Fug / Brothers On The Slide
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Album Summary
Cymande, that beautiful British funk and soul collective born in London in the early 1970s from the rich musical traditions of the Caribbean, had a catalog that the world simply wasn't ready for the first time around — but time has a way of correcting those mistakes. 'Fug / Brothers On The Slide,' released in 2018, is a reissue single pairing two of their most celebrated cuts from that classic early-70s period, originally laid down for the Janus Records label. The release came riding a wave of renewed fire and passion for Cymande's deeply rhythmic, Afrocentric sound — a wave built largely on the backs of hip-hop producers who had been digging in the crates and finding gold. This reissue stands as both a tribute to a legacy long overdue for its flowers and a loving reintroduction of these essential recordings to a world finally prepared to receive them right.
Reception
- The reissue was warmly embraced by devotees of rare groove, funk, and soul, further cementing Cymande's standing as cult heroes whose influence ran so much deeper than their original commercial recognition ever suggested.
- Critical voices in the music press responded with reverence, noting that both tracks carried a timeless vitality — sounding every bit as urgent and forward-thinking in 2018 as they did when first pressed to wax decades before.
- The single format release found a natural home in a vinyl reissue culture that was experiencing serious commercial and critical momentum, helping a new generation of listeners discover Cymande's foundational sound for the very first time.
Significance
- The pairing of 'Fug' and 'Brothers On The Slide' captures the very soul of what made Cymande so singular — that irresistible weave of funk, reggae, soul, and African rhythm that stood apart from everything else coming out of Britain in the early 70s and remains utterly unclassifiable to this day.
- The 2018 reissue is a powerful marker in the ongoing global rehabilitation of Cymande's legacy, drawing a clear and necessary line between their original commercial obscurity and the profound, undeniable cultural footprint they left behind.
- As a document of the British rare groove movement at its most essential, this release situates Cymande firmly within the canon of artists who shaped the future of music without ever receiving the mainstream recognition their genius deserved in the moment.
Samples
- "Brothers On The Slide" — one of the most heavily sampled tracks in Cymande's catalog, its groove has been lifted by numerous hip-hop producers across decades, representing a cornerstone of the band's enormous influence on American rap and beatmaking culture.
- "Fug" — sampled across hip-hop and rare groove productions, its hypnotic rhythmic foundation made it a prized crate-digger's discovery and a recurring source of inspiration for beat-makers seeking something deep and undeniable.
Tracklist
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A Fug 104
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B Brothers On The Slide 112
Artist Details
Cymande was a beautiful, spiritual force born out of London in 1971, a collective of Caribbean-born musicians who blended funk, soul, jazz, and African rhythms into something so deep and hypnotic it made the walls breathe. Their sound — raw, percussion-heavy, and groove-drenched — was ahead of its time, laying the foundation for what would later be celebrated as funk and soul at its most organic and uncut, with tracks like "Bra" and "The Message" becoming cornerstones of the early hip-hop sampling tradition, touched by everyone from De La Soul to The Fugees. Cymande never got the mainstream spotlight they deserved in their heyday, but history has a way of correcting itself, and today they stand as one of the most sampled and spiritually significant acts to ever bless a wax platter.
