Reissue of the Week: Pablo’s Eye “Bardo for Pablo” (Stroom)
As a voracious record digger and music researcher I sometimes, while gazing at the stars above, ask the existential question: will we ever run out of obscure records to reissue? Every week the digging gods seem to answer a resounding “no my son”. The first I heard about Pablo’s Eye …
Kamal Keila “Muslims and Christians” (1992, Habibi Funk)
For their eighth project, Germany’s Habibi Funk Records have directed their attention to the musical archives of Kamal Keila. How the label and Kamal Keila connected is a spectacular story, and the when’s and the why’s of how these recordings came to exist make this compilation of tracks even more …
Alice Coltrane “Spiritual Eternal” (Real Gone Music)
Capturing the slow progression from Jazz based music toward the secular, the new Alice Coltrane compilation, “Spiritual Eternal – The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings”, will contain the artist’s creative output during a three-album stint at the imprint. Real Gone Music, who will release the anthology on September 7th, 2018, …
Reggie Grantham & The New Generation “Come Together” (Ice City Records)
It would take just their first release for Ice City Records to establish itself as a reissue label to watch out for. After the sold-out release Axis, ICR travel to America’s Deep South for their sophomore outing. It’s another lo-fi, DIY and naturally rare 7″ affair. Crazy bass synths, piano …
Alex Attias Presents “LillyGood Party!” (BBE Records)
Even on the fourth installment of his “LillyGood Party” Compilation, Veteran producer Alex Attias is still cognizant of details that transform undetermined bodies moving, into a dance floor. About four minutes in on the forgotten 2009 foot-stomper ‘Midnite Magic’ by Tokyo based New Wave trio Cro-Magnon featuring Roy Ayers, the …
Kay Robinson “We Need Time” (1970, King Records)
(Dedicated to the Charleston Nine, Sandra Bland, and Mary Elizabeth Guthrie) Jesus is a popular dude… and he didn’t play the drums. Growing up in the Black American church in the 1980s, I was exposed to a more modern form of Gospel music, and coming from a family of singers, …
Woods Empire “Universal Love” (1981, Tabu Records)
I found this record at People’s Records in Detroit in 2012, not knowing what it was, but just loving the awesome, spaced out cover. I later realized luck had struck me, and I came home with a beautiful modern soul, rare groove gem. Woods Empire, based out of the serene …
Chris Simmonds Project “Work It (Mike Huckaby Remix)” (1993)
A UK producer, a Detroit remixer, and a Canadian label. How did that happen? Before founding his label Cross Sections Records in 1994, Chris Simmonds was producing and operating Baby Blue Records. This label was specializing in Hardcore / Ragga / Rave / early Jungle. A trip to Detroit in 1993 …