VA - Soul Jazz Records Presents Hustle! Reggae Disco - Kingston, London, New York (2017)

Soul Jazz Records' are releasing their long out-of-print album Hustle! Reggae Disco in a new expanded 2017 edition which now features five extra tracks.

This ground-breaking album features non-stop killer reggae versions of original funk and soul classics in a disco style. Reggae disco updates of seminal classics by Anita Ward ("Ring My Bell"), Chaka Khan ("I'm Every Woman"), Michael Jackson "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," Sugarhill Gang ("Rappers Delight," here performed by Derrick Laro and Trinity for producer Joe Gibbs) and more, all showing the hidden but inseparable link between the dance floors of New York, Kingston, and London.

New bonus tracks in this collection include Derrick Harriott's funky take on Eddie Drennon's "Do It Nice and Easy," the classic disco reggae of Risco Connection's take on McFadden and Whitehead's "Ain't No Stopping Us Now," and the London rare groove lovers rock take on Barbara Acklin's soul classic "Am I The Same Girl."

Hustle! Reggae Disco has been one of Soul Jazz Records' best-selling releases since its first release 15 years ago (and subsequently featured heavily in the early Grand Theft Auto games!).

This new edition comes complete fully re-mastered and with all original titles plus new tracks. This new expanded edition now comes as a triple album (+ download code), CD, and digital album.

The effect of American R&B and soul music on Jamaican reggae is well documented, but the story doesn't stop there, for disco (and more so now for rap and hip-hop) have also been subsumed into the reggae mix, and while one might suspect that the resulting hybrid would die of its own implausibility, the feral mix of disco with reggae rhythms is so darn infectious that it hardly matters. Once you take your brain out of the frame and just let your feet go, this collection is a dancer's delight all done up in full-blown disco style, but with huge dub-style rhythm tracks... if you're looking for an impossibly infectious dance collection, this is it.