Soul Jazz Records are great - like having a really cool friend who makes you the best mixtapes ever. This one is a collection of black British music that you might have heard played by a sound system between the Seventies and the mid-noughties. It’s massively varied - jazz, funk, soul, roots reggae, lovers rock, hip hop, jungle, dubstep- and really well put together. Not sequenced chronologically so you are constantly surprised by what comes next. These are genres I love and thought I was pretty well versed in but nearly all of it is new to me and 100% ace from start to finish.
Hard to pick a favourite. I couldn’t fit all of mine in one picture (and I’ve got some on vinyl as well).
I love the Tropicalia one too, and the other Brazilian ones, also the two Strata East ones, the two volumes of Dancehall, Nu Yorica, Country Soul Sisters, and of course all the Studio One comps. Great label.
The new one is right up there with the very best they’ve ever done too.
In other comp news two of my favorite from last year being reissued
Club Coco is pulled together by a dj from worldwide fm, Coco María, it’s latin beat south American tunes… she has excellent taste and there are some great sounds
The Spanish one is more strange European electro (ambient is a very loosely used here)
A bunch for me to check out! Only one I have ever struggled with was the synth punk one from last year, I need to go back to it but found it really jarring at the time and focused on the Havana stuff instead