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beautiful compilation by the Numero Group: great package, great music, super quality!
label text:
Samba Soul. Afro-beat. Reggae. What were once loose-fitting descriptions for American influenced homegrown R&B, are now but common parlance in the lexicon of genre classification. These regional movements all yielded monumental sonic innovations that returned to America with tidal force, eventually flooding the world with third world treasure. The music of Detroit and Memphis were quite possibly America's largest cultural export of the 1960s, spawning imitators with every radio wave that whispered "I've got sunshine..." or "Sittin' in the morning sun..." into the fertile ear of the uninitiated. For every Nigeria there were ten Ghana's, and every shiny Brazilian soulster had his counterpart in Peru, Argentina, and Columbia. Good news travels fast, and as the gospel of American soul hit the beaches of Trinidad, the Bahamas, and in this case, Belize, it was as though the Gods had not just spoken, but sung. A Cargo Cult is what happens when one culture begins worshipping the byproducts of another. Cult Cargo is the unexpected result of that devotion.
It is here in these sixty odd minutes that The Numero Group unveils a style of music completely unknown to the greater world before we dragged it from the beaches of Belize. The national dish of Belize is made with a diverse mixture of ingredients, pig's tail, potatoes, plantains, bananas, boiled eggs, yams, whole fish, thrown in a pot, and boiled to perfection. They call it a Boil Up. The music of this collection combines equal parts of R&B, calypso, disco, funk, reggae, bruckdown, soul, folk, and whatever else can be found back on the bottom shelf of the musical pantry. This too is called Boil Up, and it’s anything but leftovers.
Almost nothing was known of the records made in Belize between 1960 and 1980. A few bootleg compilations had lifted the Professionals break-laden cover of "Theme From The Godfather" while criminally ignoring their soul-cum-island-dancer "The Back Stabbers." The Soul Creations "Funky Jive" was a mid three figure single owned by few, though sought after by many before we turned up the remaining stock of that 45 in a dank basement under the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. That accidental discovery aside, Belize's CES label was a secret kept by time and a Belizean community that had moved away from phonograph records as soon as it was possible.
As is our habit here at Numero, we’ve taken special care in restoring these sixteen songs from their original analog sources. Paul Q Kolderie and Sean Slade at Camp Street (Radiohead, Pixies, Hole, Morphine), along with Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering worked side by side with us, scouring through more than thirty reels and thousands of feet of tape. Another hundred or so hours went into re-mastering, remixing and reevaluating, all in search of the perfect blend of passport stamped rhythms, second-deck cruise ship melodies, hotel pool calypso, soundtracks to movies not-yet-made, and anything else savory, or unsavory, enough to throw into the pot.
This deluxe 2LP set comes with two additional tracks not on the CD and a full color pull out sleeve detailing the history of Belizean vinyl, all housed in a gorgeous tip-on style gatefold sleeve.
Numero 006 |
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