Soundway Vinyl & CDs

Review: Blending reggae, disco, soul, funk and roots - comes the reissue of the highly sought-after 7" from 1979 by Gypsy Fari, the first known reggae outfit from Chicago, born in the south side of the city after a chance meeting between St Kitts expat Leroy Webster and local music graduate Kevin Coleman. The pair set out to blur the boundaries of genre with their unique brand of music, spearheaded by Webster's Caribbean roots and fused with the soul and blues of the midwest.On the A-side, 'Chi-Town Reggae' springs out the gate with fast-paced disco-reggae, powered by a relentless rhythm section and Webster's infectious vocal melody. On the flip, 'Hail Jah' is a swaggering, deep roots reggae cut that pays homage to Webster's heritage - which he wrote on the hilltops of the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica.

Review: The Yoruba Singers reinterpreted Guyana folk music and infused it with Afro-roots and culture on this double A-side 7". Now for the first time every it gets reissued on vinyl. This release came a year after the group's debut album Ojinga's Own and were recorded in Barbados and released on the Green Shrimp label. They were big regional has with dancers lapping the grooves throughout the Caribbean and South America. The sounds are said to be the building blocks for what went on to become known as the Champeta Criolla sound in the Caribbean coast of Colombia.