Soul Gospel Vol. 2 Soul Gospel Vol. 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 of CUBA: Music and Revolution vol. 1:

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

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

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

EXCLUSIVE NEW TREES SPEAK 45 DROPPING NOW!

TREES SPEAK!!! New MONSTER hand-stamped white label 7" WORLD EXCLUSIVE at Sounds of the Universe and only 150 copies printed! DO NOT MISS OUT

These tracks are absolute KILLERS! Undoubtedly the HEAVIEST & GROOVIEST Trees Speak we've heard by far!

7th MIRROR - Tripped out intro then drops into a Motorik MONSTER! UNBELIEVABLE!

RADIATION - Radio static & feedback then angular NYC post-punk moodiness!

This 45 features an EXCLUSIVE new track only ever on this single + one from a forthcoming massive new double album! Next level stuff!

**Crazy limited, one-off pressing of 100 units - one per customer!** ONLY AVAILABLE HERE - NOW!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deutsche Elektronische Musik:

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

VINYL FACTORY COMPILATION OF THE YEAR 2020!!!

See chart here

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

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).

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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)

"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.

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

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).

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

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!

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

'A truly phenomenal artist.' GILLES PETERSON

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

“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

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

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.

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

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

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

*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!

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

For more than ten years Soul Jazz Records have been exploring and documenting the sound of New Orleans Funk. Now we turn their attention to the flipside of this musical coin - New Orleans Soul.

These two musical forms share a lineage that begins with the city’s enormous rhythm and blues explosion in the post-war 1940s and 1950s. New Orleans Soul incorporated the soulful vocals of the gospel church, the driving beat of rhythm and blues, as well as traces of the second-line parade bands and the latinized rhythms of the city. Here you will find New Orleans soul in all its glorious variations – from the deep, deep soul of singers Aaron Neville, Willie Tee and Robert Parker to the storming northern soul of Maurice Williams and Eldridge Holmes, the funky soul of Eddie Bo, Lionel Robinson and Ernie K-Doe all alongside the Crescent City’s finest soul sisters – Irma Thomas, Betty Harris, Jean Knight, Inell Young and more! 

The main force behind New Orleans Soul is Allen Toussaint, a virtual one-man hit-making machine in the 1960s, writing, arranging and producing hit after hit for an unending list of unbelievably talented local singers such as Eldridge Holmes, Maurice Williams, Betty Harris, Ernie K Doe and Diamond Joe all of whom are featured. New Orleans is also a city of great musical families. Vocalist Aaron Neville was the brother of Art Neville (who formed The Meters) and later in the 1970s joined with brother Cyril to form The Neville Brothers. Soul vocalist supreme Willie Tee is also known as Wilson Turbinton, who alongside brother Earl, formed the super-heavy funk band The Gaturs and backed the Mardi Gras Indian group The Wild Magnolias. Also included here are rare, lost and killer soulful tracks from New Orleans artists Eddie Bo (and protégée vocalist Inell Young), Jean Knight, Jimmy Hicks, Francine King and more! 

This album tells the story of New Orleans Soul and comes complete with extensive sleevenotes, exclusive photography, supreme sound quality and comes as deluxe CD with slipcase, booklet, and super-heavy, super-loud limited-edition double vinyl album + download code.

Album features Ernie K Doe’s ‘Here Come The Girls’, The Meters, Eddie Bo, Professor Longhair, Lee Dorsey, Wild Magnolias and more.

This is the definitive collection of New Orleans Funk featuring acknowledged masters next to some of the earlier artists who shaped the meaning of funk. The album is also filled with many rare, sought after and undiscovered funk tracks. It covers the period from the emergence of New Orleans Funk in the early 1960's through to the mid-seventies.

The record is an essential part of anyone in any way interested in Funk's record collection. It has some vital ingredients in it that you can't find elsewhere. With the sound of the New Orleans Funeral March Bands, Mardi Gras Indian Tribes and Saturday Night Fish Fries all as inspiration New Orleans Funk developed into a unique sound. 

New Orleans is a port town. Originally owned by the French, this was where many slaves were brought from the West Indies. Many of these slaves came from Haiti and brought with them the religion of Voodoo and its drums and music. It became one of the first parts of America to develop a strong African-American culture leading to the invention of Jazz in the early 1900s. 

A main feature of Jazz in New Orleans were the Jazz Funeral Marching bands. Solemn Brass bands accompanying a coffin would, on burial, be joined by a second line of drummers and dancers which would turn the event into a celebration of the spirit cutting free from earth. This African tradition is strong in New Orleans and still goes on to this day. The backline drums play a syncopated style that is neither on the beat nor the off-beat. It is these rhythms that are the basis of New Orleans Funk. 

The album comes with a booklet presenting a historical explanation to how and why this music came about, and with lots of information about the people involved.

Reviews:
"A Perfect Primer For Funk Fans" Q (Top 5 albums of the year)
"Probably the finest compilation that Soul Jazz has released. Essential" Time Out

New on Soul Jazz Records, the second volume of Delta Swamp Rock continues to journey into the heartland of the American south, exploring the musical links between country, rock and soul music in the 1960s and early 1970s.

 Southern rock rose up in the 1970s on the huge commercial success of southern-based groups The Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others. Like the twisted roots of rock and roll, southern rock put country, rock and black music into a melting pot to create a unique sound. This gave rise to a new identity for white southern working-class youth.

The roots of this revolution were to be found in an obscure corner of Alabama, in the sleepy town of Muscle Shoals, where, in the previous decade, a group of white in-house studio musicians together with the greatest rhythm and blues vocalists of the day - Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James and many others - away from the segregated environment found just outside the studio walls.

Delta Swamp Rock 2 contains extensive sleeve-notes in an accompanying deluxe large outsize book housed in double-backed card case, which also includes stunning photographs and new interviews with a number of the featured artists (including Tony Joe White) .

As well as the deluxe slipcase CD edition there is also a similarly deluxe limited edition heavyweight double gatefold vinyl edition complete with full sleeve-notes and super-loud pressing.

Country Soul Sisters is a second guide to the great female country singers who helped define a musical genre as artists such as Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette attained staggering commercial success in the previously male-dominated musical world of country music.

As well as extensive sleeve-notes the accompanying large outsize booklet also includes stunning photography from the Getty picture archive.  The album features a stunning line-up of classic female country artists – Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Bobbie Gentry, Kitty Wells, Wanda Jackson and many more.

Female country artists fought hard for equal rights for women in their songs, their careers and their personal lives. Whilst groundbreaking artists such as Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline paved the way for female empowerment in the 1950s, it was in the 1960s that artists such as Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Jeannie C Riley and Tammy Wynette first achieved great commercial success – a moment in time coinciding with the rise of both the women’s liberation and the civil rights movements.

At the same time these female artists also in many cases broke down musical barriers and consequently this album showcases some of country music’s many colours. From the Nashville Sound of Patsy Cline and the Appalachian roots and authenticity of Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn through to the country soul of Diana Trask and Jody Miller, the rockabilly stylings of Wanda Jackson, the west coast pop and rock sound of Bobby Gentry, Linda Rondstadt and Cher, as well as the often maligned crossover modern soul of Barbara Mandrell.

Here you will also find Kitty Wells - the first solo female career recording artist - singing her stunning version of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young, joined by an all star-group of Allman Brothers alumni, as well as African-American country singer Linda Martell’s incredible version of the Winston’s 60s soul classic Color Him Father. In fact the links between country and soul music feature throughout and also included are songs by Aretha Franklin, Luther Ingram and more.

As well as the slipcase CD edition there is also a limited edition heavyweight double gatefold vinyl edition complete with full sleeve-notes and super-loud pressing.

Reviews of Country Soul Sisters 1:

“This superbly presented collection of songs by female pioneers in country music is a celebration of feminism.” The Times

“Illuminating. Prior to any collective theoretical consensus of feminism these women were already doing it on their own terms.” The Guardian

“A superb compendium of honky-tonk women” Q

“An unsurprisingly excellent emission from the imperious Soul Jazz stable.” Clash

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: ****

Roots music flourished in the 1970’s as Rastafarianism, Black consciousness and self-determinization became the most important aspects of Reggae music. Bolstered by the international success of Bob Marley and Burning Spear (both who began their careers at Studio One), Roots music became the major musical development of Reggae in the 1970’s. Coxsone Dodd and Studio One’s connection to Rastafarianism had begun long before the arrival of ‘roots music’ as a distinct genre that arrived at the very tail end of the 1960s.

By the start of the 1960’s Coxsone Dodd was making his way to Count Ossie’s Wareika Hills Rastafarian compound to hear Rastafarian drummers play whilst the Skatalites’ front-line horns – Tommy McCook, Don Drummond, Johnny Moore would jam alongside. Similarly, Count Ossie would appear during Sir Coxsone’s dancehall sessions, performing live at the height of the evening. This is the third in the series of Rastafarian inspired music from Studio One, and features classic foundation artists alongside some seriously rare tracks from the label. 

With the involvement of the crack studio house bands – be it the Sound Dimension, the Soul Defenders or the Brentford Road All-Stars – as well as Clement Dodd and Studio One’s seriously high quality control, these tracks are all a healthy addition to the pantheon of roots music at Studio One. Sleevenotes by David Katz and Stuart Baker.

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 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deutsche Elektronische Musik:

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

Soul Jazz Records new compilation of the UK Funky scene.

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

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

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

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

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

Soul Jazz Records new release takes us on a serious road trip into the North-West region of the USA, 1986-97, to explore the amazing lost and forgotten sounds of the Grunge era.
This Deluxe massive 28-track Double CD with 44 page outsize booklet features extensive text, band features and interviews, exclusive photos.+ Also Worldwide digital release + Also Ltd.Edition Two seperate double-vinyl albums with full notes and free download code.

The underground music scene of the North-west of America arose from the early 1980s, strung out in isolated towns across the vast state of Washington. In its early days bands who showed an allegiance to their roots of punk. Yet, by 1991,Nirvana, the biggest band in the world, had been born from this community of outsiders.

This compilation features some of the many divergent bands who emerged out of the North-west during this era. Intensely researched and documented this album features many bands who have now disappeared from history after releasing maybe just a couple of singles, or an album, or even never making it onto vinyl – alongside some bands that continue to this day.
Perhaps most fascinating is the wide-ranging styles that these grunge bands  incorporated - from punk to metal, experimental and more.

All Roads lead to Nirvana: 17 of the bands featured here played alongside Nirvana in the period 1987-93. All 23 bands featured feature members who shared a stage with Nirvana. Jack Endino (The Ones) produced 37 Nirvana songs. Dave Foster (Helltrout) was Nirvana's 3rd drummer. Bundle of Hiss became TAD who played more gigs with Nirvana than any other band.
With fantastically in-depth sleevenotes, interviews with most of the bands, exclusive photography and all sonically remastered tracks this is a comprehensive double CD (and 2 volumes of 2xLP vinyl releases) bringing together the hidden, lost and forgotten sounds of the North-west grunge era.

Reviews & Articles:
Seattle Times feature here.
Irish Times here.
Read article by compiler Nick Soulsby in Nirvana Legacy here 
Read second article by the compiler here.
Read article about the artwork here.

AVAILABLE AGAIN! Soul Jazz Records new 2018 edition of their long out of print classic first “Deutsche Elektronische Musik – Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music 1972-83” is ‘a near-definitive guide to some of the world’s most extraordinary music’ (The Guardian).


Featuring a stunning line-up of groups including Cluster, Can, Faust, Popol Vuh, Neu!, Amon Düül, Harmonia, La Düsseldorf and Tangerine Dream as well as a host of lesser known groups such as Kollectiv, Ibliss, Between and many more. This new edition is fully re-mastered and features all the original artwork and tracks.


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


German rock and experimental electronic music grew out of this worldwide counter-cultural revolution of 1968. The objectives were to create new music, ‘free’ from the past, many German youth turning their back on mainstream society. From the opening of the first collective/cooperative, Kommune 1, in Berlin, to the formation of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group and the bombings, kidnappings and killings of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (RAF), young Germans sought out new values and a lifestyle outside of ‘the system’.


These cooperative and communal experiences led to a number of new collective German bands forming such as Amon Düül, Faust, Can (all featured here) and others and these ideals drove this new movement. A music that gave seed out of the cultural ‘nothingness’ that young Germans felt as a consequence of Germany’s role in the Second World War. A generation who grew up stifled by the recent history of Nazi atrocities, the guilt of their parents’ generation and their disillusionment at the reintegration of old Nazis into mainstream society.



Influenced equally by the electronic experimentalism of Stockhausen, the progressive rock of Pink Floyd and the black American jazz and soul music played at the occupying armed forces bases, young German artists seamlessly created out of this a new unique music with its own unique identity.


Double CD pack with large 36-page outsize booklet encased in slipcase. The vinyl edition is made up of TWO separate volume heavyweight loud gatefold double albums (now + free download codes) featuring all sleevenotes and text.

Double Vinyl Record A is tracks 1-13 (+ Download Code)

Double Vinyl Record B is tracks 14 - 24 (+ Download Code)

Digital download does not include track 3 and 23 which are physical only

REVIEWS:

***** GUARDIAN REVIEW (John Savage)

***** GUARDIAN REVIEW (Dave Simpson)

2x LP Record A/CD1:

1. Can – A Spectacle
2. Between – Devotion
3. Harmonia – Dino
4. Gila – This Morning
5. Kollektiv – Rambo Zambo
6. Michael Bundt – La Chasse Aux Microbes
7. E.M.A.K. – Filmmuzik
8. Popol Vuh – Morgengruss
9. Conrad Schnitzler – Auf Dem Schwarzen Kanal
10. La Düsseldorf – Rheinita
11. Harmonia – Veterano
12. Faust – It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl
13. Neu! – Hallo Gallo

2x LP Record B/CD2:

1. Cluster – Heisse Lippen
2. Ibliss – High Life
3. Moebius – Hasenheide
4. Amon Düül II – Fly United
5. Popol Vuh – Aguirre 1
6. Ash Ra Tempel – Daydream
7. Tangerine Dream – No Man's Land
8. Amon Düül II – Wie Der Wind Am Ende Einer Strasse
9. Roedelius – Geradewohl
10. Can – I Want More
11. Deuter – Soham

This is Soul Jazz Records’ new journey into the heart of New Orleans and a guide to the city’s finest Funk music produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s.’ Featuring everyone from The Meters to Eddie Bo, Lee Dorsey to Betty Harris, this is a who’s who of the Crescent City’s most famous and most funky! 

The city of New Orleans has deep musical roots that stretch back to Africa. New Orleans first gave birth to Jazz music, a Black musical form centred on rhythm, improvisation, freedom and collectivity at the turn of the century. Similarly in the late 1960s New Orleans Funk came to define a unique sound, mixing Caribbean rhythms, New Orleans second-line syncopation and rhythm and blues, all played by the Big Easy’s finest musicians. 

Whilst Jazz and Funk music spread throughout the world, many African-American musical traditions remained within the city limits such as Mardi Gras and Carnival, Saturday Night Fish Fries, Funeral Marching bands and much more which partly explains why New Orleans music is so unique. 

The album comes with extensive sleeve-notes, exclusive photography and more, and is an essential guide to the musical landscape of New Orleans and - together with Soul Jazz Records’ earlier New Orleans’ releases - presents the definitive story of New Orleans Funk.
Although on the mainland coast, New Orleans is also surrounded by lakes giving the city an island feel. Similarly its proximity to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti and the other West Indian Isles means that Latin and Caribbean musical influences are in its veins as much as American musical traditions. The upside of this city’s isolation is that New Orleans musical traditions flourished away from those of the rest of America. A thriving city full of artists, musicians, singers, producers, record companies, studios (well one studio actually) led to a 24-hour, 7-day a week musical life, playing in clubs, bars, brothels, carnivals and parades. 

The downside of the cities isolation from the rest of the US was that the city never developed a solid music industry to back up the creative over-supply. Whilst New York had Atlantic, Detroit had Motown, Memphis had Stax, Chicago had Chess, Los Angeles had Modern, New Orleans had a multitude of small businesses fighting for space - and often each other. Without the marketing, promotional weight, business nouse and financial clout, New Orleans labels found it hard to get the nationwide distribution necessary to fill the million-odd jukeboxes throughout the country. So whilst every family in America knows the music of Gladys Knight or Smokey Robinson few could tell you about – let alone hum a tune from - Benny Spellman, Inell Young, Warren Lee….This is far from being a reflection of the artists creativity or musicality - as anyone can tell you New Orleans melodies are the catchiest of all - more it is a reflection of the limitations of the local music industry. Some New Orleans artists became successful throughout the US such as Fats Domino in the 1950s and in the late 1960s The Meters and Lee Dorsey, but many artists remained within the city limits. 
This makes for a fascinating goldmine of music released by a complex myriad of small labels run mainly by New Orleans producers, promoters and artists themselves. New Orleans Funk 2 brings together many of these artists along with text, sleeve-notes and photographs that gives social and historical context to the incredibly funky music of New Orleans.

Brand new album featuring non-stop killer Studio One cuts from The Skatalites, Heptones, Lone Ranger, Horace Andy and loads more. 

Album comes in jewel case with slipcase style CD, limited edition gatefold heavyweight double vinyl and EXCLUSIVE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD from here.

This is the first new Studio One/Soul Jazz release in over 3 years and is being released to coincide with our forthcoming monster new deluxe hardback 12x12" 200 page full colour book featuring hundreds of super classic and rare Studio One sleeves.