Track Listing

1. Places Everyone - Period, Shawn J.
2. Blue Eye Blak - Colonel Red
3. Soul Fever - Simbad & Steelo
4. Miss Moral - Benny Sings & The Rednose District
5. A Conta Do Samba - Tita Lima
6. Feeling Free - Willis, Nicole & The Soul Investigators
7. Nothing Else - Westbeech, Ben
8. Who Was I Trying To Fool - Iman (1)
9. iiiii - Morgan & Steve Spacek
10. Can We Go Back - Ayak & First Man
11. Heavy - Choklate
12. Dreamer - James, Jose
13. I'm Fine - Lau, Eric & Rahel
14. Over It - Yellowtail & Jeni Fujita

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18416 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-16
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Ecclectic Compilation of Talent, Passion and Purpose
I write this as I listen to James, Jose's "Dreamer". This album is by far one of the best compilations of artists I have ever heard. I live stateside, and I only heard one song: Iman's "Who Was I Trying To Fool?" Off of that one song, I knew I wanted to get the entire disc! It was only sold in one store in my city as it was an import. But what can I say? I am hooked!

Aside from the first song, I let the entire album play in its entirety. It has something for every mood and gives you a great taste of these artists' talent, passion and purpose. Whether you want to chill to easy rhythms and just relax or if you want to get up and dance and act silly, this album has it all. The second half of the album has a lot of songs where words are more powerful than the beats themselves. The artists speak those things we are too afraid to speak with our mouths.

The thing I appreciate most about this disc is that it's not popular stateside - I'm not sure about the UK. So it gives me a taste of something very different and extremely original. I've found a few of the artists on mySpace and have listened to even more of their music. I can say I am definitely a supporter of their efforts, and I am most appreciative of this disc. If you get the opportunity to check it out, please do.

Bubbling over
Of the three volumes to date in the Brownswood Bubblers series I've anticipated this one the most rabidly, the reason being the emanative track 'turn your lights on' which features flying lotus collaborator Ahu on vocal duties. I defy anyone who feels soulful music not to turn into a human goosebump after one listen, it is quite simply the sound of everything clicking perfectly and a strong case in itself for buying this album.

That isn't to say this collection is a one trick pony, far from it, regular listeners of Gilles Peterson's worldwide radio show will already be quite familiar with many of the artists on here, particularly Joey Negro & The Sunburst Band's 'Turn it Out', Kenneth Bager's 'Fragment One'(appearing here as fragment 0) & Charlie Dark & Roger Robinson's 'Prayer for angry young men' which justly featured in Gilles 2008 winners show.

The tracklisting, in keeping with the standard set by the other 2 installments, provides a varied listening experience while also flowing nicely, from the opening staggering beat laden brilliance of Bullion's get familiar (think Spacek meets Dabrye) through to the dreamy, guitar tinged, choral backed narrative of Jukes 'Something Important' the whole collection is another testament to Gilles' acute ability as a selector and tastemaker.

As a label boss I think he's really leading by example, he has the perfect outlet to wet our appetites for the freshest new sounds on his worldwide radio show, playing great records that he can then put out on his label while they're still hot rather than waiting months until the urgency and immediacy has gone (as is typically the case with the laborious machinery of major labels). And what's more he makes his product available at gigs affiliated to his label ahead of the official release date and at a decent price (I bought my copy for a tenner at the recent Jose James roundhouse gig).

Anyway in summary this really is a worthwhile purchase and a fantastic label to be putting your hard earned cash into supporting.

Ignore the sycophants
This series has clearly kept an eclectic approach with urban slash broken vibes, so to those listeners who are becoming increasingly tired of the duplication and melding of these genres everywhere you care to look, may join me in feeling that the mere injection of a tuff repetitive beat does not necessarily seal the appeal of a track.

But as is developing in this series - and again on this instalment - there is more on display here in the form of world music, jazz, folk and indie, once again taking you into territory you maybe weren't sure you were buying the release for. This is quite a mixed bag, not just genre wise, but also in terms of yet again lacking the same raw surprise of the Volume 1.

Several of the tracks sound like repetitions of something else and are also repetitive in their structure, even though they are mainly 'slickly' produced and sometimes elevated by inventive free instrumentation; these often felt like music by numbers, rather than something that was raw and essential. One of the tracks even sounds like Dido, one is downtempo effort with Bob Sinclair style whistling, one sounds like a Arabic world music track, clearly going for a more coffee table kind of audience but finding itself precariously stretched across the divide between raw underground music and commercial appeal.

On the other side of the bag is a wonderful song by Yaw called `Where Would You Be' which combines a beautiful voice with meaningful lyrics and a non intrusive soft jazz backing. It almost eclipses everything else on offer here by just being organic, raw and simple. Another standout is from the consistent DJ Day with a funky nu jazz stormer called `A Place To Go' which is uplifting and restrained at the same time. There are other attention grabbing moments here but I thought the balance of this was not very new or distinctive. Overall I'd say it's worth taking a punt on this if you are into experimental approaches or broken vibes or just to check the Yaw track.