Soundway Vinyl & CDs

Review: The mighty Soundway Records label head Miles Cleret and DJ/collector Jeremy Spellacey turn their expert digging and curatorial skills to the Soca Dub & Electronic Calypso sounds of 1979 to 1998 on this bumper new triple pack. The 17 tracks touch on obscurities, instrumentals and dubs, vocal edits and all manner of roots, boogie, reggae, house, soul and disco gems. It makes for a never less than heart swelling collection that bring immediate sunshine to even the most rainy, cold days in the north of England. Highlights are plentiful, but our picks of the bunch are Bill Campbell's "Body Beat" which does exactly what it says on the tin, Adonijah's disco stomper ("It's Alright") and Levi John's "Soca", a lo-fi oddity with brilliantly loose drum work.

Review: ** Repress of 2008 Soundway classic! ** Since 2002, Soundway Records has been synonymous with high-quality and ground-breaking compilations of music from Africa, the Caribbean and South America. 'Nigeria Special' is the most ambitious project yet for the label - a truly in-depth, double album look at Nigerian music in the early to mid-70s, encompassing a broad range of styles. Compiler and DJ Miles Cleret has spent five years working on this album - involving trips to Lagos and around Nigeria interviewing musicians and researching recordings, as well as a suitable amount of time scouring dusty record stores and warehouses for the elusive sounds on this album. This compilation presents some of the best un-reissued and forgotten sounds from Nigeria, covering the amazingly vibrant and diverse styles that emerged and flourished at the time. Everything from Highlife, Jazz, Afro Beat and Blues to more traditional styles are represented to give as comprehensive a survey of the scene as possible.

Review: With so many archival labels putting out compilations of 1970s Nigerian funk and disco, Soundway has decided to change tack. Doing It In Lagos is a primer on the country's lesser-celebrated 1980s boogie scene. According to the superb liner notes, most of the music on show here - and, yes, it's universally brilliant - was created by a younger generation of musicians who wanted to move away from Afrobeat, and further towards an authentically American style electrofunk sound. As a result, many of the tracks featured on Doing It In Lagos - not least Hotline's brilliant opener, Livy Ekemezie's disco-funk slammer "Holiday Action" and Sonny Enang's superb "Don't Stop That Music" - are every bit as special as the American-produced records they were trying to emulate.

Review: On its release in 2013, Soundway's Kenya Special compilation was praised for shining a light on the previously overlooked East African music scene of the '70s and '80s. The collection's real genius was the way in which it highlighted the 'anything goes' essence of the Kenyan sound during the period. This aspect is once again extensively explored on Kenya Special Volume 2. While there are plenty of tracks inspired by soul, funk, highlife, afrobeat, juju and disco, for starters, you'll also find cuts that sound more obviously influenced by South African pop, local percussion workouts, U.S electrofunk (see the fantastic "Hinde" by African Vibration), and snaking Middle Eastern jazz (Mac & Party's "Harambe"). Throughout, the quality of the previously unheard music is immaculate.

Review: While Soundway's first Ghana Special compilation, released back in 2009, focused on the evolution of highlife and associated styles between 1968 and '81, this belated sequel showcases what happened in the 15 years that followed. Drawing on music made by the Ghanaian diaspora as well as music recorded and released back home, it charts the rise of electronic instrumentation (synths and drum machines specifically) as well as successful efforts to fuse highlife with elements of disco, boogie, new wave, Zouk, electro and digital reggae. It's a superb collection all told, packed to the rafters with killer cross-cultural fusions topped off by the expressive vocals and glistening guitar lines of highlife and Afrobeat.