All Things Deep - Reviews - Young Soul Rebels

Various - Young Soul Rebels

The soundtrack for this classic coming-of-age film by Isaac Julien captures the best of the musical flavors dominating London in the mid and late 70s. For those unfamiliar with the film, it deals with the lives of a group of British youth finding their identity during the early disco and jazz-funk days. As many teenagers do, the characters in the movie define themselves largely by the music they listen to, and the soundtrack does an excellent job in showcasing the tunes that were doing the business back then.

Representing a nice cross section of styles, Rebels features everything from the sultry soul of Jean Carne to Sylvester's unbridled dancefloor lust, with some hard funk from War and the Blackbyrds included to sweeten the pot. The person responsible for compiling the soundtrack (presumably Julien) does a good job mixing the obvious ("Running Away" by Roy Ayers) with the underrated (El Coco's "Let's Get It Together"), making this a good intro to early influences on the London acid-jazz scene as well as capturing the feel of the movie. Recommended.

Released 1991on Big Life

Selected Tracks:

Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove
Jean Carne - Don't Let It Go To Your Head
Mica Paris - Young Soul Rebels