Strut Vinyl & CDs

Review: Strut Records' release of Inside the Light World: Sun Ra Meets the OVC unveils hidden gems from the legendary Sun Ra's repertoire. Recorded in 1986 at Mission Control studios, these tracks, originally spontaneous and never intended for formal release, offer a glimpse into Sun Ra's cosmic genius. The OVC, or Outer Space Visual Communicator, adds a unique dimension to the music, casting kaleidoscopic patterns onto a suspended screen above the performers. Developed by technological innovator Bill Sebastian, the OVC creates a keyboard-driven light show that enhances Sun Ra's already mesmerising performances. Thanks to Sebastian and Irwin Chusid's efforts, along with mix engineers Sean Slade and Brother Cleve, the session tapes were restored and pieced together, resulting in one of Sun Ra's finest releases. Sebastian's personal connection to Sun Ra's music, stemming from a transformative live show experience in the early 1970s, adds depth to the album's narrative. This CD package includes extensive liner notes and an insightful interview with Sebastian, offering fans a comprehensive look into this captivating collaboration. Inside the Light World is a release you need to check whether you are a fan or new to his work.

Review: Strut's 2024 reissue of Sun Ra's Lanquidity, an iconic 1978 release, celebrated for its fusion of cosmic jazz and avant-garde experimentation. Recorded in a single night at Bob Blank's studio, the album shows off the rich Arkestra's blend of sound with eight horns, four percussionists, and electric guitars.'There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)' stands out as a hypnotic, dream-like piece that subverts traditional forms with its blend of ambient and vibrant passages. The album is a standout in Ra's extensive catalog for its fusion-inspired, freeform approach. The single LP version includes five tracks, akin to the original. Starting with the smooth, cosmic exploration of 'Lanquidity,' is like a celestial mapping akin to an Ancient Egyptian stargazing ceremony. 'Where Pathways Meet' follows with a funky, march-like rhythm reminiscent of a Pharaoh's pep-talk, showcasing Ra's unique fusion of Egyptian motifs and jazz. The groove deepens with 'That's How I Feel,' featuring reflective trumpet lines and intricate solos. 'Twin Stars Of Thence' highlights Richard Williams' celebrated bass with its funky, elastic rhythm. The album closes with the haunting 'There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of),' a piece steeped in space music that poet Mama Nzinga likened to a journey through the essence of light and deep space.

Review: Originally released in 1979, 'Sleeping Beauty' catches Sun Ra and the Arkestra at their most seductive - gliding between slow, funk-laced grooves and spaced-out jazz ritual. 'Springtime Again' floats on dreamy Rhodes chords and soft percussion, with ghostly vocals murmuring just out of reach. 'Door of the Cosmos' follows, folding in chant-like singing and funk-laced bass, equal parts devotional and dancefloor. Then there's the title track: a slow, luxurious sprawl of keys, horns and mood, glowing with after-hours warmth. A key figure in experimental jazz, Sun Ra led his ever-evolving Arkestra from the mid-1950s onwards, blending free jazz, doo-wop, electronics, poetry and science fiction into a visionary body of work. This reissue on Strut gives 'Sleeping Beauty' the shine it deserves - one of Ra's most intimate and accessible transmissions.

Review: Shut has been busy with a great series of reissues of Sun Ra's historic recordings in Egypt. All good things must come to an end, though, and so it does with The Sun Ra Arkestra meets Salah Ragab in Egypt which was recorded with help from the Cairo Jazz Band and first put out back in 1983 on Greek label Praxis. The Arkestra first met Salah Ragab at the home of Goethe Institut ex-pat Hartmut Geerken when they toured the island in December 1971 and later bonded again in 1983. It was then that they got together for these recordings where they played Ragab compositions, 'Egypt Strut' and 'Dawn' amongst others.

Review: Strut rings in the holiday season with a special reissue of The Qualities' rare 1961 single 'It's Christmas Time' b/w 'Happy New Year To You!', originally released on Sun Ra's Saturn label. This mysterious vocal harmony group, guided by the visionary Sun Ra, captures a unique moment in music history. Likely recorded around 1956, the festive tracks showcase Sun Ra's influence, blending jazz and harmony group experimentation. Remastered and restored, this exclusive 7" features a new picture sleeve designed by Liam Large, making it a collector's item that celebrates both the holidays and Sun Ra's boundary-pushing legacy.

Review: In afrobeat circles, Ghanaian highlife guitarist Ebo Taylor has long been regarded as one of the scene's most undervalued talents. During his golden period during the 1970s, Taylor was responsible for some landmark recordings - not just as an artist, but composer, arranger and producer. This comprehensive set from serial crate-diggers Strut revisits that fertile period, gathering together the best of Taylor's solo, collaborative and production work. For those with a passing interest in afrobeat and highlife, it's near-essential. Highlights come thick and fast, from the strangely spaced-out grooves of "Peace On Earth" and lazy afro jazz-funk of "Ohiana Sua Efir" to the epic American R&B stylings of "Aba Yaa".

Review: Politically charged Motor City jazz collective Tribe has undergone something of a career rebirth in the last few years. The releases they played, produced and put out on their Tribe Records imprint in the '70s are rightly revered, but the truth is that they've made equally as good music since getting back into the studio in 1990 - as this brilliant retrospective from Strut proves. The ten-track set contains both released material and previously unheard recordings, with highlights including a fantastic new version of "Juba" featuring Harold McKinney and his "McKinfolk" musicians, a daring new version of Tribe member Phil Ranelin's "He The One We All Knew" and the spiritual rallying cry that is "Marcus Garvey".

Review: There aren't many characters quite like Lori Vambe in British music. He was a self-taught drummer, inventor, and sonic experimentalist who also made his own instrument, the drumgita, or string-drum. He was born in born in Harare, Zimbabwe but moved to London in 1959 and soon became entrenched in the Brixton squat scene. Now revered as a fine outsider along with the likes of Moondog and Daphne Oram, his privately pressed album Space Time Dreamtime: The Four Dimensional Music Of Lori Vambe now gets a first ever issue on Strut. It is an international and experimental work full of overdubs, tape effects, temporal shifts and reversed sound.

Review: In the summer of 2018, Strut offered up a compilation that mined the extensive back catalogue of Disques Debs International, a Guadeloupe-based label that showcased the finest music to come out of the French-speaking Caribbean between 1950 and 2000. While that set focused on material released between 1960 and '72, this belated sequel showcases cuts featured on Henri Debs' legendary imprint between 1973 and '81. The musical palette is therefore even brighter, breezier and more sun-kissed, offering up cuts that touch on mambo, rumba, Zouk, tropical disco, reggae and the kind of cross-cultural fusions that belie easy categorization. As you'd expect from Strut, the selections are spot on and the re-mastered sound superb. In other words, it's another must-have release from Quinton Scott's imprint.

Review: Strut's definitive vinyl edition of Nigeria 70 brings fresh vitality to a landmark compilation first released in 2001. This collection, renowned for its role in popularizing 1970s Lagos music, remains a vital exploration of Afro funk and Afro jazz, showcasing a vibrant cross-section of Nigerian music that extends beyond Fela Kuti's legacy. The reissue offers a rich tapestry of sounds that captured Nigeria's dynamic musical landscape. Starting with Monomono's 'Loma Da Nigbehin,' the album dives into deep, rhythmically complex Afrobeat grooves. Fela Kuti's iconic tracks 'Upside Down' and 'Jeun Ko Ku (Chop 'n' Quench)' highlight the revolutionary funk that defined the era, while Tony Allen's 'No Discrimination' from 1980 exemplifies the genre's evolving sophistication. The compilation's strength lies in its diversity. Tracks like Ofo & the Black Company's 'Allah Wakbarr' and BLO's 'Chant to Mother Earth' introduce psychedelic rock influences, while Joni Haastrup's 'Greetings' and Shina Williams & His African Percussionists' 'Agboju Logun' infuse disco and electro-funk elements into the Afrobeat foundation. William Onyeabor's 'Better Change Your Mind' offers a glimpse into how Nigerian artists engaged with global funk and synthesiser sounds. Nigeria 70 is a great example to the innovative spirit of Nigerian music in the 1970s, reflecting a rich interplay of local and global influences.

Review: Strut introduces the highly anticipated third volume in the Disques Debs International series, diving deeper into the archives of one of the greatest French Caribbean labels, Disques Debs, based in Guadeloupe. Founded by Henri Debs in the late 1950s, the Debs studio naturally doubled as a record label and ran for over 50 years, releasing more than 300 7" singles and 200 LPs, cementing it as one of the foremost record labels to prize Caribbean music history. Not just limited to Guadeloupean musicians but also Martinicians and Parisians, the likes of Jocelyn Mocka, Mariz, Dominique Parol, Christian Yeye and Alex Rosa make this a thixotropic record, mercurial and restless as it is rooted in forms of zouk, biguine, gwoka and, of course, the nascent electronica. This third volume flaunts the label's dynamic latter-day period, as it interpreted the analog electronic dreams of the 1980s.

Review: Strut continues to explore the vast archives of Disque Debs, a long-running, Guadalupe-based label that, over the course of half a century, released a wealth of music from the Caribbean. In the process, Henri Debs imprint helped launch the careers of countless French-speaking artists while not only showcasing stylistic movements such as zouk, bouyon and merengue, but also bold, colourful and tropical takes on existing Caribbean, Amercian and European sounds. Highlights include - but are in no way limited to - the slowly unfurling, synth-heavy shuffle of Sadi Lancreot's club-ready 'Dou Se Vou Ki Siwo' and the horn-heavy tropical disco brilliance of Dominuque Parol's 'Come On Baby'.