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2022 Repress

Tapper Zukie's 'Black Man' album originally came out in 1978 as a Jamaican only release on Tapper's' Stars imprint. Long deleted it has become a classic in Mr Zukie's vast cannon of musical biscuits and is well overdue this worldwide release for the first time.
Tapper Zukie (b1956. David Sinclair, Kingston, Jamaica) was raised in the rough and tough West Kingston area of Jamaica, between the districts of Trench Town and Greenwich Farm. Living pretty much on the streets from an early age, the youths including the young Tapper had no choice but to fall into the hands of the Political Parties that controlled various ghetto areas of the town. Music seemed like the only way out of a life of crime and gang culture. A path that Tapper Zukie found by the mid 1970's was establishing himself as a named star on the DJ Roots circuit. Back home in Jamaica he was also getting a name for his production work for other local singers such as Prince Allah and the group Knowledge. To release these productions and his own material in Jamaica, Tapper started up his own label called Stars. It's this label that saw the initial release of this album 'Black Man'. A great collection of Tapper tunes such as his biblical cut 'My God Is Real', 'Revolution' and the tile track of this collection 'Black Man' and some work overs of some of his felloe Jamaican Artists like 'Poor Man Problem' a work over of Johnny Clarke's ' Blood Dunza' and also Mr Clarke's Leggo Violence'. 'Yaga Yaga' re working Horace Andy's and Tapper's big hit 'Natty Dread ah She Want'. 'Gather Them' a reworking of Knowledge's tune of the same name with the help from bands like Jah Wisdom and Delroy Fielding. A great collection of tunes and reworkings that we hope will find a wider audience with this release.
For the CD issue of this release we had added Tapper's 'Liberation Struggle', 'Get Ready', 'Prophesy' and 'Fire Bun' tracks from Tapper Zukie's back catalogue that seem to sit well and follow the theme and meanings of the 'Black Man' album.

Incl. Andrade Remix

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The Black Tokyo Project cd has been very Successful for the enigmatic Duo from Detroit along with their two new Japanese members Ice truck and Erika. Remix Sessions 1 embodies some of techno music hottest and charismatic artist such as bpitch control Ellen Allien, Planet E's keyboard guru Niko Marks from Detroit and Canada live impresario Arthur Oskan

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The birth of rock steady portrayed in a consummate collection from the vaults of Federal Records

Most of them drawn directly from Ken Khouri's master tapes this miscellany of cool rock steady includes marvellous music from the originator of the genre, the one and only Lynn Taitt, alongside an array of Jamaica's greatest singers and vocal harmony group

American rhythm & blues fervour, boosted by a multitude of sound systems playing 78rpm records on increasingly larger sets, gripped Jamaica from the late forties onwards but, towards the end of the decade, the American audience began to move towards a somewhat softer sound. The driving rhythm & blues discs became increasingly hard to find and the more progressive Jamaican sound system operators, realising that they now needed to make their own music, turned to Kingston's jazz and big band musicians to record one off custom cut discs. These were not initially intended for commercial release but designed solely for sound system play on acetate or 'dub plates' as they would later be termed. These 'specials' soon began to eclipse the popularity of American rhythm & blues and the demand for their locally produced music proved so great that the sound system operators began to release their music commercially on vinyl and became record producers. Clement Coxsone' Dodd, Duke Reid 'The Trojan' and Prince Buster, who operated his Voice Of The People Sound System, were among the first to establish themselves in this new role and the nascent Jamaican recording industry now went into overdrive.

In 1954 Ken Khouri had numbered among the first far sighted entrepreneurs to produce mento records with local musicians (mento is Jamaica's original indigenous music) before progressing to opening Jamaica's first record manufacturing plant. Three years later he moved his operation to Foreshore Road (later renamed Marcus Garvey Drive) where, with the assistance of the inestimable Graeme Goodall, he updated and upgraded his recording studio. The importance of this enterprising move was critical to the development of Jamaican music and its influence both profound and far reaching.

"It was Ken Khouri's Federal Recording Studio, the womb that gave birth to the talented writers, artists and musicians that gave Jamaica its musical identity." Prince Buster

Federal Records was not only the place for the sound system men to record their music but it was also where they had their records manufactured and, consequently, the company enjoyed a near total monopoly on recording and record pressing in Kingston. In 1963 Ken Khouri sold his one track board to Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd, who established Studio One, and Ken imported the first stereo equipment to Jamaica and Federal began making stereo records. The following year WIRL (West Indies Records Limited) opened but the competition served to drive the company on to higher heights. Ken Khouri continued to work on his own productions and, in 1966, the seven inch release of Hopeton Lewis' 'Take It Easy', recorded under the guidance of Trinidadian guitarist Lynn Taitt, ushered in the rock steady era.

These two essential albums showcase a stunning selection of well known hits, and not so well known rarities, from the vast Federal catalogue. All tracks have been transferred direct from the master tapes and assembled with the invaluable assistance of Ken Khouri's son, Paul Khouri, who generously gave Dub Store unlimited access to the Federal tape vaults. The extensive liner notes feature extracts from extensive interviews with Paul Khouri whose knowledgeable recollections of working on Marcus Garvey Drive, not only as a producer but as an engineer and musician, are illuminating and educational. Both sets present an insight into the birth and growth of Federal Records and the Jamaican recording industry and are essential to an understanding of the real roots of reggae music.

Big Thief's music, rooted in the songs of Adrianne Lenker, paints in vivid tones "the process of harnessing pain, loss, and love, while simultaneously letting go, looking into your own eyes through someone else's, and being okay with the inevitability of death," says Adrianne.

Masterpiece, Big Thief's debut album, is -lled with characters and visceral narratives, songs that pivot in the space of a few words. Adrianne's voice and guitar playing speak of rich emotional territory with grace and insight. In her words, the record tracks "the masterpiece of existence, which is always folding into itself, people attempting to connect, to both shake themselves awake and to shake o­ the numbness of certain points in their life. The interpretations might be impressionistic or surrealistic, but they're grounded in simple things.'

Adrianne met her longtime musical partner, guitarist and singer, Buck Meek, in Brooklyn a few years ago, and they quickly formed a creative bond tempered by the experience of traveling and performing for months on end in old dive bars, yards, barns, and basements together. They recorded a pair of duo albums (A-Sides and B-Sides), and Adrianne showcased her songs on a solo album, Hours Were The Birds.

Now, as a full rock and roll band, with Buck on guitar, Max Oleartchik on bass, and James Krivchenia on drums, they bring a steady wildness, giving the songs an even deeper layer of nostalgia. "These guys feel like a pack of wolves at my back," says Adrianne, "they make the songs howl and bark with a fierce tenderness that gives me courage."
After spending last July in an old house that they turned into a studio on Lake Champlain with producer Andrew Sarlo, the resulting collection soars on what Big Thief fan Sharon Van Etten calls "...a real journey, with intelligent stories and twist-and-turn melodies.

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Home Invasion is the new label from Real Tone man Franck Roger, a man whose career has scaled the full depths of house music over the past decade or so. Evidently seeking a new challenge, the Parisian's new imprint promises to adhere to a vehemently underground way of working, with every EP released on vinyl-only terms and produced exclusively on analogue equipment.

Cypress Hill’s self-titled debut album was hard as nails, with very few pop concessions. There was humor, but it was laced by cackling, homicidal sneering. Not well known outside of the hardcore hip-hop scene at first, faces of the three group members weren’t usually shown clearly in press photos; they preferred the shadows. As their first singles began hitting the airwaves and record racks, the press and music fans started to take notice.


From the opening notes of the group’s first single, “The Phuncky Feel One,” to deeper album cuts like “Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk” and “Tres Equis,” it was clear that Cypress Hill was something different. And very, very dope. The world Cypress Hill espoused was gang-ridden and far from cheery, but they managed to laugh through the pain. Lead rapper B-Real took each fuzzed-out, rock-hard DJ Muggs beat as a challenge, jumping around it like a spark off a joint as it makes its way to the concrete. MC Sen Dog always had B-Real’s back, to bring intensity and a no-bullshit gruffness that made the group both menacing and unpredictable.


When they introduced percussionist Eric Bobo to the mix in the early 90s, it brought new dimension to the band, making their live performances one of the most unique and accomplished shows in hip-hop. Journalist and author Chris Faraone highlights the group’s relationship in the reissue’s liner notes (which is included only in limited edition Skull) saying, “By the late ‘80s the undisputed Cypress unit finally formed. B and Sen realized that their diametric styles - the latter’s deep wrangle, the former’s inimitable high notes - complemented one another righteously. By then Muggs had bangers in the bag, as well as industry experience from a jaunt with the New York duo 7A3. B and Sen waited while Muggs messed with 7A3, and in that time began to build the blueprint for their raucous and weeded no-holds-barred style. Besides getting schooled on industry pitfalls, Muggs had also grown into hip-hop’s most formidable young producer, while straddling the bi-coastal gap.”

Cypress Hill’s debut went gold by the end of 1991 and has since pushed past double platinum status, making it the first album for a Latino-American hip hop group to do so. The album received raves from the likes of Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, saw a #1 Hot Rap Single with the release of “The Phuncky One” and helped the band win Artist Of The Year at the 1992 Source Awards. After 25 years, it should come as no surprise that Cypress Hill is a cornerstone of the group’s live set to this day.

After the Pacific Northwest grunge raids of the early '90s that saw Nirvana, Mudhoney, and even the Melvins hoisted up the major label flagpole, Unwound's 1993 debut came as a welcomed reprieve for underground noise-niks everywhere. A pulsing cluster of wiry feedback, lurching bass, and single stroke rolls, Fake Train entangles the energies of frustrated backpack emo, faded Riot Grrrl back issues, and their own dash of teen spirit and unleashes it all in an earsplitting 10-song assault.

Comes on like an homage to Wire's 1 2 X U' as filtered through Minor Threat and a broken bottle of Robitussin.' —Pitchfork

It's no contest: Unwound is the best band of the '90s.' — A.V. Club

As the grandson of the late trumpeter Doc Cheatham, and former student of legendary jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd, trumpeter Theo Croker is an artist steeped in jazz tradition and he is rapidly becoming one of the hottest jazz artists of this era.

Croker's own music reveals a love of organic funk, soul, and groove-oriented hip-hop. Helping to raise Croker's musical vibrations is his ensemble, featuring saxophonist Anthony Ware, keyboardist Michael King, guitarist Ben Eunson, bassist Eric Wheeler, and drummer Kassa Overall. Also adding color to the proceedings are guitarist Femi Temowo and saxophonist Irwin Hall. Dee Dee Bridgewater appears on the classic tune 'Love From The Sun'. Croker proves he's got deep ideas about life, spirituality, and how music connects us all. It's an ebullient, groove-conscious message perhaps best expressed on the bass-heavy 'It's Gonna Be Alright.' Trading the song's title phrase back and forth like old friends high-fiving on the street, you can hear Croker and his band smiling.

On the 11th May 2018 USM will release a vinyl (180 gram) and CD reissue of the Jay-Z's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1' and Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life' on 2LP.
- In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 is the second studio album by American rapper Jay-Z, released on November 4, 1997, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. The majority of the production is handled by Puff Daddy's production team The Hitmen from the Bad Boy label, giving the album a generally glossier sound than its predecessor.
- Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life is the third studio album by American rapper Jay-Z. It went on to become his most commercially successful album, selling over 5 million copies in the United States. Vol. 2... became Jay-Z's first album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. The album won Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards.

LTM presents a limited double vinyl gatefold edition (500 copies only) of B9, the definitive collection of cold wave and minimal electronica from Belgium, recorded between 1979 and 1983.
Originally released on Sandwich Records in May 1981, B9 featured 10 exclusive tracks by luminaries such as Digital Dance, Polyphonic Size, Kid Montana, Pseudo Code and Prothese, the latter the first recording project by Daniel Bressanutti of Front 242. Now digitally remastered, with 10 additional tracks on the second disc, this new deluxe vinyl edition also features Front 242, The Names, Marine, Siglo XX, The Neon Judgement, Berntholer, Allez Allez, Isolation Ward and more.
Cover op-art by Victor Vasarely. Design by Benoît Hennebert, based on a poster for The First Belgian Rhythm Box Contest (1981). Liner notes by James Nice. The existing CD version of B9 is also still available (LTMCD 2486) 

All the real djs were looking for those for years. Grab it before it's sold out, we have very few copies. A must have.

Eno Williams, frontwoman of Ibibio Sound Machine, uses both English and the Nigerian language from which her band's name is derived for the dazzling new album Doko Mien. Long lauded for jubilant, explosive live shows, Ibibio Sound Machine fully capture that energy on Doko Mien, the followup to their Merge debut Uyai.
In a glowing piece in the New York Times, those songs were praised for following 'in the tradition of much African music, [making] themselves the conscience of a community.' By pulsing the mystic shapes of Williams' lines through further inventive, glittering collages of genre, Ibibio Sound Machine crack apart the horizon separating cultures, between nature and technology, between joy and pain, between tradition and future. That propensity for duality and paradox seems common in people whose lives span continents.

Williams was born in the UK, but grew up in Nigeria, always steeped in her family heritage. She obsessed over West African electronic music, highlife, and the like, but was equally empowered by Western genres such as post-punk, disco, and funk. The London octet have enveloped themselves in that maximalist quilt proudly since their 2013 formation. Though it can often bring with it news of stress and uncertainty, the modern world further brings all these disparate traditions into connection.
'Everyone has everything now,' says multi-instrumentalist Max Grunhard. 'Everyone has immediate access to every genre, picking things up from everywhere—like magpies.' And while they haven't suddenly left their African roots behind, Doko Mien does find increased representation of English lyrics in the ratio. By sharing more directly with more universal lyrics, the record feels more anthemic, reaching for grander heights.
'We wanted to give people a reason to sing along, to find their soundtrack every day,' Williams says. 'We wanted everyone to feel as if they're part of the music as well.'

Late album highlight 'Guess We Found a Way' addresses the change with a coy smile. 'Guess we found a way to speak to you/ Guess we found a way to say what's true/ To say what's real,' Williams coos over glistening chains of reverberant synth and diamond dust percussion, before returning to Ibibio in the chorus. Perhaps the best example of the group's ability to convey meaning across language and tradition, to blend past and future into a singular present comes on 'She Work Very Hard'. The traditional Ibibio folk tale bobs over the waves of tuned percussion, chunky synth, and pinprick highlife-esque guitar, while Jose Joyette's drums and Derrick McIntyre's bass funk groove bring everyone to the dance floor. 'These stories won't be forgotten. Feel the music: it speaks to everybody,' Williams says. 'We can travel back in time together, while convening on a futuristic, present tense. We hope that we can give people that reason to wake up, that one song to sing and dance and be happy.'

Doko Mien: Tell me everything. On their new album, Ibibio Sound Machine provide the perfect companion, ready to digest as much as possible and then further unfurl beauty and hope. They remember and honor the past and charge forward toward the future, all while intensely expanding the present.

Statik Selektah is a renowned DJ and Producer based in NYC, born and raised in Boston.
Statik hosts a weekly radio show on Sirius / XM Shade 45 every Thursday from 7PM to 9PM.
Statik has produced recent tracks for Eminem, Joey Bada$$, Action Bronson, Danny Brown, Royce Da 5'9' and Dej Loaf.
In 2014, Statik Selektah released his album, 'What Goes Around' (DDM CD 2375), and in 2015, Statik Selektah put out his 7th studio album, Lucky 7 (DDM CD 2430). He is now prepping his 8th album, '8,' for a December 8th release date.

Cypress Hill is widely respected and considered to be amongst the main progenitors of West Coast rap and Hip Hop in the early 1990s. With megahits like 'Insane in the Brain', 'I Wanna Get High' or 'Tequila Sunrise' they crossed-over to mainstream breaking all records for a rap band up until
that time. Cypress Hill were the first Latino-American hiphop group to have RIAA Certified platinum and multi-platinum albums. As musicians they
became famous for the crazy sounds produced by DJ Muggs and Bobo and the stoner sympathetic lyrics of B-Real and Sen Dog. They redefined
and shattered the boundaries of hip-hop, crafting gutter-dirty tracks that fused deep bass lines with blissful, stoned-out melodies and aggressive
hard rock riffs, creating a unique imprint.

This is an 18-song project featuring some of the most legendary emcees alongside some of today's newest emcees. Every song has scratches on it and each track has that traditional Boom Bap Hip Hop feel.

Los Angeles based DJ and Producer Tone Spliff drops his full-length LP Ardore Melodico (roughly translating to 'blazing melody'). Grounded in an east coast sound and steeped in tradition with an ever-present emphasis on the DJ, Tone links up with some talented emcees to deliver a solid album. Sounding like a beast on the drum machine and the 1's and 2's, it's apparent Tone Spliff has some skills to flex on his latest project.

The beat-creator, originally from Utica, NY, said he made around 70 beats between February and April of 2017. He then started hitting up emcees he's worked with in the past and new emcees he wanted to work with for the album. Tone details that 'All of these tracks were made in 2018, so some of them have only been stashed for a few months.