The venerable UK funky freedom outpost has been celebrating its 21st birthday in style with compilations giving new meaning to the phrase “weird and wonderful”. Now label boss Eddie Piller invokes the title of the last Jam album to herald a clutch of the label’s single releases from the 21st Century.
As should be expected, there’s a diverse array of styles at play after the set kicks off with Smoove’s sublime 2003 take on Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, removing the “Not” to update the lyrics for modern times. “Follow that” doesn’t come into it, as recent label discovery Twisted Tongue uncork the stomping Northern-acid mutant of Got A Really Good Thing, before Pleasure Beach’s highlysought mod version of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, then Third Degree’s uncanny take on Duffy’s Mercy.
Other highlights include the brassy Northern rush of Andy Lewis & Paul Weller’s Are You Trying To Be Lonely?, poignant early Steve Marriott & The Moments cut Money Money, Lord Large & Dean Parish, Grand Union, plus one of Piller’s stellar Introspective Funk Collective remixes for Thr33 Blak Bros. It all reinforces the long-established principle that Acid Jazz is a spirit which floats majestically over genre boundaries while celebrating music from the soul’s rich and varied traditions.
