Cymande: Promised Heights (2026 repress) [PARTISAN RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This 2026 repress comes in a gatefold jacket, pressed in the Czech Republic. Promised Heights completes the London band's early 70s run and holds "Brothers on the Slide," one of their most-sampled tracks.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Cymande were the first British band to play the Apollo in Harlem, which is a fine thing to put on a CV. The children of the Windrush generation, they mixed Guyanese and Jamaican roots, reggae bass lines and Nyabinghi-style drumming with psychedelic rock and American funk, and called the result "Nyah-rock."

Promised Heights followed their 1972 debut and 1973's Second Time Round, and it was made after a US tour with Al Green had built them a real American audience. "Brothers on the Slide" is the one producers keep coming back to, all slinky bass and loose percussion, while "Pon de Dungle," "Equatorial Forest" and "Breezeman" lock into long, hypnotic grooves. The title track and "Shesnamani" lean into the spiritual side, and "The Recluse" shows how gently they could play, and "Changes," "Losing Ground" and "Leavert" round out a record that never sits still for long.

Partisan has brought the whole catalogue back into print, and this record sounds as fresh as anything on our new arrivals wall. The documentary Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande has since brought the band a whole new audience.

Also at Kops: more Cymande on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Partisan (cat# PTKF3027-1), a reissue of the 1974 album.