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Music

Tuning into the Sounds of the Universe with Capracara

We've got the exclusive premiere of a video taken from Soul Jazz's exceptional new compilation, 'Art + Sound'

Since the early 90s, Soul Jazz have become a byword for immaculately packed diving bell deep reissues series' and expertly curated compilations, spanning everything from New Orleans Funk to The World of Arthur Russell. They've been instrumental in bringing far flung music over to open ears, turning us all into overnight experts on tropicalia, Brazilian post-punk, and Afro-Cuban drumming. The guys at Soul Jazz, and sister shop Sounds of the Universe, know their stuff, and want you to know it too. In shining light on dark musical crevices, they've performed an invaluable service that can't be commended highly enough.

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Spend a lunchbreak in their Soho store and you'll either come out about a hundred quid lighter — but incrementally happier — or with a phone stuffed full of titles you want to hear desperately. At the top of the current pile, or my pile at least, you'll find the newly released Art + Sound, a top notch compilation of forward thinking, dance-focused records from the likes of Kassem Mosse, DJ Stingray, Andres, Seven Davis Jr, and Tevo Howard.

Split between previously released material on the SOTU label and hot-off-the-press new cuts, it's an intriguing, engaging, occasionally challenging compilation that joins the dots between lysergic experimentation, acidic repetition and hard-edged metallic club music. One of our favourite cuts from the release is Capracara's bouncy "Hard Ticket to Hawaii" so it's a real privilege to be able to premier the video for it — directed by occasional THUMP contributor, and video director, Esqueezy — below. We also caught up with Capracara himself, and Nicole McKenzie, who works at Sounds of the Universe and curated the compilation.

CAPRACARA

THUMP: Can you tell me a little about your personal history with Soul Jazz/SOTU?
Capracara: I was working at the store in the mid-00s and making a few tunes. The label liked a couple of them and released the first Capracara single, "Opal Rush / Flashback 86".

How important is the label/shop to the 'scene' in general?
I'm not so much aware of a 'scene', more these smaller pockets of 'musical interest' everywhere. I guess record shops still play a part in feeding these 'micro scenes'; for example, 22a records initially sold exclusively through SOTU and they've a little scene bubbling. Is Hard Ticket to Hawaii,__ the movie, worth a watch?
It's decent trash, but if you've really can't find anything better to do with 90 minutes, then why not? A couple of friends of mine introduced me to the unique works of Andy Sidaris and I'm slowly getting through all of it.

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NICOLE McKENZIE

What was the thought process behind the compilation?
Nicole McKenzie: We started the Sounds Of The Universe label as a way of offering something special and uniquely 'us' to our customers. We sell all kinds of different music and the ethos behind the compilation was to present a worldly view of the dance strains that come through the shop, in one neat package. All of the people that work here have generally worked here for donkeys years. Everyone's tastes are really eclectic however we've all got our little personal loves; there's a boogie connoisseur, a soul nut, the reggae dude, someone whose thing is house and techno, and so on. I wanted to pick artists that linked us all together, key artists over the years that everyone has been really into, that have been caned to death by us in the shop and are most importantly artists who are pushing things forward. The whole compilation is very free-spirited, a cosmic appreciation connects the artists.

Is it easy to get artists to work with the label?
A few of the artists have been coming in the shop for years. Jesse Hackett (of Blludd Relations) was one of the first people I served some ten years ago. I'd been trying to contact Andres and two days later he was in our shop with Alex Nut. Andres' father played percussion on a Travis Biggs album that Soul Jazz reissued and we got chatting about that, I showed him the Hieroglyphic Being single we'd done with an etching by Japanese illustrator 2YANG and he was blown away. We've really supported all the artists on the comp quite heavily, so I guess they could see it was genuine love coming at them!

What's going on with the (sadly) increasingly rapid shut-down of London record shops?
Soho has been constantly changing. Building works and new things popping up has never stopped in Soho. I have been really disappointed that some businesses, particularly record shops, that their cultural and community contribution is not recognised by whoever makes all these decisions. I am very sad when a record shop closes, some of which I shopped in since I was teenager. However, it's not just a record shop thing, it's everything! The profit margins on coffee must be far higher than records….

Sounds of the Universe: Art + Sound is out now on Soul Jazz. Order it here.

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