TS: BBE vs. Soul Jazz

Soul Jazz. Not even close.

Classic Soul Jazz stuff of the top of my head:

Dynamite Series
Studio One stuff (esp. the Roots & Scorchers series)
Saturday Night Fish Fry
Mantronix "influences" comp
ESG collections (not technically on SJ maybe?)
Nice Up The Dance
Joe Gibbs
Arthur Russell comp
New Thing!
Can You Jack? house thing
Big Apple Rappin
New York Noise series
Ragga Twins!!!

who the hell is BBE?

Soul Jazz

Some other British boutique label that's not Honest Jon's or Soul Jazz.

Soul Jazz is very good. I'd welcome a TS: Soul Jazz v. Numero Group thread, tho. They seem like two reissue heavyweights (different focuses, I guess, with Soul Jazz being more reggae/dancehall/jazz vs. Numero Group being more soul/miscellaneous-type stuff).

Soul Jazz is better than Numero Group by virtue of me actually caring about stuff that Soul Jazz releases.

See, and it's sort of the reverse for me.

Obv., tho, I like Soul Jazz much more than you like The Numero Group.

I don't dislike Numero Group, I just haven't heard any of the stuff they put out and I'm not inclined to want to find out about it at the prices they charge for discs. Whereas I want want want that Ragga Twins disc and would possibly sell my first born for it.

ragga twins disc has 5 super good songs. i dont much like the instrumentals.

alex in sf should check 'recording tap'

http://www.discogs.com/release/1352749

Yeah this sounds good, but I'll be honest my caring about soul/disco/funk "treasures" is at a all time low right now. Esp. since I'm guessing this costs what $30? $40?

My annual subscription to The Numero Group gets me each disc at $20.00. ($120/year for 6 discs).

i thought this was a revive thread from 6years ago

me too

bbe any day.

dunno, souljazz's hard-edged curatorial thing is just a bit bleh is all

Not sure I see much of a difference there. Their desing aesthetic is about a million times better.

BBE covers look like they were put together by someone who only has one font. I guess if you are barely breaking even you aren't spend a lot of money on artwork.

who gives a shit!

bbe isn't a "reissue label" as such the way souljazz is - they're a bunch of herbs who bump spinna and ibadan and lol amalgamationz of soundz and d'nell and other things they like and then they put out old stuff. souljazz on the other hand are beady-eyed little sods who make a big deal about putting out a kid 606 record.

bbe did put out dillah's Welcome to Detroit which is A+++ in my book

Haha I don't give a shit what kind of people they are (or look like)! I'm not gonna date them! I do give a shit what covers and notes look like though. If I'm going to buy an overpriced import I'd rather it not look like a piece of shit.

I assumed we were comparing their "old" stuff, but if we want to get into original releases I'm betting that kid606 record still wipes the floor w/ DJ Vadim or whatever.

bollocks it does!

i'm just not really interested in how useful bbe are in terms of filling the gaps in my locust knowledge or whatever. i could caricature souljazz a bit more but you probly get the picture.

Haha your caricatures just make me think that you spend too much time hanging around these guys and less time listening to records.

we haven't even talked about the best stuff on BBE:

disco spectrum
disco spectrum 2
disco spectrum 3
disco forever
soul spectrum
jazz spectrum
jazz spectrum 2
latin spectrum 1
latin spectrum 2

here's another great bbe-ish label: harmless

but the best of all must be STRUT

nonwithstanding the fact that i'd most likely take any strange games over a souljazz comp, that's probably exactly the case. rather be one of those guys when i get (back to being) old than a woebot!

the supposed "quality" of soul jazz's stuff mainly comes down to a talent at making their stuff seem supremely important, and a canny eye for following trends. and they have access to studio one.

but i would argue that harmless' fania-oriented boogaloo reissue series (kool it!, broasted or fried, funk off, bigbadboogaloo, yo!, etc) are better snapshots of 60s/70s latin soul than soul jazz's, or hell, even fania's own reissues!

harmless is really underrated ... their "pulp fusion" albums are also fantastic, as are their "africa funk" series of disco-ish afrobeat ... though they don't really hold a candle to, and are obviously copies of, strut's afrobeat efforts

another great thing harmless did: the definitive hippie soul comps, make music and as we travel.

I think Soul Jazz's success has more that with their best comp they've actually picked ya know good stuff and put it out there. They've put out plenty of duds, I'll agree, but all the stuff I've listed above is pretty unimpeachably great.

FTR I don't want to be Woebot either (that guy's got some weird issues) but rather buy a CD compiled by him than a collection of soul classics put together by Cut Chemist.

yeah if you would actually take the time (no, your time is probably too valuable?) to look at the BBE / harmless / strut back catalogues you'd see they actually picked ya know good stuff and put it out there too

strut is neither over-rated nor under-rated, but i think at times like this it's good to chime in and remind people how influential strut really was. "disco not disco" basically single-handedly repopularized post-punk, avant-disco, arthur russell type stuff, their africa sets opened the gates for all of the honest jon's and soundways and antibalas's (the contemporaneous fela reissue series helped too, i guess), and they also had a big role in repopularizing classicist disco too (though not so much as nuphonic)

this disc blows doors on soul jazz's "nu yorica roots"

so much more relevant than "acid: can you jack"

I like Strut plenty, but they were (until recently anyway) defunct. I don't rate any of the releases on BBE and Harmless that I've heard on the level of the Soul Jazz stuff I've listed above.

Relevant to what? Your little world?

so good ... but why buy this, when you can hear kurtis mantronix connect the dots between (OMG!!!) visage, YMO, yello and sakamoto!

u mad doggie?

I'll take a bunch of full length Chicago House over butchered edits of a NY House Classics TYVM.

Haha you got to be kidding. Yeah I will listen to that Mantronix comp (which is probably the weakest thing on my list) over that "Funk Rock" comp.

"acid tracks", "no way out", "video clash", "box energy", "this is acid" ... not exactly lost classics, given the dozens of acid house revival comps that came out over the last 5 years.

suit yourself

Aren't there like 20 tracks on that comp, goofus?

you win this argument "by virtue of actually caring"

FTR I don't want to be Woebot either (that guy's got some weird issues) but rather buy a CD compiled by him than a collection of soul classics put together by Cut Chemist.

-- Alex in SF, Friday, 4 July 2008 00:11 (9 minutes ago

the weeks i spent buttering up the man behind the counter at beggars banquet to get ahold of brainfreeze just to hear this a decade later! you fucking terrorist!

LOL sorry to break heart.

"since i haven't heard anything but soul jazz comps that proves soul jazz comps are better"

Hey guess what you win this argument "by virtue of actually being a complete dickwad".

FTR though having not heard everything on a label /= having heard nothing on a label and not giving much of a shit about most of the stuff a label puts out does = a label I more consistently give a shit about is better.

soul jazz but ask again in 5 years time and it might be a different story though. also, if soundway up the ante a bit, they could be thee one a while down the line.

If you are a DJ it's BBE my miles, if you just listen to music on the hi-fi it's soul jazz.

by miles rather...

Why the DJ/home listener split?

Because BBE comps are a great way to get ahold of a lot of great tracks that would cost you a small fortune to buy individually as a 12". The Soul Jazz acid comp is a great example, the tracks are good but they are all currently in print and dirt cheap used because they were hits.

as said above, if you are a dance person BBE is a more valuable resource. If you are a Wire reading hi-fi dude Soul Jazz has more a catalog more in line with how you consume music. Again, DJ nerd reissue label vs record nerd reissue label.

Vahid and Alex are both right.

my kingdom for a bbe-curated 100% dynamite nyc... it is good though.

not my best moment on this thread ...

100% dynamite nyc is pretty good but THIS and THIS are so much better ...

(ok the second is not really germaine to 100% dynamite nyc discussion but it's sorta related in vibe & spirit to the first)

jermaine / germane

germane dupri

i didnt even know there was a 100dynamitenyc!

nah v you were on point throughout!!

yeah though that's what i was about to say; it's a very skilful and well researched sociohistoricocultural snapshot of a very particular place and time, atmospheric, every tentative step and grey area meticulously annotated... so uh why am i shelling out for an interesting blog post and not what coulda been the funnest comp ever! uncharitably speaking i might even go so far as to say they are kinda missing the miscegenatory point of it all but i'll just leave it at diff strokes 4 diff fauxks.

souljazz do deserve some sort of twisted props for the staggering achievement of a big raggarap comp WITH NO FUCKIN SALAAAM REMI ON IT!!!!

(though it is supposed he did ghost all the konders tunes. his poorest work if so!)

not even gonna get into omitting kenny dope, david morales/funk flex/actually popular & actually important blends etc etc but still.

to be fair they put some of that stuff on "nice up the dance"

Yeah there are two Dope tracks on that IIRC. Possible license issues with Flex and "actually popular & actually important blends"? I think what's here is pretty good (also generally undercompiled stuff) but not shocked that r|t|c has found something to complain about.

rite yeah sorry, there are a couple of bits on there. i forgot.

do me a lemon alex, i've been fairly posi here? i said it was a good comp and it is!

;-) no problem.

That Jon Carter mix looks pretty good. For some reason I always think of that guy as big room club techno, not ragga-hop.

well, he did stuff like that later ... tribal techno and prog house anthems

like most big beat, he was much better in the big beat era

I own more Soul Jazz and greatly respect what they do, but have listened to and loved BBE comps way more. It's like reference vs novel. I've never been disappointed by a purchase from either label and the same goes for Nuphonic.

PO5 reissue labels right now:

We Want Sounds
Habibi Funk
Numero
Light In The Attic
Soul Jazz

BBE had a very good run with those Japanese Jazz comps tho. Might also trade in Numero for Ace if they didn't feel kinda Too Big for this discussion.

Once upon a time, Soul Jazz and Soundway were the kings of the reissue world, for me anyway. But their moment seems to have passed and now BBE are doing a lot more stuff I'm interested in, particularly the J Jazz series (compilations and individual album reissues).

I think the Cuba and Venezuela stuff Soul Jazz has been doing is really top tier and mostly previously unexplored

Soundway still releasing excellent stuff. Ostinato doing grand things too

I caught up with a few Analog Africa comps this year that were all amazing

ftr: they were Mogadisco, Bambara Mystic Soul, and Space Echo (Cabo Verde stuff)

2nd all of those