Happy New Year! Well, the festive season is gone for another year and here at First Word we’re recharged and ready to give you another 12 months of fantastic music. Before we get started with the new releases for 2012, we’ve made the staggeringly original decision to have a January sale. It’s quite simple really – all our CD albums are now £5 or less for the next 2 weeks – just visit our sale page and get busy. We’ll be back with more news in the next couple of weeks with our plans for 2012 – which is shaping up to be our biggest year yet. Don’t forget our free compilation Two Syllables Volume Six is still available, so click here if you haven’t already got your copy. Happy shopping! 

So another year comes to a close – 2011 has been amazing for us and to celebrate the festive season we’ve put together another fantastic FREE album for your listening pleasure. It’s exactly one year since the last Two Syllables compilation and the latest instalment keeps up the quality. We’ve got a mix of highlights from 2011, new artists, exclusives and remixes across 12 brilliant tracks. It features music from Ye Mighty, Souleance, Frameworks, Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra, kidkanevil, EPRC, Homecut, Herma Puma, Debian Blak, Lotek & Amenta: we’re really proud of this comp, so please spread the word as far and wide as you can.

2012 is already shaping up nicely, with great new releases coming soon from Souleance, Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra & Herma Puma as well as a few other surprises that we think you’ll love.

So, grab yourself a glass of mulled wine and a hot mince pie and get downloading.

Merry Christmas from all of us at First Word!

We’re back with some new music to wash away the winter blues in the shape of a new 7″ from Tall Black Guy Productions. We were introduced to the Chicago-based producer earlier this year through Simple X of Herma Puma and were instantly hooked by the two tracks he sent through. Dance Forever is a low slung hip hop groover featuring vocals from Shev Rock & Simeon Viltz – check the dope video below. B-side ‘The Return Of Here & Now’ is a pure P-Funk, Boogie dancefloor destroyer. You can find out more about Tall Black Guy in this interview he did for the Live For The Funk Blog right here and check out the single below. Enjoy!

We’re stupidly excited to introduce our new signing Amenta. We first met her when she was a student at the Red Bull Music Academy in London last year. Her haunting vocals and fearless experimentation grabbed us immediately, as did the flood of top producers queueing up to work with the Toronto born singer. The RBMA guys sum it up best: ‘Citing Billie Holiday and Robert Smith as equal influences, she understands that character is just as important as technical skill – real singers talk loud and say something. Amenta’s got us on our knees!’ This week sees the release of her debut EP, ‘Sacred Places’ which features production from kidkanevil, Om Unit, Clinic, Lost Twin and Throwing Snow. This is the first of a series of EPs from Amenta – to find out more about her, have a listen to the tracks below, or head on over to the wonderful Put Me On It to check out an interview with her (and pick up an exclusive free tune). Go, go! Now! Quickly!

Lotek’s new album International Rudeboy album has been out for a few months now, and the more observant of you will have noticed the dub version has also sneaked onto the internets. Put together by Lotek and the mysterious UDL (Ubiquitous Dub Legitimizers), it is a full dub version of the album, and it is mighty fine! Vinyl fans out there will get a download of the full album (both regular and dub) with their beautiful wax, and those who buy either album through our shop get the other one for free (generous huh?). Anyway, enough blabbing – have a listen below, and make sure you’ve got the bass turned up, unless you’re listening on your laptop, in which case, you might not hear anything at all (sub bass can be a little elusive on a macbook). Stay tuned for more exciting release news later in the week!

Plenty of activity here at First Word Towers at the moment – we are delighted to announce the signing of three fantastic new acts to First Word. We have the futuristic soul of Debian Blak, the hard hitting dub-reggae of East Park Reggae Collective and the switched up Ethio-Jazz of Ye Mighty. Three great acts, who we’re thrilled to have brought into the First Word fold. Have a look at their pages and take a listen to their music – we reckon you’ll like it. Keep your eyes peeled for two more new acts that we’re signing in the coming weeks – some very exciting music will be coming your way soon. In the meantime, take a listen….

Thanks to everyone who came down on Sunday for the birthday shindig at Vibe Bar. It was without doubt the best event we’ve ever done and will live long in the memory. Photos and audio soon come – keep em peeled for that! There’s plenty more events going on for us at FW – London heads can find Gilla and Ali Gudgeon dropping all manner of hip hop, funk, soul, disco and beats at The Junction Room as part of our ongoing First Word Soundsystem residency. Anyone down on the South Coast needs to get to the Jelly Jazz 18th Birthday where Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra will be playing live – also on the bill are Nostalgia 77 and Natural Self – should be huge! Click on the flyer below for more info.

Big news this week! In two weeks we’ll be celebrating 7 years of First Word at London’s Vibe Bar with probably the biggest line-up in the label’s history. We start at 2pm out in the courtyard with our FW 7 x 7 – 7 DJs playing 7″ records. Full details of the line-up are strictly under wraps, but trust me, it’s gonna be huge! We then head inside for evening, with live performances from Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra, Souleance, Homecut, Mike-L, Ye Mighty and First Word Allstars. We’ll release more details this week, but in the meantime, click the link to the event on the right for more info. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot to mention, it’s totally free entry. Word!

Some very exciting news from Souleance this week – after the fantastic Le Plaisir special edition 7″s (which sold out in 1 hour), the fabulously talented Alice Dufay is back with another unique take on the Soupape EP. Alice has re-drawn (by hand!) her design for the EP, creating 15 unique, numbered pieces from scratch. Check the video and photos below to see how it all came together. We are offering these 15 records as a package that includes a Souleance T Shirt (also designed by Alice) for £60 which you can pick up here.

We also have the debut Souleance album landing soon on FW – check out the preview below (including a dope drop from Gift Of Gab!) La Belle Vie LP “4 Tracks” Snippet Preview by Souleance