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BBE Music

BBE Music

Founded in 1996 by Peter Adarkwah, Barely Breaking Even (BBE Music) started life as a London club night, taking its name from the eponymous Disco record by the Universal Robot Band.

The label grew from the vibrant early 90's club scene with its first release, Stop & Listen compiled by Dr Bob Jones in 1996, opening the door to iconic series' such as All Back To Mine & Late Nite Tales.

A tonne of releases followed, ranging from Disco to Funk, Jazz to House. In the year 2000, the label celebrated Masters at Work's 10th Anniversary with a mighty box set that featured near 80 tracks.

A year later BBE Music spawned the Beat Generation Series of artist albums, notably introducing J Dilla (Welcome 2 Detroit) & a young Will.I.Am's first solo outing, alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff, Madlib & DJ Spinna, all of whom contributed to this seminal set of long players.

A quarter of a century and well over 500 titles later, having worked with Mark Ronson, Roy Ayers, Questlove, Hugh Masekela, DJ Premier, Dimitri from Paris, Joey Negro, Kon, RZA, Laurent Garnier, Black Coffee, DJ Shadow, David Rodigan and John Morales among many others, BBE Music looks to the future, celebrating its rich heritage while continuing to release a bounty of fresh titles.

The label’s most recent projects include an expansive reissue series from pioneering Nigerian label Tabansi, new imprint ‘Batakari’ in association with Boddhi Satva and the critically acclaimed ‘J Jazz’ Japanese Jazz multi-album project, not to mention the recent landmark 500th label release: a brand new version of 'Barely Breaking Even', featuring Leroy Burgess, Patrick Adams and Louie Vega.

In 2021 BBE Music is celebrating its 25th anniversary. To mark this milestone, the label is offering up some special projects, from the 20th Anniversary edition of J Dilla’s ‘Welcome 2 Detroit’, through David Bowie tribute album ‘Modern Love’, to a special new ‘Worldwide’ compilation from old friend Gilles Peterson. BBE Music will also be looking to the future with more exciting original artist projects, plus merch collaborations events and more...
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Summertime / Sunshine Girl
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BBE 790SDG
24 May 24
Funk
Sugar Honey Iced Tea! (Explicit)
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BBE763ADG
17 May 24
Hip Hop/R&B
What's The T? (Delfonic Edit)
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BBE 535SDG4
29 Mar 24
Disco/Nu-Disco
Ha Ya! (Eternal Life)
Review: Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield are a pair of DJ/producers from New York, who've been putting on their Coloring Lessons parties since 2018 and have since launched a label of the same name. Here, though, they come to BBE Music with a cut that, with its fusion of Afro, jazz and soul elements, could perhaps only have come from the city that birthed Body & Soul. If the laidback, rolling beats of the Original aren't quite doing it for you then maybe Shannon Harris' A Love For Joy Journey Mix, with its fat funk bassline, spoken word intro and "party!" chants will, while an Instrumental Mix completes the package.
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BBE 763SDG 2
23 Feb 24
Broken Beat/Nu Jazz
Running Out Of Time
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BBE 763SDG
19 Jan 24
Deep House
Belly Dance
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BBE 527ADG
06 Oct 23
International
Mami Wata - Joaquin Joe Claussell Sacred Rhythm & Cosmic Arts Remixes
Review: A masterful meeting of minds here, as spiritual house legend Joaquin 'Joe' Clausell offers his interpretations of former Gil Scott-Heron collaborator Brian Jackson's 'Mami Wata', a fine, sun-soaked cover of a traditional African song. Jackson's original version, which blends West African percussion with jazz-funk style Clavinet lines, flute solos and nods towards South American dance music, is reworked three times by Clausell. He first delivers an extra-percussive, superbly spiritual 'House Dance Dub Reprise', before opting for a more musically rich, expansive and sun-kissed feel on the accurately titled 'Deep Dub'. Arguably best of all, though, is his pitched-down 'Cosmic Arts Instrumental Slow Dub', which is closer in feel to Jackson's original while adding extra layers of spacey synth sounds and a genuinely deep and weighty bassline.
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BBE 681SDG3
18 Aug 23
Deep House
Modal Forces/Percussive Forces
Review: Kirk Degiorgio has long been one of the deep house lover's favourite techno artists, infusing his productions with a jazzy, soulful musicality that 20 million 'warehouse bangers' could only dream of. Seldom has that been more the case, though, than on this new 16-track offering, which finds him in straight-up jazz mode. With most of the tracks coming in under the two-minute mark, it's really a collection of sketches rather than an album proper: the idea, we're told, was to pay tribute to European 'library music' (tracks made as soundbeds for film and TV) of the 1970s, and in that task he's succeeded admirably. Still, we would't mind hearing some extended versions, because what's here is absolutely glorious
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BBE 722ADG
19 May 23
Jazz
Fire (We Are The Horsemen Remix)
Fire (We Are The Horsemen remix) - (6:03) 106 BPM
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BBE 716SDG 3
31 Mar 23
Broken Beat/Nu Jazz
Beersheba
Beersheba - (3:40) 95 BPM
Played by: BRENDON P
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BBE 722SDG
10 Mar 23
Jazz
The Love It Takes (Atjazz Remix & Atjazz Galaxy Aart Dub)
Review: It might be a cold, rainy morning in mid-February in real life, but shut your eyes and Atjazz's new reworks of this MF Robots cut, which operates in the territory somewhere between neo-soul, acid jazz and soulful house, will transport you somewhere else entirely - a poolside in Miami, maybe, or perhaps a Sunday afternoon at Glastonbury as you bask in the sunshine at the Jazz Stage. The differences between the six remixes are fairly subtle, but generally speaking Atjazz's rubs give the Original a lil' extra bass squelch, while it's his Aart Dub that stands out for yours truly with its dreamier, spacier vibes - think Deodato, Dexter Wansel or maybe The Sunburst Band.
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BBE 646SDG6
17 Feb 23
Funk
Forest
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BBE 724ADG
03 Feb 23
Rock
BBE Staff Selections 2022
Various
Review: BBE put out music across a wide stylistic spectrum, so when (as here) the label staff pick out their own personal faves from the past year's releases, the one thing you can be sure of is that the collection's never going to get boring or same-y. With tracks ranging from the freeform jzz of the Koichi Matsukaze Trio's opener to the vivacious high-life of Eji Oyewole's 'Unity In Africa', via Matty Heilbronn's rerub of a Louie Vega/Leroy Burgess take on disco/funk classic 'Barely Breaking Even', not every track here will delight every listener, admittedly, but there's no doubting the quality of what's on offer - making this a compilation that's perhaps best viewed as a jumping-off point for further explorations in the future.
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BBE 736CDG
09 Dec 22
Jazz
Wutrio
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BBE 717ADG
11 Nov 22
Jazz
Make The Call / The Love It Takes (Two Soul Fusion Remixes / Atjazz Remix)
Review: We can think of few more suitable producers to remix the soul-fired work of the brilliant MF Robots (AKA Brand New Heavies original Jan Kinkaid and sometime band vocalist Dawn Joseph) than Louie Vega and Josh Milan. They adopt their occasional Two Soul Fusion alias to put their spin on the sublime 'Make The Call', offering vocal and instrumental variations of two main mixes: a squelchy, Kaidi Tatham-esque house re-wire and a 'Boogie' remix that brilliantly re-imagines the track as a turn-of-the-'90s Leroy Burgess/Universal Robot Band jam. Atjazz also steps up to deliver vocal and instrumental versions of 'The Love It Takes', brilliantly joining the dots between early '80s Quincy Jones Michael Jackson productions and his own liquid deep house vibe. In a word: essential!
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BBE 646SDG 5
23 Sep 22
Disco/Nu-Disco
The Library Archive 2 - More Funk, Jazz, Beats & Soundtracks From The Archives Of Cavendish Music (Compiled By Mr Thing & Chris Read)
Various
Review: This is one of those rare instances where the title of a record is almost longer than the review - not necessarily a bad thing, given that said title has already pretty much described said record perfectly! But in case it wasn't clear, what we have here is a collection of library tracks - music originally made for use in film, TV and advertising - inna funk, jazz and soul kinda vein. Think Pearl & Dean, 70s TV themes and moody 60s spy thrillers... which you probably were, because this is an album that sounds exactly like you'd expect it to. But with 30 tracks to choose from - some of which are a whole three or four minutes long! - there's much for all you beatniks, jazzbos and lounge lizards to enjoy here.
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BBE 622CDG
09 Sep 22
Jazz
Lefto Early Bird Presents The Beauty Is Inside
Various
Review: Brussels' Stephane Allemand AKA Lefto Early Bird is best known for his wide-ranging radio show - think of him as Belgium's answer to Gilles Peterson, if you will - and here he serves up a 19-track collection that takes a similarly eclectic approach. After Ain't About Me's powerful opener, a haunting spoken word piece about living through 9/11, you get sultry disco/boogie from Patience Africa, acid house from Shlundee, Middle Eastern-flavoured jazz from Alemayehu Eshete, frenzied footwork from DJ Spinn and stripped-back rave/hardcore from Elisa Bea, all interspersed with multiple despatches from the more experimental end of the broken beat spectrum. Approach with open mind and open ears!
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BBE 648CDG
27 Aug 22
Broken Beat/Nu Jazz
Little Orphan Boy (Two Soul Fusion Remixes)
Review: BBE are about to drop 'This Is Brian Jackson', the first solo album in 20 years from a flautist, pianist and producer who's best known for his 1970s work with Gil Scott-Heron (that's his flute solo on 'The Bottle'). The album finds Jackson working up unissued demos laid down during a 1976 studio session, and here Louie Vega (Masters At Work) and Josh Milan (Blaze), working as Two Soul Fusion, provide an almost overwhelming array of remixes of the second trailer single. With a high-calibre line-up like that, you shouldn't need us to tell you how good this is: suffice to say, the Downtempo rubs are the ones to head for if you like it funky, while if your tastes lean more towards soulful house then the Extended Remix or Dub are your best bets.
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BBE 681SDG 2
05 Aug 22
Funk
Barely Breaking Even (Ron Trent & Matthias Heilbronn Remixes)
Review: Louie Vega's cover of boogie-era disco classic 'Barely Breaking Even', which is created in cahoots with the two men most responsible for the early '80s original, Leroy Burgess and Patrick Adams, was a relatively faithful rendition. These high-profile remixes are naturally a little more revolutionary, though tastefully done and in keeping with the spirit of Vega and company's version. Ron Trent leads the way delivering a spacey, percussively detailed, and effortlessly soulful vocal remix and dub - the latter showcasing the high-quality musicianship of everyone involved - before Matthias Heilbronn takes over. Choose between full vocal and instrumental takes on the rubbery, disco-house style 'BKNY Mix', the rolling and sun-splashed 'Soulflower Mix' and his more faithful-to-the-original 'Remix'.
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BBE 500SDG
13 May 22
Deep House
Baby Doll
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BBE 535SDG 3
22 Apr 22
Disco/Nu-Disco
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