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-- Review: Roy Ayers - Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981 *ADVANCE* (2004) (http://www.vcdhq.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=32522)

Review: Roy Ayers - Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981 *ADVANCE* (2004)

Artist: Roy Ayers
Title: Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981
Year: 2004
Dirname: Roy_Ayers-Virgin_Ubiquity_Unreleased_Recordings_1976-1981-(Advance)-2004-RNS


Roy Ayers is a genius. Officially the second most-sampled artist in the music industry and loved by jazz and hip-hop heads alike, this is the second in a series of unreleased specials steming from recent events where Rapster announced they would be releasing all their unreleased and lost recordings by this musical hero. If knowledge serves well, this album forms part of a series of 5. One major downside to this release is that it is more of a sampler as the retail will have 5 more tracks on it. So as a whole long player i cannot judge it on that basis.

Anyway, what else is there to say about this little audio marvel? Well, if you like your beats funky, groovy and filled with sexy and sleazy vibraphone sounds this is for you! The opening track of the sampler, Brand New Feeling is a 10 minute funk epic featuring some incredible vocals. This is immediately followed up with an 11 minute disco jazz epic called Searching (The Africa 70 Version). After this, things play down and get back to normal with tracks at average runtimes.

It's really hard to explain just how good this music is. Anyone who has read my guide to jazz and downtempo will know how much the music world respects Roy Ayers. He was one of the big contributors to modern downtempo and has provided much of the food for many hip-artists of today. Although my favourite track by Ayers is still Everybody Loves The Sunshine (astonishingly ahead of it's time for a track recorded in 1976) this collective of unreleased tracks is totally excellent. I look forward to hearing the other 5 tracks when the retail comes out.

In essence, this album is a must for lovers of this genre and especially essential for the curious ones. Hip hop kids, meet the father of your music.

Highly recommended.

FINAL SCORE: 9/10