Death Is Not The End

yeah the good stuff, tracing London Street Soul soundsystems 1985-1992 with a choice selection of rare on-location party recordings that’ll take you straight to the source, complete with omnipresent toasting, dub sirens, crew milling, all debonaire vibes. A remarkable document of a bygone era to file next to your V4 Visions, Soul To Soul and Shut Up and Dance sessions, consider it a must listen if you fancy yourself an aficionado of Bleep-And-Bass, Ragga-Techno, Jungle, Trip Hop, and 2step Garage, or just wanna know the roots of the last 4+ decades of British club music.

Before electronic dance music blossomed and bloomed in the late 1980s and came to dominate the British club scene in the 1990s and beyond, house parties and dances were dominated by radically different sounds - from reggae and soul to funk and boogie. Like Death is Not the End's rave adverts series, this collection plays like a time capsule of an era that's hardly been documented, shining a light on a period of time that's often referenced but rarely shown for itself.

Listen carefully and you'll hear traces of so much that was bubbling up in the capital and beyond; 4hero and Giles Peterson's Talkin' Loud imprint, Shut Up and Dance crew, Camden’s Soul II Soul, Bristol’s Wild Bunch - the roots of what would come to dominate UK club culture for decades to come,taking elements of Jamaican Lovers Rock and American Street Beats to produce some of the most unique and influential music of the early 90's.

‘Pure Wicked Tune’ gives context to that era; reggae toasters and DJs blending burned-out rare grooves, embellished with studio effects, sirens and chatter that was as important as the music itself and which can be heard in hindsight to have been a prototype and petri dish for what would eventually become garage, 2-step, jungle, grime and beyond.

Pure vibes this one.