80年代のポストパンク・シーンを牽引したUKのバンドたちが集結したコンピレーションアルバム「In The Beginning There Was Rhythm」。ジャングル、エイティーズ、ニューヨークの地下シーンに影響を受けた楽曲が多数収録されている。ザ・ポップ・グループ、スリッツ、キャバレー・ヴォルテールなどが参加し、各バンドの斬新な音楽性が存分に発揮された一枚。アグレッシブなビートと独自のリズムが融合し、ポストパンクの革新性を体感できる貴重なアルバムだ。

A1. A Certain Ratio – Shack Up
A2. 23 Skidoo – Coup
A3. Gang Of Four – To Hell With Poverty
B1. The Human League – Being Boiled
B2. The Slits – In The Beginning There Was Rhythm
B3. This Heat – 24-Track Loop
C1. Throbbing Gristle – 20 Jazz Funk Greats
C2. A Certain Ratio – Knife Slits Water
D1. Cabaret Voltaire – Sluggin Fer Jesus
D2. The Pop Group – She's Beyond Good And Evil
D3. 23 Skidoo – Vegas El Bandito

You could probably buy every Soul Jazz compilation known to humankind and come out on top of most other people's record collections. As a label, the crew's ability to track down, rediscover, unearth, and reappraise archive music, and package things up as part of a spellbinding collection of like sounds, is remarkable, and the imprint must be up there with the best curated on the planet. The output is so good, in fact, that here we are pushing a reissue of the 2002 compilation, In The Beginning There Was Rhythm. Pieced together by Stuart Baker and Adrian Self, it's a wonderful trip into the deceptively varied world of UK post punk during its nascent, formative years. Informed by dub, psychedelia, punk, synth, samples and more, it's a celebration of a genre that proves you could spend all day listening and not really hear the same type of tune twice.