Olan, All City, talks Numero, Bandit and home schooled child stars.

A reverence for the past and a respect for the lonely journey of the African American artists and record label entrepreneurs, has guided the excellent Numero records since their foundation in 2003. Based in Chicago they've been putting together heavyweight compilations shining light on the optimism, hope and the (mostly, scantly rewarded) work of soul labels via their flagship Eccentric Soul Series, not to mention their Good God series which catalogues the praising of the Lord via the gospel-funk-soul fusion of loud drums and wah wah pedals that ...

In praise of HudMo, Rustie and Kode 9 - Olan All City on the environmental re-engineers.

Who remembers Gary McKay?. A seminal moment for any 80s child in Ireland – the national squad needing foreign aid via the Scottish first 11 in eastern European cauldron, complete with dodgy ref, noisy partisan fan base consisting of disgruntled factory workers given the afternoon off and apprentice hooligans. No moral victory here - up popped Gary McKay with 10 minutes to go and grown men cried in the street etc .

It wasn’t until years later I found that Scotland had the same population as we ...

Stones Throw in focus with Olan All City.

Two words were conspicuous by their absence in last month’s column: Stones Throw. The legendary LA label has a busy autumn, continuing their agenda of progressive nostalgia. The 80s gets a nod via Dam Funk’s 5-LP set; the 70s/60s with Mayer Hawthorne’s blue-eyed soul while Madlib continues to go against the grain, pushing some 90s backpack rap.

Originally a Bay Area label, ST moved to LA in 2000, pre-empting the LA influx by a few years. They have repped LA since then, and are arguably almost wholly responsible ...

Sounds of the Left side - a west coast exploration from Olan All City.

Perhaps it’s the money or the availability of opportunity or the sheer scale of the country, but whatever mix it is Americans just tend to be the best at pretty much everything they put their hands to (bar fitba for some weird reason). When they run with summat, they tend to go the whole way. The culture of individualism, inherent competitiveness and lack of social cohesion that the country is built on has at least one benefit – great art. Best authors, filmmakers, dancers, artists, creators of ...

Olan All City Records joins our 'Files' roster - supplying regular words on critical beats.

What with June being a bit of a graveyard for decent releases - a bit like the cinema: plenty of big shit but mostly fluff - I thought it best to just do a half time report for ‘09 on some bits what slipped under the radar in the hip hop, beats and beyond world. Ish that may take a bit longer to bubble to the surface or never get any shine. Like last year and the year before and the year before, it has obviously been pish ...