LP Subscription Series

Cultures of Soul LP Subscription Series.  Details: • Receive 4 LPs over 12 months for only $85 plus shipping • Guaranteed to receive every LP  • Digital download code for each album • Comprehensive liner notes detailing the story behind each album • Albums fully licensed by original artist • Thick stock custom jackets hand numbered and limited to 1,000. First Release: Septimus - We Want A Piece of the Pie Ship Date Update - July 13 Here's an excerpt taken from the liner notes written by Uchenna Ikonne: "The final product was an album featuring eight tracks of sumptuous, jazzy R&B and funk, showcasing the crisp musicianship Septimus had honed night after night playing for nightclub crowds in Oklahoma. It also felt slightly out of time, hearkening back to the deeply earth and spiritual feeling of early 70s soul more so than fitting in with the gleefully cosmetic and glossy tone of early 1980s boogie funk. One of the album’s high points is a thee delirious cover of the S.O.S. Band’s inspirational jam “Take Love Where You Find It,” which was also extracted for the b-side of a single on Chosen Few featuring the title track on the a-side. The album was by any standard a magnificent artistic accomplishment but situating it in the market was going to be another hurdle." Highlights from the album: You're A Real Mind Blower Your browser does not support the audio element. Take Love Where You Find It Your browser does not support the audio element. Funks on You Your browser does not support the audio element.   Party Ya'll Your browser does not support the audio element.   We Want A Piece of the Pie Your browser does not support the audio element.   Second Release: "Thing" Updated Release Date: November 16, 2018 Formed by confederates who met at the Berklee School of Music and led by the creatively restless saxophonist and jazz educator Arni Cheatham, Thing were a regular fixture in Boston clubs in the seventies, as comfortable plying the rock and funk idioms as they were in jazz. Their 1972 LP documents two of their live sets, showcasing their simmering, funky and spiritual freeform jazz, very much in the vein of early seventies jazz-rock experiments by Miles Davis, Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The two suites featured on the album are fully improvised, featuring the musicians spontaneously generating and developing musical motifs in real time, bouncing ideas off each other in a communion that is equally suitable for meditating… or dancing like tomorrow will never arrive. Reissued here for the first time on LP and in it's entirety with no gaps between as it was originally intent to be heard. Highlights from album: Sketch Preview Clip 1 Your browser does not support the audio element. Sketch Preview Clip 2 Your browser does not support the audio element. Road Through the Wall Preview Clip 1 Your browser does not support the audio element. Road Through the Wall Preview Clip 2 Your browser does not support the audio element. Third Release: Yoruba Singers - Fighting for Survival Black Friday Record Store Day Release Date: November 23, 2018   An excerpt from the liner notes by Uchenna Ikonne: Many years ago, the Africans arrived in the Guianas in chains. The Akan people from the region today known as Ghana were the very first, setting shackled feet upon the South American colony in 1621. More would follow over the next two hundred years, plucked from the nations of Western and Central Africa: the Kongo, the Abuna, the Yagba, the Igbo, the Fula, the Effa. Also the Aku, Egba, Ondo and Ijesa, clans who would be collectively referred to as the Yoruba. In the intervening centuries, the Yoruba have become noteworthy as one of the few African cultures to survive the cultural erasure of chattel slavery and colonialism virtually intact, putting down new roots in the New World. The Yoruba culture, language and religion have traveled from their source in present-day Nigeria and Republic of Benin to become Santeria in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic; Candomble in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay; Trinidad Orisha in Trinidad and Tobago; and specialized cults for Yoruba gods like Shango in Guyana. Having remained continuously active since 1971, the Yoruba Singers are the longest-running musical group in Guyana. Emerging from a music scene mostly dominated by slick, commercial entertainment, the Yoruba Singers brought a new dimension to Guyana popular music, cooking up a potent stew of afrocentric vibes, steeped in a committed invocation of the country’s African heritage. The group’s magnum opus is the 1981 album Fighting for Survival.  The album sums up the group’s first decade of operation, serving up a heavy mix of calypso, jazzy funk, reggae and afrobeat. Cultures of Soul reissues it for the first time on vinyl, offering you the listener the opportunity to experience some of the deepest grooves the Caribbean has to offer! Highlights from the album: Frustration Your browser does not support the audio element. Revolution Day Your browser does not support the audio element. Abiola Your browser does not support the audio element. Bleeding with Hate Your browser does not support the audio element. Fighting for Survival Your browser does not support the audio element. Drums Make the World Go Round Your browser does not support the audio element. Me Selwyn Buddy Clyde Your browser does not support the audio element. Zamin Your browser does not support the audio element. Fourth Release: Space Cats - Something New Release Date - April 19th   After the phenomenal response to our previous survey of disco and boogie sounds from early eighties South Africa, we decided to wade a bit deeper into the pool to focus on one of the most compelling acts to emerge from that theater, the Space Cats. Hailing from the small, insular music scene in the coal-mining city of Witbank, the Space Cats were a five-man band fronted by singer/bassist Themba “T’Rex” Mzwakali and singer/guitarist Santy Dladala. Operating as a semi-professional live combo rather than a studio-driven aggregation, they stood out from the slick, highly polished conventions of the day. And when they took the stage they offered a take on disco that was stripped-down, raw, rugged and inspired by afro-rock groups like Harari and Hedzoleh Soundz. Highlights from album:   Something New Your browser does not support the audio element. Mystery Your browser does not support the audio element. Masambehi Your browser does not support the audio element. The Dead of Night Your browser does not support the audio element. For Ever and Always Your browser does not support the audio element. Mother Earth Your browser does not support the audio element. Ukhamba Your browser does not support the audio element. Your Eyes Are Sad Your browser does not support the audio element. No Reason to Delay Your browser does not support the audio element. O Myra (Can't Live Without You) Your browser does not support the audio element.