Back catalogue: Reggae

Review: All Bad Boy & All Good Girl is a fascinating mixtape, first released in 2022, documenting the few and rare radio broadcasts that propagated a now-elusive, but decade-long, Mancunian form of street soul. Lasting from at least the mid-1980s to the mid 1990s, this exciting ream of 'extracts', here on the vinyl version coming as a playlist of nine, transports us right back to this scratchy, no-holds-barred chuggers' sound. Featuring DIY cassette recordings of bands such as Broadway, Stereo Dan and Soul Control playing live at dances and blues parties in south & central Manchester from 1988 through to 1996, Death Is Not The End do a stellar job as ever of compiling the most exquisite forgotten tracks in the style, as though they'd been beamed into the present through a trans-temporal airwave. Packed with the radio phase distortion, hiss, vocal and SFX interjections, dub sirens and delay-outs, this is much more than just a functional soulful soundclash.

Review: The brilliant Death Is Not The End has always done a great job of digging into niche scenes and serving up great albums that document them. Here the label presents a mixtape-style collection featuring live recordings from London's Notting Hill Carnival, spanning 1984 to 1988. Originally aired on NTS Radio in August 2018, this release marks a milestone in their 10th-anniversary series and it now comes on cassette. Highlights include sounds from renowned systems like Jamdown Rockers, Saxon, Java Nuclear Power, Killerwatt Turbotronic, Stereograph, Sir Coxsone, and Volcano Express. The audio, meticulously curated by the Who Cork The Dance crew, features contributions from Jayman, Ruff House, Keimo, Omar, Gee Wizz and Jah Humble.