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25 Years of Strut: Celebrating the Essential UK Reissue Label
In 1999, a budding UK imprint aligned with Soul Jazz Records introduced its first curated collection. Called Club Africa, it launched a discography that introduced so many disparate genres to so many searching-for-jams music freaks that, a quarter century later, Strut is synonymous with era-defining compilations.
We’ll be celebrating Strut at 25 at our Sound and Vision pop-up at ROW DTLA on Sunday (June 16) from 2-5 pm. As outlined on Strut’s Instagram, the label will be “hosting a pop-up record shop in collaboration with ISC and dublab to celebrate our 25 years as a label … Join us for vinyl, drinks (courtesy of friends at Madre Mezcal and Topo Chico) as well as some exclusive merchandise and full album playbacks of Strut classics.”
Founded in 1999 by Quinton Scott, Strut was among the early vinyl and CD reissue labels focused on unearthing and amplifying forgotten tracks from genres including Afrobeat, disco, funk and jazz. The label’s approach was influenced by Scott’s work with the esteemed Soul Jazz Records, where his skills at digging and licensing was propelled by an obvious appreciation for killer music. This relationship laid the groundwork for Strut’s commitment to preserving history and resurrecting old brilliance by bringing timeless tracks to new audiences. Alongside, Strut has provided a platform for contemporary artists, releasing new music by Heliocentrics, Mulatu Astatke, Oneness of Juju and dozens more.
With a Discogs page that lists 577 (and counting) titles, honing a list of 10 is a tough task. Here are some of the favorites from our collection.
Club Africa
Released in 1999 not long after Strut debuted with a collection of Ashley Beedle-approved tracks, Club Africa tapped contemporary sounds from across the continent, in the process documenting an evolving club culture increasingly influenced by borderless dance music.
Music For Dancefloors: The Cream Of The KPM Music Green Label Sessions
From the release notes:
Music For Dancefloors is a varied journey through the archives of the fabled and historic KPM Music Library. The phenomenon of the music library is unique, involving brilliant but anonymous composers and musicians creating short pieces of music to be made available for background use in film, television, and radio. The music wasn’t intended to be enjoyed in a home listening context, and in fact wasn’t available for commercial release at all, but the sheer quality of the playing and compositions resulted in the music finding an enthusiastic audience. Original promotional-only vinyl releases from KPM and other libraries of the 1960s and 70s (generally from print run of only 1,000 copies each) can now exchange hands for a small fortune.
Fac. Dance: Factory Records 12″ Mixes & Rarities 1980-1987
Before “Madchester,” there was Factory Records, the label founded by Tony Wilson, Alan Erasmus, and designer Peter Seville. Per Strut:
The album turns the spotlight on some of the label’s early dancefloor-based work across key 12” mixes and rarities, from the unmistakeable production style of Martin Hannett to pioneering studio work by New Order’s Bernard Sumner and A Certain Ratio drummer Donald Johnson, under their BeMusic and DoJo monikers.
Early Factory experiments like Blurt’s avant garde mutant funk blast ‘Puppeteer’ rub shoulders with the fertile post-Joy Division period as the label’s unique, coruscating post-punk sound took shape on extended 12” cuts from A Certain Ratio, Section 25 and more. The album also expressly documents Factory’s strong links and cross-pollination with New York’s 1980s club culture, as Quando Quango and Marcel King enlisted NY remixer Mark Kamins for tough-edged club treatments. Factory artists including Quando Quango and A Certain Ratio would also perform at some of the city’s seminal nightspots, including Danceteria and the Paradise Garage.
Nigeria 70: No Wahala: Highlife, Afro-Funk & Juju 1973-1987
A deep, rhythmic journey through the African diaspora during a vital time for music, Africa 70 is an essential collection. From the notes: “Nigeria 70: No Wahala returns to a fertile heyday in Nigerian music when established styles like highlife and juju became infused with elements of Western jazz, soul and funk in the ‘70s and early ‘80s.”
The Disco Not Disco Series
The first Disco Not Disco comp is a perfect collection that inspired the post-post-disco DFA sound of the early 2000s, gathering artists as disparate as Steve Miller, Yoko Ono, Arthur Russell, and Ian Dury. Its success spawned two follow-ups.
Strut sez:
‘Disco Not Disco’ was a perfectly timed compilation back in 2000. Released when interest in the myths, history and playlists of original New York clubs like Paradise Garage and The Loft was at its peak, the album drew on the outer limits of leftfield disco championed by Levan and Mancuso, bringing together unlikely dancefloor anthems by rock acts like Yoko Ono and Ian Dury, obscurities from cottage labels like BC and Splash and selected oddities from the unique mind of avant-garde hero, Arthur Russell. It was essentially a celebration of the sonic melting pot in New York during the early ‘80s, an era when punk had burnt itself out and disco had become commercial and saccharine; in its place, the post-punk movement threw up brilliant oddities which tore up the accepted rulebook.
Only 4 U: The Sound Of Cajmere & Cajual Records 1992-2012
Curtis Jones is one of the most influential house producers of the past 30-plus years, and Strut’s collection of his work for his Cajual label features his tracks as Green Velvet and Cajmere, as well as brilliant soulful dancefloor work on his own Cajual label. “Classic after Chicago classic here,” notes the label’s blurb, “including the massive ‘Percolator’, ‘Brighter Days’ and Gemini’s cult classic ‘Le Fusion’.”
Funky Nassau – The Compass Point Story 1980-1986
This killer comp features artists including Gwen Guthrie, Talking Heads, Lizzie Mercier Descloux and Cristina, among others. From the release notes: “During the ‘80s, Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas, set up by Island Records MD Chris Blackwell, became a magnet for artists as diverse as Roxy Music, B52’s, AC/DC, Talking Heads, Ian Dury, Grace Jones and The Rolling Stones among many others. The more experimental of the bunch, eager to inject their sound with some Nassau magic, called on the genius of Sly & Robbie, engineers Steven Stanley and Alex Sadkin, and the Compass Point All-Stars house band.”
Hardcore Traxx: Dance Mania Records 1986-1997
Strut calls this great collection of tracks by Chicago house label Dance Mania “the first definitive retrospective of one of Chicago’s most important and innovative house music labels. Featuring artists including Robert Armani, Paul Johnson, DJ Deeon, and Parris Mitchell, it’s a banging, frantic set.
From Strut:
Emerging as a raw alternative to the powerhouses of Trax and DJ International during the mid-‘80s, Dance Mania continued to represent street-level Chicago club music into the ‘90s, helping to pioneer the Ghetto House sound.
Hardcore Traxx traces the full story of the label from its heyday. Founded in 1985 and managed by Ray Barney from Barney’s Distribution HQ on Ogden Avenue (moving later to West Roosevelt Road), Dance Mania hit the ground running with its second release in ’86, the incendiary ‘Hardcore Jazz’ EP by Duane & Co. Barney quickly became a trustworthy outlet for early house and acid productions by upcoming Chicago artists such as Lil Louis, Marshall Jefferson and Farley Keith aka Farley “Jackmaster” Funk.
Black Rio: Brazil Soul Power 1971-1980
A selection of Afro-Brazilian jams during a tumultuous time in Brazil, Black Rio is bursting with revolutionary energy. Featuring rhythmic workouts from Jorge Ben, Gang Do Tagarela, Copa 7, Grupo, Manito and more.
Ote Maloya: The Birth of Electric Maloya on Reunion Island
From Strut: “Strut presents a brand new compilation documenting the groundbreaking maloya scene on Réunion Island from the mid- ‘70s, as Western instrumentation joined traditional Malagasy, African and Indian acoustic instruments to spark a whole era of new fusions and creativity. Compiled by Réunionese DJ duo La Basse Tropicale, ‘Oté Maloya’ follows up last year’s acclaimed ‘Soul Sok Séga’ release on Strut.”
Want to hand with other Strut-heads? Here are details on Strut’s 25th anniversary pop-up at ISC and dublab’s Sound and Vision pop-up.
Strut at 25 Pop-Up
Where: Sound and Vision at ROW DTLA, 777 Alameda Street, DTLA
When: Sunday, June 16, 2-5 p.m.
