Cymande: Second Time Round (2026 repress) [PARTISAN/VIRGIN]

Why you'll love it

This 2026 repress from Partisan comes in a gatefold jacket. The album took Cymande back onto the American charts, and on tour behind it they became the first British band to headline the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• 2026 repress on Partisan Records

About the album

John Schroeder found Cymande playing a basement club in Soho in 1971, an eight- or nine-piece band whose members traced their roots to Guyana, Jamaica and Saint Vincent. Bassist Steve Scipio and guitarist Patrick Patterson led the way, and they called their sound "nyah-rock": reggae bass, Nyabinghi drumming, psychedelic rock and American funk all in the same pot.

Scipio and Patterson wrote almost everything on this second album. "Genevieve" and "Fug" groove hard, "Crawshay" and "Anthracite" stretch out into spiritual jazz-funk, and Mike Rose and Pablo Gonsales's "Trevorgus" adds a turn of its own, with flute, horns and congas weaving through it all.

Their records have since fed DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, Gang Starr and the Fugees, Their self-titled debut had already been the first UK soul album to reach Billboard's main album chart. The band reformed in the 2010s on the back of all that love. The name comes from a calypso word for dove, a symbol of peace, and fifty years of hip hop producers have treated it as an open invitation.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Janus / Partisan (cat# PTKF3026-1), a reissue of the 1973 album.