Funk | Soul 255 Items

ORIGINAL RECORDINGS - REMASTERED

Limited Edition 45 with custom sleeve designed by Lucky Alvarez.

Truth & Soul is proud to present the deluxe re-issue of Lee Fields' "holy grail" album! The CD and double LP also features songs from his singles catalogue and is also repackaged with a new cover
and never-before-seen photos of Lee Fields.

We recommend Matthew E White for no particular reason, just for his beautiful music! Give it a try!

14 tracks feat. Raashan Ahmad, The Real Fake MC, Jehro & others!

BigM Productions is back full force!

One of the finest voices in Southern Soul, George Jackson’s success as a writer meant he wasn’t pushed as an artist and so his vinyl output is disappointingly small. Kent Records is rectifying that with this 12-track LP.

Another big retro-soul-money anthem!

Songs Volume One is a collection of material written, produced and recorded by Dwight Sykes on 4-Track Cassette, in his home studio L.U.S.T. Productions.

As then, calypso carries the swing. There are four more Lord Kitchener songs — in consideration of his wife leaving him for a GI, cricket umpires, a fling onboard an ocean-liner and West Indian poultry — besides a hot mambo cash-in, cross-bred under his supervision, and an uproarious, teasing Ghanaian tribute to him in Fanti by London visitors The Quavers.
Other calypsos range compellingly from the devaluation of the pound through jiu jitsu, big rubbery instruments, football fans, heavyweight champ Joe Louis and the sexual allure of English women police. The Mighty Terror contributes the woe-begotten, cautionary tale of his beloved Patricia's change of heart: 'I cannot believe, not for one moment / She gone with Millicent... / You may think I am jocular / But this really happened in Manchester / I felt so ashamed, my friends laughed at me / I had to take a train for London city.'
Ambrose Campbell is back, with six more shots of prodigal, limber, melancholic, visionary West African highlife. Also the Rolling Stones' favourite Ginger Johnson, with a percussive Latin scorcher; and Mona Baptiste, with some wonderful, soulful exotica.
Jamaican mento makes its first entry in the series, with a brace by Tony Johnson: a drily witty drinking-song, and a love-letter to Marilyn Monroe. Also finally getting some dues, the path-breaking Latin-African-jazz experiments of Ghanaian drummer and percussionist Buddy Pipp, with spine-tingling playing by the great Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott.
Expert jazz idioms course sophisticatedly through all the selections, which include a straight-up, South London version of Duke Jordan's Jordhu, something from Dizzy Reece's soundtrack — brokered by Kenneth Tynan — to the British crime film Nowhere To Go, and a trio of magnificently hybrid, hard-swinging instrumentals led in turn by master-guitarist Fitzroy Coleman, Kitch's innovative arranger Rupert Nurse, and trumpeter Shake Keane — named after Shakespeare because of his love of poetry — from St. Vincent.

As then, calypso carries the swing. There are four more Lord Kitchener songs — in consideration of his wife leaving him for a GI, cricket umpires, a fling onboard an ocean-liner and West Indian poultry — besides a hot mambo cash-in, cross-bred under his supervision, and an uproarious, teasing Ghanaian tribute to him in Fanti by London visitors The Quavers.
Other calypsos range compellingly from the devaluation of the pound through jiu jitsu, big rubbery instruments, football fans, heavyweight champ Joe Louis and the sexual allure of English women police. The Mighty Terror contributes the woe-begotten, cautionary tale of his beloved Patricia's change of heart: 'I cannot believe, not for one moment / She gone with Millicent... / You may think I am jocular / But this really happened in Manchester / I felt so ashamed, my friends laughed at me / I had to take a train for London city.'
Ambrose Campbell is back, with six more shots of prodigal, limber, melancholic, visionary West African highlife. Also the Rolling Stones' favourite Ginger Johnson, with a percussive Latin scorcher; and Mona Baptiste, with some wonderful, soulful exotica.
Jamaican mento makes its first entry in the series, with a brace by Tony Johnson: a drily witty drinking-song, and a love-letter to Marilyn Monroe. Also finally getting some dues, the path-breaking Latin-African-jazz experiments of Ghanaian drummer and percussionist Buddy Pipp, with spine-tingling playing by the great Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott.
Expert jazz idioms course sophisticatedly through all the selections, which include a straight-up, South London version of Duke Jordan's Jordhu, something from Dizzy Reece's soundtrack — brokered by Kenneth Tynan — to the British crime film Nowhere To Go, and a trio of magnificently hybrid, hard-swinging instrumentals led in turn by master-guitarist Fitzroy Coleman, Kitch's innovative arranger Rupert Nurse, and trumpeter Shake Keane — named after Shakespeare because of his love of poetry — from St. Vincent.

This might be the Gil Scott-Heron track next to 'The Bottle' that lights up dancefloors everywhere. Now reissued on a handy 45!

Classic big bucks Northern Soul sides on nice lookalike label reissue 45!

"Fire Walker" is Jungle Fire's sophmore single that's blazin' up dancefloors around the world!

Bow down to the 'Screaming Eagle Of Soul'! Download code for the full album is included.

Mystery-music from the strange and ancient-modern California fringe … thats what the press release says. Kinda fitting!

Classy jazzy soul from Caro.

Original recordings remastered

180g Colored Vinyl! Hand-picked titles by Françoise Hardy, France Gall. Annie Philippe, Elsa, Violaine, Pussy Cat, Brigitte Bardot, Delphine and Liz Brady!

Gaslamp Killer chops, edits, echos and scratches The Heliocentrics in two parts.

180g Colored Vinyl with heavy-duty card sleeve!

The album was mostly recorded at Dan Auerbach's (The Black Keys) Easy Eye studio in Nashville, as well as L.A. and Budapest, and was produced by both Dan Auerbach and Kevin Augunas (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Florence & The Machine).

4 classic cuts from the number one of spaghetti western composers, with an exclusive featuring from Italian 60’s R&B legend Rocky Roberts. Originally out along with the ‘Il giaguaro’ magazine, we just acquired a few dozen MINT copies from Black Cat Records’ warehouse.

Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label takes a look at the underside of Chicago soul through twenty tracks of blistering R&B, sweet soul, and discofied funk. Hundreds of hours were spent researching, interviewing, re-mastering, and compiling the history of Bandit and the life of Arrow Brown. Unearthed in the process were two cassette tapes worth of acappella rehearsals that we've done our best to preserve in their lo-fi, in-the-red state. Numero 003 might be the deepest we'll ever dig. No map, no shovel, just a stack of 45's and a city of three million people.

Damon Albarn & Four Tet dig this gentleman, so you should dig this forgotten master of african synth-craze, too!

Classic big bucks Northern Soul sides on nice lookalike label reissue 45!

Truth & Soul's rst and only all female group, Lady, lead by the incomparable
Nicole Wray, are back with a tribute to the 60 minute man.

Classic big bucks Northern Soul sides on nice lookalike label reissue 45!

Another Boogie classic on PPU! So, so good!!!

Instrumental … more sweet funk from Detroit!

“The re-release series of original Ethiopian classic vinyl continues — the finest Ethio jazz by Mahmoud Ahmed and his band from 1975 plus two tracks from 1978. The liner notes: ‘Melancholy blues, piercingly minimalist country airs, brassy, danceable urban jazz, heart-wrenching, off-key crooners: a rich and stirring patchwork of sounds, crossing Afro-beat, Latino-swing moves and Eastern arabesques (Anaïs Prosaïc).’ Such were the first — informed and enthusiastic — opinions of the music press when the first strains of modern Ethiopian music sounded on our shores. This was in 1984-1985. Such a positive note, struck about such a country at such a time, created plenty of reverb. The country had been so thoroughly trashed by the media’s feeding-frenzy, which spewed out a mix of horror and pious pity, bitter denunciation and humanitarian appeals, wallet-tickling clichés and refusal of identity. In one brutal swoop, TV-reality transformed Ethiopia into a cursed nation, forsaken by God and by man. In contrast to these tragedies, but in the same hackneyed tones, Mahmoud Ahmed’s life resembles an edifying fairy-tale where destiny, talent and achievement combine to triumph over poverty, fate and the evil eye. Biography, history and legend, with the help of God, infallibly weave the lesson of merit rewarded. But who can argue, in spite of the mockery that celebrities invariably draw, when faced with one of the greatest voices in all of Africa? Once upon a time, there was a street urchin in Addis Ababa, who started off as a shoe-shine boy and went on to become one of his country’s biggest stars, opening the door to Ethiopian music to Western audiences.” — Francis Falceto

A few years ago the world discovered a unique sound coming from the distant Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba. The emotional blow was only matched by the brightness of this original and magnificent discovery. The Ethiopiques series directed by Francis Falcetto and edited by Buda Musique provides a comprehensive landscape of this subtle musical universe where local and western cultures do magnify each other. This new Ethiopian Urban Modern Music release follows the first Soul & Groove installment and keeps revealing some essential parts of the modern Ethiopian puzzle. An unequalled soul funk signature until today.

One of the great characters in rock and soul music is Jerry Williams, better known as the eccentric, idiosyncratic, and always entertaining Swamp Dogg (no relation to Snoop Doggy Dogg). A Virginia native, Williams invented his own legend by claiming that he had little proper schooling, only to wake up one day and find himself a musical genius (his words). Actually, Williams is very talented, and an early association with Jerry Wexler and Phil Walden led to him working for a number of years as a producer, engineer, and occasional songwriter with Atlantic in the '60s. At decade's end, however, he decided that the time was right to unleash Swamp Dogg's singular view of the world on an unsuspecting public. The initial result was one of the most gloriously gonzo soul recordings of all time, Total Destruction to Your Mind. The album's charm may have to do with Dogg's world view: part libertarian politics; part Zappa-style critiques of commerciality and capitalism; and part horny male, the latter defining for better and worse his view of women. Although he spent years working in the industry, Dogg was simply not the standard-issue soul type. And that was good. Dogg continued to make records, albeit infrequently, after 1969, some good, a few great, and most all extremely difficult to find. With contemporary soul sounding increasingly mannered and sterile, Dogg's yelling, screaming, and general craziness is missed. Thankfully, he hasn't disappeared for good, although he only makes records when he feels like it. It would be wise to not count him out; just when you think this Dogg is down and out, he sneaks up and bites you.

Urban Ethiopian music stands out within the African continent thanks to its creativity and originality. Whatever the shade — pop, blues, jazz or soul — it comes from a fusion of local musical traditions mixed with an echo of Western music. It bewitched Ethiopia during the ‘Swinging Addis’ decade before recently winning the favors of a well-informed audience all over the world. This first vinyl volume of Ethiopian Urban Modern Music presents some of the Ethiopian ‘groove jewels’ drawn from the essential CD Ethiopiques series directed by Francis Falceto and published by Buda music.

Truth & Soul & Magnetic recordings is proud to present the re-issue of this long forgotten gem that was released in 1973 by Satara, a tiny label in Portland, Oregon. Only 500 copies were originally released.Now select Rojac (and sister label Tay-Ster) singles are once again available for a limited time. This reissue series comes to a close on a big, funk-filled high note with the release of Chico & Buddy's 7" masterpiece on the Tay-Ster imprint. "A Thing Call The Jones"

"Gospel music has often followed the prominent trends in secular music, probably in the hope of widening its audience by giving the subject matter a sprinkling of cool. In the 60s it happened with R&B and then funk-flavoured gospel, the 70s brought sweet-soul crossovers, and by 1975 the sounds of early disco had started to permeate the genre. This compilation brings together overlooked gospel gems that have their production rooted in disco and boogie, the sound of the early 80s that followed in disco's wake. It's only recently that this music has begun to be appreciated by fans outside of its original target market, and I'm glad to help it finally reach a wider audience."

David began his music career in 1994 as a member of the Ballistic Brothers, together with Ashley Beedle and Rocky & Diesel of X-Press 2. In 1994 he co-founded the Nuphonic record label, where he managed the creative aspects on almost a hundred releases, with artists including Faze Action, Norman Jay, Andrew Weatherall, Maurice Fulton and David Mancuso. In addition to the record label, Nuphonic also produced the Sony award winning London Xpress radio show for Xfm, which led to various club nights.

David has also acted as a music consultant to several record companies, one of these being Soul Jazz records, who he produced a series of successful albums for - in 2004 the 'World of Arthur Russell' and more then the acclaimed 'Soul Gospel' series. He was also production consultant for Auralux, the London based reggae reissue record label, where he worked with Lee Perry, King Jammys, Sly & Robbie and Linval Thompson.

He continues to work on personal projects such as Rootikal, the monthly roots reggae Night, and has a number of reissue and compilation projects currently in production. He is also currently overseeing the production of a book and an accompanying touring exhibition that will showcase Bill Bernstein's photographs of New York nightlife in the late 70s.

The music of Magic Sword, crafted by two unknown individuals is a collaboration of sight and sound. Featuring the music. Part dance, part cinematic experience and a comic book (by The Harbinger). Which brings life to this tale of fantasy. Volume 1 is an introduction to the epic story of Magic Sword that will consist of several volumes set to be released over the next several years.So as it was, it shall always be. Whenever the need is great, we call upon the power of the Magic Sword.

“It has been a lengthy hiatus, but we have finally finished our latest ‘masterpiece’ and named it after an incredible indigenous-rights movement that is happening right now called Idle No More. I was born and raised in Montreal and spent a lot of time on the Kahnawake Mohawk Indian reservation. Idle No More is probably the most refined piece of music we have made to date. The songs are about the state of the world we live in today. Originally, I was going to call the album Of Madness I Dream, but then I became very enthused about the amazing work of the Idle No More movement. Everyone I asked had never heard of it, so I contacted the leaders of the movement and, with their permission, decided to rename the album Idle No More in hopes that it would increase the world’s awareness of this miracle that is taking place for the indigenous peoples of the world. If you are not familiar with Idle No More, look it up and GET Involved! It took a long time to make, but we are very proud and pleased to bring you this album. I hope that the future will brighten up every time it is played. Ultimately, John and Yoko were absolutely right: Love IS ALL YOU Need! Peace and Love.”—King Bama Lama Khan Emperor of RnB.