Search Results for:

WEEK-END RECORDS

Keith Hudson & Soul Syndicate

Nuh Skin Up Dub

    Keith Hudson’s Nuh Skin Up Dub is a deep, heavyweight dub album that stands as one of the most potent statements in the genre’s history. Released in 1979, this sonic masterpiece showcases Hudson’s signature dark, almost mystical production style, where heavy basslines, echo-drenched drums, and ghostly fragments of vocals swirl together in a hypnotic haze.

    Unlike the more polished, accessible dub records of the time, Nuh Skin Up Dub is raw, unfiltered, and experimental, pushing the boundaries of rhythm and space. Tracks like "Nuh Skin Up" and "Felt We Felt the Strain" pulse with an eerie, almost menacing energy, while Hudson’s masterful use of reverb and delay creates a soundscape that feels simultaneously expansive and claustrophobic.

    Often referred to as the “Dark Prince of Reggae,” Hudson had an uncanny ability to craft music that was both deeply meditative and unsettling, and Nuh Skin Up Dub is a prime example of his genius. It's a record that rewards deep listening—every spin reveals new layers of sonic detail, hidden textures, and dub wizardry.

    For fans of heavy, atmospheric dub, Nuh Skin Up Dub is an essential listen, a landmark recording that solidifies Keith Hudson’s status as one of the most visionary figures in reggae history.


    TRACK LISTING

    A1 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Even Those Dreadful Words 00:03:15
    A2 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Nuh Skin Up 00:04:52
    A3 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Mercy 00:04:12
    A4 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Bad Things 00:04:48
    A5 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Keeping Us Together 00:04:00
    B1 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Ire Ire 00:06:48
    B2 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Desiree 00:03:43
    B3 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate Troubles 00:05:38
    B4 Keith Hudson / Soul Syndicate No Commitment 00:06:22

    Marshall Allen

    New Dawn

      Two days after his 100th birthday, Marshall Allen started recording New Dawn, his debut solo album. A member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra since 1958, Allen assumed leadership of the band in 1995. Throughout his nearly seventy-year career, Allen has never released a solo album under his own name, and yet, instead of capping such a legendary output, New Dawn seems to herald a new beginning. A love letter to spacetime, it channels a century of musical intelligence into seven tracks, showing Allen at his most protean—freely moving from relaxed, transdimensional palettes to bluesy big band and beyond.

      One of music’s vanguard avant-saxophonists, Allen continues to deliver durational feats during the Arkestra’s gigs. Still, the compositional energy contained on New Dawn is striking. Allen was approached with the idea of a solo record by Week-End Records’ Jan Lankisch. The Arkestra’s Knoel Scott — who has lived with Allen at the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra since the 1980s — worked with Allen to pore over the archive of unrecorded material and develop this debut. Scott assembled some of Philadelphia’s brightest jazz stars as well as some Arkestra veterans for the sessions. New Dawn was then recorded over a couple of days in Philadelphia, with additional recordings to be added in the coming weeks and months. The legendary Neneh Cherry will lend her unmistakable voice to the title track “New Dawn”.

      Though greatly informed by the philosophy of Sun Ra and his Saturnian teachings—traverse jazz’s traditions, dig deep into spiritual geographies — New Dawn signals Allen as his own singular voice, one that’s swinging and bopping and reflecting into the future, with no sign of stopping. Week-End Records is proud to release this debut solo album by Marshall Allen.

      “New Dawn is clearly an extension of Ra’s legacy and sound, but it’s also a masterful endeavour filtered through Allen’s tastes and approach”. – John Morrison, The Wire, November 2024 (cover story)


      STAFF COMMENTS

      Barry says: A stunning achievement and stylistic continuation of the incomparable legacy of Sun Ra from the great Marshall Allen, with a broadening of the sound into more placid pastures and more pop-based song structures. Beautifully done.

      TRACK LISTING

      01 Marshall Allen Prologue 00:00:45
      02 Marshall Allen African Sunset 00:07:28
      03 Marshall Allen / Neneh Cherry New Dawn 00:06:34
      04 Marshall Allen Are You Ready 00:05:40
      05 Marshall Allen Sonny's Dance 00:05:31
      06 Marshall Allen Boma 00:10:22
      07 Marshall Allen Angels And Demons At Play 00:04:22


      Latest Pre-Sales

      217 NEW ITEMS

      E-newsletter —
      Sign up
      Back to top