Electronic

VINYL FACTORY COMPILATION OF THE YEAR 2020!!!

See chart here

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LIMITED EDITION COMES WITH FREE GRAPHIC STORY!

Soul Jazz Records’ new Black Riot: Early Jungle, Rave and Hardcore is a brand new collection of heavyweight ragga-influenced hardcore jungle tracks from the early 1990s. Dark and heavy!

Featuring classic and seminal tracks from the likes of Levictus and Krome &Time, alongside a host of rare and little-known ragga & junglist hardcore tunes from the likes of Babylon Timewarp’s hypnotic Durban Poison, Rhythm for Reasons’ mad ‘The Smokers Rhythm’, The Freaky rave-y breakbeat sound of ‘Time and Age,’ Trip One’s super dark ‘Snowball’ and loads more!

Expect super heavy basslines, equally heavy twisted Amen drum loops, even heavier ragga vocals! Original jungle style - roots and culture - from the earliest days of drum and bass.

Included with the album is a free limited-edition graphic mini-novel “Black Riot: The Mysterons save Planet Earth from the Xatheroid Angels.” This is the third collaboration between Soul Jazz Records and writer/illustrator Paulo Parisi, the highly respected author of graphic books on Jean Michel Basquiat and John Coltrane.

This new graphic story continues the story of black electronic dance music – this time set around the birth of Jungle and continues onwards from Soul Jazz’s earlier ‘Invasion of the Killer Mysterons’ (Jamaican electronic Dub, co-compiled by Kevin Martin (The Bug)) and Mysterons Invade the Jackin’ Zone (about Chicago Acid & Experimental House).

This is incredibly Trees Speak’s third album on Soul Jazz Records to be released in the space of one year – and it’s amazing!

Trees Speak’s new album ‘Post-Human’ once again blends 1970s German electronic and ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals (think Harmonia, Can, Cluster, Popul Vuh, Neu!), haunting and powerful 1960s & 1970s soundtracks (think Italian prog-rock Goblin and John Carpenter horror movies, Morricone and existential John Barry spy movies), together with a New York No Wave electronic synth and guitar analogue DIY-ness (think Suicide, anything on Soul Jazz’s New York Noise series or Eno's New York No Wave)!

The new album ‘Post-Human’ draws further upon German krautrock high-concept albums from the likes of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze from the 1970s, as Trees Speak create their own powerful new landscapes of sound that manage to be at once contemporary as well as both timeless and with a sense of science-fiction futurism.

Trees Speak’ seamlessly segue together all these musical elements into ‘Post-Human,’ a conceptually expansive album which follows on from their critically-acclaimed debut LP ‘Ohms,’ and the follow-up ‘Shadow Forms’ released on Soul Jazz Records less than six months ago.

This powerful new album is a high-concept collage of retro-futurist science-fiction music, which is fantastically illustrated by a specially commissioned cover design by the artist Eric Lee, a dramatic vision of life after humanity.

Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic night-time magic of Arizona’s natural desert landscapes. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in trees and plants - using them as hard drives – and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.

The album includes an INDIES ONLY exclusive bonus 45 single with two extra tracks ‘Machine Vision’ and ‘Seventh Mirror’ available with the vinyl edition of this amazing and ground-breaking new album.

With ‘Post-Human,’ Trees Speak take the listener deep into their unique musical world of unknown visions of the past and the future.

ABOUT Ohms: Album of the Month - Splintered Eye /50 Best albums 2020 - Pop Matters / Favourite albums 2020 -The Soap Company / Albums of the Year 2020 -Bear Tree Records / Independent Albums of the Year 2020-Love Records / Albums of the Year 2020-Concrete Islands

ABOUT Shadow Forms: Records of the week-Drift / Album of the week-Resident / Album of the week-Norman / Records of the Year 2020 -South / Albums of the Year 2020 - Concrete Island / Albums of the month - Reveal / Albums of the Year 2020 -Piccadilly / Albums of the Year 2020-Buzzsaw / About Shadow forms / Records of the week-Drift / Album of the week-Resident / Album of the week-Norman / Records of the Year-South / Albums of the Year-Concrete Island / Albums of the month-Reveal / Albums of the Year-Piccadilly /Albums of the Year-Buzzsaw

About Ohms:

“This might well be the Dark Side of the Moon of the XXI century” Discogs

Super-limited new 1000 copies special ox-blood red vinyl edition!

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It's a big one ... Absolutely stunning second album from Trees Speak new on Soul Jazz Records.

Trees Speak’s new album ‘Shadow Forms’ is a blend of 1970s German electronic and ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals (think Harmonia, Can, Cluster, Popul Vuh, Neu!), haunting and powerful 1960s & 1970s soundtracks (think Italian prog-rock Goblin and John Carpenter horror movies, Morricone and existential John Barry spy movies), together with a New Nork no wave electronic synth and guitar analogue DIY-ness (think Suicide, anything on Soul Jazz’s New York Noise series or Eno's New York No Wave)!

Trees Speak’ segue together all these elements into ‘Shadow Forms,’ which follows on from their critically-acclaimed debut LP ‘Ohms,’ released on Soul Jazz Records less than six months ago.

Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz from Tucson, Arizona and their music often draws on the cosmic night-time magic of Arizona’s natural desert landscapes. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in trees and plants - using them as hard drives – and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.

Trees Speak - Shadow Forms:

Records of the week-Drift/Album of the week-Resident/Album of the week-Norman/Records of the Year-South/Albums of the Year-Concrete Island/Albums of the month-Reveal/Albums of the Year-Piccadilly/Albums of the Year-Buzzsaw

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.

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.

New fully remastered re-release of Soul Jazz Records’ ‘The World of Arthur Russell’, the seminal collection of Arthur Russell’s essential music back in print on awesome limited-edition heavy deluxe triple vinyl and deluxe CD edition.

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This album brings together some of Russell’s best-loved and most accessible works including his wide-ranging music both solo and in groups including Dinosaur L (the essential ‘Go Bang’), Loose Joints (the equally classic ‘Is It All Over My Face’) as well as rarities such as the 7” only ‘Pop Your Funk’, Indian Ocean’s ‘Schoolbell/Treehouse’, Lola’s ‘Wax The Van’ and more.

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“Arthur Russell fused the avant-garde with disco and sounds like nothing else on earth.” The GUARDIAN

“Russell is the great enigma of the New York music scene” THE WIRE

“Simply one of the best compilations of this or any year.” RECORD COLLECTOR

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Arthur Russell’s music effortlessly crossed musical boundaries making it timeless. His dance music credentials are faultless and this collection features mixes from Larry Levan, Françcois Kervorkian and Walter Gibbons. Similarly, his song-writing, musicality and performance skills are equally cherished as composer Philip Glass wrote, ‘this was a guy who could sit down with a cello and sing with it in a way that no one on earth has ever done before or will do again.’

When Soul Jazz Records’ The World of Arthur Russell first came out in 2003, Russell’s music had slipped into near obscurity. Nearly 18 years later there are over a dozen releases of his music, reissues of his original albums and more. ‘The World of Arthur Russell’ is the classic first collection of his work available once more.

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

Super-limited new 1000 copies special white vinyl edition!

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When the band Trees Speak, coming out of nowhere, released an exclusive one-off 100-pressing white label 45, described as CAN/NEU! meets LIQUID LIQUID, it sold out so quickly (in less than 30 mins - one for sale on Discogs now at £400!) that Soul Jazz Records decided to release their album almost immediately.

Here it is! And it's awesome!

Soul Jazz Records rarely release new music but found the music of TREES SPEAK’s album ‘OHMS’ so stunning and to have so many elements of music that they admired that they felt compelled to release it.

The group Trees Speak are from Tucson, Arizona and create new music that sounds like GERMAN KRAUTROCK meets NO WAVE/POST-PUNK and PSYCH ROCK – music for fans of CLUSTER, TANGERINE DREAM, CAN, NEU!, SILVER APPLES and early KRAFTWERK.

The album ‘OHMS’ sounds at times like a tripped out & moody JOHN CARPENTER/GOBLIN/MORRICONE soundtrack that seamlessly segues into propulsive, ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals loaded with fuzzy, hypnotic mellotron, synths and analogue effects, as well as elements of ART ENSEMBLE free jazz, and all at times reaching a kind of post-rave psychedelia. More recent comparisons would include BEAK and GHOST BOX who draw upon similar themes and styles.

Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz plus musicians from the Tucson, Arizona scene such as Giant Sand, XIXA and James Hunter. ‘Trees Speak’ relates to the idea of future technologies storing information and data in Trees and plants - using them as hard drives – and the idea that Trees communicate collectively.

Trees Speak - Ohms :

Album of the Month - Splintered Eye/50 Best albums 2020 - Pop Matters/Favourite albums 2020 -The Soap Company/Albums of the Year 2020 -Bear Tree Records/Independent Albums of the Year -Love Records/Albums of the Year -Concrete Islands

"Hieroglyphic Being translates five years of experimentation into his best LP to date" Vinyl Factory

"Album of the week" BLEEP

"Chicago dance music hero Hieroglyphic Being releases one of the strongest albums of his incredible career" Pop Matters

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Stunning new album from Chicago’s finest electronic futurist Hieroglyphic Being, aka Jamal Moss, newly released on Soul Jazz Records. This is his third album for the label, following on from The Acid Documents (2015), and African With Mainframes (w/ Noleian Reusse) K.M.T. (2016).

Born and based in Chicago, Moss’s music embodies two of the cultural foundation blocks of the city’s musical lineage; that of Chicago’s original Acid House sound (c. 1986) - Frankie Knuckles, Phuture, Marshall Jefferson et al, alongside a rigorous experimental sound searching that taps into the cosmic musical lineage of pioneering artist Sun Ra whose Arkestra landed and was based in the city from 1946-61, and the equally pioneering work of The Art Ensemble of Chicago in the 1960s and 70s.

The association with Sun Ra is by no means hypothetical, Moss recorded with the Arkestra leader Marshall Allen and a host of free jazz players for the album Hieroglyphic Being & JITU Ahn-Sahm-Buhl’s ‘We Are Not The First.’ (2015).

Similarly, his relationship to Chicago’s original acid house pioneers of the late 1980s is no hyperbole. Originally mentored by artist/producers Adonis and Steve Pointdexter, Moss also runs his own Mathematics label, releasing a constant stream of new music by foundation acid house pioneers Lil’ Louis, Adonis and many others.

Moss grew up in the south side of Chicago. After being thrown out of the home of his adoptive parents, he then spent three years homeless living on the streets of Chicago, living a nocturnal existence as a gigolo in Chicago’s alternative clubs. He began his career as a DJ at the pioneering Liquid Love parties at Chi-town’s legendary Power House (home of Ron Hardy’s Music Box) around 1989.

What clearly defines Moss’s music is that while sometimes pushing the limits of sound to an ear-splitting dimension of experimentation and DIY-electronics – the music is always clearly a progression of the lineage of black music. In the words of fellow Chicagoans, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, it is simply ‘Great Black Music.’ And yet in this uniquely defined sound, Moss somehow manages to draw into this world elements of industrial music, German electronic music (Cluster, Harmonia etc), Detroit’s sci-fi techno artists (Atkins, Saunderson, Craig) and more.

‘Outsider House’ ‘Afro-Futurist’ ‘Rhythmic Cubism’, Moss’s near indescribable sound plays testament to the notion that he is perhaps the last of the line of producers directly influenced by Ron Hardy at the Music Box, uniquely qualified to write a new chapter of Chicago’s rich musical history.

Red Notes is the prolific artists new revelatory and unique project – in his own words ‘A homage to the Blue Note Jazz sound of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock’ fused together with the classic Chicago House and Acid sensibilities of Larry Heard, Armando, Adonis et al, into a newly imagined futuristic and barrier-less musical landscape.

Featuring organic and synthetic electronic instrumentation, Hieroglyphic Being here fuses real-time live instrumentation and over-dubbed technologies to dramatic effect, as analog and electronic worlds collide.

In honour and dedication: Thelonious Monk , Weather Report, Black Herman, Larry Heard, Herbie Hancock, Marshall Allen, Danny Thompson, Sun Ra, David Hotep, Daniel Carter, Orphy Robinson, Shabaka Hutchings, Mark Sanders, Evan Parker, Yaw Tembe, Pat Metheny, Miles Davis, Armando Gallop, Jon Hassell, Heldon, Pekka Airaksinen, Popol Vuh, Joe Zawinul, Moebius, Plank, Neumeyer, Adonis.

Instrumentation: with Organic Flute, Piano, Guitar, Drums, Alto Sax, Hammond Organ, Korg Triton, Linn Drum, Korg DDD-1, Dr5 Drums, Casio RZ 1, Ensoniq Mirage Fairlight CMI Series III, Moog Mother 3, Allen & Heath Zed 24 mixer, Auria App for Sequencing.

The striking artwork features stunning graphics and illustration from Paolo Parisi (who also created the artwork for the Africans With Mainframes album as well the series of Acid Mysterons albums all on Soul Jazz Records)

"Jamal Moss has composed a modern afrofuturist suite as though in a state of perpetual grace" QUIETUS

Read full review here

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’ new Space, Energy and Light is a collection of music by early electronic and synthesizer pioneers (from the 1960s through the 1970s), mid-1970s proto-new age gurus and 1980s guerrilla D-I-Y cassette-era electronic artists, spanning in total over a near 30-year time frame. All of these artists used electronic advancements in music technology as a means of exploring not only space and the idea of the future, but also of looking inwards to the soul and of creating music in harmony with the natural world.

From computer software and hardware experimentalists and sound pioneers such as Laurie Spiegel and Kevin Braheny, as well as Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company – the first synthesizer ensemble created in collaboration with Robert Moog – through to musique concrète experimentation, the album shows how technological advancements and creative artistic expression often went hand in hand.

In the mid-1970s artists Steven Halpern and Iaxos were instrumental in creating proto-new age music, experimenting in both the healing properties of sound and its relationship with the natural world. These artists also pioneered a new self-contained and underground D-I-Y approach to music, creating their own record labels, forming new distribution networks (with albums sold in meditation centres, health food stores and ashrams) far away from the commercialism of the mainstream music industry. In the early 1980s after the revolution of punk, these D-I-Y attitudes and ideas appeared once more in the growth of the distinctly anti-commercial and underground cassette-only careers of artists such as Germany’s Stratis and Carl Matthews in Britain.

This album is available as a heavyweight triple vinyl album (plus download code), CD and digital release. Artwork includes some of the earliest photography of the Plieades star cluster dating from the 1880s.

"A devastating album of epic dancefloor rituals and visions from Jamal Moss (Hieroglyphic Being) and Noleian Reusse in their prized Africans With Mainframes guise, amounting to their most substantial and impressive collection." BOOMKAT

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This album is available as a very limited 1000 double-LP (+download) and 1000- tip-on hard Japanese gatefold card style CD, digital album all designed by the artist Paolo Parisi.

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Jamal Moss, aka Hieroglyphic Being, returns for a new second album on Soul Jazz Records, after last year’s debut The Acid Documents. this time under the name Africans with Mainframes.

Hieroglyphic Being and fellow Chicago producer Noleian Reusse have been releasing music under the name Africans with Mainframes for over 15 years now, ever since their debut on Hieroglyphic Being’s own Mathematics Recordings label in 2005. ‘K.M.T.’ is the debut album from the group, a collage of apocalyptic Chicago acid meets industrial and transcendental post-house machine funk. 

Both intense and unique, the album of forward-thinking, experimental, boundary-pushing Afro-futurist electronic music shows why Hieroglyphic Being is regarded as one of the most serious purveyors of experimental black music today. You can't stop the prophet!

Born and based in Chicago, Moss’s music embodies two of the cultural foundation blocks of the city’s musical lineage; that of Chicago’s original Acid House sound (c. 1986), that of Frankie Knuckles, Phuture, Marshall Jefferson et al, alongside a rigorous experimental sound searching that taps into the cosmic musical lineage of pioneering artist Sun Ra whose Arkestra landed and was based in the city from 1946-61.

Similarly his relationship to Chicago’s original acid house pioneers of the late 80s is no hyperbole. Originally mentored by artist/producers Adonis and Steve Pointdexter, Moss also now runs his own Mathematics label which has released music by foundation acid house pioneers Lil’ Louis, Adonis and many others. To quote Moss, ‘I am the last of the line of producers directly influenced by Ron Hardy (the pioneering acid house DJ) at the Music Box.’

Moss grew up in the south side of Chicago. After being thrown out of the home of his adoptive parents, he then spent three years homeless living on the streets of Chicago, living a nocturnal existence as a gigolo in Chicago’s alternative clubs. He began his career as a DJ at the pioneering Liquid Love parties at Chi-town’s legendary Power House (home of Ron Hardy’s MusicBox) around 1989.

What clearly defines Moss’s music is that while sometimes pushing the limits of sound to an ear-splitting dimension of experimentation and DIY-electronics – the music is always clearly a progression of the lineage of black music. In the words of fellow Chicagoans, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, it is simply ‘Great Black Music.’ And yet in this uniquely defined sound, Moss somehow manages to draw into this world elements of industrial music, German electronic music (Cluster, Harmonia etc), Detroit’s sci-fi techno artists (Atkins, Saunderson, Craig) and more.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing a collection of lost recordings by French mutant experimental synth group Kas Product, all originally recorded in the period 1980 – 83. 

Kas Product formed in 1980 in Nancy, France, as an electronic duo comprising ex-psychiatric nurse Spatsz on electronics and rhythm machines and Mona Soyoc on vocals and guitars.

Kas Product feature on Soul Jazz Records’ recent 'Punk 45 – Les Punks: The French Connection'. Mainly recorded on early tape, synth and drum machines Kas Product’s mixture of Spatsz’ hypnotic, electronic and angular hard-edged beats matched to the spiky vocals and guitar work of Soyoc led to comparisons with Suicide, Liliput/Kleenex, Cabaret Voltaire as well as to the group being forerunners of the cold wave/ synth wave movement. Perhaps closer still is the Industrial sound of bands such as Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubaten. At the start of the decade Kas Product's 'So Young But So Cold' was also the title track of a defining collection of rare underground electronic French coldwave/synthwave bands on the Tigersushi label.

The recordings here are taken from their early releases on the local Punk label from Nancy, France at the start of the 1980s, mostly recorded on a 2-track recorder in their bedroom, which led to them signing to RCA in 1982. These songs were first put together on CD by the French Fan Club label in 1990.  Essentially the group split-up in 1988 but Kas Product still come together to perform live today most recently in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. In 2012 their major label debut album was re-released in France.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this album on limited-edition 1000-copies worldwide vinyl LP (with download), CD and worldwide digital.

Reviews and Articles:

Read large feature in Noisey (in French) here

Current Wire magazine front cover artist Hieroglyphic Being’s debut album for Soul Jazz - The Acid Documents - is an album made up of tracks first released last year only ever available in a bespoke edition of 100 copies (yes 100) – in the form of a homemade CD-R – made exclusively for the Sounds of the Universe record store.

This album is now released officially as a one-off edition of 1000 copies on coloured double vinyl, CD and digital, fully remastered with artwork by Japanese artist 2Yang.

Hieroglyphic Being, aka Jamal Moss - who features on the front cover of Wire magazine’s current issue – is a DJ/composer/sound artist who makes pioneering, experimental, boundary-pushing Afro-futurist electronic music.

Born and based in Chicago, Moss’s music embodies two of the cultural foundation blocks of the city’s musical lineage; that of Chicago’s original Acid House sound (c. 1986), that of Frankie Knuckles, Phuture, Marshall Jefferson et al, alongside a rigorous experimental sound searching that taps into the cosmic musical lineage of pioneering artist Sun Ra whose Arkestra landed and was based in the city from 1946-61.

This association with Sun Ra is by no means hypothetical, having just been in the studio with the Arkestra leader Marshall Allen and a host of free jazz players for the album Hieroglyphic Being & JITU Ahn-Sahm-Buhl’s ‘We Are Not The First.’

Similarly his relationship to Chicago’s original acid house pioneers of the late 80s is no hyperbole. Originally menotored by artist/producers Adonis and Steve Pointdexter, Moss also now runs his own Mathematics label which has released music by foundation acid house pioneers Lil’ Louis, Adonis and many others. To quote Moss, ‘I am the last of the line of producers directly influenced by Ron Hardy (the pioneering acid house DJ) at the Music Box.’

Moss grew up in the south side of Chicago. After being thrown out of the home of his adoptive parents, he then spent three years homeless living on the streets of Chicago, living a nocturnal existence as a gigolo in Chicago’s alternative clubs. He began his career as a DJ at the pioneering Liquid Love parties at Chi-town’s legendary Power House (home of Ron Hardy’s MusicBox) around 1989.

What clearly defines Moss’s music is that while sometimes pushing the limits of sound to an ear-splitting dimension of experimentation and DIY-electronics – the music is always clearly a progression of the lineage of black music. In the words of fellow Chicagoans, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, it is simply ‘Great Black Music.’ And yet in this uniquely defined sound, Moss somehow manages to draw into this world elements of industrial music, German electronic music (Cluster, Harmonia etc), Detroit’s sci-fi techno artists (Atkins, Saunderson, Craig) and more.

(The second Hieroglyphic Being album on the new label, under his moniker Africans with Mainframes, will be released on Soul Jazz Records in January 2016)

"Soul Jazz Records set Sounds of the Universe: Art + Sound 2012-15 features some of the heaviest Afrofuturistic producers out there:"  PITCHFORK

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Soul Jazz Records new Sounds of the Universe: Art + Sound 2012-15 is a new double album CD (and two separate volumes of double-vinyl) featuring a line-up of some of the most forward-thinking and progressive artists and producers working with electronic music around the world today.

This lovingly compiled collection features a stunning array of contemporary artists: Chicago’s Afro-futurist genius Hieroglyphic Being; Kaseem Mosse (aka Gunnar Wendell/Siege of Troy), one of the most talked-about, respected artists in underground house and techno; out of Detroit’s Moodyman stable comes Andres; also featured is Los Angeles-based Ras G, associated with the Brainfeeder label established by fellow producer Flying Lotus; and many more!

This new collection features a first CD of tracks recorded exclusively for Soul Jazz Record’s bespoke Sounds of the Universe label. These were originally issued under their Art + Sound series between 2012 and 2015 as unique hand-etched and original commissioned art pieces (reproduced here) collectors’ 12” singles - all pressed in micro-editions of 250 copies for each artist’s release that were only ever available exclusively from Soul Jazz Records’ boutique Sounds of the Universe shop in Soho, London.

The second CD features a fantastic set of all brand new exclusive tracks from the likes of Seven Davis Jr, Drexciya collaborator DJ Stingray, deep house virtuoso Mike Huckaby, Glaswegian noise-punk six-piece Golden Teacher, and lots more – all created and commissioned especially for this release. These songs are not available anywhere else in the world.

Together these 2CDs comprise an amazing selection of new progressive electronic music.

This album is released as double CD pack with slipcase and booklet. It is also available as two separate limited edition double vinyl editions in heavyweight vinyl and gatefold sleeves with full artwork + free download codes, and as a worldwide digital release.

Limited 12” (300 copies worldwide) and ONLY AVAILABLE exclusively from Sounds of the Universe record store and Soul Jazz Records.

This unique Art+Sound 180 gram vinyl only is the second release on our own Sounds of the Universe label and features music from Tevo Howard on one side and exclusive hand-etched art engraving by graphic artist Kutmah on the other side.

New generation Chicago house artist and DJ, Tevo Howard, is also the son of legendary bluesman Rick 'Poppa' Howard. ‘Summer Romance’ is the new exclusive track made for our new Sounds Of The Universe label, launched by Soul Jazz Records.

Tevo's sound incorporates drum machines, melancholic melodies which reference Detroit alongside the deep warm sound of New York. But above all it is a sound matured at home in the heart of house music, Chicago.

Graphic artist Kutmah is the California-raised illustrator and DJ who has worked with many of the Los Angeles underground electronic hip-hop community - Gaslamp Killer, Flying Lotus, Gonjasufi and Dabrye - through his affiliation with the Dublab collective and the groundbreaking electronic/hip-hop club 'Low End Theory'.

Check also the video by KORKUSUZ, filmmaking twins hailing from Turkey via Eastern Europe.

Their first single was released on Kieran Hebden (FOURTET)’s own label and Rocketnumbernine have been touring and performing alongside FOURTET since 2010.

The meeting between Fourtet and Rocketnumbernine came from both group's connection to Steve Reid, the veteran radical drummer who recorded a number of albums on Soul Jazz.

Rocketnumbernine have recently had live sessions on GILLES PETERSON's RADIO ONE show as well as performing at the Gilles Peterson WORLDWIDE Awards.

The group have just returned from playing with RADIOHEAD in New York.

This is a VERY LIMITED 12” single EP on SOUL JAZZ RECORDS.

RocketNumberNine are London based brothers Ben (keyboards) and Tom Page (drums).

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

New single in Soul Jazz Records’ Future Bass releases features two exclusive brand new tracks of deep future post-dubstep and post-house music from two new generation producers, Randomer & Fife.

Soul Jazz’s  Future Bass features some of the most progressive producers making dance music today – Four Tet, Mala, Kevin Martin, Coki, Untold and more new wave producers like Randomer. Here Randomer joins up with fellow dubstep producer Fife with this stunning new single featuring two exclusive new super-deep tracks of future music.

Soul Jazz Records new compilation of the UK Funky scene.

‘Riddim Box’ explores the most unique, left-field and innovative UK Funky releases of the recent past with loads of killer tracks and exclusives! UK Funky inhabits the space between dubstep and house mixing together elements of grime, dancehall and R'n' B with the percussive rhythms of Nigerian afrobeat and Caribbean soca to produce one of the UK’s most interesting recent musical developments.

Following swiftly on from 'Future Bass', Soul Jazz continues its travels through contemporary UK underground dance music (Box of Dub, Steppers Delight, Future Bass).

Lots of favourite names such as Zed Bias, MJ Cole, Lil’ Silva, Kode9, Crazy Cousins feature alongside exclusive new tracks from LV, Grievous Angel and more.

With its roots in the UK Garage scene UK Funky continues the chronological musical line from the original sounds of jungle and drum & bass and dancehall through to contemporary sounds of grime, dubstep and 2-Step. Heavyweight!

Deluxe double CD pack and two volumes of heavyweight double vinyl. 
(Volume One vinyl is tracks 1-9, Volume Two is 10-19)

Future Bass! Post-Dubstep, post-House, post everything! Four Tet, Mala, Untold, Black Chow (Kevin Martin/The Bug’s latest project), Coki and loads more all-exclusive new tracks on this new album for Soul Jazz Records.

Soul Jazz Records have brought together some of the UKs most pioneering producers of the day to create an album that can only be defined as future music. All new exclusive tracks from a set of artists all at the height of their respective careers alongside heavyweight new-wave producers. From the off-kilter hypnotic post-House bass music of Four Tet (one of the most hyped tracks of late) to the boundary pushing genre busting post-Dubstep of Mala and Coki (the two halves of Digital Mystikz), Untold and more alongside truly uniques tracks such as Kevin Martin/The Bug’s latest incarnation, Black Chow. Future music! Future Bass!

‘Future Bass’ is packaged in a limited-edition deluxe plastic casing with set of free postcards and vinyl comes on super-loud, super-heavyweight triple vinyl, mastered at Transition.

Amazing new album of krautrock-inspired beauty!

Subway II, the debut album by Subway on Soul Jazz Records, is a startling cosmic marriage of influences – German electronic rock music from the 1970s (Cluster, Kraftwerk, Neu, Harmonia, Ash Ra Tempel), 80s Detroit science fiction techno (Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills) and a hint of Italian and European disco (Danielle Baldelli meets Cerrone, Space, Moroder and Jean Michel Jarre).

Subway are Michael Kirkman and Alan James and have been releasing music since 2000. Subway II was recorded at home in East London using a plethora of analog equipment and techniques t hat enabled them to create sound reflecting cityscapes such as Berlin, Dussseldorf, Detroit and Paris whilst at the same time creating a contemporary musical commentary of London in 2009.

This album is a cosmic progression of post-dance music, focused more on meditative thought and space than one made for the dancefloor, yet still encompassing the rhythm and constant beat at the heart.

Their most recent appearance is on Soul Jazz Records Singles 2008-9 alongside Kode9, Digital Mystikz, Tetine, Secondo, Ramadanman and other forward thinking electronic pioneers.

With three previous sell-out singles on Soul Jazz Records (Simplex, Satellites and 4410), an album ‘Empty Head’ (released in 2005) as well as a string of one-off projects, the group are currently name-checked by everyone from Hot Chip to DFA, Prinz Thomas to Carl Craig, with good reason.

‘Subway II’ is a fitting conceptual statement of their current sound. Cosmic, post-dance, organic, meditative and hypnotic.

Here's  a great interview and online mix:

FACT MAGAZINE

Featuring exclusive Soul Jazz Records singles spanning 2008-9 for the first time on this monster 32 track double CD all for the price of a single CD !

Some of the finest artists around have chosen to work with Soul Jazz Records in the last two years and we are proud to present these exclusive tracks here. As well as featuring once again the cream of the UK’s Dubstep master producers such as Kode 9, Digital Mystikz and Cult of the 13th Hour (Kevin Martin AKA The Bug and Space Ape), this CD also features many second-generation artists such as Pinch, Cotti, Ramadanman, Kutz and more.

Soul Jazz also continue to release the very best in new forward-thinking electronic music – be it glitchy house, baile funk, italo-disco and more - by the likes of Subway, Matias Aguayo, Tetine (with a killer remix by CSS), Secondo and more - and these all also feature here.

This album brings together all the exclusive 12” vinyl releases on Soul Jazz Records over the last two-years!

Soul Jazz Records release Secondo’s first album of super-funky micro cut-up disco and electronic music. Secondo is Italian/Serbian producer Radovan Scasascia. Born in Zurich in 1975, his super-funky minimal discofied electronic dance music has been appearing sporadically on Soul Jazz Records since 2003 and on his own minimal electronic label, Dreck Records since 2000, where he also releases the music of artists such as AM/PM, Antonelli and Strategy. His most recent appearance was on the Soul Jazz Singles CD alongside Rekid (AKA Radio Slave and one half of Quiet Village), Kode9, Subway, DJ Rupture and other similarly like-minded electronic pioneers.

Secondo’s love of disco and minimal European electronic music produces a unique funky-electronic cut up style that shows his close links with the micro-house sound of Germany’s Kompakt label as much as that of the New York Disco labels of the late 70s and early 80s. This led to earlier releases such as his celebrated Tom Tom Club cut-up a few years back.

Secondo’s music features thousands of micro-samples and on “A Matter of Scale”, his first album on Soul Jazz Records, the music successfully reflects his aim of reconstructing these minute sonic fragments into new compositions that somehow maintain the atmosphere of the originals as well as creating new worlds. As much at home with his own material as other peoples, his remixes have appeared on a diverse set of European and American electronic artists – Felix da Housecat, Richie Hawtin, Harrison Crump, James Din A4, Kammerflimmer Kollektief and many more.

Whilst Tetine may appear to be the most recent addition to the growing Brazilian Post-Punk/Baile Funk scene that includes the groups C.S.S. and Bonde do Role, the group have actually been in existence the longest, and have an infamy in the Sao Paulo scene that they helped create: "Tetine was my first inspiration in terms of intellect, presence and their amazing performances. It was right there in front of me but it made such a strong impression and I never forgot that was what real music is about: freedom and purity and, of course, in many different ways, FUN! I've never seen something like that coming from Brazil, or actually, anywhere!" Lovefoxx – singer of CSS 

Bruno Verner and Eliete Mejorado formed the group, Tetine, in Sao Paulo in 1995. The pair now spend their time between London and their hometown and whilst “Let Your X’s Be Y’s” is their first album to be released in the UK, it is in fact their eighth release in Brazil. A wild mix-up of Punk-Funk/New Wave/Post-Punk/Baile-Bass, Tetine’s music is a mixture of raw punky energy and attitude mixed with bass-heavy dance music. Tetine have carved an unusual musical path constantly exploring the boundaries between music, art, video and performance and their infamous live events range from rock gigs to gallery installations; from opening last year’s ‘Tropicalia – A Revolution in Brazilian Culture’ festival at the Barbican Centre in London to numerous performances for galleries, art spaces and festivals from Paris (Palais de Tokyo), to Chicago (The Wire’s Adventures in Modern Music Festival) and Sonar in Spain. As celebrated producers and DJs from the US and UK such as Diplo and Sinden are bringing this new punk/funk/bass/dance music from Brazil to a new audience, Tetine - who have played alongside everyone from Dizzie Rascal to Deize Tigrona - have a serious set of artists as fans from around the world; "Tetine are Feminists, un-followers and inventors of their own scene; an uncut diamond. If Art is really dead, then Tetine belong to a "nameless" genre - the makers of something wild, something alive." Chicks On Speed Aside from their own music, Tetine have also been instrumental in bringing the Brazilian underground music scene to the attention of the UK for a number of years. They compiled and presented the first ever album of Baile Funk outside of Brazil (Funk Carioca, 2005) as well as an essential primer to early-80s Post-Punk from Sao Paulo (Sexual Life of The Savages, released on Soul Jazz Records in 2007). Both these albums have influenced a new generation of DJs and beat-makers in the UK and US. “Let Your X’s Be Y’s” is Tetine’s first album to be released in the UK. It includes their two previous singles on Soul Jazz Records, “A Historia da Garca” and their most recent “I Go To The Doctor”. This album also comes with a limited edition bonus track – the CSS remix of “I Go To The Doctor”. www.tetine.net www.myspace.com/tetine