Here Come The Girls Ernie K Doe

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).

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!

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.

These are very limited Studio One 12" pressings (worldwide 1000) that sell out on the day they are released. So don't miss out here!

BRAND NEW LTD. EDN. 12" All-time Studio One party ANTHEM. 100% ESSENTIAL MONSTER TUNE - ROCKS ANY DANCEFLOOR!

'Greedy G’ is the ultimate reggae/funk/hip-hop party tune.

The all-time epic sample for Boogie Down Productions’ seminal ‘Jack of Spades’ based on James Brown’s funk bomb ‘Get on the Good Foot’.

The flipside is another Brentford Road All Stars essential cut, ‘Granny Scratch Scratch’, the heaviest, funkiest dub monster ever with bass to shake more speakers than a juggernaut lorry!

Boom!

Soul Jazz Records’ limited-edition black vinyl 1000-copies worldwide LP (+ download code), (as well as CD and digital) issue of this very rare deep spiritual jazz meets Brazilian and Latin album first released as a private-press album in 1978 on flautist Lloyd McNeill’s own Baobob Record label in Washington, DC. The album has been out-of-print for 43 years and is lovingly remastered by Soul Jazz Records.

Tori is a stunning album that blends Brazilian and Latin flavours with deep Spiritual Jazz, recorded in 1978. The album features an unbelievably strong line-up which includes legendary Brazilian figures like Dom Um Romao, Nana Vasconcelos and Dom Salvador alongside jazz heavyweights such as Buster Williams, Howard Johnson, John La Barbera and more. These A-team musicians were all regulars in McNeill’s long-running and highly successfull resident live group in New York all set up to blend deep jazz, Brazilian and Latin music together.

Lloyd McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet, and photographer born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. His multi-disciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. Lloyd McNeill’s hypnotic ‘Washington Suite’ was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington, DC.

McNeill grew up through the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. In the mid-1960s he moved to France where he became friends with Picasso, working with a number of émigré-jazz musicians whilst living in Paris. In the late 1960s he taught jazz and painting workshops at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in Washington. In the 1970s he travelled throughout Brazil and West Africa studying music and taught music anthropology in the US.

Soul Jazz Records’ new ox-blood red coloured vinyl limited-edition 1000-copies worldwide LP (+ download code) issue of this very rare deep spiritual jazz album first released as a private-press album in 1970 on flautist Lloyd McNeill’s own Asha Record label in Washington, DC.

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CLASSIC! DEEP Jazz includes the wicked 'Home Rule'

Lloyd McNeill is an African-American flautist, painter, poet, and photographer born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. His multi-disciplinary creative life led to encounters and friendships with Nina Simone, Picasso, Eric Dolphy, Nana Vasconceles and other legendary cultural figures. Lloyd McNeill’s hypnotic ‘Washington Suite’ was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington, DC.

McNeill grew up through the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. In the mid-1960s he moved to France where he became friends with Picasso, working with a number of émigré-jazz musicians whilst living in Paris. In the late 1960s he taught jazz and painting workshops at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in Washington. In the 1970s he travelled throughout Brazil and West Africa studying music and taught music anthropology in the US.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing Studio One Ska Fire Box Set, a limited-edition one-off pressing exclusive for Record Store Day 2021, collectors seven-inch box set featuring 10 amazing and super-rare Studio One ska tracks on five 7” singles, all produced here in deluxe hard form box each single with separate inner sleeves.

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.

IN STOCK NOW!

BRAND NEW LTD. EDN. 12" All-time Studio One party ANTHEM now available for the first time ever on loud 12" with version on the flip. 100% ESSENTIAL MONSTER TUNE - ROCKS ANY DANCEFLOOR!

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.

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)

Super special 20th anniversary SILVER vinyl!

Incredibly inspired electronic retro-futurists who were so ahead of their time that they eventually imploded. This is a classic album!

In the space of five short years (and as many albums) at the end of the 20th century Add N To X caused havoc with their unique retro-futurist electronic music. Add N To X’s musical intensity proved too much for the group who split up in 2002. Their album On The Wires of Our Nerves, complete with its classic cover image, recorded on Soul Jazz Records’ then new offshoot label Satellite Records, launched them into the spotlight and included two NME Singles of the Week ‘Black Regent’ and ‘King Wasp’. Over twenty years since it was first released and long out of print the album 'On The Wires of Our Nerves’ stands up one of the most forward-looking electronic albums of then and now.

This classic album is released in a very limited one-off pressing transparent vinyl edition as an Record Store Day exclusive title

LONG OUT OF PRINT One-off RSD 2021 special limited edition black vinyl

"Steve Reid played with Sun Ra, knew Coltrane, played at Motown. I mean this is a guy who at 19 was playing drums with Fela Kuti in Africa. He is a musical genius. It’s a creative joy and honour to work with him."Kieran Hebden (Fourtet) After a number of groundbreaking live shows between Kieran Hebden (Fourtet) and legendary New York drummer Steve Reid, these two artists have embarked on two amazing new recording projects.

The first release is the Steve Reid Ensemble (featuring Kieran Hebden) "Spirit Walk". This will be followed by a second album by Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid which will be released by Domino Records at the beginning of 2006. Both albums blend electronic experimentation within the frame-work of Steve Reid’s musical heritage. Gilles Peterson will be touring the UK in November alongside The Steve Reid Ensemble. An ardent fan of the music, Peterson has contributed the sleeve-notes to "Spirit Walk" along with another long-time musical admirer Val Wilmer. Steve Reid is a true pioneer of boundary-breaking music.

This latest project/collaboration is a continuation of a musical path that stretches back to the late 1960s. A self-taught master jazz drummer Steve Reid played in Sun Ra’s Arkestra as well as being a session musician at both Motown Records (he plays on for instance Martha and The Vandella’s "Heatwave") and in James Brown’s in-house band at the legendary Harlem Apollo. In the mid-60s Reid went to West Africa, playing and learning the music of Ghana, Nigeria (playing with Fela Kuti), Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal. On returning to New York he joined Sun Ra’s The Science Myth Solar Arkestra.

In 1968 as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war he was sentenced to 4 years in prison where he then taught a Black history course to his fellow inmates. In the 1970’s Reid formed the Legendary Master Brotherhood as well as running his own record company, Mustevic Sound, which released a series of his albums (2 of which have earlier been released by Soul Jazz Records). In a career now spanning over 40 years Steve Reid has worked with artists such as Lester Bowie, Miles Davis, Charles Tyler, Arthur Blythe, Ornette Coleman, Gary Bartz, Chief Bey, Archie Shepp, Sam Rivers, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Leon Thomas and more. This new project is the latest part in Steve Reid’s musical odyssey.

"A truly phenomenal artist. This is the album we've all been waiting a long time for. Steve Reid is steeped in musical history and yet this album has a modernity all of it's own." Gilles Peterson.

LAST COPIES

This is the new 20th anniversary edition of one of Soul Jazz Records’ classic Studio One releases now available as a one-off pressing special blue vinyl very limited-edition pressing ( 2000 copies worldwide).

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Studio One Roots set the standard for Soul Jazz Records’ long-standing series of Studio One collections and features many of the classic artists from Clement 'Sir Coxsone’ Dodd’s mighty roster of reggae.

This album includes Freddie McGregor, Willie Williams, Cornell Campbell, Alton Ellis, Devon Russell alongside some of the defining crack-session men groups of Jamaican reggae history - The Sound Dimension, Brentford All-Stars, The Skatalites, New Establishment and more. As ever the album is filled with a mixture of seminal cuts and super-rarities from the vast vaults of 13 Brentford Road.

Stand-out tracks include Alton Ellis’s Blackish White, a surreal and powerful Afro-centric dream, Count Ossie Nyabinghi and Rastafarian drummers genre-defying interpretation of Booker T and The MGs ‘Meditation’, Willie Williams awe-inspiring versioning of the Skatalites' seminal Rastafari anthem Addis Ababa and many, many more.

This album has been fully digitally remastered, analog cut and packaged complete with the following: Original sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of When Reggae Was King), compiled by Mark Ainley (Honest Jons), high-quality Soul Jazz mastering, wicked images of Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari on the cover, and a rare image of Clement Dodd and musicians inside the studio at Studio One on the full colour inner sleeves.

REVIEWS:

"Having established himself as one of Jamaica's top producers the day Studio One opened its doors in the early '60s, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd was unable to maintain his status during the roots era of the subsequent decade. This can be attributed to a couple of factors. One was Dodd's apparent reluctance to record the new, overtly Rasta-inspired music. The other was an infusion of new blood into the Jamaican music business. Eager to make a name for themselves, producers like Joe Gibbs, Bunny Lee, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Winston "Niney" Holness managed to supplant the island's "big three" (Dodd, Duke Reid, and Prince Buster) in the process, driving the music's evolution in the '70s.

There isn't a weak number across these 16 tracks, from the Gaylads' ode to "Africa" and Devon Russell's version of the heavyweight "Drum Song" rhythm, to a trio of stunning instrumentals: Jackie Mittoo and the Cyclones with nyahbinghi drummer Count Ossie on "Meditation," Lenny Hibbert's sparkling vibe work over Mittoo's "Ghetto Organ" ("More Creation"), and Sound Dimension's "Congo Rock."

The music of this compilation is of a rare, rare beauty and is essential to anyone's reggae collection." All Music

New edition of this seminal album available as a 1000 copies edition only on new premium RED vinyl!

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'A truly phenomenal artist.' GILLES PETERSON

'Steve Reid is one of the greatest drummers. He is a musical genius' KIERAN HEBDEN (Four Tet)

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As a radical jazz artist, Steve Reid played with an extraordinary group of artists – including Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, James Brown, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Dionne Warwick, Archie Shepp, Chief Bey, Olatunji, Arthur Blythe, , Dextor Gordon, Gary Bartz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sam Rivers, Leon Thomas, Lonnie Smith and Horace Silver!

Reid was born in the South Bronx, and grew up in Queens, New York. He played in the house band at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, accompanying James Brown, as well as playing in Sun Ra's Arkestra. He lived next to John Coltrane, worked in a department store with Ornette Coleman, had a son who played drums with NWA. He began his career as a teenager in the 1960s as a drummer at Motown when he played on Martha and The Vandellas "Heatwave" (aged 14).

At the end of the 1960s Reid was sentenced to four years in jail as a conscientious objector of the Vietnam war. On his release from prison in 1974, he formed the Legendary Master Brotherhood and started the independent record label, Mustevic Sound, to release his debut LP Nova in 1976. This album is released in its entirety and with full original cover art here. Nova was the first in a series of stunning independent records he released in the 1970s.

At the start of the 21st century, his career took a new twist when Steve Reid began a successful collaboration with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). Hebden referred to Reid as his ‘musical soul mate’, resulting in a number of joint albums.

Steve Reid died in New York in 2010. Subsequently the Steve Reid Foundation was set up in his name, to help aspiring musicians and artists.

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

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.

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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!

Owned and founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Studio One's output serves as a comprehensive guide to the history of Reggae music. The music on Studio One Rockers covers all areas of Reggae such as Ska, Rocksteady, Roots and Dancehall, all areas in which Studio One led the field.

Studio One Rockers features many legendary Studio One tracks brought together for the first time by Soul Jazz Records. From the beginning of Reggae, when the Skatalites developed a new sound of Ska in 1962 up until today, Studio One has been the number one innovator in Jamaican music.

Included in this compilation are classic Ska tracks ("Phoenix City"), Rocksteady ("Feel Like Jumping"), Roots music ("Truth and Rights"), Dancehall (Freddy McGregor, Michigan and Smiley) and many more.

Featured here are many of the classic tracks from Studio One. From Dawn Penn's legendary "No, No, No" to classics such as Horace Andy's "Skylarking" and Marcia Griffith's "Feel Like Jumping".

The Coxsone Soundsystem in the early 60s was one of the three main soundsystems operating in Jamaica alongside his competitors, Prince Buster and Duke Reid. The Studio One catalogue is possibly the largest in Jamaican music and this release is the first in a series of Studio One compilations on Soul Jazz Records.

This album comes with an in depth interview with Mr C.S. Dodd, about how he set up and ran his record label in the 1960s and 1970s.

"Compilation of the month. 100% Essential" SEVEN "Compilation of the month. A compilation of unbelievable quality. Awesome" MUZIK "A who's who of Jamaican music" MUSICWEEK "An essential slice of musical history" WAX "The most credible compilation of reggae you can 

This is the new instalment of Soul Jazz Records’ ground-breaking Deutsche Elektronische Musik series, ‘A near-definitive guide to some of the world's most extraordinary music’ (The Guardian).

This latest edition features many of the classic German electronic and Krautrock groups from the 1970s & 80s – including Can, Amon Duul II, Harmonia, Conrad Schnitzler, Agitiation Free, Roedelius – as well as a host of lesser known artists such as Dzyan, Klauss Weiss, Gruppe Between and many more.

Deutsche Elektronische rarities unearthed on the album include Kalacakra (whose fan-base included the great Moondog!) and their superb ‘Nearby Shiras,’ taken from their super-rare spiritual/psychedelic private press concept album Crawling to Lhasa, from 1972.

Deutsche Elektronische 4 includes a wealth of German electronic experimental artists – the seminal pioneering group Harmonia (Roedelius, Moebius and Michael Rother), avant-garde guru Conrad Schnitzler as well as lesser known synthetic artists such as Klauss Weiss, Deutsche Wertarbeit, E.M.A.K. (Electronische Musik Aus Koln), Gunter Schickert and others.

Finally, the album also features an array of heavy and progressive German cosmic rock groups – Dzyan, Virus and the amazing Turkish/German tripped out sound of Alex’s ‘Patella Black’, recorded at Can’s Inner Space in 1973, produced by Holger Czukay and Jackie Liebezeit.

Deutsche Elektronische 4 comes with extensive newly commissioned sleevenotes by David Stubbs, author of the seminal books ‘Future Days: Krautrock and the building of Modern Germany’, ‘Mars By 1980: The story of Electronic Music’, and ‘Krautrock: Cosmic Rock and its Legacy’.

This album comes as a heavyweight triple vinyl edition with full colour inner sleeves, as well as a deluxe double CD edition with outsize booklet and slipcase. Both formats include full liner notes and extensive rare photography.

Powerful new spiritual jazz from Chile on Soul Jazz Records!

This album comes as a very limited one-off unique pressing of 1000-edition vinyl, limited editon CD and digital release.

Enrique Rodríguez and the Negra Chiway Band group have an instantly powerful and unique sound that is reminiscent of the ensembles of Sun Ra and his Arkestra as well as Horace Tapscott and his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, one that channels the righteous spirits of Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and McCoy Tyner together with a stunning Latin rhythmical and new consciousness and percussive energy. Added to this are elements of the Samurai film soundtracks of Akira Kurosawa, Popol Vuh’s musical spirituality (especially their work with film director Werner Herzog), Tibetan Buddhism and over-blowing chants, that all combine to give a truly unique new sound.

Enrique Rodríguez is a composer, percussionist, keyboardist, and producer from Santiago, Chile, whose work shows many similarities with the music featured on Soul Jazz Records’ recent collection ‘Kaleidoscope - New Spirts Known and Unknown’, featuring new forward-looking jazz artists including Mathew Halsall, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and Makaya McCraven.

Like all these artists, Rodríguez’s work is a progressive and experimental fusion of earlier influences that combine into a new and definitely 21st century ground-breaking sound that, on account of its South American setting, give the group its truly unique feeling. Hypnotic modal piano riffs, powerful brass and flutes, an army of Latin percussion instruments, and addictive vocal chants all combine in this powerful mix of radical 60s Afro-centric jazz, eastern spirituality and cosmology, and Latin American rhythmical movement.

Awesome!

Soul Jazz Records’ new album ‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ brings together many of the ground-breaking artists involved in the new jazz scene that has developed in the UK over the last few years. Featured artists include Matthew Halsall, Yazmin Lacey, Ill Considered, Tenderlonious, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and many, many more in this ground-breaking release.

As well as sharing a pioneering spirit in these new artists’ approach to frontier-crossing musical boundaries, a further theme of this album is that many also share a determination to independent practices - and most of these artists’ recordings featured here are either self-published or released on independent labels. While the attention of this new wave of jazz artists has up until now has been London-based, this album shows how this movement is spread across the whole of Britain (and indeed beyond).

‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ shows that while there is commonality in these artists approach to music, there is a wide variety of styles – from deep spiritual jazz, electronic experimentalisation, punk-edged funk, uplifting modal righteousness, deep soulful vocals and much more.

Soul Jazz Records’ new release comes as a superb one-off pressing special deluxe triple album edition which comes with a bonus limited-edition one-off pressing 7" single, a standard triple album, and a deluxe double CD pack. This album also comes with extensive sleevenotes, artist interviews and exclusive photography.

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Soul Jazz records are also releasing an exclusive one-off pressing double-headed 12” single featuring Theon Cross and Pokus released on the same day as the ‘Kaleidoscope’ album release. These two tracks do not feature on the vinyl edition of the album - this 12" single will will also be deleted on day of release.

This is a one-time only pressing of this 12" single and will be deleted on release. Two killer tracks that are not on the vinyl version of the Kaleidoscope album. Theon Cross's superb Candace of Meroe and Pokus' equally striking Pokus One

EXCLUSIVE 7" 45! EXCLUSIVE 7" 45! EXCLUSIVE 7" 45!

500 COPIES WORLDWIDE!

Check out this killer, killer, killer new electronic/funk/jazz 45 on Soul Jazz Records. These two tracks (one rare library cut and one side taken from the original music of The Sweeney) are a taster for a new album of British TV,film and library composers that will be released at the start of 2012. 

This 45 is going to go fast so if you want one, get in there quick!

After The Skatalites, The Sound Dimension were perhaps the most important instrumental group in the history of reggae music. That they remain relatively unknown is explained by the fact that they mostly functioned as the in-house studio group at Studio One Records performing anonymously behind the stars of the day, the reggae equivalent of Motown’s Funk Brothers.
During this period the group played on hundreds of hits with Jamaica’s finest vocalists - Alton Ellis, John Holt, Larry Marshall, Cornell Campbell, Dennis Brown, Horace Andy, The Heptones, Bob Andy, Marcia Griffiths, Freddie McGregor and hundreds more.

Twenty years after the group split-up, their countless classic instrumental tracks recorded at Studio One became the foundation rhythms of the new dancehall music of the 1990s and beyond, countlessly replayed in new forms by artists and producers such as Joe Gibbs, Sly & Robbie, Steely & Clevie etc.

Featured here is the first ever collection of these original 1960s rhythms in this first ever collection of the music of The Sound Dimension - a mixture of classic tracks alongside super-rare singles only ever released in Jamaica.

The group’s fluid line-up included Jackie Mittoo, Leroy Sibbles, Cedric Brooks, Vin Gordon, Ernest Ranglin, Leroy Horsemouth Wallace and other legendary reggae giants. The group’s unique sound defined reggae music in its relatively short-lived career.

REVIEWS/FEATURES
“ A funky disc, full of great, skanking rhythms and fine playing by some of Jamaica's most revered musicians. It’s difficult to believe that this is the first compilation devoted solely to the Sound Dimension, the group who reshaped the signature Jamaican afterbeat of ska and rocksteady into the sturdy, versatile riddims of reggae, and the instrumentals they created are still being used as the basis of scores of songs to this day.” PITCHFORK

" The Sound Dimension was simply one of the great rhythm sections of all time, playing with the same paradoxical tightness and tensile give-and-take to be found in the recordings of legendary groove brethren like Booker T and The MGs. It bears repeating that the Soul Jazz collections have set a high standard for audio quality, and Jamaica Soul Shake Vol. 1 is no exception to that. Indeed, those responsible for re-mastering these tracks seem to have found (and released) most of the punch, rumble, and majesty still held within aging original magnetic oxides and vinyl grooves." DUSTED

More classic Reggae from Jamaica's most important label ever .

Studio One Soul tracks the link between American Funk and Soul and Jamaican Reggae at the legendary Studio One Records.

Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Temptations, King Floyd, Booker T and The MGs - all these artists had a huge influence on Jamaican artists and this CD contains versions of songs by all of them. Featuring classic and rare Reggae Funk and Soul cuts from the Reggae giants alongside rarer cuts, Studio One Soul spans over 20 years of classic Reggae from the Rocksteady Funk through to the deep Roots music.

Following on from Studio One Rockers, this second journey into the vaults of Studio One tells the story of the important link between American Funk and Soul and Jamaican Reggae. Ranging from music taken from the mid-1960s (and the arrival of Rocksteady) through to the beginning of the 1980s, Studio One Soul features versions of US Funk and Soul hits (many rarely heard before) from some of the many classic artists who recorded at Studio One. American Soul music has always been an important influence on Jamaican Reggae.

The beginning of the Jamaican recording industry at the end of the 1950s started with Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (owner of Studio One) and a group of select in-house musicians (originally The Skatalites) recording their own version of American R'n'B. Playing on the off-beat this music became Ska. As American R'n'B progressed through Funk, Soul and Disco, Jamaican music was going through its own musical changes, from Rocksteady throught to Reggae and Roots music. The house-band at Studio One recorded on a daily basis behind all Studio One vocalists as well as recording instrumentally in its own right.

Soul singers such as Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions (Queen Of The Minstrels) had a profound influence on Jamaican artists and many other US artists were constantly re-interpreted and re-worked. Artists such as Aretha Franklin (Respect), Charles Wright (Express Yourself), King Floyd (Groove Me), Otis Redding (How Strong) were all very popular in Jamaica in the 1960s. At the end of the 1960s Black Consciousness became an important part of American Soul music. At the same time many Jamaican artists were starting to look to their roots. Many artists would shortly become involved in Rastafarianism. The "conscious" lyrics of American Funk and Soul again struck a chord with Jamaican artists. "Message From A Blackman" (originally by The Temptations) and "Is It Because I'm Black" (Syl Johnson) are examples of this. Through the 1970s Soul/Disco artists such as Barry White ("Can't Get Enough" and "Deeper and Deeper") and The Detroit Spinners ("I'll Be Around") became the flavour of the day. This CD finishes with Willie William's interpretation of Ashford and Simpson's classic "Ain't No Stopping Us Now".

"Compilation of the month" MOJO "Another essential purchase from Soul Jazz" SEVEN "Latest in Soul Jazz's indespensible compilations" I-D "Near perfect" JOCKEY SLUT

Ska, rocksteady, funky reggae, roots, dub mixes, disco mixes, they're all here from the queens of the Jamaican music scene - Studio One Women features a wide mix of classics and obscurities from the finest female voices in reggae.

Until now most of these tracks have only ever been available as extremely hard to find Jamaican 7 inch and 12 inch singles and even if you were lucky enough to find them they'd cost you a small fortune

Marcia Griffiths and Rita Marley (here with her first group The Soulettes) are two of Jamaica's most famous female singers hugely popular today. Both these artists became internationally famous as The I – Threes (along with Judy Mowatt), Bob Marley's backing singers alongside The Wailers. Also featured are Hortense Ellis, sister of Alton who cut many smash hits on the island, and Jennifer Lara, a lady who had a long career with Studio One, singing on countless sides.

Studio One is the greatest label in the history of reggae and is the foundation of all reggae music. It's where virtually every world renowned Jamaican superstar started out, Bob Marley and The Wailers included. Under the guidance of the legendary Clement Coxsone Dodd the musicians at Studio One recorded hundreds of instrumental rhythms which still provide the backbone for many of the records made in Jamaica today

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.

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 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

Soul Jazz Records’ new Punk 45 album charts the rise of underground punk across the United States of America in the years 1973-1980. The album coincides with the release of Soul Jazz Records’ massive new deluxe 400-page Punk 45s cover art book edited and compiled by Jon Savage (author of the seminal book on punk, England’s Dreaming) and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records).

Watch Guardian newspaper video review here.

Read Guardian newspaper 2 page album feature here.

Read Quietus feature here.

The Punk 45 album features a collection of seminal, classic, obscure and rare punk and proto-punk 45 singles from the likes of Pere Ubu, The Zeros, The Randoms, Electric Eels, The Pagans, The Deadbeats, The Lewd and many more - a  lightning rod journey across the states of America - Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Akron, New Orleans, Philadelphia – tracing the rise of punk music in these various towns and cities. The album comes complete with extensive text, biographies on each of the bands, exclusive photos and original record artwork.

The album is released on CD with outsize large booklet and thick slipcase and is also available as a limited-edition super-loud, super-heavy double gatefold-sleeve vinyl editions with full sleevenotes. This is also the first release that Soul Jazz Records are making available as a worldwide digital release.

Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself! The American Nation Destroys Its Young - Underground Punk in the United States 1973-80 is the first in Soul Jazz Records’ Punk 45 series of album releases coinciding with the new book and will be followed at the start of next year by Punk 45 Vol. 2 Underground Punk in the UK.

REVIEWS:

"Soul Jazz's excellent compilation, Punk 45,  …intelligently compiled and beautifully annotated..."  Alexis Petrides, The Guardian

*****  Mojo

 “rarities and underground gems” Le Monde, France

“remarkable”  Les Inrocks, France

“pure energy” l’Express, France

“A project very much in the tradition of this label: twenty-one crackers… a fat high-gloss booklet with educationally valuable liner notes and many beautiful pictures... Very poignant, very good.”  SKUG, Austria

“…whoever is in search of an introduction to the US punk scene… should get ready for their exams now with this CD and its very comprehensive booklet.” Ox Magazine, Germany 

"nothing less than a historical chronicle…opulent" WDR 5, Germany 

Two contrasting R&B killers from this fantastic but little known vocalist! Recorded for RCA in the early '50s as the rock 'n roll era was about to dawn, 'Talk to Me' is a wicked, driving Jump Blues with cool horn riffs and even cooler jangling guitar accompaniment. The flipside 'My Goose Is Cooked' is a greasy piece of twisting Black Rock & Roll which surfaced on two obscure independents near the end of the same decade. Both are sure-fire dance floor sure-shots and very hard to source on their original issues.

Killer Punk-Funk/New Wave 12” featuring the Sao Paulo based group Tetine along with a wicked remix from CSS. Tetine are Bruno Verner and Eliete Mejorado. This is their second release on Soul Jazz Records and is a taster for their forthcoming album Let Your X’s Be Y’s, a wild mix-up of Punk-Funk/New Wave/Post- Punk/Baile-Bass. Integral to the same vibrant Sao Paulo music scene in Brazil that has now produced both CSS and Bonde de Role, Tetine’s music is similarly a mixture of raw punky energy and attitude mixed with bass-heavy dance music. Tetine are in-fact the forerunners of this scene having now released 8 albums in Brazil since they formed in Sao Paulo in 1995. "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 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 - CSS Constantly exploring the boundaries between music, art, video, performance their infamous live events range from rock gigs to gallery installations. "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 scene to the general public, having compiled both Funk Carioca (the first ever album of Baile Funk outside of Brazil) and Sexual Life of the Savages (an essential primer to early-80s Post-Punk from Sao Paulo, released on Soul Jazz Records).

Deluxe CD, 2xLP (+ free download) and worldwide digital 

Available in all good retail and internet stores  from 2 June 2014 or direct from Soul Jazz Records right now!

    This new album features the music of Calypso in its many styles. Included is music from its birthplace - the island of Trinidad - as well as a number of other Caribbean islands (including Jamaica and the Bahamas) and its subsequent onwards journey (Britain, Panama and the United States), recorded during the years 1955-69.

Calypso is one of the most exciting and enduring forms of musical expression to emerge from the beginning of the 20th century - swinging, persuasive rhythm, brilliantly expressive melodies and lyrics of great humour and wisdom.

Calypsonians songs play out a role in society similar to the storytelling Griots of West Africa (and the corresponding music of Kaiso); with their own tales about popular and incredible news items, modern life, local politics all mixed up with sexual innuendo, one-upmanship, comedy and more.

At its source, Calypso is intricately and inextricably bound to the social history of Trinidad and its myriad of traditions, beliefs, folklore and fables. As the music spread around the world, both from the diaspora of many of its performers, as well as its commercial success, the subjects of songs similarly took on local topics.

The most notable singer of Calypso in England was the Trinidadian Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts), who came to Britain in 1948 on HMS Empire Windrush  (along with fellow Calypsonians Lord Beginner and Lord Woodbine).

Here on this album you will also find other members of Calypso’s aristocracy & royalty – including Lord Cobra, Lord Hummingbird, Lord Growler, King Fighter, Lord Byron, The Mighty Viper, Lord Ivanhoe & more.

The songs vividly capture the popular news stories and fashions of the era - the first Man on the Moon, James Bond’s Pussy Galore, bed bugs, Voodoo, love in cemeteries, West Indians in England, Bossa Nova, the Iron Curtain, and a story of a white man who had a black heart transplant operation.

This album celebrates a criminally unsung and under-documented art form in the modern age and comes with extensive sleevenotes on the history, social context and geography of Calypso, as well as exclusive and stunning photography, original artwork and notes on all the artists and songs featured.

CD with 50 pages of notes, labels and exclusive photos in slipcase. 2xLP gatefold heavy vinyl + full notes, insert, free download code. Worldwide Digital release.

REVIEW;

"Decades before hip-hop became black America's most visible news source, Caribbean and British calypso stars were singing about current events in lilting tunes so seemingly carefree you barely noticed how sharply they were sticking it to the man. With chatty and conversational voices front and center, carnival stars like Viper, Lord Hummingbird and Lord Flea delivered their sass amid suave, jaunty horns and percolating Afro-Caribbean percussion. This collection focuses more on pop culture than on politics: Lord Cobra's enthusiastic account of the 1969 moon landing, for example, is followed by Young Growler's bawdy celebration of James Bond consort "Pussy Galore." Calypso's predominant voice, Lord Kitchener, is represented by the hilarious "Love in the Cemetery," wherein a resident warns him, "Mister, you be brave / To be bringin' your girlfriend atop me grave."

Top 50 best reissues of 2014 - Rolling Stone magazine

Brand new repress 7" from Studio 1 featuring the great Jackie Mittoo instrumental "el bang bang"

ESSENTIAL Drexciyan clasics & rarities! Too many key tunes to mention -- these are some of the greatest tracks from a group that rightly occupies a status beyond legendary.

All time New Orleans party bomb 45!!! 

Here we go with our latest slice of £100+ killer rare New Orleans funk seven-inch single. This is an exact-replica bespoke New Orleans funk 45 - including the 'even funkier than the A-Side' part 2!

THIS 7-inch can ONLY be bought directly here from Soul Jazz Records or Sounds of the Universe websites and shop. It is a very limited 500-copies pressing and you need to buy it now!

Brand new repress from Studio 1 featuring a killer rocksteady tune from Rita Anderson and the ska from Jackie & Doreen.

An essential guide to the Dancehall Reggae/Hip-Hop clash that ruled New York in the early 1990s as Shinehead, Supercat, Mad Lion, Bobby Konders and many more rewrote the rules of Dancehall, Reggae and Rap. Killer heavyweight tracks, non-stop. Essential!

From Kool Herc onwards, Jamaicans who grew up in New York City have played pivotal roles in the development of the city’s musical identity. Hip-Hop, born in the Bronx, was always hot-wired to Jamaica and in the 1990s the two became inextricably joined when reggae met rap in New York City. Dynamite NYC brings together the many artists who created this unique scene, linking together two of the world’s most important musical cultures – hip-hop and reggae.?In the early 1990s, Jamaican dancehall - including artists from this home-grown New York scene - became the subject of close scrutiny by the US major record industry who, having made vast profits from hip-hop, searched out Jamaican or Jamaican-descended artists who could potentially crossover into the vast US hip-hop market. Jamaican dancehall artists were signed to big US contracts (Yellowman, Supercat, Capleton, Shabba Ranks). And New York, previously a satellite town of Kingston for visiting Jamaican artists, but now with its own unique dancehall scene became a focal point as artists such as Shinehead, Red Foxx, Jamal-Ski, Mad Lion, and others were quickly signed up to major record companies.??

100%Dynamite NYC features these and many other New York reggae/hip-hop crossover artists in this first album to feature the music from this scene.


REVIEWS

“100%Dynamite NYC is a proper block party selection. What moves this from wicked to essential is its documentation of the cross-pollination between reggae and hip-hop.” FACT

“ Soul Jazz gives proof that Yankee-Caribbean fusions run deep and they also make it an enjoyable lesson.” The INDEPENDENT

SUPER-LOUD VINYL IS IN 2 VOLUMES:
Volume 1 is tracks 1-11. Volume 2 is tracks 12-22.