Pages tagged “soul jazz”

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ESG: Come Away with ESG

Dance With Somebody: Infectious, influential no wave luminaries re-emerge As befits a genre defined by negation, No Wave barely existed; the term was shorthand—likely derived from “New Wave” and the title of the movement’s seminal document, the Brian Eno-produced compilation No New York—for a motley crew of antagonistic late-70s NYC-based bands who turned the tables on punk, making its reliance on hoary blues-based rock sound quaint. No Wave was only about what it was against, which was everything....  read more

Various Artists: Can You Dig It?: The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1968-1975

Compilation collects sound of aninfamous genre In 1971, Gordon Parks’ low-budget shoot-’em-up Shaft grossed $12 million and ushered in a new genre: Black Action. By 1976, the 50-odd films directed, acted, produced and scored by black professionals had been dubbed “Blaxploitation” by the NAACP and sparked so much protest from the Congress for Racial Equality that Hollywood essentially stopped funding them. African-American academia had good reason for shunning flicks like Shaft, Super Fly and Foxy Brown. Featuring black dealers, prostitutes and vigilantes as protagonists, the films peddled hard-boiled hustler stereotypes and luxuriated in the very myths they created. Pushers drove...  read more

Various Artists: An England Story—From Dancehall to Grime: 25 Years of the MC in the UK 1983-2008

An essential slab of hip-hop historyYes, it’s too long—and it’s not exactly packed with artists you know, even if you get down with Dizzee Rascal. But this two-disc compilation nonetheless serves a valuable purpose, reinforcing connections between British hip-hop and the Caribbean diaspora....  read more