Tabu

Following the success of the Tabu individual expanded editions, we have subsequently received enquiries about putting some packages together on Alexander O’Neal and The S.O.S. Band which encompass all of the original albums together with the 7” versions of the singles plus some of the 12” mixes we were unable to feature on the individual expanded editions. So who better to curate these packages than Ralph Tee, curator of the Philadelphia International Box Set and all-round Soul Music expert. So here are all 6 of Alexander O’Neal’s original Tabu albums as they were originally released together with 2 bonus CDs, one of which contains of all the key 7” singles and the other which contains the 12” versions which were not included on the recent expanded editions.

Alexander O'Neal almost achieved the breakout he needed for crossover success with his second album. It cracked the Top 30 on the pop album chart, earned a gold record, and included O'Neal's two strongest uptempo tunes, "Fake" and "Criticize." Jam and Lewis linked the material with "party" dialogue and patter, providing their finest and tightest production for any O'Neal record. The beats were catchy, the songs hook-laden, and O'Neal's voice alternately explosive, sensitive and bemused. This 2 CD set, packaged in a sumptuous casebound book, contains the lyrics and newly-authored liner notes by A. Scott Galloway, and features additional remixes and alternate versions of the singles.

It's often been said that if an R&B act didn't have a lot of dancefloor appeal in the late '70s, it could forget about being commercially successful. That isn't necessarily true; Frankie Beverly's Maze, just to give one example, was never a dancefloor favorite – and yet, all of its late-'70s albums went gold. Nonetheless, having disco appeal certainly didn't hurt. When Brainstorm's second album, Journey to the Light, failed to sell, some people reasoned that it was due to a shortage of up-tempo material. So with its third and final album, Funky Entertainment, the Detroit band decided to go for maximum disco appeal and make up-tempo songs a top priority.

Demon Music will release three Tabu box sets in autumn 2013 as part of their Tabu Reborn For 2013 reissue campaign. So welcome to the Tabu Record Box Set. This is a musical odyssey throughout the whole era of Tabu Records from its inception in 1977 through to 1993. All tracks have been impeccably selected covering pretty much all of the key tracks in Tabu's arsenal, including some for the first time ever on CD and all extensively re-mastered. In addition to this, we also have a 60 page booklet by Ralph Tee featuring all key biographical information, original photos and record scans plus an extensive Tabu Records discography courtesy of Paul "Soul-guru" Clifford.