Soul, Hip Hop, Street Soul Finn Johannsen
Finn Johannsen - Unrush Pocast 019 320kbit/s

This mix goes back to what I liked to listen to about thirty years ago, when not in the mood for rushing music. I always loved a sweet Soul vocal, the bass weight of Dub and a dope Hip Hop beat, and thankfully there were a lot of great tunes around at that time that combined those elements, particularly in the UK. Most notably The Wild Bunch and Smith & Mighty in Bristol as well as Soul II Soul in London merged UK sound system culture with Jamaican Lovers Rock and American Hip Hop and R&B sounds in the late 80s, and their success led to a vibrant underground scene that was tagged UK Street Soul, or UK Club Soul. As with other UK Breakbeat styles, UK Street Soul was mainly a fiercely independent white label culture, the music produced with very basic equipment and mostly amateur vocalists, and spread across country via hundreds of illegal pirate radio stations in towerblock squats and similarly disused locations. I used to tune in to the pirates on trips to the UK as much as I could, envious of the determination and underground spirit with which the network broadcasted their sweet and raw sounds against a grim reality and looming prosecution by the authorities. The sound is still resonating with current club music, but as the stations originally airing it, the producers originally creating it and the labels originally releasing it a lot of it has just vanished. This mix is intended as a tribute to a pirate radio UK Street Soul show. It contains some obscure gems and some better known gems from the UK and US, and is probably best listened to through booming car speakers or headphones, or at home while getting ready for the club, or in the setting described in the last song: and look at the view from your balcony, London through your eyes. No one but you to keep me company, twenty floors up a high-rise. After all, it is still Soul, and so it is mainly about love. But make sure to play it LOUD.