VA – BBE 15 – 15 Years of Real Music For Real People (BBE)

What They Say

BBE Records first released the acclaimed ‘Stop and Listen’ series late in 1996, a series that set the benchmark for latter day copies such as ‘Late Night Tales’ and included compilers such as the legendary Masters At Work. This journey has always broken new ground and 15 years young we’re still ahead of the curve.

Pete has continued to develop the label since 2000 and has successfully taken it to new heights. BBE prizes itself on the motto of ‘real music for real people’ and this has been borne out by the fact that there are now over 160 compilations and artist albums released, a dazzling variety of sounds and styles from funk and soul to disco and Latin as well as house and hip hop and beyond. Compilers, producers and musicians from around the globe have been brought in to add their expertise to the mix and in turn the label has profited from an extremely rich amalgam of diverse artists and a plethora of musical genres.

Mixed by recent addition to the BBE roster Chris Read, ‘BBE15’ is a master class in bringing this music together in one seamless mix, your very own memory lane of BBE ‘s endless highs. From the Beat Generation series which featured Hip Hop legends Pete Rock, Jay Dee, Marley Marl and DJ Jazzy Jeff to household name Will I am to the eclecticism of DJ Spinna, King Britt, Madlib and for best measure MFSB string arranger Larry Gold to unreleased gems from Jazz Funk pioneer Roy Ayers. Moreover Aaron Jerome who first cut his teeth with BBE with his debut album Time To Re-Arrange released in 2006 – and has recently been outed as UK Bass talent SBTRKT. This is not to forget: ‘From Russia with love’ air miles millionaire DJ Vadim, north of UK borders Al Kent with his limitless knowledge of never heard before disco records, to ‘Emergency on Planet Earth’ drummer Nick van Gelder to Canadian silky RnB from Slakah the Beatchild to rising Antipodean stars Electric Wire Hustle and Space Invadas.

What We Say

You may have noticed that we are quite big fans of the label known as BBE, or Barely Breaking Even. Their output is both prolific and diverse – there is the BBE ‘foundation’ of hip hop (e.g. Beat Generation), as well as soul (e.g. Jean Wells), afrobeat (e.g. Spoek Mathambo), disco (e.g. Al Kent), reggae (e.g. Dave Rodigan), house (e.g. Louie Vega) and electronica (e.g. Julien Dyne) music from original artists and on superb compilation series. This selection, chosen by new BBE signing, Chris Read (of Music of Substance), focuses pretty much purely on the hip hop aspects of the label (of which we could never claim to be experts in). With a legacy that includes J Dilla, Pete Rock, DJ Vadim, Marley Marl, Jazzy Jeff, DJ Spinna and Ritchy Pitch, then it’s not surprising that this should be the dominating theme of the double album. There is still room for some of the more funky and electronic artists, such as the brilliant Roy Ayers, Katalyst, Al Kent and Benny Tones, which are definitely more up our street but, being selfish, we would have liked to have seen more of this through the album. Artists such as Space Invadas, Slakah The Beatchild are, in our view, under-represented and there is no room, it would seem, for Ladi6 or Pugs Atomz. But then, it’s not our choice, and the end product must be two continuous mixes where all the tracks compliment each other and flow naturally, which is exactly what they do. As a record of BBE’s hip hop heritage, peppered with some funky derivatives, then Chris Read has done a remarkable job with this compilation. The fact that some of us are left wanting more just goes to prove how consistently good BBE’s output has been since it’s birth. Here’s to the next 15 years. ‘BBE 15 – 15 Years of Real Music For Real People’ is out now on BBE Records.

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Listen to ‘Glad You’re Mine’ by DJ Spinna

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Listen to ‘Funk In The Hole’ by Roy Ayers

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Listen to ‘Dancing Girl feat. Mozez’ by Aaron Jerome

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Listen to ‘It’s Like That’ by Jay Dee

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 10:30 am. It is filed under Featured, Reviews and tagged with BBE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.