They hailed from Guyana, St. Vincent and Jamaica they fused African rhythms with rock, funk and Latin jazz they were Cymande, and they sounded like no one else. Spike Lee and a generation of rappers have borrowed tracks from their 1972 debut: the R&B hits The Message and Bra plus Dove; Listen Getting It Back , and 12 more!

Short-lived but legendary, Cymande is oft-compiled on funk assemblages, but this CD of their first two LPs is altogether necessary, even if the music moves away from tight beats into Rasta-folk toward the end. Cymande's reputation has grown considerably over the last twenty years. Featuring a multi-national crew with a strong Caribbean influence, the band produced a few hits in the early seventies, then disappeared. But the epochal "Brothers On the Side," and the ingeniously structured "Fug" contain a subtlety and tension lacking in all but the best bands of the era. As usual, the Collectables label's sound quality is passable, but nothing to brag about. (review by D. Strauss)