Talkin' Loud 1990-1994

Impressive double-CD retrospective collection from Gilles Peterson's Talkin Loud label. Covering the label's heyday, this 24-track compilation features work from the artists that established the label as one of Britain's brightest during the optimistic post-acid house boom of the early 1990s.

Omar, Incognito, Galliano, Urban Species, Marxman, The K-Creative and The Young Disciples all carried the torch for a sound that mixed in equal parts soul, jazz and dancefloor sensibility, reflecting a nationwide desire to dance, but Talkin Loud was a centre-point for a lot of people who wanted to capture that E-fuelled energy, but weren't so keen on the obsessive 4/4 beat-driven culture that was happening around them.

This music was cool (man) and had considerably more substance and soul than the driving piano tunes and hardcore breaks that ruled the roost, and as a result it sounds a lot less dated than much of the music that came out during the early 1990s. The Young Disciples in particular still sound as fresh as they did back in 1991 when their self-titled debut LP hit the shelves.
Although many would argue that Talkin Loud produced much of it's best work in the following five or six years, including their 1996 Mercury Prize win with Roni Size & Reprazent's 'New Forms', the latter half of the nineties was essentially a 'wind-down' period for the label as many artists left the fold. Also, from about 1994 other labels, notably James 'UNKLE' Lavelle's Mo' Wax, took up the baton and ran two steps further out the box thanks to their indie nature, something that Talkin Loud, tied as it was to the fortunes of Mercury/Phonogram, could never really do.

So this compilation is a bittersweet testament from a cultural viewpoint, but at the end of the day (which is pretty much today as far as this is concerned) it's the music that's really important and that music is still brilliantly fresh, exciting and Talkin Loud, Sayin Something. Essential.

Disc 1:

01 Apparently Nothin' - Young Disciples
02 Always There (Bluey's Mix) - Incognito
03 There's Nothing Like This - Omar
04 Step Right On - Young Disciples
05 K Spells Knowledge - The K-Creative
06 57th Minute Of The 23rd Hour - Galliano
07 All I Have In Me - Young Disciples
08 It Don't Mean A Thing - Omar
09 Take Me Now - Tammy Payne
10 Feed The Feeling - Perception
11 I Commit - Bryan Powell
12 Prince Of Peace - Galliano

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Disc 2 to come soon...