Started by the Londoner Miles Cleret, Soundway Records has become the pre-eminent obscure compilation maker. With compilations such as Ghana Soundz, Nigerian Disco, Panama! (1, 2, & 3), and my personal favorite Tumbele! (a compilation of French Caribbean music from the 60's), Cleret's label is an ethnomusicologist's paradise.
The difference between Soundway Records' compilations and those of say, Putomayo and other purveyors of generic world music discs, is tremendous. To begin the level of research into the music, conneiseurship, and respect for the original artists is drastically different. Cleret as well as the Beto, the compiler of Soundways' panama mixes, are both amazingly well-versed in the music scens. Cleret, in preparation for the release of Ghana Soundz, personally licensed the music in Ghana from the artists during months of hunting down the musicians all over Ghana, many of whom have ceased to play music for the past three decades. He has mined extinct record labels, local markets, and done buckets of first-hand research. His compilations are very carefully distilled and represent these otherwise neglected scenes (be it the Nigerian disco scene or the Colombian funk scene) to a degree no one else does. On the contrast, Putomayo and others barely skim the surface, tossing on well-known artists, licensing them all from their active major labels in a day, and then selling the hasty package the next day.
Soundway's extreme care and music scholarship is what makes it an absolute gem. Not to mention their wide series of compilations.
Please go out and support Soundway Records. They provide a nonpareil service that relies on the support of anyone they can get.
www.soundwayrecords.com
