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Norman Jay MBE presents his latest compilation, titled 'Good Times Skank & Boogie', set for release 9th October 2015 on Sunday Best Recordings. This is his first compilation since 2011's Good Times 30th Anniversary Addition and follows on from his hotly anticipated Good Times Goes East party at St John Church at Hackney on 29th August.
Norman Jay is undoubtedly one of the finest and highly respected DJs in the world today and yet again pulls from his impressive collection to provide the ultimate eclectic selection.
For this 12th compilation, for those of you counting, Norman kicks off with St Germain's version of Henry Mancini's Pink Panther Theme. A cult favourite from 2004s Pink Panther Penthouse Party album, it of course immediately brings Peter Sellers to mind and a smile to your face. Next up former Uniques front man Slim Smith's Everybody Needs Love is a classic from 1968, cut at the legendary Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio. Penned originally by Motown heroes Norman Whitfield and Eddie Holland and covered by household names including The Temptations and Glady's Knight & The Pips, Slim's version became something of a signature tune until his mysterious death in 1971. Sticking with Motown, Stevie Wonder's Living For The City is up next but it's the Michael McDonald rendition from his 2008 album Soul Speak, which proves the man who gave us the sublime Sweet Freedom had lost none of his class 20 plus years on.
D-Influence's Good Lover takes things up and brings them closer to home, to the streets of London infact. After a couple of independent releases the band, who had strong connections to the London Jazz and Soul scenes, served up this contemporary boogie tune as part of their 1992 debut long player for East West. They would subsequently score hits as a production team for a number of British R&B acts. Homegrown soul continues with Paul Johnson's Better Than This, released here via longstanding UK soul imprint Expansion to deserved acclaim last year. It's quality and appeal are simply timeless, whilst master Dego and Kaidi's mix adds a classic 80s soul dimension to proceedings.
The Chi-Lites I Keep Comin' Back To You and The Real Thing's Love Takes Tears continue and expand the 80s theme, bringing in 2-step and boogie, as does Deodato's Never Knew Love from the same period.
We switch again with Delroy Wilson's Better Must Come, a massively popular sufferers lament from 1971 by this former Jamaican child star, it would go on to be used in election campaigns by various Jamaican political parties. Kent People by Laurel Aitken & The Gruvy Beat is the next one out the box and was the flip to the 1969 anthem Skinhead Train. It features the UK's top reggae band of the era The Rudies, who along with Aitken, the widely-proclaimed Godfather of Ska, comprised of Earl Dunn (lead guitar), Trevor White (bass), Sonny Binns (keyboards) and Danny Smith (drums). They would go on to enjoy UK chart success backing singer Freddie Notes before they evolved into Greyhound. From the same year Splash Down by The Crystalites is another slate that ignited dance floors in both Jamaica and the UK upon release. Some of you will have noticed the rhythm track is the same as that of the earlier Kingstonians' best-seller, Sufferer, which came courtesy of legendary producer Derrick Harriott.
As the end draws close The Stone City Band featuring Rick James serve up some hard edged boogie, hotly followed by a classic Tom Moulton slice of late 70s disco courtesy of The Fantastic Four and their I Got To Have Your Love. If that doesn't have you dancing then Chanson's superb Don't Hold Back featuring James Jamerson Jr. on bass will leave you no choice. Classic Good Times indeed.

180gr! This 12" features remixes from Henry Wu and Ben Hauke, two rising South London natives whose dusty house sounds are reminiscent of the jazz-wise swing of the West London broken beat sound, a movement Sean Khan himself was heavily involved in.
London based jazz appassionato Sean Khan, will release his second album 'Muriel' later in 2015. Dedicated to the driving force behind his musical career, his mother Muriel McGinley, the album is virtuosic free, Latin and nu-jazz experimentation, drenched in soul with the help of the vocal talents of Omar, Sabrina Malheiros and Heidi Vogel (Cinematic Orchestra).

This 12' features remixes from Henry Wu and Ben Hauke, two rising South London natives whose dusty house sounds are reminiscent of the jazz-wise swing of the West London broken beat sound, a movement Sean Khan himself was heavily involved in.

On the A side, Henry Wu, a key member of the tight-knit label/ loose collective 22a Records (also home to the likes of Mo Kolours and Al Dobson Jr.), imbues the original track with a distinctly organic and off-kilter groove: a loose and earthy quality which is hallmark of the Wu sound and makes for a perfect complement to Khan's delicious melting pot of jazz, soul and broken beat flavours. Sturdy yet swinging with strong jazzy synth stabs and topped with a child-like, wordless, sing-along vocal, it's sure to be an underground summer club hit.

The B Side sees the mysterious Ben Hauke, whose previous releases have been courtesy of Melodica Recordings, steep Khan's 'Things to Say' in his own murky yet soul-drenched sound, one that falls somewhere between hip-hop and broken house. Not much is known about this young producer, but what we can glean from his work on this remix is a sound drenched in syrupy, slightly sinister keys and a plodding, unpredictable thump not entirely dissimilar from previous Far Out remix contributor Theo Parrish. Like the work of that Detroit innovation, these two young Londoner's contributions both look set to lend a funkily idiosyncratic and offbeat edge to all the right dance floors.

Scott Allen returns to Fokuz with "Love So True", a collaboration between him & Jrumhand, which will be his debut on Fokuz. On the flip you will find the versatile Kasper with a track called "The Low Road". Quality drum & bass once again from the Fokuz HQ!

Bunny Lee's Flying Cymbals or flyers rhythms dominated the Dancehalls and the charts during 1974 and 1975.The style based around the Philadelphia disco or the Philly Bump ,the sound of an open and closed hi-hat was not necessarily novel but Striker's innovations of bringing a number of different elements into play most certainly was.
Johnny Clarke's interpretation of Earl Zero's 'None Shall Escape the Judgement' not only opens this se but also opened the floodgates for the flyers style.
The story had begun the previous year with Lowell'Sly'Dunbar.
'Sly played the flying cymbals first'....I said to Sly' You played it on the Delroy Wilson tune for Channel One named 'It's a Shame' AND Sly played it before that was with Skin, Flesh & Bones on 'Here I am Baby Come and Take Me' the Al Green tune, when Al Brown sung it for Dickie Wong with the 'tsk,tsk,tsk' sound on the hi-hat,I named it flyers but they didn't know what flyers was!!!'..Bunny Striker Lee
Before too long 'Every tune we put out we put the rhythm behind it' and every Kingston producer followed suit with their own variation of Striker's Flying Cymbals Rhythms...........

Over the last sixteen years Moods & Grooves has amassed a staggeringly impressive label family that includes names like Theo Parrish, Mr G, Kyle Hall, Rick Wade, Andres & Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann. This May the legendary Detroit label returns with a seminal thirteen-track album from veteran DJ & producer Joe Le Bon entitled 'House Music Love Music'.

With this new LP Jarno Eerola aka Joe Le Bon demonstrates his inimitable production prowess, garnered from a musical career spanning more than twenty years and encompassing releases on labels such as International Deejay Gigolo Records, Pro-Tez, Plastik.FM and Blumenbeat. Alongside his own output the Berlin-based artist has written tracks and remixes for numerous producers, most notably composing DJ Hells chart- smashing remix of Tim Deluxe 'Transformations' which saw six continuous weeks at number one on Beatport.

Jarno's polished production ability and aptitude for exploring diverse sounds and rhythms whilst maintaining a resolute warmth and depth to every cut is the most prevalent footnote across the course of the album. For 'Ghosts On Cassette' the Berlin-based producer works whirring space-like atmospherics over hypnotic beats and shuffling snares to dish up a smooth and captivating opener. 'For Yasuni' and 'The Road Is Under Repair' get worked over subtle synth patterns and crisp percussion to offer up some of the more emotive provisions on the album. This in contrast to the deep driving beats of 'House Music Love Music' and the more club-ready tracks like '82 Degrees' or 'Like Cotton Deep Orchestra' truly exemplifies the wide-ranging nature of the album.

All in all Joe Le Bon has structured a sublime body of work that can be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home or the middle of a dance floor, each and every track oozes depth and sits as a true testament to his abilities in the studio.

Reissue of the first 3 song 7" + 1 unreleased from 1990. These were songs that were a transformation from their hardcore/punk band - Virulence, that started in 1985.   we were listening to a lot of Melvins , laughing hyenas, TAD, GORE, Swans early White Zombie' - Scott Hill. The song "blowtorch" was recorded at that same 1990 session but never released. ....Extra track featured on download card " flashin' " was recorded as a demo a few months after the self titled recording in 1990...and is also unreleased. 

1. Kept Between Trees
2. Bouillabaisse
3. Jr High School Ring (7 karat)
4. Blowtorch

Throughout the seventies the productions of Bunny'Striker'Lee were incredibly prolific and he created a number of different labels to handle his ever expanding output.
Bunny had always worked closely with Osbourne'King Tubby'Ruddock,who had built his first Sound System in 1957.But Tubbt felt that thingsreally got going when he took on Ewart'U Roy'Beckford as his DeeJay in 1968.When Bryon Lee upgraded Studio B at Dynamic Sounds to a sixteen track recording in 1972 Striker brokered a deal for Tubby to purchase the old four track equipment.The package included the MCI console that Tubby would go on to make world famous and as they say the rest is history...
Here we look at the Attack label and have assembled a compilation of some of the finest Dub cuts released on this label....enjoy

The productions of producer Bunny 'Striker' Lee were so extensive in the early to mid 1970's that labels were created just to handle his ever expanding output.
Three labels that came about during this time when dub was king were Jackpot. Justice and Attack.
Here we look at the Jackpot label and have compiled a collection of some of its finest dub cuts.
Jackpot Records was formed in the early 1970's as a subsidiary of Trojan Records to handle the output from the hitmaker from Jamaica..Bunny 'Striker 'Lee
Bunny was at the birth of dub and worked closely with Dubmaster King Tubby,having his masters stored at Tubbys allowed his rhythms to be worked on by Tubby, whether it was to remix or add vocals to an existing tape,the new interest in the dubbed version would see the next single being worked on for its version side.
We have gathered here what we think are some of the best dubcuts from this label and era..
Hope uou enjoy the set

*Winston Wright is another unsung hero from the Jamaican musical
cannon. Although many might not know his name, you will have
heard him on many records in your collections. When we say that
it was he who played that classic Hammond organ riff on the
1969 'Liquidator' classic, as part of the Harry J Allstars, we might
begin to appreciate his talents that bit more. But not only this, many
1970's classics carry his organ, piano and arranging skills and
even before that time, many tunes cut in the 1960's,as part of Duke
Reid's house band Tommy McCook's Supersonics, carried the

Winston Wright signature sound.

Winston Wright (b 1944 , Jamaica) began his musical career in
the 1960's as a session player and soon became an integral part
of the Treasure Isle Studio house band, that became known as
Tommy McCook's Supersonics . He played on many of the
Rocksteady era hits that Duke Reid ruled the island with between
1966-1968.His mastery of the Hammond organ made him an in
demand session player. One such was Harry J studio's that had a
massive hit in the UK in 1969 with 'Liquidator' as the Harry J
Allstars of which Winston was a member. The same year saw him
cut some great tunes as part of Clancy Eccles' Dynamites.
The 1970's saw Winston Wright working closely with Dynamic
Sounds Studios' nucleus of musicians Cutting material for all the top
producers of the time including numerous sides for Bunny 'Striker'
Lee, which we have focused on for this set of tunes. From 1975
onwards Winston Wright was a member of Toots and the Maytals'
touring band, but we celebrate here his mighty fine studio work.
Adding his touches to many a fine rhythm as only Winston could
we hope you enjoy the set.