Kingston Shuffle by Various Artists

Kingston Shuffle

Back in the 1970s, Jamaican born DJ, Kool Herc strung up a sound-system in a Bronx park. While the sound-system itself reflected the city of his birth, the records Kool Herc played, and the way he played them was pure New York City. In a moment of historic genius, Herc found that the best way to keep the crowd going wild was to extend the funky bridges that occurred in certain records by playing two copies of the tune side-by-side, cutting back and forth to keep the "break" going. These records -- James Brown's "Funky Drummer," The Winston's "Amen Brother" -- became known as breakbeats and they created the foundation for what was to become Hip Hop music.

For DJs and record collectors, discovering breakbeats and undiscovered grooves was like searching for vinyl gold. Some DJs would guard their "nuggets" by scraping off labels of their deepest cuts, hiding their identity from train spotting competitors. Others, like the aptly named Breakbeat Lou, shared their discoveries with the world via mixtapes and compilations (the wonderful "Ultimate Breaks and Beats" series for example).

Kingston Shuffle brings the breakbeat genre back to its spiritual home of Jamaica via 25 tracks mined from the extensive Pressure Sounds catalog. The featured songs are a mix of straight-up breaks, Soul covers and various funky grooves all touched by the unique musical melting pot of Jamaica.