Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. We are stopping with Darrel Sheinman, the owner of Gearbox Records, founded in 2009. He uses the British Library Sound Archive to unearth unknown and unreleased jazz music, but he also makes possible special projects, amazing box sets, and rare records thought by outstanding artists as Kate Tempest.Time to go back to the complete story…

When did you start digging records?
When I was young… in fact, very young. My father was a musician and always played great music around the house. Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out” and Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” are among my earliest musical memories and are major parts of the soundtrack to my childhood.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
As a teenager I started playing drums and learnt to play by drumming along to records like The Police’s “Outlandos d’Amour”. I was heavily into The Sex Pistols, Television, The Clash, Joy Division and the hardcore scene, especially The Dead Kennedys. But I eventually found my way back into jazz and the first original Blue Note that I bought was Johnny Griffin’s “A Blowin’ Session”, a record that for me typifies that hardbop feel more than anything else.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
It has to be Hard Bop from the 1950’s and 1960’s when records were as beautiful to look at and listen to as well as being beautifully recorded and produced.

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Of course, once vinyl gets in your blood you’re hooked for life. The endless search goes on for the mint copy of records like The Jazz Workshop’s “Mezare Israel Yekabtzenu” or Chivo Borraro’s incredible “El Nuevo Sonido del Chivo Borraro”. I recently found some Tubby Hayes acetates which are probably his earliest recordings and find it hard to walk past a shop or charity store just in case there’s something waiting to be found. At Gearbox we have built a close relationship with many of the stores around the world that sell our records, and whenever I can I get out to meet them and find out what’s really happening.

Take Your Partners For The Blues

What was your first release on Gearbox?
It was The Tubby Hayes Band “Jazz For Moderns”, an incredible 1962 Maida Vale Studios session for the BBC radio show Jazz for Moderns that had never been released before on any format. It’s won a number of awards and together with the second Gearbox release – another Jazz For Moderns set, this one from 1962 with Joe Harriott – proved that the label could be a successful enterprise and not just a part-time hobby.

Why did you choose this name: Gearbox?
That’s very simple, I’m a petrolhead and a turntable is after all just a simple gearbox.

What could be your editorial/esthetic line?
Great music with a jazz-rooted soul, recorded live in the studio or in concert and straight to tape. We want Gearbox to stand for the best in vinyl from creation to playback, with our records sounding the best they possibly can. Having our own vinyl mastering and cutting facility with the best analogue equipment makes this possible. As for playback, we’ve designed and are building our own turntable with some unique features which will be launched in 2017.

What is the Gearbox Record you are most proud of?
There’s more than one – Binker and Moses “Dem Ones” because it’s a wonderful sounding direct to stereo tape recording that has not only captured the imagination of a younger audience but also given this saxophone and drums duo a major boost in their professional career. And there’s Applewood Road, again recorded direct to stereo tape and just included in the Sunday Times Best Albums of 2016. I’m proud of it because it proves that a simple approach to recording without resorting to over produced techniques makes the emotional connection between artist and listener so much stronger.

Did you have any references labels?
Blue Note set the standards, and we use the same Scully lathe and Westrex amps and cutting heads that Rudy van Gelder used.

The Ronnie Scott has seen many great musicians. Some sessions recorded in this club have been in the jazz history. You have found some yourself, as recently a performance of Yusef Lateef … What are the next references in terms of live?
We have just completed a project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, making available a number of rare and never-heard-before recordings from London jazz clubs during the 1960’s. 20 vinyl copies of these 15 recordings are being given to various archives and educational establishments, but are free for everyone to listen to at http://www.londonjazzarchive.org. Our next release live from Ronnie’s will be a new recording by Nittin Sawhney following on from last year’s James Taylor Quartet album. We’re just as interested in new music as previously unreleased archive cuts.

Other lives also on the catalog, like this amazing gig in Montreux with Nucleus and Leon Thomas. How did you get access to these tapes?
These were the original 1/4” masters and the performance was licensed in the normal way. We are aware of a CD bootleg of a radio broadcast that was made many years ago, but it was certainly not from these masters.

Binker and Moses

Black Ave Maria

Another part is the BBC sessions… Can you tell more about this series? How did you dig that «direction»?
The initial idea for starting Gearbox came after seeing a live performance by N.E.R.D. I wanted to put the gig out live on the best medium possible which is vinyl. But I had no track record in music and was unable to get the rights. So I turned my attention to jazz, as the British jazz world had not really been released thoroughly and done properly on vinyl. I managed to get the rights quite easily and those first two releases from Tubby Hayes and Joe Harriott established a strong relationship between Gearbox and the BBC licensing department. In fact, our studio is now one of a handful of official BBC dub houses, trusted to work directly with their master tapes. There have been occasions where we’ve been researching a BBC radio session and found that the only tape in existence is in the British Library, and have been happy to fill in the gaps.

Are there any other references coming from the BBC studios?
There certainly will be, we’re finding out about new radio and TV sessions all the time. But until everything’s cleared and prepared we better keep our powder dry in case we jinx things.

How do you manage to identify previously unreleased from the original radio broadcast tapes? Is it hours and hours of listening?
A lot of listening, certainly. A lot of questions too, and if we don’t know the answers, we’re very lucky in knowing just who to ask.

And in all this research, there was also some disappointments. Some words about this aspect?
Of course, the master tape might be in a too poor condition, the clearances raise an unforeseen issue or there’s a problem with the repertoire. But whatever the problems, one has to keep going – if this work was easy, then everyone would be doing it!

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LP’s, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to issue/reissue?
Some, but over the last seven years we’ve built a good reputation for making the best records we can, and doing the artists and their families proud. So in general, people are very happy to work with us.

Your work focuses a great deal on English jazz: what special feature? a particular sound ? Is it the same today as yesterday?
Hard bop is very important to us, if you look closely on every cover you’ll see “still hard boppin’” written on the spine. British jazz has always had something special as well as producing some remarkable musicians who have been more influential internationally than is often realized. Take trumpeter Ian Carr, for example, whose pioneering 60’s electric jazz was certainly an influence on Miles Davis’ decision to work with electric instrumentation.

Sebastian Rochford, Shabaka, Soweto Kinch, Neil Cowley, Yussef Kamaal, Get The Blessing, your own Binker And Moses, etc… How do you explain the new wave of English jazz, more and more people for ten years?
A number of things, great jazz educators, a strong sense of community identity and powerful and charismatic artists who showed the way. This is a very exciting period, and will be recognised as such in the future…

Is there more stylistic diversity than in the past? And what unity behind all this eclecticism?
Yes, the barriers between genres are lower than ever before. It’ s not a question of experimentation as it was in the 60’s and the 70’s, more a natural reflection of the diverse culture of UK which is reflected throughout the arts. These musicians know who they are and what they’re doing, it’s all natural.

Can we link the return of the live and the return of the vinyl? Does it work together, by pair?
Yes, they both show a real appreciation of music as the main course, not just a side dish. Vinyl requires a ritual – take the record out of the inner sleeve, clean it, carefully drop the needle and listen, not just hear. Live shows also require the audience’s full attention sharing the moment with the musicians.

You seem to attach great importance to analog sound, audiophile quality. Some, a common idea at least, believe that live sessions are not the best source to record a disc. What do you say to them?
We like analog simply because we think it sounds better. We like recording live because it’s when the magic happens, and well recorded, it sounds wonderful. But each to his own, I understand people using the studio as an instrument and the art of multitracking and mixing. It’s just not the Gearbox way.

Kate Tempest

Where The Heart Is

You release not only jazz but also poetry. Among these Kate Tempest develops a street poetry, quite singular storytelling. How did you meet her? What has touched you in her words, her way of saying them?
I was introduced to Kate Tempest’s work by legendary Straight No Chaser publisher Paul Bradshaw. I was completely blown away with her presence, artistry and the sheer power of personality and knew I had to have her on Gearbox! We became involved in recording her remarkable Brand New Ancients that had been touring the UK and released the vinyl double LP. She’s a remarkable artist who’s going to be a major force for many years to come.

Kate Tempest is on the Late Junction collaboration sessions («to pair people from different musical backgrounds, which have never been worked together, and put them into the studio for a joint work on new pieces of music»). A good idea, but is this an easy project? What were the good surprises? The unexpected results?
It’s been a straightforward project as well as a great pleasure to make, especially working with Nick Luscombe who compiled the project with me. All the collaborations had already been recorded and broadcast on Late Junction, so it was just a question of choosing those that made the most cohesive and enjoyable album. The sound quality of the recordings was wonderful – that’s BBC Maida Vale Studios again – and we decided to cut at 45rpm to make the most of this.

You have also published in the series Jazz Poetry Bundle: Ballad Of The Nocturnal Commune, Michael Horovitz accompanied by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon & Paul Weller. One shot?
The “Bankbusted Nuclear Detergent Blues” and 7” single “Ballad Of The Nocturnal Commune” were projects that the poet Michael Horovitz brought to us when we were preparing the first of the Jazz Poetry Superjam projects, the “Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead” box set. We’ve now put all three together in a bundle, but they’re still available separately. Also nice to have the common denominator of Michael with the musicians of the 60’s (Stan Tracey, Bobby Wellins, Jeff Clyne) to the musicians of today (Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Paul Weller).

You prefer objects (45’s boxset, limited edition), special projects. A way to retain the audience? To maintain the attention in front all the others issues?
There is no plan, it’s just to release in the format that matches the project. The Jazz Poetry box set featured two albums and a large format booklet so it needed a box to keep the assets together. We’re stopping limited editions though, that’s become too much of a marketing cliche, so we will repress as long as there’s a market and we have the rights to do so.

Blues For The Orient

Do you think your audience is becoming more faithful over time?
Yes indeed, there’s a growing number of people who buy everything we release, and we have a strong community who let us know what they think about our records and our philosophy.

Nowadays, there are many LP labels who follow this model, I mean more quality even if it’s more expensive… but in same time, there are also another «new» LP market, with major companies come-back and other labels, who prefer to sell cheaper. Is it the (re)creation of two camps for the LP?
Quality costs money. We use the highest quality materials, lined inner sleeves, resealable bags, the best pressing plant (Optimal Media) and were making relatively small runs. We could make records cheaper, but they wouldn’t be as good quality.

There are more and more reissues of old LP’s, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
Thankfully we don’t do reissues (except for the Nico that was only available on vinyl for a short time in the 80’s), but there are only so many records that can be reissued from original master tapes or high quality files. It’s important that people know what they’re buying, the source for the music, how it was cut and how well manufactured. What will hurt the vinyl market is bad vinyl, and there’s quite enough of that already. This isn’t a marketing exercise, this is about vinyl being the best medium for listening to music.

What are your other next releases?
Our major release for the first quarter is a double album from Binker and Moses entitled “Journey to the Mountain of Forever”. The first disc features the duo, the second disc features friends Evan Parker, Byron Wallen, Tori Handsley, Sarathy Korwar and Yussef Dayes. The sessions took place over two days resulting in 10 reels of tape filled with over five hours of music. It’s a major step forward from “Dem Ones” and a labour of love for Gearbox. We will have a previously unreleased Sun Ra solo piano 7” for Record Store Day, another 7” single from Cooper-Moore and Mad King Edmund, a live album recently recorded at Ronnie Scott’s from Nitin Sawhney and a fabulous unreleased Thelonious Monk concert from 1963.

What is the LP you dream of issuing/reissuing?
It would have to be something that no one knew existed until the very moment the tapes were discovered. Or, if it was a reissue, it would be a privilege to cut and release “Kind of Blue” from the original 3 track master tape, especially as we have one of the very few valve 3 tracks 1/2 inch machines in existence to do it the justice it deserves.

http://www.gearboxrecords.com

Matt Temple is a living encyclopedia when it comes to South African Grooves. From Jive, Disco or the incredible local Jazz scene, the Matsuli Blog (with Matt Temple in London, and Chris Albertyn in South Africa) has been over the years a priceless source of information for anybody interested in the subject. The quality of its releases has been one of the most consistent of recent years from the Jazzy Disco sound of Dick Khoza to the incredible Spiritual Jazz sound of Batsumi or Sathima Bea Benjamin. Here’s the story behind this phenomenal record archiving experience.

When did you start digging records?
I started buying records in the mid-seventies when I was a teenager but this wasn’t really digging. I would be saving up money and buying albums I read about or friends recommended.

What LPs did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
The first LPs I got were albums by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. Pretty soon I moved to punk, post-punk, ska and reggae LPs by the Clash, Specials, Joy Division, Bob Marley and others. I’ve probably heard these LPs too much but I do still listen to them from time to time.

Do you have a particular style or favorite period?
I listen to a lot of music from many different periods and genres. But when it comes to collecting I particularly like Congolese rumba from the 1960s, East African musiki wa dans from the seventies, West African latin and manding sounds as well as lots of tropical styles from cumbia, salsa through to reggae and funk. The period 1960-1980 is key.

Are you still digging’, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
I visit second hand stores in London regularly but the internet has normalized pricing so chance findings are rare. I love visiting new record stores, especially when travelling, mostly believing that I might find something of interest. I was recently in Cartagena and picked up a great stack of cumbia and salsa originals.

What was your first release on Matsuli?
This was Dick Kloza’s Chapita LP in June 2010.

 
Why did you choose this name: Matsuli?
It was based on the South African Motella label design and is a combination of people’s names.

What could be your editorial/aesthetic line?
Music archaeologists bringing lost musical recordings back to life. And we focus on bringing back original albums, rather than compilations.

How to describe your work? Memory? historian? journalist? witness?
We are on the one hand archivists bringing back to the public important musical works that have been lost, and on the other hand curators as we selecting specific recordings that will be commercially viable.

Do you think Batsumi, the mythical combo of Soweto (you released their two recordings of the mid-1970s), is one of the best musical synthesis between local rhythmic and harmonic jazz? How this soundtrack combines spirituality, with the writings of Frantz Fanon and the impulses of Steve Biko, the soul-funk grooves and the more traditional melodic lines?
As archivists we are left with physical artefacts in the form of vinyl LPs, or master tapes. There are many groups missing from recognition, groups that for whatever reason were unable to record their material. But Batsumi are an incredible group and their albums – together with those from Malombo, Xoliso, Malopoets and others – mark a high-point for indigenous afro jazz in South Africa.

Batsumi Group Shot
 

“African Songbird”, Sathima Bea Benjamin’s LP, is one of the biggest holy grail that you have reissued. All the spirit of this session of homecoming is reflected in ‘Africa’, a love song and a political declaration. The same year she gave birth to Tsidi, now female rapper Jean Grae. How did you work with this singer? Do you see a sign of fate that she died just after this reissue?
We signed a contract with her and Rashid Vally who sponsored the original sessions. Matsuli launched the reissue over three days in Cape Town where I had a chance to spend time with her, talking about the past and the future. It was very sad to learn of her death just a few months after we had re-issued the LP. At the time I wrote this reflection: “Hi Rashid, is it true?”, “Yes Matt she is on the other side.” With what feels like a physical blow to the body I try to make sense of it all. Barely a month earlier I was in Cape Town for what was to be Sathima’s swan song: Observatory celebrating the reissue of her 1976 masterpiece African Songbird that I’d just reissued on my label. Although suffering from flu Sathima commanded the room with the voice of an angel. The electric atmosphere and crowded space only enhanced the palpable sense of being in the presence of greatness. As we mark Sathima’s birthday today I’m still trying to make sense of it all. Her long struggle to be heard, never playing on her African roots and resolutely uncommercial with a complete commitment to classic jazz idioms. And a big shadow cast by her partner Abdullah Ibrahim, the challenges of motherhood exacerbated by exile and an uneasy homecoming from the Chelsea Hotel in New York where she said she felt most at home. Sathima had the unique ability to strike first at your heart, not unlike the experience of hearing Billie Holiday for the first time. She cites hearing Billie’s performance in Lady Sings the Blues as being pivotal to her development as a singer. And Sathima’s original compositions like Africa and Nations in Me eschew the commonly prescribed categories of race and nationhood propagated by Apartheid. It’s a powerful combination. Her final performance at Tagore’s was highly anticipated and packed shoulder-to-shoulder. Some initial microphone issues before Sathima took to the stage, backed by the Hilton Schilder Trio, to perform one more time her classic songbook tunes, laments and the anthem Africa. “I’ve been gone much too long/and I’m glad to say that I’m home, I’m home to stay…” I was so happy for her despite the knowledge that perhaps this might all be too late. We spoke late into the evening at the Labia Cinema on Sunday and at the Mahogany Room on Tuesday about taking this forward. Too late, and now she’s on the other side. And that’s our lament: that home is still the other side.

In the liner notes of Inhlupeko Soul Jazzmen, it says: «South African jazz players felt a strong affinity with John Coltrane, who had died only a couple of years earlier.» Indeed, this record could have been also recorded on Blue Note or Prestige. How do you explain this relationship, this influence with American jazz? How South African could buy this kind of records?
South Africa was not cut off – local companies reissued jazz and Blue Note, Prestige and Riverside LPs were also imported. As the notes suggest American jazz represented an urban modern and proudly black articulation of identity. It is not at all surprising that under the social constraints of Apartheid that jazz represented the idea of an identity free of those mental and physical chains.

At the same time, other musicians were forced into exile, such as Blue Notes or Chris McGregor. Is this a scene you want to document too, as does the Ogun label?
Ogun has done an outstanding job of documenting this particular area. One artist whose recordings are sadly out of print is Johnny Dyani – it would be great to produce a box set of his material that came out on various European labels.

In the future is “Tshona” by Pat Matshikiza & Kippie Moketsie, a possible reissue? What about Dollar Brand’s “Mannenberg” or “Underground in Africa”?
Tshona and Mannenberg are very well know and have been reissued a number of times. They are not that difficult to find. Tshona was in fact Kippie’s answer to Mannenberg’s success. Underground in Africa and Shikiza Matshikiza (Pat and Kippie’s second album together) are definitely on the radar though.

Pops Mohamed in seventies…

Black Disco
Echo On The Delay

In another vein, just as spiritual, you publish nowadays a LP with Pops Mohammed: “Black Disco”. Could you tell us more about the story of this record? The history of this band? What about their 2 other LP’s?
The sleeve notes written by Gwen Ansell, author of Soweto Blues, tells it much better than me: Just before the first Black Disco album was made, Rashid Vally’s As-Shams label (which also handled The Dynamics) had released Abdullah Ibrahim’s Mannenberg. Mohamed already knew bassist Sipho Gumede from Dorkay House. At Vally’s Kohinoor record store, he was introduced to Capetonian Coetzee, still in town after the Mannenberg recording session. “Rashid said: ‘This is Pops—he’s a new guy and he’s got compositions. Why don’t you guys talk…?’” Mohamed remembers. A vehicle was hired to bring his Yamaha from his home, and the first Black Disco album was cut: a trio with no drummer. He describes his earlier formations as “experiments”—Black Disco gave Mohamed his direction. After Night Express, he went on to become a co-founder of Movement in the City, with Cape Town drummer Monty Webber. “The name was code for let’s fight the system. It was a very dark time for us, personally and politically, and their two albums including Black Teardrops (another title the censor didn’t like) came from that emotional place.”

How could such a group like that exist , survive, play during Apartheid ?
There was a strong music scene under Apartheid. Record companies were keen to exploit the newly urbanised black population in the late 1960s and seventies. The real problem for groups was venues in which to play and record companies who would release their material. Things became a lot more difficult after the Soweto uprising in 1976 and the military-dominated government of PW Botha through the eighties

Ndikho Xaba and the Natives is part of an aesthetic commitment. More broadly, the system of segregation still very important, (present ?), between the lines, in your LPs . Can we read a political process? Point of view?
Our release programme can be read as a political statement, but I think reducing music to such interpretations reduces the transcendental power of music and assumed identity. It’s the transcendence that holds the power.

Do you think jazz is a soundtrack of emancipation?
Music has the power to transcend but emancipation from economic and cultural barriers requires a lot more work.

How do you decide on the choice of reissues?
We try to identify lost South African recordings that are in demand in second-hand circles.

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
The track ‘Africa’ by Sathima Bea Benjamin.

Chris Albertyn, Sathima Bea Benjamin and Matt Temple
 

What is the Matsuli LP you are prouder? why?
“African Songbird” – its beauty and the personal connection made with Sathima…

The memory of this scene, you revive, it is still present in the South African youth?
There is a strong renaissance of jazz and many younger players are taking the journey forward.

Are you listening to the new South African scene, jazz and soul? And is it connected with the new wave of jazz in London and UK, including children and heirs of the first generation African immigrant?
I listen to a lot of the younger South African jazz players but not that much soul. I am always on the lookout for unique music. Many of the new jazz generation have started touring to Japan, the USA and Europe. We also have British musicians like Shabaka Hutchings who has recently recording a new album in South Africa. So there is a lot of cross-fertilisation. I’m sure that the South African musicians would like more exposure but increasingly as a result of the gentrification of cities like London it is difficult to sustain a strong jazz circuit.

“Night on Earth” is a record session of kora. Could you tell us more about Derek Gripper, who has produced some of South Africa’s most extraordinary musical works, fusing the country’s disparate creative traditions with styles from around the world?
I first heard Derek Gripper’s album of kora compositions played on the guitar a few years ago and I was astounded by his playing and approach. We spoke at length about an album of him playing compositions by Philip Tabane of Malombo, or including other up and coming South African musicians re-interpreting South African standards. Who knows we may still explore this further. But we took a risk to release something different from our usual agenda in order for people to appreciate his work. And slowly he is now getting further recognition, having played recently with some of his musical heroes in Mali. It’s something very unusual and therein was the appeal.

Ndikho
Xaba Shwabada

This record is a bit out of general aesthetics of Matsuli catalogue: it is a current production in which we play themes Toumani Diabate on kora … Is it a way that you keep pursuing?
We are willing to take chances and we loved Derek Gripper’s LP so much we wanted to release it. For a long time, we have also sought to find ways we can bring some of the newer jazz onto our label. This is ongoing.

Nowadays, there are many LP labels who follow as you the model, « Less Is more », I mean more quality even if it’s more expensive… but in the same time, there are also another « new » LP market, with major companies come-back and other labels, who prefer to sell cheaper. Is it the (re)creation of two camps for the LP?
We try to keep our costs as low as possible but with very specific production standards. I’m starting to see quite a few re-issue companies taking the low cost route with certain production values being compromised. I suppose we try to strike a balance between affordability and quality. We are seeing major labels starting to lean heavily on production plants with smaller labels such as ourselves being delayed in our release schedule. Whilst there are many people who are choosing vinyl because it is in vogue I am confident that our niche audience will always stick in vinyl as opposed to paying subscriptions to technology companies for the right to listen to streams.

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
I think that good music will always prevail amongst our customers, so it’s really important to keep our standards high. The saturation will come with sub-standard material…

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs, artists, unreleased tapes, you were trying to reissue?
Not yet, although licensing and claims of ownership have stopped us from considering some specific albums.

What are your next releases?
We want to issue one of the early Harari LPs and then we are also looking at an exciting project of 78s where we hope to compile a number of albums around certain themes. Most of this material has never been released outside of its original appearance on 78 shellac.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
The first South African jazz LP by Sathima Bea Benjamin – this was cut to acetate but is now long lost.

CHECK THE BLOG

Each month, we are focusing on a record label founded by an active digger. This month, Miles Cleret from Soundway Records, one of our favorite labels around! From their amazing compilation series to beautiful reissues and great new tropical acts (think the mighty Meridian Brothers!), Miles Cleret’s choices and opinions are clearly worth checking!
 
 
 

When did you start digging records?
Properly when I was a teenager I guess – my dad was a digger (Jazz & Soul and 50s RnB and Rock & Roll mostly) so there were plenty in his house when I was growing up. It was hard though as money wasn’t an easy thing to get at the age of 14 but back then (the 80s) you could get good stuff in little record fairs and market stalls and there were just tons of record shops everywhere – even outside of London. The age of expensive rare records hadn’t really begun apart from the mega-fans who collected the big names in Rock and Pop (of which the UK had a lot). I wasn’t looking for rare stuff then though – just music that seemed exciting and new.

What Lps did you buy at first? Do you still listen to them?
Well not the very first records I bought – they were mostly really terrible pop records from when I was about 10. There was a store in the UK called Woolworths and you could buy discounted ex-chart 45s for about 20 pence so I’d spend all my pocket money on them for a few years until I was about 13. I remember buying most of the Beatles albums really cheaply on Spanish editions on a holiday in Barcelona when I was about 13 at a record store that was closing down. That changed my musical life a lot (my dad hated the Beatles so never had those records in the house) and then David Bowie, The Clash, the Cure and and then when I was about 14 or 15 I got into bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Hawkwind, Gong, The Grateful Dead, Caravan, Traffic etc – and yes I still listen to those LPs but I didn’t for a long time until recently – they have a way of transporting me back to my youth. Then I got into funk, jazz, hip hop and reggae and electronic music a few years later and dropped the guitar sound for quite a few years.

Do you have a particular style or favourite period?
No, not really now. I have pretty wide ranging tastes from the 1950s right up until yesterday. I know I don’t like much really heavy Thrash Metal, Goa Trance & also commercial pop etc to name a few styles. For quite a few years just before Soundway started in the late 90s I was pretty entrenched in records (mostly jazz, funk, soul, afro & latin) made between 65-76, but at some point or other over the last 20 years I’ve been into Detroit style techno, underground House, Psych-Rock, Prog-Rock, Synth-pop, Electronica, Boogie, Disco, Soca, Reggae, Dub and more. I just love hearing new kinds of music and I would get really bored if I stuck to one area exclusively. That kind of happened with West African music for about 8 years – I still love it and collect it but had to get out of solely listening to that stuff after soaking myself in it for all the comps we did back then.

Are you still digging, buying vinyl, visiting record shops?
Yes but nothing like as much as I used to – I have kids now so I’d be neglecting them if I was digging as much as I used to (I am in Indonesia as I type though about to go digging in Java for three days starting tomorrow). I try to be less obsessive than I used to be and let stuff go occasionally if I don’t DJ with it (Can’t afford not to really) – Personally I believe it can be un-healthy to obsess too much on the collection – you can never have them all so best just to enjoy the music and get your fix from the musicians and people involved in the music scene (easier said than done with some records though!). I also move around a lot and we have been out of the UK a bit recently so I don’t currently have a record “cave” – most of my records are in storage.

What was your first release?
“Ghana Soundz”: Afro-Beat, Funk & Fusion in 70s Ghana…
 

 
Gyedu Blay Ambolley
Simigwad
 

Why did you choose this name, Soundway? what does that represent?
It’s the title of a track by a band called Wrinkar Experience from Nigeria and was quite a big hit in West Africa in the 70s on EMI. The name just stuck as I was listening to it a lot in Ghana when I was starting the label and it kind of sounded right.

Among your first releases were the Ghana Soundz series which gained cult status. How did you work on it? how did you prepare that? Was it a longtime project?
It took about 2 years to do the first Volume. I went travelling in Ghana with my wife in 2001 and at the end of the trip had a couple of days digging records in Kumasi & Accra. The stuff I found was mind-blowing to me at the time. I’d spent a few years previously getting into afro stuff after all the American jazz, soul & funk etc and would try and find records in the UK at record fairs etc but it was hard to find and this was before the days when you could really get much real African stuff on ebay or the internet (with some notable exceptions). There’s an English collector named Duncan Brooker who works with Strut and he had been in Nairobi working when we were about 18 – he came back with some incredible 45s and some Kenyan presses of Nigerian recordings that he traded and sold at the time, but Ghana stuff was invisible – especially the ‘afro’ stuff. So I went back to Ghana on-and-off for a year just really going deep into looking for records, artists, producers and decided to do a compilation of non-highlife music. It was a great time and I was lucky enough not to have any competition from other labels for the styles i wanted to license at the time so I could take my time and really concentrate on it without there being any other people there from outside Ghana doing what I was doing or looking for records. Records would sit on the street with second-hand dealers and in stores for months without being bought and were cheap so there was no pressure to buy quickly – nobody really wanted them apart from a few Ghanaian collectors who helped school me. Hard to imagine now. There were also still some ‘recording studios’- relics of the 80s, where a shop would have a big collection of vinyl but would use it to record custom-made cassettes for customers – the internet killed most of them off a few years back. It was all just trial and error and great times getting to know people like Ebo Taylor, K. Frimpong, K. Gyasi’s son, Dick Essiebons and Kwadwo Donkor and hanging out with them at their homes and prising the stories and the pieces of the jigsaw from them over time.

After those you released a whole bunch of other records in the same mould such as the Kenya Special record. Has this become your trademark? Which one was the most fulfilling?
Ghana Soundz and the Nigeria Special series were the most fulfilling because the music was all so new to me at the time. I had no kids then so time wasn’t an issue and when you start a label and you’re young you have to keep pinching yourself that this is what you’re actually doing as a job. Its just so exhilarating and fresh and records you had no idea existed were popping up on an almost daily basis. That is still the case on certain projects but as the label gets bigger and bigger you can get bogged down in the administration side of things which is not something you need to worry about so much when you only have a handful of releases in your catalogue. and you’re starting out.

One of the lesser known parts of your activity is record-digging. When did you go to Africa first for that purpose?
In 2001. I was in Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ethiopia & Nigeria a lot between the years 2001-2005.
 

Fubura Sekibo
Psychedelic Bab
 

How was Nigeria when you first got there? What’s your best record digging story in Lagos?
Nigeria is huge and so full of incredible music it still astounds and surprises me now. I first went there in 2002 – Strut had just put out their Nigeria 70 comp and I’d been in touch with Quinton Scott so had a few contacts from him. There were amazing records there then but much harder to find than in Accra – Lagos is a big big place with terrible traffic so getting around the city is a problem. Its just a vast metropolis but those places always have great records if you look hard. I travelled out of Lagos a few times as well but again you really need to live there to get consistent record hauls – it’s not the sort of place you find stuff immediately in so all the Nigerian dealers and collectors are the ones who usually get the best stuff. For this reason (and because they are very good) Nigerian records have gone bananas price-wise recently though so you need to mortgage your house or be very rich these days to be able to buy from the dealers. I was lucky to get a lot of great records before it all went sky-high. I once found a box of mint Afrodisia 45s (50 different titles) whilst visiting the house of a retired producer who had subsequently become pretty wealthy in the pharmaceutical business. Its very hard to find 45s in that kind of condition over there and some of those titles I’ve never seen anywhere since. When I asked him how much he wanted for them he said I could just have them all and that he no longer wanted them. Finds don’t come much better than that.

You are responsible for remarkable selections, reissues, as music from Siam, or Nigerian disco… How do you decide on the choice of reissues/issues?
Just what we have time and money to do and feels right really – music that I like – it’s no more exact a science than that. But I do like to try not to rush things.

You released a great selection of highlife, but there wasn’t a big echo in the press (in France anyway). How could you explain this?
I guess you mean the “Highlife On the Move” compilation? It got some good attention but I think 1950s highlife is not particularly hip for journalists right now – maybe will never be. I think that was a very important compilation to make though. Its the genesis of the afrobeat story so it will be a solid catalogue title for a few years to come – not one that blows up at the beginning but chugs along nicely. I think it looks and sounds beautiful as well.

Family Atlantica, musicians from both sides of the Atlantic

 

Have you received many negative answers on some of the LPs you were trying to reissue?
One or two – mostly by people who believe they can out-perform the market and sell hundreds of thousands of copies more than all the other releases in the same genre! There are some big egos out there and the music industry has more than it’s fair share- always has and always will. Most people (95%) are cool though – but occasionally some do take a bit of convincing. Some are also worried that they don’t technically have the rights sign a master contract as they signed the rights away when they were young. Others have no such worries at all!

There are more and more reissues of old LPs, and more and more record labels (major or indie) now release their new artists on LP, or EP. Do you think that the LP reissue market could ever reach saturation point?
I think it’s possible yes. There are certainly a lot of people who buy vinyl because either they think it’s cool (often these people are just rich and don’t actually ever listen to music properly) and or because they see it as a good investment, which it often is these days. I think it’s inevitable that many of those people will offload it all in spades in a few years and the market could see a glut of cut-price titles. The whole vinyl speculator thing is a pain in the arse to be honest. Its just people with money buying up stock and then letting it back out at way over the odds – and these are people who can afford to sit on it. It’s not necessarily a bad things for labels as they sell out quickly on limited runs but it just means the vinyl market is controlled by investors and real music fans with not enough money to keep up can’t get the releases they want for the right price. Simple economics I guess but I never really thought it would hit the new vinyl world in quite the way it has.

You are not only focused on « old » Lp, compilations. What is the best deal/business: to make reissues or to produce/coproduce new records?
New records are a better thing to do for me personally right now but not necessarily always the best business in the short term – it’s a commitment and emotional investment in the music scene right now. Re-issues and compilations may sell quicker in the short run but over time for a label I think new releases and building catalogue in that area is the best way to go. Also we run a publishing company that publishes much of our new output – This is potentially a far better way to pay the bills in the long term but it takes time and is far from always predictable. People’s attitude to old music is that it’s somehow validated by time – they have a solid idea about the 60s or the 70s or the 80s (or now the 90s) in their heads that’s been confirmed by hundreds of books, documentaries, social commentaries and articles in a way that whats happening now isn’t. Some people play safe and wait or tell themselves they only like music of a certain era – it’s very much like vintage fashion. The idea of music existing in a far-off pre-internet time (and somewhere more exotic) makes many people trust it more somehow especially if it’s a bit wonky, loveable or low-fi. Of course music can be very evocative of a certain time and eras go in and out of fashion with different generations. Occasionally records turn up that are meant to look old and people aren’t sure. There was a Caribbean calypso-funk 45 a few years ago that was made in 1999 but sold as a 70s record – I remember a few people going nuts over it but then were upset when they found out it wasn’t old – the music remained exactly the same but the provenance had changed so it became less ‘real’ somehow in their eyes.

Batida feat Sacerdote
Bantu
 

Are they two different jobs?
New bands are obviously more demanding and the process of promoting new records is much more involved – compilations and re-issues often sell themselves – so yes a little bit.

Dexter Story looks like a vintage record, just like Ghana Soundz. What is this project about, and how does it fit into your catalogue ?
Dex is a very experienced musician who has played on a lot of amazing musicians’ records from Kamasi Washington to Gaslamp Killer and way beyond. He is from Los Angeles but like many people over the past ten years became obsessed with classic Ethiopian and East African music. The Wondem project has it’s feet rooted in the 1960s, 70s & 80s music of that region but is also extremely modern in many ways and not just a straight retro duplicate – that was what attracted me to it.

Could you tell us more about Fumaça Preta and Batida. Is there a « luso » connection ? How did you discover them ?
Fumaça Preta are a band that again struck me because of the way they took wigged out Brazilian psychedelic rock from the 70s but melded it with bits of acid house, punk and metal in a way I hadn’t really heard anyone else do. They reference a ‘smorgasbord’ of musical styles from Funaná to Funk but wrap it up in their own unique, lysergic way. Alex the drummer is a big time record collector who co-runs a store in Amsterdam called Vintage Voodou – he sent me the demos and I was hooked immediately.
Batida is an electronic dance act from Lisbon run by DJ Pedro Coquenão. He grew up in Angola and so was immersed in the sounds of classic 70s Angolan music all around him which he sampled and incorporated into his sets. These morphed into the Batida live show that features dancers, live musicians and slide shows – he entertains and educates people in equal measure at his gigs. I heard Batida on a compilation that came out a few years ago on Crammed by the Radioclit/Secousse crew and got in touch with Pedro tyo see if we could work on an album.

Meridian Brothers, Bomba Estereo, Los Miticos Del Ritmo, Family Atlantica, again another branch of Soundway, more South American. What could be the meeting point of all these releases?
I guess they are all in some way referencing the music we re-issued on compilations and re-issues and so it was an obvious progression – I think we’ll get further and further away from that in time though and already this year we are signing some acts that have nothing at all to do with South America or Africa.

 
Meridian Brothers
Doctor Trompeta
 

Can we mention a certain eclecticism in terms of catalogue? Is it more difficult to be well received, well identified, by the media and record shops or is it in fact a force?
Again I think it’s harder in the short term – Many journalists and distributors/stores just want to put you in a one genre box and keep you there but I couldn’t think of doing that – As I said before I have very wide tastes musically so want to keep moving and surprising rather than getting stuck in one place. Its tough sometimes but as the catalogue grows people start to get it. Major labels can do it so why not independents?

What could be the label’s leitmotif?
Music from Planet Earth : Past, Present, Future.

What are your next releases?
New Albums by Fumaca Preta (Darker and more introspective than the first maybe) & Family Atlantica (featuring Marshall Allen and Orlando Julius). Psychedelic pop from Flamingods with “Majesty” – I saw these guys in a tent I was DJing in at Glastonbury last year and was blown away – a whole band of multi-instrumentalists who met in London and the Middle East. This is their third album and has shades of early Pink Floyd, Os Mutantes, the Beatles & Sun City Girls, crashing into Les Baxter and Martin Denny. Then we have a new 45 by Chico Mann, Kenya Special Volume 2 , re-issues of People Rock Outfit and Jay-U experience from Nigeria and some edit 12s. Later on in the year I hope the new Ondatropica album will drop alongside some more new signings and re-issues etc and a comp of Nigerian Disco and Boogie.

What is the LP you dream of reissuing?
If I tell you that 100’s of other people will try and do it first!
 
 

https://www.soundwayrecords.com/Shop/

 
 

Talib Kibwe
Pinacle Of Joy

“I love this record. I bought a copy from French record dealer Victor Kiswell because it featured one of my favourite pianists and Paris resident Bobby Few. I played ‘Pinnacle of Joy’, which has a very fast and funky flute intro, at a club in London and Gilles Peterson, no less, came over and took a photo of the album cover!”

Craig Hundley Trio
Arrival

“I picked up this record in Los Angeles as I was intrigued by the album cover: three smiling teenagers bathed in the Californian sunshine. Craig Hundley was a child television star and as the track ‘Arrival’ suggests also a seriously good pianist.”

XTC
Jason And The Argonauts

“Britain was a hot bed of musical creativity in the eighties, not least in the pop mainstream where bands like XTC were pushing the envelope. ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ is brilliant; English eccentricity mixed with prototype house.”

The Colourfield
I Can’t Get Enough You Baby

“I love Terry Hall, he’s a musical genius. I think he was way ahead of his time and never given the recognition he deserves. ‘I Can’t Get Enough of you Baby’ is performed by his band The Colourfield who lasted just two albums but set the stall for later music trends. The track is from the Japanese issue of the album.”

Futura 2000 (feat. The Clash)
The Escapades of Futura 2000

“I love street art, especially graffiti, and Futura 2000 is one of my favourite artists – I once travelled from London to Paris just to see an exhibition of his. ‘The Escapades of Futura 2000’ is an early hip hop record he cut with none other than The Clash as the backing band. The instrumental version is particularly good.”