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 ever 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’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 has 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. 

TRACK LISTING

CD1
1. Juan Pablo Torres Y Algo Nuevo - Y Que Bien (4.24)
2. Orquesta Los Van Van - Por Que Lo Haces? (4.10)
3. Los Latinos - Quemando (2.46)
4. Farah María - Amame Y No Pienses Mas (4.13)
5. FA 5 - Muevete Con Las Fuerzas Del Corazon (5.53)
6. Tambores De Enrique Bonne - Como Arrullos De Palma (2.47)
7. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - Expresso Ritmico (4.11)
8. Los Papines - Solo De Tumba Y Bongo (5.31)
9. Grupo Sintesis - Aqui Estamos (2.31)
10. Los Van Van - Llegada (2.08)
11. Grupo Raices Nuevas - Baila Mi Guaguancó (5.02)

CD2
1. Luis Carbonell - La Rumba (3.53)
2. Orquesta Riverside - En Casa Del Trompo No Bailes (3.02)
3. Juan Formel & Los Van Van - Llegue, Llegue (5.51)
4. Grupo Los Yoyi - Tu No Me Puedes Conquistar (3.09)
5. Los Papines - Para Que Niegas? (4.23)
6. Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Cuba Va! (3.06)
7. Raul Gomez - Luces En La Pista (4.40)
8. Los Brito - El 4-5-6 (2.50)
9. Leo Brouwer - Tema De El Rancheador De La Naturaleza (1.37)
10. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - La 132 (4.23)
11. Los Reyes 73 - Finalizo Un Amor (3.37)

A
1. Juan Pablo Torres Y Algo Nuevo - Y Que Bien (4.24)
2. Orquesta Los Van Van - Por Que Lo Haces? (4.10)
3. Los Latinos - Quemando (2.46)
4. Farah María - Amame Y No Pienses Mas (4.13)

B
1. FA 5 - Muevete Con Las Fuerzas Del Corazon (5.53)
2. Tambores De Enrique Bonne - Como Arrullos De Palma (2.47)
3. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - Expresso Ritmico (4.11)

C
1. Los Papines - Solo De Tumba Y Bongo (5.31)
2. Grupo Sintesis - Aqui Estamos (2.31)
3. Los Van Van - Llegada (2.08)
4. Grupo Raices Nuevas - Baila Mi Guaguancó (5.02)

D
1. Luis Carbonell - La Rumba (3.53)
2. Orquesta Riverside - En Casa Del Trompo No Bailes (3.02)
3. Juan Formel & Los Van Van - Llegue, Llegue (5.51)

E
1. Grupo Los Yoyi - Tu No Me Puedes Conquistar (3.09)
2. Los Papines - Para Que Niegas? (4.23)
3. Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Cuba Va! (3.06)
4. Raul Gomez - Luces En La Pista (4.40)

F
1. Los Brito - El 4-5-6 (2.50)
2. Leo Brouwer - Tema De El Rancheador De La Naturaleza (1.37)
3. Ricardo Eddy Martinez - La 132 (4.23)
4. Los Reyes 73 - Finalizo Un Amor (3.37)

Soul Jazz Records’ new oxblood red coloured vinyl LP (plus 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. 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. 

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.

TRACK LISTING

1. Home Rule
2. Just 71% Moor
3. 2504 Cliffborne Pl.
4. Fountain In The Circle
5. City Triptych
6. Fountain In The Circle (Part 2)

The next killer tune in the brand-new series of all-time classic Studio One party bombs available on super loud 12” - Brentford Road All Stars’ 'Greedy G’ is the ultimate reggae record to crossover into hip-hop. The all-time epic sample for Boogie Down Productions’ seminal ‘Jack of Spades’ and 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. 

100% essential monster tunes that rock any dancefloor.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Sampled by BDP's "Jack of Spades" and later for Ghostface Killah's "Cherchez la Ghost", this twisted killer groove is insatiably timeless. On the flip, the dustiest, deep down dub, "Granny Scratch Scratch" which gives Lee Perry's weed-soaked tapes a run for their money. So good.

TRACK LISTING

Brentford All Stars - Greedy G
Dub Specialist - Granny Scratch Scratch

Soul Jazz Records’ CD / LP reissue of this very rare album, first released as a private-press LP in 1978 on flautist Lloyd McNeill’s own Baobab 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. The album features a strong line up which includes legendary Brazilian figures such as 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 successful 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 multidisciplinary 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.

TRACK LISTING

1. O Mercado (Brazilian Market)
2. Tori (Segment One)
3. Tzigane
4. Tori (Segment Two)
5. Sambinha
6. Time Still / Passaro - Pifaro (Flute Bird)
7. Tori (Segment Three)
8. Tranquil

When the band Trees Speak, coming out of nowhere, released an exclusive one-off 100-pressing white label 45, described as Can/Neu! meets Liquid Liquid, it sold out so quickly (in less than 30 minutes) that Soul Jazz Records decided to release their album almost immediately. Soul Jazz Records rarely release new music but found the music of Trees Speak’s album ‘Ohms’ so stunning and to have so many elements of music that they admired that they felt compelled to release it. The group Trees Speak are from Tucson, Arizona and create new music that sounds like German Krautrock meets no wave/post-punk and psych rock - music for fans of Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Can, Neu!, Silver Apples and early Kraftwerk.

The album ‘Ohms’ sounds at times like a tripped out and moody John Carpenter/Goblin/Morricone soundtrack that seamlessly segues into propulsive, ‘motorik’ Krautrock instrumentals loaded with fuzzy, hypnotic mellotron, synths and analogue effects, as well as elements of Art Ensemble free jazz, and all at times reaching a kind of post-rave psychedelia. More recent comparisons would include Beak> and Ghost Box who draw upon similar themes and styles. Trees Speak are Daniel Martin Diaz and Damian Diaz plus musicians from the Tucson, Arizona scene such as Giant Sand, XIXA and James Hunter. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A very rare 'New Album' outing from the venerable Soul Jazz here with the thumping, krautrock majesty of 'Ohms'. Like if Kraftwerk got off those bloody podiums long enough to rail a significant slug of ketamine and break the cones on their amplifiers. ACE.

TRACK LISTING

CD
Soul Sequencer
Nitrous Cross
Shadow Circuit
Blame Shifter
Spirit Duplicator
Nobody Knows
Sadness In Wires
State Of Clear
Sleep Crime
Knowing
Splendid Sun
Ohms
Out Of View
Psychic Wounds
Silicone Emotions
Octave Cycle
Witch Wound

LP
Soul Sequencer
Nitrous Cross
Shadow Circuit
Blame Shifter
Spirit Duplicator
Nobody Knows
Sadness In Wires
State Of Clear
Sleep Crime
Knowing
Splendid Sun
Ohms
Out Of View
Psychic Wounds
Silicone Emotions
Octave Cycle

Soul Jazz Records new ‘Cold Wave #2’ 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.

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 Sifre 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.

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: If you've been paying attention to the fringe shit Matt and I have been pushing for the last five or so years, you should be well acquainted with the cuts on this killer Soul Jazz comp. Part 2 is just as its twin, boasted certified bangers from Lena, Tolouse Low Trax. De Ambassade and Job Sifre.

TRACK LISTING

Lena Willikens - Howlin Lupus
Beta Evers - Hiding
L.F.T. - Stay Away From The Light
Job Sifre - At Least We Try
De Ambassade - Niet Van Mij
Tolouse Low Trax - Rushing Into Water
V.C.V.S. - Hum
Dave I.D. - Help Starts
Broken English Club - Vacant Cars
Krikor Kouchian - Deserver Dub

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 groundbreaking 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 and 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 Rastafarian 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.

TRACK LISTING

Freddie McGregor - I Am A Revolutionist
The Silvertones - Burning In My Soul
Wailing Souls - Without You
Devon Russell - Jah Jah Fire
Trevor Clarke - Sufferation
The Gladiators - Sonia
Judah Eskender Tafari - Always Trying
The Viceroys - Ya Ho
Im And Count Ossie - Give Me Back Me Language And Me Culture
The Gladiators - Serious Thing
The Prospectors - Glory For I
Wailing Souls - Things And Time
Pablove Black - Inner Peace
The Gladiators - Peace
Horace Andy - Mr. Jolly Man
Wailing Souls - Rock But Don’t Fall
Albert Griffiths And The Gladiators - Righteous Man
So Many Problems - The Viceroys

This is the new 20th Anniversary edition of one of Soul Jazz Records’ classic Studio One releases, now available as a special one-off blue double vinyl pressing.

‘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 and Devon Russell alongside some of the defining crack session men groups of Jamaican reggae history, including 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 superrarities from the vast vaults of 13 Brentford Road.

Stand-out tracks include Alton Ellis’ ‘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, analogue cut and packaged complete with original sleevenotes by Lloyd Bradley (author of When Reggae Was King), compiled by Mark Ainley (Hones Jons), high-quality Soul Jazz mastering, fantastic 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.

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

TRACK LISTING

The Cyclones With Count Ossie - Meditation
Cornell Campbell With The Brentford Rockers - Natty Don’t Go
Freddie McGregor With The Sound Dimension - Africa Here I Come
Bunnie & Skitter - Lumumbo
Willie Williams With The All Stars - Addis Ababa
L Crosdale With Drum Bago & The Rebel Group - Set Me Free
Leroy Wallace With The New Establishment - Far Beyond
Lennie Hibbert - More Creation
Alton Ellis With The Sound Dimension - Blackish White
Winston Jarrett With The Sound Dimension - Fear Not
Devon ‘Soul’ Russell - Drum Song
The Gaylads - Africa
Black Brothers With The New Establishment - School Children
Linton Cooper With The Brentford Disco Set - You’ll Get Your Pay
Sound Dimension - Congo Rock
Zoot Simms - African Challenge

Soul Jazz Records reissue the 1976 debut album from the legendary Steve Reid in a new translucent red coloured vinyl edition, with digital download code included.

“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 and 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, Steve Reid began a successful collaboration with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), who Reid referred to 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.

TRACK LISTING

Nova
Lions Of Juda
Free Spirits - Unknown
Long Time Black
Sixth House

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 the 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 rarities that were released in a dazzlingly complex web of Studio One labels and issues, deftly navigated with new sleeve notes from author and Studio One authority Rob Chapman, plus exclusive photography.

TRACK LISTING

Alton Ellis - It’s True
The Heptones - You Turned Away
The Gladiators - Mr Sweet
The Jail Breakers - Work It Up
Lee Perry & The Gaylads - Run Rudie Run
The Heptones - Young Generation
Jackie Mittoo - Good Feeling
C. Marshall - I Need Your Loving
Alton Ellis - I’ll Be Waiting
The Clarendonians - The Tables Gonna Turn
Ken Parker - When You’re Gone
Sound Dimension - Traveling Home
Errol Dunkley - Get Up Now
John Holt - My Heart Is Gone
Freedom Singers And Larry Marshall - Monkey Man
The Ethiopians - Let The Light Shine
Im And David - Money Maker
The Viceroys - Lose And Gain

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Two Synths, A Guitar (And) A Drum Machine’ is a new collection of current DIY post-punk 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 DIY band Automatic, New Fries from Toronto, artist/music collaborators Toresch from Germany, Susumu Makai from Japan/UK, Vex Ruffin from the Philippines/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.

TRACK LISTING

Automatic - Too Much Money
Zongamin - Underwater Paramid
New Fries - Lily
Vex Ruffin & Fab 5
Freddy - The Balance
Ixna - Somebody Said
Leroy Duncann - Dream River
Tom Of England - Neon Green
Toresch - Tocar
Becker & Mukai - La Rivière Des Perles
Gramme - Discolovers
Niagara - Ida
Charles Manier - Sift Through Art Collecting People
Black Deer - Baseball Shorts
Madmadmad - Hot Disco
Wino D - Untitled

‘Cuba: Music and Revolution’ is a 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 deluxe double CD and heavyweight triple vinyl, complete with extensive sleeve notes, jam-packed with heavy basslines, synth and WahWah 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’, 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 has 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.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Following on from *that* gorgeous book with all of the beauty in it is the musical collection of the same. Compiled by some of the greatest selectors around on the scene, this is a fascinating and superb collection of groovers, shakers and under-appreciated heavy hitters.

TRACK LISTING

Grupo Irakere - Chequere Son
Conjunto Rumbavana - El Son Del Campeon
Juan Formell & Los Van Van - Mi Ritmo Caliente
Grupo Monumental - Mi Son Caridad
Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Sondeando
Las D'Aida - Con Cadencia Y Con Dulzura
Juan Formell & Los Van Van - Y No Le Conviene
Pablo Milanés - Te Quiero Porque Te Quiero
Emíliano Salvador - Luna Wanestain
Los Reyes 73 - Un Lamento Hecho Cancion
Eduardo Ramos - Vocación Revolución
Grupo Mounmental - Hasta Las Cuantas
Los 5 U 4 - Solo Esta Musica
Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Canción Con Todos
Orquesta Los Van Van - Yo Se Que Van Van
Grupo Mounmental - Nadie Se Siente Cansado
Orquesta Ritmo Oriental - Maria, Baila El Son
Juan Pablo Torres Y Algo Nuevo - Rompe Cocorioco
Los Reyes 73 - Grandes Amigos
Paquito D'Rivera - La Patica
Grupo De Experimentación Sonora Del ICAIC - Grifo
Raúl Gómez - Dacapo
Grupo Irakere - Juana 1600

‘Cuba: Music And Revolution - Original Album Cover Art Of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90’ is a stunning new deluxe 250-page large format hardback book compiled and edited by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that features many 100s of stunning and unique Cuban record sleeve designs made since the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959. These albums have rarely been seen (nor heard) outside of Cuba and show a rich previously hidden history of both music and design.

‘Cuba: Music And Revolution’ is the first ever book about Cuban record sleeve design and has been five years in the making, made in full co-operation with the Cuban government. The record sleeve designs reflect both the rich cultural Latin musical legacy of Cuba, as well as the political and aesthetic influence of revolutionary Communism, which manifests itself both in the music created on the island and the artwork of the designs included here.

Cuban music is the source of much Latin music in the 20th Century. Salsa, the all-encompassing Latin music that came out of New York in the 1970s and soon spread across Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, owes all of its success to the Cuban music on which it is fundamentally based. These record sleeves help document the dramatic change in Cuba’s identity from that of 1950s tourist paradise to socialist state. Following the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the United States imposed a trade embargo which exists to this day and, as a consequence, the many 100s of Cuban records featured here have rarely been seen outside of Cuba.

The book is edited and compiled by Gilles Peterson, BBC broadcaster, record label owner, DJ, record collector and founder of Worldwide FM and Stuart Baker, founder of Soul Jazz Records. Together they have edited two earlier critically-acclaimed music and design books ‘Freedom, Rhythm and Sound: Revolutionary Jazz Cover Art 1965-83’ and ‘Bossa Nova and The Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s’. 

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’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 and 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 ‘No New York’). Trees Speak segue together all these elements into ‘Shadow Forms’, which follows on from their critically acclaimed debut album ‘Ohms,’ released on Soul Jazz Records less than six months ago.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: 'Shadow Forms' is a perfectly balanced juxtaposition of grooving, angular kosmische and haunty, soundtrack sort of business. We get little bursts of jazzy instrumentation and smooth-flowing psychedelia, all brought together with a deftness of touch and a keen ear for melody.

TRACK LISTING

‘Shadow Forms’
Large Array
Tear Kisser
Those Who Know
Transforming
Automat
False Ego
Communication
Crystal System
Agonize Signal
Magick Knives

Bonus 7” (SJRLP457)
Outtake
Transmitter

Soul Jazz Records’ new album ‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ brings together many of the ground-breaking artists involved in the new jazz scene that has developed in the UK over the last few years.

Soul Jazz Records release an exclusive one-off pressing double-headed 12” single featuring Theon Cross and Pokus on the same day as the ‘Kaleidoscope’ album release.

Exclusive to independent retailers.

TRACK LISTING

Theon Cross - Candace Of Meroe
Pokus - Pokus One

Soul Jazz Records’ new album ‘Kaleidoscope – New Spirits Known and Unknown’ brings together many of the groundbreaking artists involved in the new jazz scene that has developed in the UK over the last few years.

Featured artists include Matthew Halsall, Yazmin Lacey, Ill Considered, Tenderlonious, Theon Cross, Emma-Jean Thackray and many, many more in this ground-breaking release.

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

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

STAFF COMMENTS

Emily says: It’s been a breathless few years for British jazz, with essential new artists appearing by the day on a plethora of labels up and down the country. Thankfully Soul Jazz are here to help us keep track, taking stock of the scene on this bumper triple vinyl collection.

TRACK LISTING

A
1. Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra - When The World Was One (7.38)
2. Yazmin Lacey - 90 Degrees (4.16)
3. Hector Plimmer - Communication Control (3.04)

B
1. Ill Considered - Long Way Home (Live At The Crypt) (8.03)
2. The Expansions - Mosaic (6.58)
3. Chip Wickham - Red Planet (5.44)

C
1. Levitation Orchestra - Odyssey (9.26)
2. Emma-Jean Thackray’s WALRUS - Walrus (2.47)
3. Tenderlonious And The 22a Arkestra - The Shakedown (6.18)

D
1. Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin Featuring Nubya Garcia - Tanner's Tango (4.48)
2. Collocutor - Gozo (6.02)
3. Makaya McCraven - Untitled (3.14)

E
1. Nat Birchall - Ancient World (9.50)
2. Ruby Rushton - Moonlight Woman (9.05)

F
1. Ebi Soda - Dimmsdale (3.11)
2. The Cromagnon Band - Thunder Perfect (5.12)
3. SEED Ensemble - Mirrors (7.38)

BONUS 7" SINGLE (With Indies Exclusive Vinyl Only)
A. Vels Trio - Yellow Ochre (Part 1) (3.04)
AA. Ishmael Ensemble - Kito's Theme (4.15)

Kollington Ayinla’s celebrated 1978 album "Blessing" is a rare lost classic of Nigerian Fuji music and features Ayinla’s sharp political lyrics together with his new band Fuji ’78. "Blessing" blends the heavily percussive style of Fuji music with a stunning array of modern instruments, including synthesizers, Bata drums and guitars, to create one of the most forward-thinking and heavily danceable sounds ever to come out of Nigeria - a highly successful mixture of profound Fuji rhythms and Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat.

Kollington Ayinla ranks alongside his friend and competitor Ayinde Barrister as the two most important artists to dominate Fuji music from its inception in the 1970s through to the 1990s by which time it had grown to become one of the most popular dance genres in Nigeria. At the start of the 1980s Ayinla started his own record company, Kollington Records, to release his music and remains to this day an extremely prolific artist, having recorded over 50 albums, most of which have never been released outside of Nigeria.

This is a one-off pressing (1000 copies) of this unique piece that has only ever previously been released in Nigeria. 

TRACK LISTING

E Ye Ika Se
Oromo Adie Fo
Ko S’Ohun Tan O Le Fi Gberaga
Adio Shile
Won Ti Gbe Oye Fun Mi
Pataki L’Omo
To Ba Jisoro Mi
Engineer Olatunji / Iya Suna
Odun Titun De
Ao Toro Emi Gesa Fun Enia
Ki Aiye Ma Gbagbe Mi

‘Apala: Apala Groups in Nigeria 1967-70’ is the first ever collection of Apala music to be released outside of Nigeria. The album focusses on a wide selection of recordings made in Nigeria in the 1960s, a time when Apala music was at the height of its popularity. Apala is a deeply rhythmical, hypnotic and powerful musical style that combines the striking nasal-style vocals and traditions of Islamic music, the Agidigbo (thumb piano) and the equally powerful drumming and percussion rhythms and techniques of the Yoruba of Nigeria.

The most significant figure in Apala music is undoubtedly Haruna Ishola, who features throughout this album. Ishola holds an almost mythological status in his role as populariser of Apala music in Nigeria. Ishola’s singing was believed to be so powerful that, without proper restraint, it could kill the recipient of his music. Apala is a popular music that also functioned as a form of cultural resistance - Apala music involved no western instrumentation and is sung in the Yoruba language, its aesthetic an implicit cultural rejection of the British Empire’s colonial rule over Nigeria which lasted from 1901 until independence in 1960.

Apala music was popular and widely accepted in Nigeria due to its philosophical and profound lyrical content alongside the complex rhythmic patterns of this heavily percussive style, which highlighted many of the percussion instruments of south-west Nigeria. Apala is one of a number of popular urban styles of music that came out of Nigeria in the 20th Century and sits alongside the more well-known (in the West) styles of Fuji, Highlife, Juju and Afrobeat. Of these modern forms Apala remains perhaps the most ‘roots’ style (sometimes described as ‘neotraditional’) due to the authenticity of its sound. It has similar Islamic roots to other neo-traditional styles of Nigeria - including Waka and Sakara - examples of which are also included on this collection contextualising the music of Apala. These recordings were originally made and released locally by Decca and EMI Records as well as a variety of independent labe

TRACK LISTING

Haruna Ishola And His Apala Group - Ewure Ile Komoyi Ode
Adebukonla Ajao And Her Group - Aboyin Ile
Rapheal Ajide And His Apala Group - Adura Fun Osiwowo
Haruna Ishola And His Apala Group - Orin To Mo Gbon Wa
R.A. Tikalosoro And His Group - Agilinti Lomu
Adebukonla Ajao And Her Group - A.B.D. Alawiye
Haruna Ishola And His Apala Group - Asa Ko Gbodo Wole Gbeiyele
Adeleke Aremu & His Group - Egbe Arowolo
Haruna Ishola And His Apala Group - Rufai Baolgun
R.A. Tikalosoro And His Group - Kiniun Kuro Leran Amu Sere
Haruna Ishola And His Apala Group - S. Aka
Adebukonla Ajao And Her Group - Lekele Bale
Kasumu Adio And His Apala Group - Odale Ore
Ayisatu Alabi And Her Group - Oko Lolomo Jimoh Agbejo Bo Ogun And His Group - Oriki Ibeji
Ayisatu Alabi And Her Group - Omo Olobi
Rapheal Ajide And His Apala Group - Orin Aje
Adebukonla Ajao And Her Group - Sunday Babayemi

‘Soul Of A Nation: Jazz Is The Teacher, Funk Is The Preacher’ is a powerful new collection of radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap made in the era of Black Power (1969-75).

This is the second ‘Soul Of A Nation’ album released by Soul Jazz Records to coincide with the exhibition ‘Soul Of A Nation - Art In The Age Of Black Power’, critically acclaimed and enormously successful when it opened at the Tate Modern in London last year (as was Soul Jazz Records’ accompanying first album ‘Soul Of A Nation: Afro-Centric Visions In The Age Of Black Power 1968- 79’). The blockbuster international exhibition is now at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, travelling to Los Angeles in 2019.

This new album features a number of important and ground-breaking African-American artists - The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Don Cherry, Funkadelic, Gil Scott-Heron and more - alongside a host of lesser-known artists all of whom in the early 1970s were exploring new Afrocentric poly-rhythmical styles of music - radical jazz, street funk and proto-rap - while at the same time exploring the Black Power and civil-rights inspired notions of self-definition, self-respect and self-empowerment in their own lives.

During this era African-American jazz musicians ripped up traditional definitions - rejecting the term ‘entertainer’ to redefine themselves instead as ‘artists’. They worked outside of the mainstream music industry perceiving this artistic relationship to be fundamentally exploitative and politically flawed. Artists instead formed their own pan-arts community-centric collectives, set up their own record labels, ran concerts in alternative performance spaces - art galleries, parks, lofts, community centres - all as a way of taking control of their own creative destinies.

At the start of 1960s jazz musicians had embarked on an intense period of musical experimentation as artists John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry sought to dismantle the traditional definitions of jazz by creating new music that broke free from its establishment shackles. By the end of the 1960s, forward-thinking African-American jazz musicians had absorbed the ideas of this radical and avant-garde path but also began to introduce many new elements - not just civil rights concepts of freedom but also black power ideas of self-respect, righteousness and anger.

Their music developed into a radical and intense Afrocentric mix of jazz, funk, soul and street poetry, all in search of a new musical language that could better represent artistic African-American cultural expression.

All of the featured artists here were involved in this search in different ways; A shared sense of Afrocentric collectivism joined the dots between the deep avant-garde experimentalism of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago (here featuring soul singer Fontella Bass singing the powerful ‘Theme de Yoyo’) to the hyper funk psychedelia of George Clinton’s Funkadelic.

The poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and Sarah Webster Fabio performed with a backdrop of street funk and heavyweight percussion laid down the template for the birth of rap. The Har-You Percussion Group, a group of young Harlem teenagers, showed how government-sponsored social initiatives helped create great art and music. Gary Bartz and The Oneness of Juju offer spirituality and cosmology. Collectives like The Pharaohs and Detroit’s Tribe add deep jazz and street funk in equal measures.

Influenced and radicalised by Black Power and civil rights, all these artists were involved in creating - in the words of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago - ‘Great Black Music: Ancient To Future’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Millie says: This compilation has collected all the best tunes from the funk/soul genre from Gil Scott-Heron to Baby Huey. Spread over three LP's, this is a feast for the ears!

TRACK LISTING

Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Theme De Yoyo
The Har-You Percussion Group - Welcome To The Party
The Pharaohs - Damballa
Baby Huey - Hard Times
James Mason - Sweet Power, Your Embrace
Byron Morris And Unity - Kitty Bey
Funkadelic - Nappy Dugout
Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe - Exchange Part 2 (II)
Gary Bartz NTU Troop - Celestial Blues
Oneness Of Juju - Space Jungle Funk
Sarah Webster Fabio - Work It Out
Tribe (Wendell Harrison & Phillip Ranelin) - Beneficent
Gil Scott-Heron - Whitey On The Moon
Don Cherry - Brown Rice

"Studio One Freedom Sounds" is the new collection from the nation's favourite one-stop shop, focusing on the intense period in the second half of the 1960s when Studio One’s vast and unbeatable output of ska, soul, rock steady and reggae made it literally one of the hottest musical empires in the world.

During this highly successful period, Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd released hundreds and hundreds of superlative singles seemingly on an almost daily basis, in the process making huge stars out of Jamaican singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, The Wailers, Slim Smith, Jackie Opel and many more.

Powered by the finest in-house musicians working in Jamaica, whether it was The Skatalites, Jackie Mittoo’s Soul Brothers, The Sounds Dimension or The Soul Vendors, Studio One functioned as hit factory on the scale of Motown in the USA, shaping and defining reggae music for decades to come.

Singlehandedly Studio One’s founder Clement Dodd was able to create the most successful vertically-integrated record company that Jamaica had ever known with pressing plant, printers, studio, shops and sound systems all running at once, with over 50 employees and hundreds of artists working with Studio One during this time.

"Studio One Freedom Sounds" tells the story of Studio One in the 1960s with a stunning set of ska, soul, rock steady and reggae killer tunes as well as informative sleevenotes and track-by-track info by Noel Hawks.

TRACK LISTING

Don Drummond & The Skatalites - Rain Or Shine
The Gaylads - Morning Sun
Delroy Wilson - Just Because Of You
Alton Ellis - Sunday Coming
Jackie Opel - I Am What I Am
Peter Tosh - I Am The Toughest
Delroy Wilson - Get Ready
Mr. Foundation - Timo-Oh
Roland Alphonso & The Soul Brothers - Provocation
Leroy & Rocky - Love Me Girl
Slim & Delroy - Look Who Is Back Again
The Skatalites - Spread Satin
Barrington Spence - Contemplating Mind
Ernest Ranglin - Psychedelic Rock
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Destiny
Roland Alphonso - Reggae In The Grass
Zoot Simms - We Can Talk It Over
Jackie Mittoo - Hi Jack

Soul Jazz Records’ latest album ‘Yoruba! Songs & Rhythms For The Yoruba Gods In Nigeria’ is newly recorded in Lagos, Nigeria. The album is co-produced by Soul Jazz Records label head Stuart Baker and Laolu Akins (founding member of the legendary 1970s Nigerian Afro-Funk/Rock group Blo).

‘Yoruba!’ features an array of local master drummers led by Olatunji Samson Sotimirin and singers (featuring the lead vocals of Janet Olufanmilayo Abe) performing heavyweight Afro-rhythms, with talking drums, Bata and Dundun drums and a mass of percussion in these deep spiritual and sacred songs used to honour and worship the traditional and ancient Yoruba gods in Nigeria, West Africa.

The enormous impact of Yoruba and West African music and culture is worldwide - from the first Afro-centric explorations of African- American jazz musicians in the 1950s such as Art Blakey, Randy Weston and Dizzy Gillespie, the explosion of Nu Yorican Latin music in New York City starting in the 1960s - Mambo, Boogaloo, Latin funk and soul - through to the sacred and powerful Afro-derived music of the religions of Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil and Voodoo in Haiti, which all came into existence on account of the Atlantic slave trade which began over 400 years ago. On a wider scale West African music remains the primary root of all African-American musical forms - from New Orleans jazz to Bronx rap, gospel, soul and more.

This album features songs honouring the Nigerian gods of the Yoruba traditional religion - Yemoja, Obatala, Ogun, Sango and others - as well as a selection of instrumental cuts focusing on the Bata and Dundun drums.

The album comes complete with extensive text and photography. 40- page outsize booklet / gatefold double vinyl and inners showing the influence of Yoruba culture throughout the world and the social and historical context for the music contained here.

TRACK LISTING

Homage To Yemoja
Homage To Esu
Sakara Instrumental
Ensemble
Homage To Obatala
Eulogy To Amila
Homage To Sango
Agbe Gbe-Wadele
Eulogy To Ori-Ola
Bata Drums Ensemble
Homage To Osun
Eshere
Dundun Instrumental
Ensemble
Homage To Ogun

Soul Jazz Records’ new release ‘Soul Of A Nation: Afro-Centric Visions In The Age Of Black Power - Underground Jazz, Street Funk & The Roots Of Rap 1968-79’ is released in conjunction with a major worldwide art exhibition, ‘Soul Of A Nation: Art In The The Age Of Black Power’, which takes place at the Tate Modern, London, UK (July-Oct 2017) and The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA.

The album shows how the ideals of the civil rights movement, black power and black nationalism influenced the evolvement of radical African-American music in the United States of America in the intensely political and revolutionary period at the end of the 1960s following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and the rise of the Black Panther party.

Featuring ground-breaking artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Ayers, Don Cherry, Oneness Of Juju, Sarah Webster Fabio, Horace Tapscott, Phil Ranelin and many others, ‘Soul Of A Nation’ shows how political themes led to the rise of ‘conscious’ black music as new afro-centric styles combined the musical radicalism and spirituality of John Coltrane and radical avant-garde jazz music alongside the intense funk and soul of James Brown and Aretha Franklin and the urban poetry and proto-rap of the streets.

The ‘Soul Of A Nation’ exhibition draws on the links between Black art forms - art, music, poetry - and how they came together during the civil rights and black power era as part of the wider black arts movement across the United States.

Iconic African-Amercian revolutionary figures such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis, John Coltrane and Muhammad Ali all appear in the radical artworks of Barkley L. Hendricks, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Lorraine O’Grady and Betye Saar.

Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records) will appear on the panel for a ‘Soul Of A Nation: Art In The Age Of Black Power’ discussion at the gallery as part of the show.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: This really is a fascinating and varied look into the start of an international appreciation of hip-hop, soul and funk. With more mellow afrobeat pieces segueing beautifully into more traditional fare, and even including some highly politically charged spoken-word accompaniments, this is yet another win for the Soul Jazz camp.

TRACK LISTING

Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Mandingo Griot Society With Don Cherry - Sounds From The Bush
Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Red, Black And Green
Philip Cohran And The Artistic Heritage Ensemble - Malcolm X
Sarah Webster Fabio - Sweet Songs
Phil Ranelin - Vibes From The Tribe
Horace Tapscott With The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra - Desert Fairy Princess
David Mcknight - Strong Men
Joe Henderson - Black Narcissus
Oneness Of Juju - African Rhythms
Doug Carn - Suratal Ihklas
Duke Edwards And The Young Ones - Is It Too Late?
Carlos Garnett - Mother Of The Future

Featured here is a new collection spanning Studio One’s dancehall period - singers and deejays on classic Studio One rhythms, studio and electronic wizardry from the Brentford Road headquarters, lots of rare 12” singles, all effortlessly brought together to nice up the dance.

When Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd first ruled the dancehalls of Kingston in the 1950s, fighting off the soundsystem competition of Duke Reid, King Edwards and others, few could imagine how far the reign of Studio One would last. However, the emergence of dancehall as a distinct style of reggae at the end of the 1970s, as upstart competing producers began recording vocalists and deejays performing over replayed classic Studio One rhythms, in many ways made the influence of Clement Dodd’s vision more omnipotent than ever before (and lasting to this day).

Not surprisingly, Clement Dodd’s creativity and business acumen made him quick to respond to this musical phenomenon - he soon began voicing the new stable of Studio One singers and deejays, such as Sugar Minott and Lone Ranger, over original classic Studio One rhythms recorded in the late 1960s - by producing some of the most innovative, time-bending and creative music of his career.

This album comes as CD with slipcase, super-loud, super-heavy triple vinyl with free download code.

TRACK LISTING

Ernest Wilson - Why Oh Why
Johnny Osbourne - Lend Me The Sixteen
Windel Haye - Haunted House
Green Tea & Chassy - Ghetto Girl
Johnny Osbourne - Time A Run Out
Lone Ranger - Noah In The Ark
Devon Russell - Thanks And Praise
Brentford Disco Set - Rebel Disco
Doreen Schaffer - I Don’t Know Why
Slim Smith - Lonely Lover
Field Marshall Haye - Roots And Herb Style
DJ Dawn & The Ranking Queens - Peace Truce Thing
Jim Brown - Cure For The Fever
Sugar Minott - Peace Treaty Style
Lloyd Robinson - It Deep
Barry Brown - Far East
Windel Haye & Captain
Morgan - Flood Victim
Ernest Wilson - Pick Them Up

Soul Jazz Records’ new ‘Punk 45’ album charts the rise of underground punk across the United States 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). The book includes text by Jon Savage, numerous interviews and articles from the likes of Richard Hell, Seymour Stein (Sire Records), Geoff Travis (Rough Trade), and Peter Saville (Factory), as well as exhaustive biographies, band lineups and more on the many hundreds of bands who feature in the book.

‘Punk 45: Kill The Hippies! Kill Yourself! The American Nation Destroys Its Young - Underground Punk In The United States Of America’ 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’.

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.

TRACK LISTING

The Urinals - I’m A Bug
The Normals - Almost Ready
Hollywood Squares - Midnight Strangler
Electric Eels - Agitated
Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance
Randoms - Let’s Get Rid Of New York
The Bizarros - Ice Age
The Zeros - Wild Weekend
Tuxedomoon - Joeboy The Electronic Ghost
X Blank X - You’re Full Of Shit
Flaming Groovies - Dog Meat
Deadbeats - Kill The Hippies
Theoretical Girls - US Millie
Skunks - Earthquake Shake
Knots - Action
Crash Course In Science - Cakes In The Home
The Pagans - Not Now No Way
Pastiche - Flash Of The Moment
The Lewd - Kill Yourself
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks
The Controllers - Neutron Bomb

The Lijadu Sisters released a series of albums in the 1970s in Nigeria that blended heavyweight Afro-beat with psychedelic Afro-rock, high-life, disco and soul in a truly unique combination. These albums are impossibly rare to find and this collection brings together the best of those recordings.

The Lijadu Sisters were the most successful female group in Nigeria in the 1970s and managed to overturn many stereotypes and attitudes as they carved out a unique space for themselves in a predominantly male arena. Their influences ranged from female soul singers such as Aretha Franklin, The Pointer Sisters and Miriam Makeba to the Afro-beat of Fela Anikulapo Kuti as well as the juju music of IK Dairo and the highlife of Victor Olaiya.

The Lijadu Sisters - identical twins Taiwo and Kehinde Lijadu - grew up in Ibadan, Nigeria. They recorded their debut album for Decca Records in 1969. At the start of the 1970s the two singers joined ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker’s short-lived all-African group Salt (which also included future members of the Afro-Rock group Blo). This album brings together the best of their tracks from the four albums recorded for the Afrodisia label in Nigeria - ‘Danger’ (1976), ‘Mother Africa’ (1977), ‘Sunshine’ (1978) and ‘Horizon Unlimited’ (1979).

STAFF COMMENTS

Philippa says: Fuzz guitars, talking drums, funky rhythms and African vocal harmonies... What more could you want?!

TRACK LISTING

1. Danger
2. Orere - Elejigbo
3. Erora
4. Bayi L'ense
5. Sunshine
6. Life's Gone Down Low
7. Gbowo Mi
8. Come And Dance
9. Osupa
10. Cashing In
11. Amebo
12. Gbalo - Alogbalo
13. Not Any Longer

Kevin Martin (aka The Bug / King Midas Sound) and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) have put together a unique project bringing together new, exclusive and in demand digital music by electronic futurists Harmonic 313, Diplo, Roots Manuva, South Rakkas Crew,The Bug and more, alongside a killer selection of Jamaican digital and electronic scientific dub and dancehall. Exclusive new tracks and mixes by Harmonic 313, Stereotyp, Federation; in demand tracks from the likes of Roots Manuva, Diplo and South Rakkas Crew; the toughest digital and twisted rhythms from legendary producers King Jammy, Steely and Clevie, Sly Dunbar, Prince Jazzbo, King Tubby, Firehouse Crew and more all feature on this unique release.

The double album comes in special edition heavyweight deluxe hardcover 2CD card casing complete with a deluxe graphic novel by Italian comic book designer Paolo Parisi (whose books include subjects as diverse as John Coltrane and Chernobyl). This specially commissioned graphic novel is a science fiction vision of the future of digital music, featuring King Tubby, Steely & Clevie, Jammy, Jazzbo, complete with Alien Sound Lord Abductors, Aural Freedom Fighters and Digi-Dub Voyagers.

TRACK LISTING

CD ONE:
1. Steely & Clevie ‘Streetsweeper’
2. Lenky & Sly ‘Now Thing’
3. Ricky Ranking Ft. Roots Manuva ‘Doogoo Dub’
4. Dave Kelly ‘The Return’
5. Annex Crew ‘Summerbounce’
6. Federation Sound ‘Flatlands (Brooklyn Dub Mix)’
7. Lenky ‘Diwali Riddim’
8. Team Shadatek ‘Yoga Riddim’
9. Stereotyp Ft. Alley Cat ‘Modern Times’
10. The Grynch Ft. Tippa Irie ‘Electro Agony In Dub’
11. Fira ‘Hummer Version’
12. Diplo ‘Diplo Rhythm’
13. Harmonic 313 ‘Bazooka Riddim’
14. Ward 21 Productions ‘Pit Bull’
15. Redlight ‘M.D.M.A’.
16. The Bug ‘Aktion Dub’

CD TWO:
1. Fat Eyes ‘Clothes Pin Rhythm’
2. Steven Ventura 4 Kings Of Kings ‘Throw Your Hands Up Version’
3. Sly Dunbar And Christopher Birch ‘Corners Boy’
4. David Jahson ‘King Of Kings Dub’
5. Fat Eyes ‘Steel Plate’
6. South Rakkas Crew ‘Red Alert’
7. Parara And McCoy ‘Them Can’t Hold Yuh Gal Version’
8. King Tubby ‘Fat Thing Version’
9. World Beat ‘Gold Mine’
10. Andre ‘Suku’ Gray (Jammys) ‘Sign Rhythm’
11. Henfield And Shadowman ‘Babatunde’
12. Firehouse Crew ‘No False Hair’
13. Computer Paul ‘World Talk’
14. Fat Eyes ‘Overdose’
15. Prince Jazzbo ‘Great Stone Version’
16. Kickin’ Productions ‘What You Gonna Do’
17. Pliers (Bonner Productions)’ I’m Your Man Dub’
18. Wiz Kidz ‘Team In My Heart Version’
19. Jammys ‘Jam 2’ James (Jammys) ‘Peenie Peenie’