Record Store Day 2023: Sounds of the Universe’s essential picks

Including Althea and Donna, Willie Tee and more.

The annual vinyl and record store culture celebration, Record Store Day, is fast approaching on April 22. There is an overwhelming collection of RSD exclusive vinyl releases coming our way, so we’ve drafted in some of our favourite record stores to help you wade through all the options and uncover some treats.

Read more: Our most anticipated Record Store Day 2023 releases

Banquet Records selected some heavy-hitter major releases yesterday and, today, Stuart from Sounds of the Universe joins us for an eclectic collection of reggae, soul and post-punk.

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Various Artists

Holy Church of the Ecstatic Soul: A Higher Power: Gospel, Soul and Funk at the Crossroads 1971-83

(Soul Jazz Records)

An awesome new collection of gospel meets soul. The album draws upon the extensive links between Black American gospel music and soul music. Holy Church of the Ecstatic Soul shows how the sensibilities of gospel artists, such as Shirley Caeser, Dorothy Norwood, Andrae Crouch, and others, crossed over into secular soul music between 1971 and ’83.

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Althea and Donna

Uptown Top Ranking

(UMR/EMI)

The classic reggae outing, Althea and Donna’s Uptown Top Ranking, was initially released with Joe Gibbs and was remade for Virgin in 1978.

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Willie Tee

Please Don’t Go

(NOLA)

Seminal New Orleans soul from Willie Tee, vocalist and later co-leader of The Gaturs. Also features Tee’s brother Earl Turbinton on saxophone.

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Max Roach & Archie Shepp

Force – Sweet Mao – Suid Afrika 76

(L.M.L.R)

Righteous deep jazz from two heavyweights. Force – Sweet Mao – Suid Afrika 76 was originally released in 1976 and was previously unavailable for nearly 40 years.

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Various Artists

New York Noise: Dance Music from the New York Underground 1977-1982

(Soul Jazz Records)

The seminal New York post-punk/dance/punk funk collection features Liquid Liquid, Konk, Bush Tetras, James Chance and the Contortions, Alan Vega and more.

You can find Sounds Of The Universe at 7 Broadwick St, London W1F 0DA. Find out more about their Record Store Day ’23 collection here.