Promised Heights: Opaque Pink Vinyl LP

Label: Partisan Records
Release Date: 17th May

Another Cymande reissue another reminder that this British band were breaking ground in their effortless fusion of Afro-rock, psychedelic soul with Guayanese and Jamaican roots. This album features arguably their their most well known and hardest hitting slice of funk 'Brothers on the Slide'.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Cymande’s 'Promised Heights', a record that closed out an historic three album run of seminal early '70s Afro-soul that also included their 1972 self-titled debut and 1973’s Second Time Round. Promised Heights solidified Cymande’s place in music history, and contains some of their most-beloved and often-sampled tracks such as “Brothers On The Slide”. As children of the Windrush Generation, Cymande were part of the first wave of innovators and originators of the fledgling Black British music scene. Taking influences from their Guyanese and Jamaican roots, the band fused reggae bass lines, Afro-tinged Nyabinghi percussion, psychedelic rock touches, and American style funk instrumentation into a unique sound they dubbed as “Nyah-rock.” Promised Heights was recorded following the band’s US tour with Al Green, which had firmly planted Cymande in the ears of an adoring American audience. Cymande were also the first British band to ever play the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem.

A1. Pon de Dungle
A2. Equatorial Forest
A3. Brothers On The Slide
A4. Changes
A5. Breezeman
B1. Promised Heights
B2. Losin' Ground
B3. Leavert
B4. The Recluse
B5. Sheshamani