Bill Brewster - Tribal Rites

“Everything I do now started with record collecting. It’s the foundation of my career; from writing about music, DJing in clubs, putting compilations together or spending many late-night hours, glass of red wine in hand, bidding on stupid records on eBay.” – Bill Brewster
Spanning 41 tracks, ‘Tribal Rites’ is a musical autobiography of sorts from one of dance music’s most dedicated historians, Bill Brewster. Released on 3 CDs and double vinyl via Belgium’s Eskimo Recordings, the compilation takes us on a personal journey through Bill’s 36 year long involvement in the music industry.

Whether running DMC’s New York offices or labels including Twisted UK and Forensic, being one of Fabric’s original residents, writing (with Frank Broughton) probably the definitive overview of DJ culture, the seminal ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ and the equally essential ‘How To DJ (Properly)’, running the DJhistory website or promoting their much loved Low Life parties, Bill’s fingerprints can be found all over dance music’s past few decades.

So whilst there are few people more qualified to compile such a thing, ‘Tribal Rites’ isn’t just a ‘House & Disco Greatest Hits’, instead we have the soundtrack to a life spent at the coalface of record collecting, of early mornings at car boot sales and late nights logged onto Discogs.

Split into three sections, the compilation begins in the post-punk period, and through tracks such as explores the influence of dub on bands of the time such as Orang Utan, General Strike and The Raincoats. The second section takes us into that mish-mash of sounds and styles best described as ‘Balearic’ where the likes of Bobbie Gentry and Final Edition can happily co-exist and a country and western cover of Hall & Oates ‘I Can’t Go For That’ seems like the most obvious thing in the world.

The final section then concentrates exclusively on house music, though again showcasing just what a broad church House is, able to accommodate both the spiritual yearnings of Mother Tongue’s ‘Message of Love’ and the precision tooled productions of Basic Channel’s Maurizio.

At a moment in time when dance music is more prominent than ever and DJs are treated like pop stars, ‘Tribal Rites’ is a vital reminder that there’s a lot more to DJing than just downloading the latest Beatport chart and waving your hands in the air.

TRACK LISTING

1. Latin Breed - Maranatha
2. Gaffa - Attitude Dancing (Land Of A 1000 Dunces)
3. Little Reuben - (I Am) Drum
4. Peter Accident - Turning Black
5. General Crook - What Time It Is (Part II + Part I) (Bill Brewster Edit)
6. Motion - Crazy Beat
7. Deborah & The Puerto Ricans - Side A Side B Side
8. Bobbie Gentry - Thunder In The Afternoon
9. Surprize - Stavolta
10. Curtis Green - I Just Gotta Get Down (Part I)
11. Reggae Clinic 65 - Caravan (Dub Version)
12. Urang Otan - Walking In The Jungle
13. P!off? - Mein Walkman Ist Kaputt

PRODUCT DETAILS

Artist:  Bill Brewster
Label:  Eskimo Recordings
Condition:  New 
Genre:  Funk, Soul & Disco

Format:  Vinyl LP
Cat Number:  FPL3V
Released:  17 November 2017