Femi Kuti and Made Kuti Legacy +

'Alfa Mist is one of the driving forces behind a young and vibrant scene of UK musicians, who've taken on jazz as their musical narrative. The producer, self-taught pianist and rapper takes us on a deep and meditative trip back to his beat-making past on the streets of East London, through the depth and musicality he discovered composing and playing jazz'.

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!

Nick Walters & The Paradox Ensemble are back with their third studio album 'Implicate Order' the first release on Nick Walters brand new label, D.O.T. Records. The eleven piece group continues to break the mould of big band jazz, combining spiritual and eastern jazz moods with West African rhythms and a fusion of meditative electronics. This album follows up the bands highly acclaimed 'Awakening' album released on Tenderlonious' 22a label.

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

**SOTU EXCLUSIVE!** VERY LIMITED - EXCLUSIVE TO SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE!

Two of the key tracks from Femi Kuti and Made Kuti's 'Legacy +' album - only available here online and instore! Available 2 weeks after the album

Following on from the release of 'Tender in Lahore' earlier in 2020, 22a releases the full LP-length suite of improvised Ragas from a one day recording session in Lahore with instrumental quartet, Jaubi (who brought us the excellent 'Lahore State Of Mind') . Features four previously unreleased tracks. Deeply meditative, cosmic, raga-jazz trance music!

**180g & 140g vinyl represses pre-ordering now for 20th August release date!**

Surprise collaboration between Floating Points and the legendary, American, spritual jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders with The London Symphony Orchestra. One of this year's most anticipated releases via Luaka Bop!

**Limited copies - don't miss! One per customer!**

Soul Supreme reimagines two classics from MF DOOM/Madvillain! 'Huit Octobre 1971' is by 70s French jazz-fusionists Cortex and was sampled by MF DOOM on 'One Beer'. On the flip, 'Raid' is Soul Supreme's version of the classic by Madvillain, featuring THAT hook from 'America Latina' by Osmar Milito e Quarteto Forma'!

Brownswood release a new compilation of South African jazz-influenced sounds, called 'Indaba Is'. The compilation aims to capture the eclectic musical styles that developed in South Africa due to migration across the country, subsequently exploring ideas of lineage, community, and spirit, through sound.

Jazzman present their overview of the contemporary exponents of Spiritual Jazz; musicians who are intent on bringing something personal to the table, as much as they recognize the importance of those who have paved the way for them. Features music recorded within the past 20 years and from 15 different countries, including modern classics from the likes of Chip Wickham, Nat Birchall, Shabaka & the Ancestors through to veterans such as Idris Ackamoor, providing a vital link between the past masters and the enlightened new generation.

**Repressed!**

Reissue of Brian Eno’s 1992 album dedicated to Russian artist and friend Sergei Shutov, and a continuation of the atmospheric ambient work found on records such as 'On Land' and 'Thursday Afternoon'. Features the haunting 'Stedelijk' and deeply meditative 'Ikebukuro' - essential!

MASSIVE new book (300+ pages!)

A lavish, fully illustrated deluxe book, an official history, from the label’s archivist, historian Laurence Cane-Honeysett

Includes hundreds of photographs, record sleeves, labels and archive material, much of it not seen for many years.

It's the boom! (this book has been delayed by one week by our shippers - order now and will ship Tue 17 July)

Beyond their highly sought after 1978 album Festa Para Um Novo Rei­ - home to the mystical jazz-funk classic ‘Vidigal’ and released on Philips’ iconic Musica Popular Brasileira Contemporanea series (MPBC) - little is known about Marcos Resende & Index, even to aficionados of obscure Brazilian music. Far Out Recordings issue their previously unreleased self-titled debut album from 1976, contributing a crucial missing work from the glory days of progressive Brazilian instrumental music.

Zongamin is back! The mastermind of one of the most underrated albums of the early 2000s, the XL released, self-titled classic. This release for Multi Culti has Zongamin expand upon those mutant disco / post-punk vibes and tapping into an EP worth of vivid, kaleidoscopic, cosmic tones! ESSENTIAL!

Featuring around fifty works supported by rarely seen photography, film and archival documents from the Keith Haring Foundation, this accessible book will not only introduce Haring to a new audience but also throw fresh light on an artist whose work remains symptomatic of the subcultural and creative energy of 1980s New York.

'Salute to the Sun' features lush, wholly improvised tunes inspired by "ambient rainforest and jungle field recordings", deeply soulful music built around hypnotic harp and kalimba patterns; deep Strata-East inspired spiritual jazz grooves and some of Halsall's most beautiful playing and inspiring healing melodies yet recorded. Stunning release!

This is a world of elderly ladies and shopping bags, firemen battling blazing thatched roofs, days out at the seaside, and cricket on the village green. The people, only inches tall, are all residents of Bekonscot, a model village set firmly in a 1930s time warp. Everyday life, from the mundane to the extraordinary, carries on unchanged. Originally built by a London accountant to entertain his house guests, it opened to the public in 1929. This is a fascinating photographic tour through this world-famous folly that stands as a tribute to English eccentricity, humour, determination, and craftsmanship.

Wicked, deep, spiritual jazz business from Australian troupe, Menagerie, who trace the lineage of Strata-East, Impulse! and Tribe right through to the current revival. Killer, killer album!

**The hidden, dark-tinged and psychedelic side of the maestro!**

This collection, featuring 7 previously unreleased tracks, explores what is possibly Morricone’s richest creative period, between the end of the 1960s to the early 80s, demonstrating Morricone’s long lasting influence for generations of musicians and film directors to this day.

'Morricone Segreto' is an acid-tinged sonic journey through mysterious voices, fuzz guitars, airy strings, eerie synths and modern grooves from the Academy award-winning composer who was always ahead trends, dictating style in his own way.

A collection of classic Blue Note tracks, reworked and newly recorded by a selection of the UK scene’s most exciting young talents. Representing a bridge between the ground-breaking label’s past and future, the project features contributions from a rollcall of 16 revered UK acts including Shabaka Hutchings, Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia, Mr Jukes, Steam Down, Skinny Pelembe, Emma-Jean Thackray, Yazmin Lacey, Poppy Ajudha, Jordan Rakei, Fieh, Ishmael Ensemble, Blue Lab Beats, Melt Yourself Down, Alfa Mist, and Jorja Smith!

This one's a bit special - it's the first release on new label Friendly Recordings!

Claude Cooper is an illusive Bristol-based producer.

These tunes are genre-defying...it's jazz, it's beats, it's breaks.

Limited edition 300 pressed black vinyl..last copies!

Reissue of 'Spring', the classic 1968 debut album by pianist Ibrahim Khalil Shihab!

This edition of Shihab’s stunning debut is the first time it has been properly available in over forty years, and the first time it has ever been available outside South Africa. Restored and presented with new liner notes by Valmont Layne, Spring can now be seen for what it is: a peerless masterwork of Cape Jazz, blessed by the presence of the great Mankunku, but truly animated by the subtle vision and original musical spirit of its creator, Ibrahim Khalil Shihab.

Heavyweight Strata-East deep and heavy funky jazz bomb - Hopscotch is a KILLER tune + loads more. Airto in the line-up as well as Stanley Clarke with some heavy b-lines!

Ambrose Akinmusire returns with another visionary statement on his album 'On The Tender Spot Of Every Calloused Moment' which finds the trumpeter examining blackness on an uncompromising set of modern jazz laced with a heavy feeling of the blues. The album presents 11 new compositions by Akinmusire and features his quartet with pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown with guest vocals from Genevieve Artadi and Jesus Diaz.

Reissue of this crucial US electro-funk/no-wave LP from 1983! Features the party rousing classics, 'I Need A Freak' (as covered by Egyptian Lover and sampled by countless others!) and 'If I Gave You A Party'!