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A year on from the highly-acclaimed album 'It's A World Before You', Kaidi Tatham brings more new music to First Word Records - a continuation of his previous EP's for the label (2017's 'Changing Times' & 'Hard Times'), here we enter 'Serious Times'.

Kaidi Tatham is one of the most revered multi-instrumentalists in the game. Dubbed by Radio 1's Benji B last year as "the UK's Herbie Hancock", his versatility as a musician is actually more akin to Prince in the sense that he can play most instruments, and play them well. His contributions as a musician, composer & producer have included work with Bugz In The Attic, Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler and loads more over the years, additionally to being a key player on Jazzy Jeff's PLAYlist album 'Chasing Goosebumps' along with Masego, Stro Elliot, 14KT, Tall Black Guy, Rich Medina and the like, and various projects alongside Dego (2000 Black) and First Word label-mates Eric Lau, Darkhouse Family & Children of Zeus.

'Serious Times' is another 4-track set comprised of Kaidi's unmistakable style, encompassing broken beat, jazz, boogie and hip hop. The EP starts off with the hype jazz-funk bruk of 'Cost of Living', maintaining the tempo into 'Don't Cry Now' which leads with a sweet latin-tinged piano riff. Onto the flipside, and we're treated to the slinky synth-boogie of 'Sugar' before dropping the tempo down & closing the selection with a warped but jazzy instrumental boom bap piece entitled 'Zallom'.

Kaidi is a national treasure quite frankly, and this EP is another mere taster of this man's endless talents and unique vibes. Some grown folk music, perfect for these 'Serious Times'…

Vinyl & digital released on Friday 19th July 2019 on First Word Records (Worldwide Awards 'Label of the Year 2019').

Balmagie Jam Rock consists of 16 unreleased dub mixes from the dub master King Tubby. All the original songs were written and produced by Roy Cousins from the Royals. Featuring a virtual who's who of reggae from the classic era -- Sly & Robbie, Lloyd Parkes, Pablo Black, Lloyd Charmers, Ansel Collins, Earl Lindo, Tony Chin, Geoffery Chung, Ernest Rangin, Earl 'Chinna' Smith,Bobby Ellis, Tommy McCook and many more. With the voices of Prince Farl, I Roy, The Royals, and Baba Dread. Recorded between 1966 and 1979 at Dynamic, Channel One and Randy's studios, mixed and voiced at King Tubbv's.

Sigma acts as the sequel to 2018’s critically acclaimed Equals release and features musical contributions from original Alarm guitarist Dave Sharp and

Billy Duffy from The Cult. The album includes the single “Brighter Than The Sun” and as Mike Peters articulates “is a lyric that tries to encapsulate how it feels when someone you

love has survived an immense ordeal and come through to the other side brighter, stronger and more capable than before”. To find strength through adversity

is a capability we all have inside of us should we choose to call upon it. The accompanying video tries to reflect this kind of stimulus and to try and

capture the kind of solar power that emanates from within, the blinding force that stimulates life and everything positive that revolves around it.

Early in 2019 Mike Peters from The Alarm was awarded with an MBE by His Royal Highness Prince Charles Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace for his

services to charity having raised thousands for cancer care projects in the UK and abroad and dedicating his life to giving hope for families affected by cancer

The Alarm will be heading out on their Sigma LXXXV Tour this summer, taking in 30+ North American dates through July and August, with support from

Modern English and Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel. Throughout the Sigma LXXXV Tour, Love Hope Strength (co-founded by Mike Peters), will be hosting

bone marrow drives at each concert aimed at finding donors for people suffering from Blood Cancer who need a transplant for a second chance at life

Previous support for Equals from Billboard, Classic Rock, Classic Pop, Uncut, MOJO and more Classic tracks Strength and The Stand were used on the closing

tracks on two episodes of the hit Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, combining for 3M+ streams.

Bobby Sparks II ist vielen ein Begriff. Sei es als Keyboarder bei Snarky Puppy, Marcus Miller, Prince oder Liz Wright, Bobby hat überall markante musikalische Spuren hinterlassen. Und nun ist es endlich soweit: Mit "Schizophrenia - The Yang Project" steht Bobby Sparks Debutalbum (2CD Set) zur Veröffentlichung bei LEOPARD an. Es hat gedauert, um diese außergewöhnliche Sammlung unterschiedlichster Songs zu produziern. Aber es hat sich mehr als gelohnt: zeigt sich darin doch das breite musikalische Vokabular und der schier unerschöpfliche Schaffensdrang des Keyboarders. Vom slammenden Funk bis zu langsamen, groovigen Soul-Balladen und Streifzügen in die Genres Straight-ahead-Jazz, Fusion, Orchester- und Weltmusik: das sehr passend betitelte Album "Schizophrenia - The Yang Project" vereinigt eine Vielzahl verschiedener Musikstile in sich, ohne dabei das Gesamtbild aus den Augen zu lassen. Mit an Bord auf dieser außergewöhnlichen musikalischen Reise sind eine Reihe seiner alten Freunde aus Dallas, sowie viele Stars des Genres - etwa die Bassisten Marcus Miller, Pino Palladino, MonoNeon und Hadrien Feraud, der Trompeter Roy Hargrove, die Sänger Frank McComb und James - J. Rob' Robinson, Snarky Puppys Michael League und Jason - JT' Thomas, die Gitarristen Lucky Peterson und Eric Gales sowie die Drummer Mark Simmons, Brannen Temple und John - Li'l John' Roberts.

Alt. folker Will Oldham - better known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - is set to drop a joint record with gently psychedelic crew Trembling Bells

Just four years after their debut album Carbeth, Trembling Bells are amassing a formidable body of work at a startling velocity. Just twelve months after the release of their critically acclaimed third album The Constant Pageant, the Glasgow quartet return to share the billing with a similarly restless creative spirit. A few thousand miles separate Will Oldham and Trembling Bells' drummer and principal songwriter Alex Neilson, but their stories intersect as far back as 2005, when the young Leeds-raised Neilson found himself playing drums on Alasdair Roberts' No Earthly Man, with Oldham producing. In time, a friendship between mentor and student became one between two kindred musicians. Neilson augmented his work with free-psych-drone practitioners Directing Hand by playing with the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy band. The drummer's eagerness to experience new epiphanies yielded unforgettable memories. In Big Sur, he recalls, 'we took mushrooms at midnight, then visited a natural hot spring built into the dramatic cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The stars were as vivid as frozen fireworks.' All of which is worth dwelling on, because without that background of mutual openness and empathy, it's hard to imagine The Marble Downs existing.

Neilson recalls a conversation about a 'collaboration' in the summer of 2010, though stresses that it 'was nothing too formal at first'. By the end of that year, a limited-edition seven-inch New Year's Eve Is The Loneliest Night of the Year showed what an inspired match the vocals of Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and Will Oldham made. The cut-glass precision of the classically-trained student of medieval music and the worldly, careworn tones of Oldham created an unlikely chemistry. It must have seemed that way to Neilson too. He set about assembling a cache of songs with the purpose of further harnessing that chemistry. The result is an album that has, once again, redrafted the boundaries of what Trembling Bells can achieve together. Indeed, genre-lines aren't terribly helpful this time around. Yes, Trembling Bells' love affair with traditional music remains a constant — most emphatically so on the unaccompanied Blackwall/Oldham two-hander, My Husband's Got No Courage In Him. Then there is Blackwall's musical setting of Dorothy Parker's poem Excursion Into Assonance — and the thorough-going new-found classicism of Neilson's increasingly assured songwriting. Albeit delivered with Trembling Bells' rain-lashed sense of abandon, Love Is A Velvet Noose sounds like a standard of sorts — a warped consequence of Neilson's increasing fascination with the songbooks of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. 'I'm not saying I stand any chance of emulating them,' he adds, 'but the appreciation is definitely there.'

The knowledge that Oldham and Blackwall would be sharing centre-stage on The Marble Downs gave Neilson extra impetus to flex his songwriting muscles. I Can Tell You're Leaving finds both vocalists on irresistible form, dissecting their dying relationship with no heed to the other's feelings. 'You treat me like a child,' sings Oldham. 'I need a man,' she responds, barely catching breath. 'Now like Merle Haggard, you'll see the fighting side of me,' he later promises. 'I guess that's one of the lighter moments on the album,' ponders Neilson, 'I was trying to get a Planet Waves-era Bob Dylan feel there, with the piano and walking bassline.'

Here and elsewhere, the band — Blackwall, Neilson, bassist Simon Shaw and guitarist Mike Hastings — has never sounded more psychically attuned to one-other. On the slow-reveal sonic establishing shot of I Made A Date (With An Open Vein), two minutes of manic modal chaos elapses before Oldham takes the narrative reins of a majestic call-and-response folk-rock epic. The electrifying free-folk portent of Riding — a revival of the Palace Brothers classic — is no less compelling, calling to mind the words of broadcaster Stuart Maconie when he praised Trembling Bells for their ability to invoke simultaneously 'the charm of folk music and the power of rock.' Ditto Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing, in which Neilson slams down a four-to-the-floor beat over a synergy of demonic krautrock keys and a dialogue between Oldham and Blackwall that scales Nancy & Lee levels of romantic intrigue.

With nine songs gone and one remaining, the album's sonic undulations find an arresting denouement in the form of an inspired cover. Adapted from Robin Gibb's 1970 solo masterpiece Robin's Reign, Lord Bless All sees Trembling Bells tease out the hymnal qualities of Gibb's original with a slow volcanic upswell which — on four minutes — explodes into heavy psychedelic technicolour. What pleases Alex Neilson when he listens back is 'a sense of a common vocabulary and identity being forged.' If, by that, he means that there isn't another band on the planet that quite sounds like Trembling Bells, it would be hard to disagree. The evidence is right here.

'I didn't know anything about Trembling Bells. I just heard them and was knocked out. I instantly became a fan.' Paul Weller

'Trembling Bells are my kind of band.' Joe Boyd

"Jesus fucking shit! These jamz claw so hard at the tatties below methinks the Lord misnamed them, having intended to say Trembling BALLS." Will Oldham

'A poetic incantation of British identity far brighter than Michael Gove's GCSE syllabus.' Stewart Lee

'This time, I'm attempting to reclaim the art of songwriting from the charity shop bargain bin.' Alex Neilson

Bendik HK is now launching his debut EP “Depot” via Oslo based label Mutual Intentions. The EP boasts Bendik HK’s futuristic approach in the realm of techno, house and ambient. His progressive production revolves around melodic structures, rhythm and soundscapes. On all four tracks Bendik HK uses an atonal percussion instrument called “Sixxen”, brought to life by the Greek contemporary composer and architect Iannis Xenakis. On “Depot”, this instrument is fused with more classic synths, in an attempt to “challenge” the club genre and invite something new; not only through rhythm and production, but tonality as well.
Vital sales points:
Bendik HK (Bendik Hovik Kjeldsberg) is best known for being one of Norway's most skilled and sought after drummers, playing alongside acts such as Charlotte Dos Santos, Ivan Ave & Gundelach.
He also works regularly with the internationally renowned composer/producer Pantha Du Prince, touring the world and playing events and venues such as Berghain, Sonar, Mutek, and Boiler Room.

This raw, intimate recording, which took place at the start of Prince's career right before he achieved international stardom, is similar in format to the Piano & A Microphone Tour that he ended his career with in 2016. The nine track, 35-minute album features a previously unreleased home studio cassette recording of Prince at his piano captured in 1983.

The private rehearsal provides a rare, intimate glimpse into Prince's creative process as he worked through songs which include "17 Days" and "Purple Rain" (neither of which would be released until 1984), a cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case Of You", "Strange Relationship" (not released until 1987 on his critically acclaimed Sign O' The Times album), and "International Lover".

The album also includes a rare recording of the 19th Century spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep" which will be featured during the end credits of Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman in theatres August 2018.

For fans of Prince's spontaneous live medleys, tracks 1-7 of the album are presented in that same format as they were originally recorded.

This special limited edition DAVID BOWIE 7" picture disc, is a double A-side of the radio edits of 2018 versions of ZEROES and BEAT OF YOUR DRUM. Both tracks are from NEVER LET ME DOWN (2018), a new version of the 1987 album featured in the forthcoming boxset LOVING THE ALIEN (1983-1988) which is released on 12th October. 
 
NEVER LET ME DOWN (2018), is a new production of Bowie's final 'solo' album of the '80s. Producer Mario McNulty worked on the tracks at Electric Lady Studios in New York with longtime Bowie musicians Sterling Campbell (Black Tie White Noise, Outside, 'hours...', Heathen, Reality and The Next Day) on drums, Reeves Gabrels (Tin Machine, Black Tie White Noise, Outside, Earthling and 'hours...') & David Torn (Heathen, Reality and The Next Day) on guitars and Tim Lefebvre (Blackstar) on bass. 

ZEROES, the lyrics of which reference Prince's Little Red Corvette was Bowie's salute to the '60s. He described it as 'The ultimate happy-go-lucky rock tune, based in the nonsensical period of psychedelia'. Mario McNulty commented, "Stripping this song down to its core revealed a track that could have been right at home on Hunky Dory, I kept Peter Frampton's sitar (which was originally owned by Jimi Hendrix) as it still fits against the new guitars from Reeves Gabrels'. 

Of BEAT OF YOUR DRUM Mario McNulty says, 'David Torn's ambient guitars start the song that now lead into a much darker world than its shiny predecessor. David sang all the backing vocals on this which I have kept.'



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This Is The Second Installment Of Deep Roots Rastafarian Reggae At Studio One And Features Classic Music From Some Of The Most Important Figures In Reggae Music - Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Gladiators - Alongside A Host Of Rarities And Little-known Recordings, Such As A Truly Rare Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari Seven-inch Single, Willie William's First Ever Recording 'calling' And Horace Andy's Righteous (and Equally Rare) Masterpiece 'illiteracy. Black Man's Pride 2 Extends The Legacy Of Studio One's Ground-breaking Path In Roots Reggae Which Began At The End Of The 1960s And Continued Throughout The 1970s. The Album Tells The Story Of How The Rise Of Studio One Records And The Rastafari Movement Were Interconnected, Through The Adoption Of The Rastafari Faith By Key Reggae Artists - Everyone From The Skatalites And Wailers In The 1960s, Major Singers Such As Alton Ellis And Horace Andy At The End Of The Decade, Through To Major Roots Artists Such As The Gladiators In The 1970s - And How Clement Dodd Consistently Recorded This Heavyweight Roots Music Throughout Studio One's History.
The Sleeve-notes To This Album Also Discuss The Links Between Rastafari And Studio One In Time And Place, Noting How Both The Religion And Clement Dodd's Musical Empire Had Their Roots In The Intense Period Of Pre-independence Jamaica In Kingston, Expanded In The 1960s Following The Visit Of Haile Selassie In 1966, And How Roots Music Then Came To Dominate Reggae Music In The Early 1970s. Also Discussed Is How The Outsider Stance Of Both Reggae Music And The Rastafari Movement Relate Back Many Hundreds Of Years To The Original Rebel Stance Of The Maroons, Escaped Slaves Who Set Up Self-sufficient Enclaves In The Hills Of The Jamaican Countryside.

Twenty-eight Years Ago, Pissed-off Twelve-year-olds Around The Universe Discovered A New Planet, A Black Planet. Public Enemy's Aggressive, Benihana Beats And Incendiary Lyrics Instilled Fear Among Parents And Teachers Everywhere, Even In The Border Town Of Laredo, Texas, Home Of The Future Founders Of The Latin-funk-soul-breaks Super Group, Brownout. The Band's Sixth Full-length Album (out May 25th) Fear Of A Brown Planet Is A Musical Manifesto Inspired By Public Enemy's Music And Revolutionary Spirit.

Chuck D., The Bomb Squad, Flava Flav And The Rest Of The P.e. Posse Couldn't Possibly Have Expected That Their Golden-era Hip Hop Albums Would Sow The Seeds For Countless Public Enemy Sleeper Cells, One That Would Emerge Nearly Three Decades Later In Austin, Texas. Greg Gonzalez (bass) Remembers A Kid Back In Junior High Hipped Him To The Fact That Public Enemy's bring The Noise' Is Built On James Brown Samples, While A Teenaged Beto Martinez (guitar) Alternated Between Metal And Hip-hop In His Walk-man, And Adrian Quesada (guitar/keys) Remembers Falling In Love With Public Enemy's Sound At An Early Age. when I Got Into Hip Hop, I Was Looking For This Aggressive Outlet . . . And I Didn't Even Understand What They Were Pissed Off About, Because I Was Twelve And Lived In Laredo . . . But I Loved It And I Felt Angry Along With Them.'

Joseph Abajian (fat Beats' Owner) Must Have Sensed The Deep Hip-hop Well Lying Beneath The Versatile Band's Latin-funk Veneer. i Thought Their Sound Would Work Covering Public Enemy Songs,' Abajian Says, And, it Was Good To Know They Were P.e. Fans . . . We Came Up With A Track Listing And They Went To Work.' Despite The Band's Eagerness To Work On New Original Material (an Album Of Original Songs Is Slated For Next Year), They Couldn't Pass Up The Opportunity To Pay Homage To This Iconic And Influential Posse.

Translating Sample-based Music To A Live Band Turned Out To Be More Of A Challenge Than They Anticipated. Adrian Tried To Get Inside The Bomb Squad's (public Enemy's Producers/beat-making Team) Head In Order To Find The Inspiration To Reinterpret P.e.'s Songs: imagine The Bomb Squad Going Back In Time And Getting The J.b.s (james Brown's Funky Backing Band) In The Studio And Setting Up A Couple Analog Synths And Then Playing Those Songs.' While Some Songs Closely Follow The Original Musical Blueprint, Others Use The Source Breakbeats As Jumping-off Points Later Sweetened By Trombonist Mark speedy' Gonzales' Horn Arrangements, Synth Wizardry Courtesy Of Friend-of-the-band Peter Stopschinski, And Dj Trackstar's Turntable Scratches. But Don't Listen Expecting To Hear Paint-by-numbers Recreations Of Classic Public Enemy Jams. our Approach Is Never In The Tribute Sense,' Adrian Explains. we've Always Taken It And Made It Our Own, Whether It's The Brown Sabbath Thing Or This Public Enemy Thing.' Coming Off Numerous Tours As Brown Sabbath And Even A Stint Backing The Late Legend Prince, Brownout Is Arguably The Tightest And Funkiest Band On The Road Today And They're Psyched To Bring This Revolutionary Music To The People. For A Band Without An Overt Political Agenda, They Collectively Couldn't Resist The Opportunity To Play This Music Live, Especially Now. if There's Any Way That We Can Use The Already Political And Protest Nature (of P.e.'s Music), We Would Like To Try,' Beto Says. the Album's Title, Fear Of Brown Planet Is Definitely A Relevant Idea Today And We're Not Afraid To Put It Out There, Because We Want To Speak Out.' By Reinterpreting These Hip Hop Classics In Their Unique Style And Channeling The Spirit Of Public Enemy That First Echoed Around The World And Captured Their Imaginations All Those Years Ago, Brownout Is Doing Exactly That.

The black vinyl 7' will be released on Friday 25th May

New Lp-edition of a private press library recordings of the early '70s.
Together with Florian Fricke and Peter Michael Hamel, Deuter is certainly the main responsible of a fruitful encounter between European sensibility and Eastern aesthetics in the German music of the 1970s. Soundtrack was originally produced by Kuckuck in 1973 not for an official and public release, but as a library' to be used for films, TV and radio. As a library it respects the canonical and typological structure of the genre with 26 short sonic fragments, sequences imagined and conceived like fulminating illuminations. There's still a solid electronic vocation that, however, has put aside the most disruptive effluvia of D (1971) of pure kraut' ancestry. In fact, the album is more like an ideal passing bridge between some ritual instances of the previous Aum (1972) and the following successful phase of Deuter during the period when he stays in the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's ashram in Poona realizing, in parallel to a renewed inner life, masterpieces like Celebration, Haleakala, Ecstasy and Silence is the Answer. Musically speaking, Soundtrack presents itself as a heterogeneous work with nocturnal, cinematic, galactic and atmospheric-environmental implications. Electronics remains the predominant factor but can vary from mantra drones of more ceremonial and meditative space-relax' tones of some tracks (Triad, Deep Sea, Gothic Velvet or Evening) to the most amused formulations of pulsating analog synths that in the hands of Deuter become toy-equipement' to modulate and explore (Desert Rock, Synth Effect, Flea Dance or Laser). There is no lack of acoustic moments more ethnically inspired with Arabian and Indian (Reed, Arabia) or devotionally solar themes (Tom Bombaddils Dance), so evoking an air of diffuse peace then completely conquered in the beloved India.

On The 50th Anniversary Of The Band's Inception At An Event In Harlem, Ny To Commemorate Malcolm X's Birthday On 19 May 1968, Influential Spoken Word Artists, Poets And Commentators The Last Poets Are Set To Make A Glorious And Relevant Return With Their First Album In Over 20 Years, 'understand What Black Is'.

Produced By Ben Lamdin (nostaglia 77) And Brighton Legend Prince Fatty, Whose Speciality Is Traditional Reggae And Dub Production's, 'understand What Black Is' Is A Ten-track Album Which Speaks Of A Revolutionary Struggle Defined By Both Race And Identity, That Has Never Sounded More Relevant. Released On Studio Rockers, There Will Also Be An Accompanying Single Featuring Remixes Of The Title Track "understand What Black Is" By Mala (south London Collective Digital Mystikz) And Uk Dance Music Innovators Dego And Kaidi.

Since The Initial Line-up Of Dahveed Nelson, Gylan Kain And Felipe Luciano Formed In East Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, The Last Poets Have Produced Under Various Guises Over The Subsequent Years. However, It Was Their Seminal Output, Namely 1970's 'the Last Poets' Under Both Umar Bin Hassan And Abiodun Oyewole That Secured Their Legacy, Becoming One Of The Most Important Influences In Early Hip Hop.

Throughout The Last 20 Years, The Band Have Remained Largely On Hiatus. But Their Influence Could Still Be Felt With Their Tracks Being Sampled By The Notorious B.i.g, Nwa, A Tribe Called Quest, Dr.dre And Snoop Dogg. Umar Has Recorded Various Solo Albums And Featured On Common And Kanye West's Grammy Nominated 'the Corner'. Abiodun Appeared On The Red Hot Organization's Album, Stolen Moments Which Was Named "album Of The Year" By Time. He Also Conducts Weekly Open House Poetry Readings, Where He Constructively Critiques Upcoming Poets, Helping To Nurture Them. He Has Also Conducted Classes At Columbia University, Where He Teaches Creative Writing.

The Inauguration Of Donald Trump As Us President In 2016 Inspired Hassan And Oyewole To Resurrect The Group To Create A Brand New Record, Modern And Edgy, And Deeply Relevant And Reflective Of Our Times.

Tracks On 'understand What Black Is' Include 'how Many Bullets', Which Bridles With Defiance As Oyewole Works Through A Litany Of Injustices Suffered By Black People In The Us: " You've Tried

To Blow My Brains Out With Bigotry, Chopped Off My Wings, So I Couldn't Fly Free, And Dared Me To Be Me, Took My Drum, Broke My Hands, Yanked My Roots Right Up Out Of The Land, And Riddled My Soul With Jesus" 'what I Want To See' Describes A Utopia - A Refuge From Hurt And Those Who'd Make "our Vision Blurred, And Our Faith Obscure", Whilst The Title Track 'understand What Black Is' Aims To Transcend Ethnicity: "understand What Black Is....it's The Source From Which All Things Come...black Is A Hero, Not A Villain."

The Album Even Takes Reference From Prince's 2003 Album Of Instrumentals, 'news', Which Hassan Drew Comparisons From With His Own Childhood Experiences: "that Poem Took Me About A Year To Write....i Just Kept Writing And Writing But Not Getting Too Far And Then I Heard That Album And The Musicianship Was Amazing. I Was Left Wondering If It Was Jazz, Classical, Rock Or Maybe Something New But All Those Images That I Write About Came To Me From Listening To That Album. I Loved Prince In That Movie Purple Rain Because My Father Was A Talented Musician But He Was Into Brutalising Mama At Times And In The Movie There's A Jerome And My Name Is Jerome, So It Was Like He Was Telling My Life Story As Well."

The Album Acts As A Body Of Work Between Individual Members Each Speaking Of Their Own Personal Journeys, But Feeding Into The Much Larger Narrative Of Struggle And Oppression, Alongside A Fervent Hunger For Social Change. These Are Struggles And Tests Of Personal Resolve That Have Directly Shaped And Moulded The Bands' Unique Sound Over The Course Of An Impressive 50 Years, And Their Powerful And Influential Commentary Remains As Relevant As Ever.

LaRhon is back and the Mastermind behind the label who is The Prince Of Dance aka Elbee Bad, presents with the Black White ep a fulminant return. More to come!

Underground Jazz, Street Funk & The Roots Of Rap 1968-79. Soul Jazz Records' new release 'Soul of a Nation: Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power' 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, Martin Luther King and the rise of the Black Panther party.

Featuring groundbreaking 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, Muhammad Ali all appear in the radical artworks of Barkley L. Hendricks, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Lorraine O'Grady and Betye Saar.
A selection of original radical jazz record sleeves artworks which appear in Soul Jazz Records' earlier groundbreaking Freedom, Rhythm and Sound - Revolutionary Jazz Original Cover Art book will also be on show at the Tate, London throughout the exhibition. The Freedom, Rhythm and Sound book is also newly back-in-print in conjunction with this major exhibition and the release of the Soul of a Nation album.

Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records) will appear on the panel of Jazz for Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power discussion at the gallery as part of the show. Soul of a Nation comes with extensive sleeve-notes and exclusive photography in a large 36-page outsize booklet and slipcase. Double gatefold vinyl album edition comes with full colour inners + bonus download code and includes full sleeve-notes/photography.

German techno auteur Pantha Du Prince (aka Hendrik Weber) releases 'The Triad', his first proper studio album since his 2010 breakthrough
'Black Noise' and 2013's collaboration with The Bell Laboratory, 'Elements Of Light'.

Die in Genf lebende, in Lyon, mit Vorfahren aus Kamerun, geborene Emilie Nana ist ein Wunderkind. 'The Meeting Legacy' beinhaltet eine eklektische Selektion, die Vieles von dem beinhaltet, was Emilie ausmacht.

'The Meeting Legacy' umfasst 11 Stücke, inclusive Like You, welches bereits Anfang 2013 auf Compost Black Label als Maxi veröffentlicht wurde. Die Black Label # 61 wurde digital veröffentlicht und die Black Label # 95 gibt es auf Vinyl. 2013 war das eine von fünf EPs, die Emilie Nana bis dato herausgebracht hatte. I'm Childish, So What!, was erstmals im Sommer 2015 als Teil der COMPOST 500 - Compilation zu hören. Dieses Juwel ist von Emilie's Neffen inspiriert und basiert auf der Idee, dass wir, egal in welcher Lebensphase, stets zu uns selbst stehen sollen. Es ist der einzige Track auf dem Album mit französischen Vocals und vermittelt ein getragenes, leicht verrücktes, regelloses Gefühl, ein absolut fantasievolles Glanzstück. Drei Stücke des Albums: Tolstoy' Changes, Music und The Meeting Legacy, werden 2016 als Compost Black Label - Remix - Maxi erscheinen, mit Remixen von Manoo, Beanfield & Thomas Herb, Floyd Lavine.

The Meeting Legacy, der Titeltrack des Albums, ist purer Musik-Aktivismus. Der Text stammt von Elaine Brown, eine schwarze amerikanische Aktivistin und Künstlerin, Vorsitzende der Black Panther Partei. Der Bass dieses gemächlich stolzierenden Kampfsymbols ist Nana-esk und die Vocals heben sich mit Leichtigkeit ab und positionieren diesen Track auf ergreifende Weise.

Black Like Me erhebt einen fortwährenden Anspruch auf Fiktion und Non-Fiktion und verkörpert die gelebten und kenntnisreichen Erfahrungen Emilie Nanas. Eine warme, melodiöse Kreation, mit einfachsten Lyrics und im Hintergrund dümpelnden Marimbas. Es ist die musikalische Interpretation des Buches 'Black Like Me' von John Howard Griffin. Er erzählt hier die Geschichte des weissen Journalisten, der sich einer Hautverdunkelung unterzog, um sich im schwarzen Leben des separierten Südens der U.S.A. zu engagieren. Emilie's musikalische Interpretation erfasst die bunten kulturellen Äußerungen, welchen der weisse Journalist im gelebten schwarzen Alltag begegnet.

Track Fünf des Albums, dem inoffiziellen 'letzten Track von Teil 1' heist Confessions Of No Language. Während Emilie Nana hier ihre innersten Erfahrungen transponiert, oder transportiert, zielt sie auf eine 'gewisse' Körperzone. Welche Das muss man hören.

Das Album beginnt mit Off The Street, die wilden Begleiterscheinungen einer durchfeierten Nacht von Party-Girls, geht weiter mit dem, durch die frühen 90er Jahre von Janet Jackson und Prince beeinflussten Music, bei dem wir Emilie Nana sehr warm und cool erleben. Schliesslich entdecken wir sie in Inward Path, wenn sie resümiert, dass es mehr Glücklichkeit als Traurigkeit gibt, da immer Hoffnung in uns selbst existiert.

Dieses Werk erfreut sich an dem Erguss aus Nana's grazilem und dennoch lebhaftem Wesen und trachtet erfolgreich nach dem Brechen der Regeln, mit denen Kunst oft behaftet ist. Indem sie ihr Leben vergegenwärtigt, führt sie uns gekonnt, mit Kindesaugen, Teenage-Erfahrungen bis erwachsenen Sehnsüchten und ausgereif-ten Konversationen, durch Subkultur, Kampf und verschiedenen sozialen Einflüsse. Nach vier Jahren Produktionszeit, liefert Emilie Nana ein Album, das ihr verspielten, aber reifen Geist widerspiegelt und ihre Seele miteinbezieht, The Meeting Legacy.

The second EP from Jack Dice sees a huge leap in ambition for the project, a 5 track session that's more addictive, direct and heady than its predecessor.
'Sip Paint' centres around 'Stash's Theme' featuring rapper and producer Stash Marina, a track that deploys crisp triplets and saturated production straddling mainstream signatures on the one hand and a world of analogue/deviant recording techniques on the other. It's an odd, hyper-addictive track - available here in both vocal and instrumental versions.
'Low Glo', 'Kerosene' and 'Radium Dial' are more subdued and immersive; you could draw lines straight through the material here to a number of different projects Twells has been involved with through the last decade, though he seems to benefit immeasurably from Chambliss' presence. The pair find a perfect balance between their respective disciplines, resulting in an EP that at different points throws stylistic references to everything from Prince's Black Album to The Art of Noise, Drake, Philip Jeck and Evian Christ's DUGA 3 sessions - without ever sounding overworked or too knowing, a feat in itself.

ROYAL THRONE ROOM, BOSRAH, HAIL RASTAFARI, FUNERAL, BLACK ROSES, SLAVEMASTER, DANIEL, HEAVEN IS MY ROOF, GO DOWN IN SILENCE, GOLD DIVER, JAH JAH BIRD, GO TO SCHOOL, JUST ONE WAY