Skull Snaps
Skull Snaps

Over the past few years, London based DJ and curator Sam Don has shone new light into the Reggae sub-genre of Lovers Rock with his comps 'For the love of You'. His deep, yet deeply accessible selections have opened the ears of many to the genre.With this new compilation 'Just A Touch' Sam shines his torch even deeper, this time through crates of UK Underground Soul. He painstakingly researched and tracking down each producer to bring you some of the sweetest soul cuts that will ever grace your eardrums.Sam Don explains: Whilst the US is most well-known for soul music, the UK has created its own take on the genre, due to the melting pot of cultures and musical styles that makes the UK so special. I didn't 'set out' to make a compilation like this, but one night an idea came to me, and I sketched it out at home with my record collection. When I saw how well these sounds came together, I started my mission to find the people involved with them and 'Just A Touch' was created.

Parisian label Chuwanaga is really proud to present In The Red Vol. 2 (A Britfunk Selection by Saint-James), almost a year and a half after the first compilation being released. This second volume still focus on the Britfunk genre - or British Jazz-Funk - mainly produced in London between the end of the seventies and the eighties. It defines a unique mix of Jazz-Funk & Disco including Reggae & Dub techniques from Afro-Caribbean communities who were at the heart of the movement.Parisian DJ, activist and producer Saint-James has again selected the most exciting, rare and powerful tracks from that era (1981-1988). Included in this compilation are Stikki Stuff, Cruzial, Potion, The Breakfast Band, Yeow Band and Scratch (better known as Gonzalez). Expect powerful synth solos, crazy slap bass grooves and lovely vocals on the top when the horn section is not busy doing its funky thing.Back in the days, these young musicians gave their music a unique British flavor and raw energy pushing the needle "In The Red". Almost four decades later on these powerful tracks are again ready to burn up dancefloors. The compilation features an insert with pictures and a few more words about the selection.

Stix Records is a sub-division of Favorite Recordings, recently launched with a first official single by Taggy Matcher Birdy & Nixon (STIX033), who pleased us with two Reggae-Rocksteady renditions of the famous Black Keys.Precisely specialized in the exercise of producing covers with a Reggae twist, the new label presents his first album entitled "Disco Reggae". Many artists faithful to the stable of Favorite Recordings and its various sub-labels are invited for the occasion: The Dynamics, Blundetto, Grandmagneto, 7 Samurai, John Milk or Taggy Matcher. All came and brought their respective touch to this first compilation, with among other things some of the rarest titles from their Big Single Records’ years, but also 4 new and exclusive productions.Each of them delivers a great Disco-Reggae version of classic hits by some artists as diverse as Madonna, Herbie Hancock, Justin Timberlake, The Commodores, The O'Jays, Curtis Mayfield, Harry Nilsson or Sugarhill Gang. Whatever the genre or the period, nothing can resist their inventiveness and creativity, to the point sometimes we confuse between originals and covers. Everything is remastered and cut at Carvery Records (UK), known for their expertise in Caribbean and Disco music.

Banda Black Rio’s ‘Maria Fumaca’ is one of the strongest Brazilian samba-disco-funk-soul-fusion albums of all time. As regularly played by Theo Parrish, Gilles Peterson and co.‘Maria Fumaca’ is the groups first album, originally released by Atlantic in 1977; a record that bought the group worldwide fame. This album features in a list of the 100 greatest Brazilian albums of all time published by Rolling Stone Brazil, coming in at number 38.

The South-London based musician TONE announces his debut album “So I Can See You”, due for release via Rhythm Section.With a mixtape already under his belt, one that he says was thrown together on a whim; this new body of work was created during the pregnancy and subsequent birth of his daughter. TONE, real name Basil Anthony Harewood, was compelled to capture this significant moment, recording mostly at night, with his new life and old life in mind. The album is less a departure of who he was but an embrace of the future and the new life that arrives with beginning a family.Across the 11 tracks, we hear tender guitar riffs and off-beat R&B elements press up against influences of dub and shoegaze leaving you with a woozy afterglow. TONE’s distinctive vocals are complemented by the familiar voices of Coby Sey on “So I Can See You”, Fran Lobo on “From the North” and Roxanne Tataei on “Make It Drop”. Having both Afro-Caribbean and Welsh heritage has informed the ways in which he sees things and the music he has been magnetized to, especially growing up in both a tiny village in the north of England in East Yorkshire as well as further afield in Europe.Time spent in St Kitts and Nevis as a child opened his eyes and ears to calypso, reggae and dub and while back home in the UK, he fell in love with ska, punk and skinhead culture none of which he ever outgrew and to this day still informs his music practice.Each track was recorded on a Tascam 38 tape machine in the studio he set up with Mica Levi and Coby Sey in Hither Green with the drums, played by Marc Pell (Good Bad Happy Sad) were recorded at Andy Ramsey’s studio (Stereolab).Alongside, Levi and Sey TONE is a CURL collective member and was half of the short-lived punk-duo, Farai.