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

Soul Jazz Records’ new Boombox features some of the many innovative underground first-wave of rap records made in New York in the period 1979-82, all released on small, independent, often family-concern record companies, at a time when hip-hop music still remained under the radar.

This first exuberant wave of innocent, upbeat, party on the block rap records were the first to try and create the sounds heard in community centres, block parties and street jams that first took place in the Bronx in the mid-1970s. But where Flash, Kool Herc and Bambaataa were back-spinning, mixing and scratching together now classic breakbeat records like The Incredible Bongo Band’s Apache or Babe Ruth’s The Mexican, these first rap records were all made using live bands, often replaying then current disco tunes, whilst MCs rapped over the top, creating a unique sound that later became known derisively as old school.

And while hip-hop started in the Bronx, rap on vinyl began in Harlem where long-time established rhythm and blues producer-owned record companies such as Joe Robinson’s Enjoy Records, Paul Winley’s Winley Records, Delmar Donnel’s Delmar International and Jack Fatman Taylor’s Rojac and Tayster were the first off the mark to realise the commercial potential of rap music - releasing early ground-breaking records that all quickly followed in the wake of the first rap record, The Sugarhill Gang’s Rappers Delight, a million-selling worldwide hit.

This collection celebrates these first old-school rap records, bringing together rare, classic and obscure tracks released in the early days of rap.

Deluxe double CD-pack comes with slipcase, 40-page outsize perfect-bound booklet, extensive notes, exclusive photography and original label artwork. Triple-vinyl heavyweight vinyl includes full artwork, text and notes as well as free download code.

REVIEWS:

Soul Jazz has a reputation for top-notch compilations that offer crash courses in a variety of styles and genres both beloved and obscure; they are, in essence, the K-Tel of the millennial generation.

This is one of the best Soul Jazz sets in ages, a legitimate party in a box, overflowing with underground deep cuts that have seldom — if ever — been spotted on other collections - FACT

 ROLLING STONE Best Rap Albums of 2016

NEW LTD. 300 copies (2nd Press, yellow label)

Only available EXCLUSIVELY to customers at Soul Jazz Records/Sounds of the Universe.

FACT mag. no. 6 BEST FUNK RECORD EVER MADE! 

Soul Jazz Records' latest EXCLUSIVE New Orleans Funk bomb: SALT - HUNG UP

Last original copy sold on EBAY for £1450.

Has not turned up in the last 8 years!

And for those of you who have never heard the B-side - it's also a killer SUPER HEAVY FUNK/PSYCH WORKOUT.

Two killer tunes on this amazing exact replica FUNK 45

THIS 7-inch can ONLY be bought directly here from Soul Jazz Records or Sounds of the Universe websites and shop.

Cuba: Music and Revolution: Culture Clash in Havana: Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85 Vol. 1 is the new album compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that explores the many new styles that emerged in Cuba in the 1970s as Jazz, Funk, Brazilian Tropicalia and even Disco mixed together with Latin and Salsa on the island as Cuban artists experimented with new musical forms created in the unique socialist state of Cuba.

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.

The album is released to coincide with the massive new deluxe large format book Cuba: Music and Revolution: Original Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90, published in November, which is also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records), and which features the music and record designs of Cuba, made in the 30-year period following the Cuban Revolution.

The music on this album features legendary Cuban groups such as Irakere, Los Van Van and Pablo Milanés as well as a host of lesser known artists such as the radical Grupo De Experimentación, Juan Pablo Torres and Algo Nuevo, Grupo Monumental and Orquesta Ritmo Oriental, groups whose names remain largely unknown outside of Cuba owing to the now 60-year old US trade embargo which remains in place today and which prevents trade with Cuba – and thus most Cuban records were only ever available in Cuba or in ex-Soviet Union states.

The music on this album reflects the most cutting-edge of Cuban groups that were recording in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s – who were all searching for a new Cuban identity and new musical forms that reflected 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.

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.

-------------------------------------------------------

REVIEWS:

"It may only be January, but 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 goes beyond Buena Vista" UNCUT

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*Please note the vinyl sticker of this album says "+download code" but it's a mistake! There is no download with this particular album due to legal reasons. Sorry for this error!

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 

Back in stock!

Soul Jazz Records new Studio One release Rocksteady Got Soul is a collection of uplifting and superb rocksteady and soulful reggae from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Studio One is the number one label in the history of reggae and he album features - as ever with Studio One - an impeccable and unbeatable line-up of reggae superstars all soaring at the height of their creative powers. Alton Ellis, John Holt, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Ethiopians, Lee Perry and more.

The album is a mix of classic tunes and rhythms alongside super-rarities that were released in a dazzlingly complex web of Studio One labels and issues, deftly navigated with new sleevenotes from author and Studio One authority Rob Chapman. But enough with the chatter, just spin the platter - these tunes rule the town, hands down!

This Soul Jazz/Studio One album is released as deluxe gatefold double-vinyl + house inners + download code. Also as jewel case CD housed in card slipcase. Both formats come with full sleeve notes/discography and exclusive photography. (The album is also available digitally on day of release onwards)

Expanded edition which now features five extra tracks!

This ground-breaking album features non-stop killer reggae versions of original funk and soul classics in a disco style. Reggae disco updates of seminal classics by Anita Ward (‘Ring My Bell’), Chaka Khan (‘I’m Every Woman’), Michael Jackson ‘Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough,’ Sugarhill Gang (‘Rappers Delight’ here performed by Derrick Laro & Trinity for producer Joe Gibbs) and more, all showing the hidden but inseparable link between the dance floors of New York, Kingston and London.

New bonus tracks to this collection include Derrick Harriott’s funky take on Eddie Drennon’s ‘Do It Nice and Easy’, the classic disco reggae of Risco Connection’s performing McFadden and Whitehead’s ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now’ and the London rare groove lovers rock of Charmaine Burnett singing Barbara Acklin’s soul classic ‘Am I The Same Girl’.

‘Hustle! Reggae Disco’ has been one of Soul Jazz Records’ best-selling releases since its first release 15 years ago (and subsequently featured heavily in the early Grand Theft Auto games!). This new edition comes complete fully re-mastered and with all original titles plus new tracks. This new expanded edition now comes as a triple album (+ download code), CD and digital album.

‘The effect of American R&B and soul music on Jamaican reggae is well documented, but the story doesn't stop there, for disco (and more so now for rap and hip-hop) have also been subsumed into the reggae mix, and while one might suspect that the resulting hybrid would die of its own implausibility, the feral mix of disco with reggae rhythms is so darn infectious that it hardly matters. Once you take your brain out of the frame and just let your feet go, this collection is a dancer's delight all done up in full-blown disco style, but with huge dub-style rhythm tracks … if you're looking for an impossibly infectious dance collection, this is it.’ All Music

The album is a first for Studio One and Soul Jazz as it is compiled of mainly unreleased material from the vaults of Studio One. This CD shows how American Funk influenced Jamaican artists as heavily as Soul music had been an influence in the Rocksteady era and Rhythm and Blues in the Ska period.

 Soul Jazz Records latest journey features all-time classic jungle anthems such as General Levy’s ‘Incredible’ and UK Apachi and Shy FX’s ‘Original Nuttah’ alongside some serious Ragga heavyweight tunes like Cutty Ranks ‘Limb By Limb’ and Congo Natty’s classic re-make of Barrington Levy’s Under Me Sensi’. The album tells the story of how Jungle developed out of acid house but with its roots in the UK Dancehall scene of the 1980s and comes with extensive sleevenotes, exclusive interviews and photography.

** Bonus CD track only not on vinyl. ---------------------------------------------------

"Blimey, this had us wiping the mists of time from our rheumy eyes, soul jazz cross swords with the phenomenon of original ragga jungle. With a few honourable exceptions, they're all here - yes, Cutty Ranks 'Limb by limb', M Beat and General Levy "Incredible", Ragga Twins, SUAD, Shy FX, DJ Zinc in a previous lifetime - since remembering and finding original copies of these records in random second hand shops, albeit tanned but still even playable, let alone hearing them inna dance at the right moment is akin to a religious experience. Run these to an up for it mixed crowd and watch things really go off big style! Zinc's "Super sharp shooter" is nearly the latest joint here, a record so hype it disappeared immediately back in the day, all the hip hop headz were buying two copies for the cut up opportunities. When it all fell to pieces, manchester club ceilings were riddled with holes as locals attempted to duplicate the vibe of outdoors yard parties - but the audio damage was done, an unrepeatable period, reflecting the adrenaline of rave, the suss of breaks kids and the sheer joy of orginal ja and uk dancehall vocalists pon microphone. Lick a shot - Walther ppk saturday night special y'hear. Awesome." BOOMKAT

As Soul Jazz Records enter into the mighty vaults of Studio One, the most respected label in reggae history, we present you with this showcase of Jackie Mittoo, one of the defining figureheads of reggae music !

From forming The Skatalites, at age 15, alongside Don Drummond, Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook and others, to his work as writer, arranger, producer at Studio One records during the sixties, writing and playing for artists such as Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths and The Heptones (to name a few), to his career as a solo artist as well as leader of bands such as The Soul Brothers, Soul Vendors and The Sound Dimension, Jackie Mittoo is at the heart of reggae music. He was one of the instigators of Ska, Rocksteady and Reggae. In the seventies, DJ music and Dancehall were based upon classic rhythms of the sixties, many using the instrumental tracks that Jackie Mittoo created at Studio One at this time.

This compilation features the work of Jackie Mittoo at Studio One. It features music recorded as a solo artist (as opposed to the numerous singers that he accompanied). Most of these are taken from his recordings in the mid sixties where he was recording on an almost daily basis at Studio One's Brentford Road studios developing the funky reggae sound that was his trademark.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this CD as the first of a series of Reggae artists to be covered following the success of the 100% Dynamite releases. Jackie Mittoo is as much an icon of Reggae as he is to fans of Funk music. He is without doubt the funkiest keyboard player ever to come out of Jamaica !

Reviews:

"CD of the Week. The coolest man who ever lived" THE GUARDIAN***** "

Named by MOJO as one of the 100 cult heroes of all time, this is a lovingly curated compilation" THE INDEPENDENT

"After Soul Jazz Records' groundbreaking 100% Dynamite CD's comes Jackie Mittoo. If you've caught the funky reggae bug, you need this" MUZIK

"Rocksteady, compulsively funky Ska and Soul. An excellent Soul Jazz compilation" MOJO

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this latest Studio One compilation which features non-step 100% stone-cold classic Studio One killers! Spanning 40 years of the legendary label, this album is a fitting tribute to Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd and is a who's who of Jamaicaan Reggae

VINYL ALBUM ONLY RESTOCK JUST IN (COMES WITHOUT DVD)

Soul Jazz Records’ feature-length documentary/CD/Book ‘Studio One Story’ is being re-released on 1 August 2011, and is also available for the first time as a stand alone DVD.
The DVD is being issued as a prelude to the forthcoming deluxe-hardback book ‘Original Cover Art of Studio One Records’ released this autumn by Soul Jazz Records as well as a new Studio One album compilation on Soul Jazz to coincide with the new book.

Studio One Story is a documentary this is both a staggering slice of musical history and a definitive guide to Studio One, Jamaica’s greatest ever record company, and its legendary founder, Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd. ‘Studio One Story’ was filmed in 2002, two years before the death of the legendary Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd, a man famously reticent of being interviewed - until the making of this film. Described by Chris Blackwell as the Motown of Jamaica, or ‘The University of Reggae’, Studio One is where the careers of literally hundreds of reggae artists began: Bob Marley and the Wailers, Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Ken Boothe, The Skatalites, Burning Spear and Sugar Minott, to name but a few! Studio One is the ‘foundation’ label of Jamaican Reggae and Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd is seen by many as its father.

One and a half years in the making, Studio One Story is a truly unique documentary in which the late Clement Dodd gave unprecedented personal access to tell the previously untold story of how he and the many artists and musicians at Studio One literally shaped the rise of Reggae music from the 1950s onwards through to the late 1970s. This is the true story of reggae music and its Jamaican roots told from the inside: From the rise of Kington’s sound systems in the 1940s and 1950s, through to the evolution of a Jamaican music industry (and Studio One’s dominance) in the 1960s and the worldwide success of reggae in the 1970s.

The 4 hour documentary (including over an hour of extras) was filmed on location in Kingston, Jamaica and features interviews with Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Sugar Minott, Denis Alcapone, The Ethiopians, Sylvan Morris, Johnny Moore, Lone Ranger, King Stitt and many others. The DVD also includes rare footage of The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo, Count Ossie, Marcia Griffiths and others. As well as the stand-alone DVD, Soul Jazz Records are reissuing the original (DVD +CD+Book) original box set.

IF YOU ARE ORDERING THIS PLEASE CHECK IF YOU NEED NTSC (AMERICA, JAPAN, ETC) OR PAL (EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, ETC).
THE DVD HAS FRENCH AND ENGLISH SUBTITLES.

NB.MP3 Release is for the audio CD only.

REVIEWS
‘Studio One was Jamaica’s Motown. This documentary brings it brilliantly to life.’ The Telegraph ‘The history of Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd’s legendary Jamaica studio is fantastically told through interviews, copious amounts of music and historical footage and more.’ Uncut ‘Studio One Story is no mere historical document; it is a map that will lead you directly to a massive seam, endlessly mineable, of musical gold’ The Observer ‘A fascinating documentary’ The Telegraph
‘Compulsive viewing for anyone with an interest in Reggae’ The Wire

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

Heavy, heavy tunes! Studio One instrumentals are the foundation of Reggae. These rhythm tracks became the basis for all Dancehall as countless artists and producers re-versioned these classic Studio One instrumentals.

REVIEWS:

" sheer volume of output from Studio One is astonishing, combined with the fact that the quality of the recordings never seem to diminish. These instrumentals touch on ska, rocksteady, dub, and begin to hint at the reggae sound of the late '70s. Each instrumental is perfect and has the feel that it could hardly be improved upon. Soul Jazz has once again put together a wonderfully rounded collection of music from Studio One". All Music

"I think if a nuclear family could have a soundtrack, ours would be the Soul Jazz comp Studio One: Scorcher. I wouldn't say it's the best record ever made, but if I heard it every single day for the rest of my life, I'd be 100% cool with it." DJ

"Compilation of essential & rare Studio One instrumentals" Hard Wax

"Studio One Scorcher is the latest of these, collecting instrumental tracks spanning the years from the late-'60s rocksteady vogue through the onset of dancehall and digital rhythms in the early 80s featuring The Skatalites, trombonist Don Drummond, Pablove Black and others." Billboard 

Comes as Triple LP + download code, CD, Digital album.

In the 1970s, Clement Dodd’s legendary Studio One Records went through an amazing period of re-birth working with new artists such as Willie Williams, Lone Ranger, Michigan and Smiley, Horace Andy as well as continuing to work with classic artists such as Alton Ellis, Freddie McGregor, etc. 

Re-versioning classic Studio One rhythms became the order of the day in the 1970s, not just with Studio One boss Clement ‘Coxsone’ Dodd, but with every Jamaican producer of note employing their own in-house musicians to copy the music emanating from Brentford Road. 

The music on Studio One Rub-A-Dub features classic and rare tracks from this amazing period, from the likes of Cornel Campbell, The Heptones, Johnny Osbourne and many other legendary artists. Sleeve-notes are by Chris Salewicz, the acclaimed writer who has written books on Joe Strummer, Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones and many more.

NEW LTD. FIRST EDITION 300 copies. Only available EXCLUSIVELY to customers at Soul Jazz Records/Sounds of the Universe.

Stone-cold CLASSIC monster soul anthem! Sounds wicked!

THIS 7-inch can ONLY be bought directly here from Soul Jazz Records or Sounds of the Universe websites and shop.  

See all the EXCLUSIVE 45s titles only available here!

This new instalment of New Orleans Funk subtitled 'Two-Way-Pocky-Way, Gumbo Ya Ya and the Mardi Gras Mambo' features more classic New Orleans funk in all its forms.

The syncopated percussion beat of the second line jazz parade bands, the secret language and dances of the Mardi Gras Indians, the mambo and latin rhythms of Professor Longhair and the city’s many piano players help make New Orleans a unique musical melting pot.

New Orleans long musical heritage begins at Congo Square with the creation of jazz, the original creole culture clash of African heritage and European instrumentation.

In the 1960s and into the early 1970s add to this the creative powerhouses of Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Eddie Bo and others alongside the famous musical families of the city – the Nevilles, the Marsalis’s, the Lasties – and we find ourselves at the birthplace of the original sound of funk - New Orleans Funk.

A seemingly endless line of amazing singers - Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris, Willie West, Eldridge Holmes – released a constant stream of stunning 45s, backed by the super-funk Meters and produced by Allen Toussaint. The multi-talented Eddie Bo, similarly wrote and produced for an elite set of artists including The Explosions, Chuck Carbo and others.

But limited local record distribution meant that most of these artists remained unknown outside of the city borders and as a consequence many of these records are serious collectors items today.

Add to this the syncopated poly-rhythm funk of Mardi Gras Indians with a rare version of the carnival classic Two-Way-Pock-A-Way, and the parade band jazz of the Rebirth Jazz Band (with their twisted take on the Blackbyrd’s rare groove classic Do It Fluid) and you have the latest instalment in Soul Jazz Records’ New Orleans Funk series.

Read Quietus large feature here

REVIEWS:
"The hallmark of a great Soul Jazz compilation is the balance between the stone cold classic and the well selected deep cut, and this compilation serves up both well." Quietus
**** 

 "The Soul Jazz label’s long-running curation of New Orleans’s funky past has already yielded several premier league collections for hungry musical gumbo fans. The latest catch from the Nola freak scene... doesn’t disappoint with its swaggering and swinging line of classic cuts."  The Irish Times

“Every New Orleans Funk release confirms that Soul Jazz Records should keep a triple A in the genre of Soul/Funk.” 90BPM

The 36 track 2CD album comes with 50-page book featuring text, biographies and photography. It also comes in a limited run two volume double-vinyl super-loud super-heavy gatefold sleeve editions. Compiled by Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) and sleevenotes biographies by Jonny Trunk (Trunk Records).

TV Sound and Image features British composers who worked in television, film and music libraries the second half of the 20th century. 

Aside from John Barry, whose work on the James Bond films made him a household name, or Tony Hatch and Laurie Johnson, the majority of composers featured here - Simon Park, Keith Mansfield, Reg Tilsley, Syd Dale, Keith Papworth – remain relatively unknown. And yet ironically they have created some of the most recognisable songs in British popular culture, their music widely disseminated on television.

A quick role call of these would include Neil Richardson (who composed the theme tune to Mastermind) and Barry Stoller (who wrote Match of the Day). The Simon Park Orchestra’s Eye Level, theme song to the BBC series Van der Valk, reached number one in 1973. CCS’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love was the theme tune to Top of the Pops. And so on.

This album is not however a stroll through the TV memories of the mind, but an exploration of the serious contribution that these creative musicians have on the landscape of popular music in Britain.

Here then is a guide to the amazing music of many of the composers (both well-known and obscure) responsible for some of the most widely known music ever to come out of Britain in the second-half of the 20th century.

Reviews:

Quietus

Der Spiegel: "spannende Klänge ...  die oft funky und immer lässig klingen"

"thrilling sounds.... often funky and always chilled"

New Zealand Herald: ***** "Every track is a killer... This is more than just music to mooch too."

Irish Times: **** "downright funky"

Volkskrant: "Ze leverden spanning op maat, die onbekende makers van fenomenale Britse film en tv-muziek. Door de cd TV Sound and Image opnieuw in de aandacht"

Evening Standard: "deeply funky"

Uncut Magazine "excellent 36 track set ... welcome additions to your collection"

Q Magazine: ****

Continuing the Studio 1 Series this album features classic and rare Dub tracks from Studio One, many available for the first time in over thirty years. Studio One Dub includes the dubs of many classic tracks such as Horace Andy’s “Skylarkin”, Johnny Osbourne’s “Truth and Rights”, John Holt’s “Hooligan”, Freddie McGregor’s “Bobby Bobylon” plus many more rare tracks. In short, this is an essential album!

‘Fly Girls!’ celebrates the 30th anniversary of female rap on record

This double-CD (and limited edition two volumes of super-loud double-vinyl) narrates the story of female rap from its birth in the tenement block parties in New York City’s outer boroughs through to the dizzying career heights of Queen Latifah, Missy Elliott and other modern day power brokers. ‘Fly Girls!’ also discusses the influence of an earlier generation of black female poets whose ideals (both in their art and how they established career paths) helped lay the foundations for birth of the genre.

The history of female rap on record begins in 1979 in New York City as the clamour of the city’s artists, record companies and producers strove to make it onto vinyl in the wake of The Sugarhill Gang’s squillion-selling hit, ‘Rappers Delight’ – released that year on the former soul singer Sylvia Robinson’s Sugarhill Records. It would be the Winley family - comprising sisters Tanya, Paulette - who made the first female rap record produced by their mother Ann and released on their father’s label, Paul Winley Records.

Aside from the singing/rap styles that earlier soul artists such as Aretha Franklin, Shirley Ellis, Millie Jackson and Laura Lee would occasionally adopt in their songs, female rap (like rap itself) had its antecedents in the groundbreaking black poetry of the 60s and 70s with radical, free-thinking poets such as Nikki Giovanni, Camille Yarborough and Sarah Webster Fabio - all of whom are included here – vocalising hitherto unheard expressions of female and black self-determination in their work. These strong, educated, political women not only led the way stylistically but also helped define how a female artist could make their own career path - weaving creativity, politics and family in a way that Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah and others have since followed - establishing the boundary-breaking career paths of many female artists in rap. Hip-hop is a culture of which music is only a part; nowadays (and to an extent from the very beginning) the most successful female hip-hop artist is often singer, DJ, actress, manager, political and social agitator and more in multiple combinations.

Hip-hop’s story begins in the tenement blocks and community centres of the South Bronx. In the first three years-or-so history of hip-hop (1976-9) - before the first rap records were made - aspiring female artists could watch onstage the early female MC role models of Sha-Rock (the first female MC in the group The Funky Four plus One) or the Mercedes Ladies (the first female MC and DJ crew). With Tanya and Paulette Winley’s ‘Rappin and Rhymin’ on vinyl by 1979 it would not be until the following year that the first all-female crew made it onto vinyl when Sequence (featuring a then unknown Angie Stone) was astutely signed, once again, by Sylvia Robinson to Sugarhill Records.

Robinson was not the only woman on the business side of hip-hop. There was Kool Lady Blue who first brought rap out of the Bronx and into downtown NYC at the Roxy nightclub and also later managed The Rocksteady Crew. Monica Lynch who rose to head of A and R and president of Tommy Boy Records, and later vice-president of Warners, comments that because hip-hop was new it did not have the hierarchy of the traditional music industry and women were thus able to move more easily into executive roles. Later, as we shall see, many of the artists moved into the business themselves taking control of their careers and aiding others.

Roxanne Shante is certainly the first female rapper to make a career out of her music. Shante and fellow Queens-resident and producer Marley Marl fought their corner for both their borough (taking on Boogie Down Productions and the Bronx) and anyone else who dared call themselves ‘Roxanne’ in a slanging-match known as ‘The Roxanne Wars’. This verbal jousting had its antecedents dating back to the ‘dozens’ of the playground and tower-block (‘Your mother is a …’, ‘No, your mother is a …’) and to the Griot storytellers of Africa. Roxanne Shante, and many others here, effortlessly subverted this - and many other - male-dominated traditions to create and re-write new histories.

Female rap is thirty years old (yes, thirty) and it just don’t stop. Here is a snapshot of that history. The album includes so many firsts – first solo record, first crew on record, first number one, first grammy winner, that it would be easier to list the few records featured here that are not historical landmarks in the ongoing tale of female hip-hop.

REVIEWS:
"An incredibly entertaining selection of trailblazers that consistently hits the right note" OBSERVER

"Soul Jazz provide the ultimate sourcebook" TIME OUT

"It's not easy to imagine a more enjoyable survey of female MCs" THE GUARDIAN

"An excellent album that is quite simply tons of fun" THE WIRE

"This is the sort of thing Soul Jazz does best: a history of an under-anthologised corner of the musical world. 'Fly Girls!' collects many of the major names from the first wave of female rappers. INDEPENDENT

French Reviews:

LES INROCKS

TELERAMA

The Vinyl is in two double-album editions:

VOLUME 1 - Tracks 1-10

VOLUME 2 - Tracks 11-20

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

Studio One Groups is the latest Soul Jazz/Studio One Records release featuring legendary groups from the foundation label of Reggae. Bob Marley and The Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, The Heptones –just three of Reggae’s greatest groups who all started at Clement Dodd’s Studio One Records, “ The University of Reggae”.

Studio One Groups brings together classic artists alongside lesser-known artists and covers Studio One’s musical output from the 1960s and 70s featuring Ska, Roots, Rocksteady, Dub and more. Clement Dodd’s role in launching and nurturing Reggae groups/singers is unsurpassed. Launching Bob Marley and The Wailers career also meant that Dodd both housed Marley in a flat at Studio One, and employed him to check new American 45s that came out for Studio One artists to cover. 

From vocal training under luminaries such as Horace Andy and Larry Marshall, to musical education (Leroy Sibbles, lead vocalist with the Heptones, became the key in-house bass player after being taught from scratch by Jackie Mittoo), Studio One’s success was due to Clement Dodd’s ability to see talent, surround himself with it and nurture artists. 

Careers were launched from even minor roles at Studio One such as Lee Perry (from handyman to singer and producer), Prince Buster (from security to singer and producer), and so forth. Studio One Groups are at the heart of the labels success. The sweet three-part harmonies, so close to the heart of Jamaican music, can be heard throughout every stylistic change of Reggae music – Ska, Rocksteady, Roots and beyond, all featured here. 

Heavyweight 2xLP + download code.The CD album also comes with exellent sleeve-notes by Rob Chapman, author of the acclaimed Studio One discography, Never Grow Old

REVIEWS:

"The Soul Jazz label once again proves how smart they are with excellent Studio One Groups, an almost overwhelming set of killer cuts from bands and singing groups affiliated with Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's "University of Reggae." There's an amazing, deep history to be explored and even when you focus on just the groups, one disc isn't enough to tell the whole story, but this collection functions as both a killer mixtape and exciting introduction for novices." All Music

"Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, the Heptones - just three of reggae's greatest groups who all started at Clement Dodd's Studio One records" Rough Trade

Rude Boys are synonymous with Jamaican Dancehall culture from the present day going back to the very early days of Sir Coxsone Dodd and Duke Reid’s first sound-clashes in Kingston . Studio One Rude Boy features artists and songs about rude boys and rude boy culture from all periods of Studio One’s history.

The album features Ska, Rocksteady, DJs, Roots and Dub The album features classic tracks from Jamaica’s finest singers and groups such as The Wailers, John Holt, the Wailing Souls, Dennis Brown alongside super-rare tracks from artists such as Mr Foundation, Dudley Sibbley and The Soul Brothers all recorded under Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s supervision at the legendary recording studio and record label. Musical backing comes from the legendary in-house bands – The Skatalites, The Sound Dimension, Soul Vendors and Soul Defenders – who provide the classic Studio One rhythms so influential in the history of Reggae.

Studio One Dub 2 is a second collection bringing together some of the finest dubs from the legendary Studio One Records, Kingston, Jamaica. Dub music was the creation of a generation of brilliant recording studio engineers in Jamaica. But although Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One is hailed as the greatest of the Jamaican recording labels, and although many talented engineers worked the board at Dodd's Brentford Road studio over the years (including Sylvan Morris, Syd Bucknor, Overton "Scientist" Brown and Dodd himself), Studio One was never typically known as a centre for dub. This is because for many fans the studio's commercial and stylistic heyday was in the 1960s, prior to the rise of dub as a distinct sub-genre of Jamaican music in the 1970s.

By the 1970s, however, dub music was the rage in Jamaica's sound systems. Always the pioneer — and since Sylvan Morris had left the Studio One operation around 1972 — Coxsone supervised the dubs till leaving Jamaica at the end of the decade. This meant that for the most part, for example, the twelve Studio One dub albums released during the 1970s were mixed by Dodd himself, using the moniker "Dub Specialist." Throughout the decade, the mixes became more sophisticated and atmospheric.

Along with the first volume of Studio One Dub, the cuts here demonstrate that Studio One's contribution to the innovative musical form of dub was substantial, and go straight to the head of listeners who feel that the only centres for dub were studios such as King Tubby's, Lee Perry's Black Ark, Channel One, or Joe Gibbs's. 

The tracks on this compilation are taken from this period in the 1970s when dub was the cutting-edge of Jamaican music studio production. Most of them are the dub-version flip-sides of rare Jamaican 45s, and none have appeared on CD before. 

Sleeve-notes are by Michael E. Veal, author of Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (Wesleyan University Press, 2007).

This is the new digitally remastered expanded edition of Soul Jazz Records’ biggest ever selling reggae release, 100% Dynamite: Ska, Soul, Rocksteady and Funk in Jamaica.

If you didn't get it the first time now's your chance to find out where it all began - all killer no filler!. If you did and wore it out get it now with bonus tracks and free download code!

Since the album’s original release nearly twenty years ago, 100% Dynamite has become a cornerstone of funky reggae music: Eighteen killer tracks that show the influence that American Jazz, Funk and Soul music had on Jamaican Reggae.

100% Dynamite features come serious Jamaican funk by Jackie Mittoo, The Upsetters and Toots & The Maytals, the cream of Jamaica's jazz musicians such as Tommy McCook, Cedric Brooks and Lennie Hibbert. Also included here are heavyweight Reggae versions to Soul classics by Marlena Shaw’s ‘Woman of the Ghetto’, Aretha Franklin’s ‘Rocksteady’, Syl Johnson’s ‘Is It Because I’m Black’, William DeVaughan’s seminal ‘Be Thankful’ and more.

100% Dynamite also features revolutionary tunes such as Johnny Osbourne’s ‘We Need Love, Sound Dimension’s ‘Drum Song’ and Lloyd Robinson’s ‘Cuss Cuss’, songs that helped define a unique sound for Jamaican music in the sixties and seventies.

These influences went both ways – check Brentford All Stars massive ‘Greedy G’, the basis for Boogie Down Productions’ ‘Jack of Spades’, or Willie Williams’ ‘Armagideon Time’ later covered by The Clash.

This new expanded edition features seminal tracks from the greatest Jamaican producers – Clement Dodd, Lee Perry, Winston Riley (Techniques) and many more.

The album is available as CD, heavyweight double vinyl (+download), plus digital.

ORIGINAL REVIEWS

"Compilation of the month" MUZIK

"Brilliant" TIME OUT

"Album of the week" MIXMAG

"Compilation of the f***ing year" MELODY MAKER

"Buy this excellent compilation immediately" MOJO

"I think there’s a good argument to be made for 100% and 300% Dynamite records - along with Dave Godin’s Deep Soul Treasures (Taken From The Vaults) – Vol 1 & 2, Motown Chartbusters Vol. 3 and Blue Note: Blue Juice Vol. One - being among the finest compilations ever assembled. Anyone who has never heard Sister Nancy’s ‘Bam Bam’ or the Brentford Allstars' 'Greedy G' needs to remedy that situation straight away and anyone who is tired of hearing Althea & Donna’s ‘Uptown Top Ranking’, Willie Williams' 'Armageddon Time' and Wayne Smith’s ‘Under Me Sleng Teng’ needs to have a word with themselves anyway." THE QUIETUS

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Studio One’s list of singers launched at the famous label reads like a roll call of Jamaican music. Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Ken Boothe, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Osbourne and more. This album features classic and rare tracks that span the breadth of the legendary Studio One catalogue: Ska, Roots, Rocksteady, Lovers and more from the 1960s and 70s. 

2xLP plus bonus download code. CD comes with sleeve-notes are by the author Chris Salewicz.

REVIEWS:

"Since the ‘90s, this British label has done aficionados and novices alike an incalculable service, courtesy of their ongoing series featuring Studio One recordings." POP MATTERS

"Latest Studio One collection from Soul Jazz includes sixties and seventies classics such as Cornel Campbell's version of the Heptones' Pretty Looks, Alexander Henry's Please Be True, Horace Andy's Every Tongue Shall Tell, Delroy Wilson's Won't You Come Home, Anthony Ellis' I Am The Ruler and Joe Higgs' Change Of Plan alongside brilliant obscurities such as Larry Marshall's heartbreaking I've Got To Make It, Freddie McKay's wicked Father Will Cut You Off, Ken Boothe's Be Yourself, Alton Ellis' Well Run Dry and George Phillips' alternative vocal to Delroy Wilson's One One." DUB VENDOR

"Essential hard to find reggae classics" HARDWAX