era’s velocity as well as its volume, pulling jazz into the age of Black Power, Afrocentricity, and Spiritual Expansion. In its balance of tradition and transition, it bridged the golden age of jazz, that brief window from the late Fifties to the Seventies when players representing every jazz era were alive and active—from Louis Armstrong to Albert Ayler, from the legends of lore to a new generation of energy players. Impulse treated all its musicians as innovators, revolutionaries even—from swing and bebop, to free and Afrofuturist. The performances on Impulse Records: Music, Message and the Moment draw their staying power from a wide embrace of styles and sounds, as well as a tight focus on a historic moment when the promise of change was in the air and the message of racial harmony was in the music. Today that music has lost none of its relevance: the promise still deferred, the message still on time."

Floating Points' Melodies International label launches its Melodies Record Club series with Four Tet selecting two big peak-time, floor-friendly, jazz dance tracks he used to spin regularly at the legendary London, UK club, Plastic People!

Buena Vista Social Club is an ensemble of Cuban musicians established in 1996 to revive the music of pre-revolutionary Cuba. Classic album!

‘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

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

BACK IN PRINT!!!!!!! 2xLP now with bonus download code!

Studio One Soul 2 is the long awaited second volume of one of the largest selling Soul Jazz/Studio One titles, Studio One Soul.

Studio One Soul 2 takes us further into Jamaican music’s fascination with American Soul and Funk music. Featuring a host of classic Reggae artists – Horace Andy, The Heptones, Ken Boothe, Jackie Mittoo, Jacob Miller and many more covering equally classic American Soul and Funk tunes by the likes of Curtis Mayfield, The Five Stairsteps, Marvin Gaye, The Stylistics, Lee Dorsey, Al Green and Syl Johnson.

Studio One Soul 2 will appeal as much as an introduction to classic reggae as to connoisseurs and is another essential Studio One release. This selection features a mixture of classics, super-rare and unreleased tracks from Studio One, few of which have ever been on CD - all lovingly digitally re-mastered for this release. The vinyl edition also comes on super-loud double vinyl.

REVIEWS

"90% of the reggae music I own is contained on a handful of compilation albums from the phenomenal Soul Jazz Records stable. After eulogizing Morgan Khan’s Street Sounds series in my last post, I would have to add that Soul Jazz have done what Khan did for electro for reggae, by doing the hard work for the listener and releasing one quality compilation after another, all packed with the finest reggae songs around." WHITE NOISE

"Studio One was modeled on the record labels that had their own crack studio house bands, labels and studios like Stax in Memphis, Motown in Detroit, Muscle Shoals in Alabama and Criteria in Florida, so it was natural that at Studio One versions of some of the most influential soul records would be reworked in a Jamaican idiom for playing on the powerful sound systems" SOUNDS STAGE

Where the group's previous album 'Adult Themes' inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, 'Yeti Season' brings us to a different place in time with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with this stunning album release!

While the righteousness of blackness is at the heart of the Rastafarian faith, this collection illustrates how black pride remained a central theme, if not the defining essence, at the very core of all the music created at Studio One Records.

Black Man’s Pride is the striking new Studio One collection of deep heavyweight reggae featuring Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, The Gladiators, Sugar Minott, The Heptones, Freddie McGregor, Cedric Brooks & more.

In order to understand the centrality of black identity in the music created at Studio One, we need look no further than Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd who, who created the first black-owned record company in Jamaica.

In similar fashion Alton Ellis’s defining ‘Black Man’s Pride’ brings up emotions that are at the heart of many of these uplifting songs. Alton Ellis’ birthplace was the Trench Town ghetto of Kingston, also the birthplace of The Wailers, Ken Boothe and many other Studio One luminaries.

Clement Dodd established a musical empire firmly rooted by the core musicians working at Studio One many of whom came out of the Alpha School for Wayward Boys, run by Roman Catholic nuns, whose luminaries include Don Drummond, Johnny Moore, Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace, Cedric Brooks, Vin Gordon, Tommy McCook & more.

Many of the songs featured here come from the transitory phase in reggae at the start of the 1970s. After the exhilaration of Ska and following the cooling down of Rocksteady. While reggae awaited the arrival of roots, Studio One’s vocalists were already producing some of the moodiest music imaginable! Here are 18 heavyweight tunes, both classic cuts and super-rare tunes!

This new album is released as a heavyweight gatefold double-LP edition (+ download code), CD and digital with full text.

REVIEW

"The bottomless pit that is Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label(s) yields more gems. Soul Jazz and before it, Heartbeat in the US, United Artists, Bamboo and various other labels in the UK have released numerous collections, yet the catalogue remains largely under-exploited, despite the late Mr Dodd’s tireless efforts to wring every last cent from it in unlikely ways. Little wonder that some reggae fans, spoilt by knowledge and racks of original vinyl, can be inclined to shrug when another comp emerges: there have been so many. However, Soul Jazz’s albums are different: not only have they encouraged a new, younger audience, parallel to the one that enjoys rare funk and spiritual jazz, to appreciate this music, their records are coherent. They’re not just a heap of tunes that happen to be sharing a black vinyl apartment. They’re themed and meld musically. They have a reason to exist.

In this instance, that reason is an exploration of (mostly) 70s vocal roots reggae with a theme of black pride and dignity. This music was recorded as a cultural statement, if not a cry, from the roots; strong stuff, deep, dark and heavy. But don’t mistake that for leaden. It may have bass frequencies that drive your neighbour’s dog under the sofa, thinking it’s 5 November all over again, but this is no gloomy exercise in musical storm clouds. Right from Alton Ellis’s title-donating opening tune, there are aspects of Black Man’s Pride that will have you skipping around the room, literally or mentally, and thanking Jah that you didn’t spend the money it cost you on a pizza, dough balls and Diet Coke meal deal. This is not musical junk food, it’s a keeper fit to lift the heart whenever needed.

One reason for this is the sequencing. Glen Miller (not that one) may have a light, soulful voice but the rhythm track he’s riding on Love And Understanding is a minor chord churner, as sad as a wet Sunday. But it’s held up on either side by Sugar Minott (and an uncredited Gladiators) floating through Woman Shadow (as sung by The Meditations as Woman Is Like A Shadow), and The Nightingales’ gorgeously swinging Rasta Is Calling, a glorious take on Delroy Wilson’s Cool Operator rhythm that’s a sod to find on 45. The Heptones make a rational case for Equal Rights in a manner that ought to have been perky enough to win them at least an audition for a CBBC presenter’s role. Their lead singer Leroy Sibbles pops up uncredited on John Holt’s heart-lifting yet cool Let’s Build Our Dreams. Heavy 70s roots is gloomy? Nope. Jamaica’s ghettos were suffering; they didn’t need more misery.

There’s also judicious joining up of vocals and their dubwise 45 flipsides: The Gladiators’ Roots Natty is one such. I heard the vocal, and immediately wished it was the devastatingly moving dub cut. Compiler Stuart Baker evidently thought likewise, so it extends to the version. For variety, there’s a lone sax instrumental to wreck things up too: Cedric Brooks’ melodic Why Can’t I.

There’s room for the unique, deep and breathy voice of Larry Marshall. More “international” stars Horace Andy and Dennis Brown are here too, recorded as youths, as is a teenage Freddie McGregor on a rootsy rewrite of Cat Stevens’ Wild World – with what sounds like JS Bach on synth! The set shuts with Johnny Osbourne’s sophisticated and spiritually openhearted Forgive Them.

With an informative, eminently enjoyable sleeve note about the growth of roots reggae and its place in Rastafarianism and black awareness, fittingly Black Man’s Pride lacks nothing." Ian McCann, RECORD COLLECTOR

Cultures Of Soul focus on the the intermediary forms of music in SA that filled the gap between the musical styles of mbaqanga and bubblegum in this important period, both musically and politically.

Starting from the early 80s, when bands like Varikweru, Black Five and Soundburger essayed local attempts at boogie and jazz-fusion, through experiments like the Madonna-cloned diva Margino, who domesticized the burgeoning Italo-disco and NYC electro sounds, up through the massive breakthrough of Brenda and the Big Dudes, who arrived at the right mix between native and international influences to point the way forward for South African pop.

**Limited 10" album pressing via Analog Africa!**

In 1976, seven Cabo Verdean musicians going by the name Voz Di Sanicolau gathered in a small recording studio in Rotterdam where they laid down this album of fearsome coladeira songs inspired by the music of their home island of S o Nicolau.

OUT NOW!

Soul Jazz Records new ‘Two Synths, A Guitar (and) A Drum Machine’ is a new collection of current D-I-Y post-punk bands shaped by the mutant sounds of no wave, punk funk and New York Noise bands from the late 70s and early 80s that collided with the world of underground dance music found at the Paradise Garage, Mudd Club in New York City (ESG, Arthur Russell, Bush Tetras, Talking Heads, Suicide, Liquid Liquid).

Other influences cited here include Manchester and Sheffield’s industrial post-punk sounds of the 1980s (Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Gang of Four) as well as the 1970s German electronic experimentalism of Cluster, Neu!, Harmonia and Can.

Featured artists from around the globe include Los Angeles D-I-Y band Automatic, New Fries from Toronto, artist/music collaborators Toresch from Germany, Susumu Makai from Japan/UK, Vex Ruffin from the Phillipines/California and Madmadmad, Gramme, Tom of England and other UK groups

That all the bands featured here manage to make distinctive contemporary music out of these 80s roots is testament to the wide range of other musics that are seamlessly absorbed into a modern melting pot of sound – hip-hop, the electronic European avant-garde, rave culture, and more.

The double vinyl comes in two editions:

1) Limited edition indies EXCLUSIVE heavyweight green double vinyl housed in bespoke individual inner sleeves with its own free pull-out fanzine on the groups featured.

2) Limited edition heavyweight black double vinyl housed in bespoke individual inner sleeves with its own free pull-out fanzine on the groups featured.

The album is also available as a CD and digital release

Originally released in 1979 on West London label "Jamaica Sound" Superb dub album mixed at King Tubby's & Channel One. Vinyl is single vinyl and the CD is as below..

Double Cd with the Super Disco Style with 3 bonus tracks on the CD. The Tommy McCook 'Super Star Disco Rockers' set is a free bonus CD. There are a couple of bonus tracks thrown in on the second Tommy McCook set for good measure. Comes with extensive notes by Diggory Kenrick a deluxe digital pack for the price of a single CD.

It's back in stock!!! EXCLUSIVE - ONLY AVAILABLE HERE!

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WORLD EXCLUSIVE limited edition seven-inch 45 ONLY AVAILABLE to customers at Soul Jazz Records and Sounds of the Universe!

The world's greatest ever break? Here it is - The first official re-release of The Winston's Amen Brother with the LEGENDARY Amen Break as featured on 1000s of hip-hop and jungle releases. This record has been a collectors' 45 for ages and OUT OF PRINT for 50 years - sounding fresh!

Not only that but the flip-side Color Him Father is a superb Curtis Mayfield-esque ANTHEMIC soul tune - as essential as the A-side.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE limited edition seven-inch 45 ONLY AVAILABLE to customers at Soul Jazz Records and Sounds of the Universe!

THIS RECORD IS 100% ESSENTIAL and ONLY available HERE - DO NOT MISS OUT!

NOW ON VINYL...1st Time..

Once upon a time at King Tubbys captures from start to finish the full story of the most well known,and certainly the wittiest of all the war of words that the highly competitive Kingston music scene ever produced. I Roy and Prince Jazzbo were the main players with Derrick Morgan, Johnny Clarke, Bunny Lee and King Tubby getting in the mix.