VA / Soul Jazz Records Presents - In The Beginning There Was Rhythm

Unavailable for over 20 years, In The Beginning There Was Rhythm was Soul Jazz Records’ first foray into post-punk and punk-funk in the UK, capturing the groundbreaking, seminal groups that crossed the divide of punk and dance music for the first time.

First released in 2001, this album is fully remastered, remade and presented once more in its entirety and features A Certain Ratio, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, The Human League, The Pop Group, Gang of Four, The Slits, 23 Skidoo and This Heat. As Muzik magazine noted on its initial release, ‘In The Beginning There Was Rhythm’ is a choice selection from the fertile post-punk period when bands thought nothing of combining politics and philosophy with imported dance rhythms and edgy industrial angst. Most of the bands featured come from the then bleak post- industrial North of England - Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds as well as Bristol and London - and yet all show a fascination with Black American rhythms and an experimentation in sound that was completely unique at the time.