If ever there was a time for the Return of the Funki Dred it’s now.

As the world slowly emerges from a pandemic of chaos into the forward facing challenge of Black Lives Matter, could there be a more reassuring soundtrack than Back To Life or Keep On Movin’? However, in keeping with these unique times those tunes will be as never heard before.

Soul II Soul’s Funki Dred Records is back after nearly thirty years in hiatus, still bridging the gap between street and sophistication with a schedule of totally 21st Century takes on club classics, and passing the Dred Head banner on to a selection of new young stars.

“This is something we’ve had under consideration for a while,” Soul II Soul front man Jazzie B explains. “But first we had to make sure the remixes of the Soul II Soul hits were not only musically perfect within the genres we had reimagined them, but that we were adding something to each original. Although we want to bring the Soul II Soul nation with us on this latest stage of our journey, we’re very conscious how much those tunes mean to so many people so we had to treat them with extra respect.

“We’ve always looked at and looked at developing new artists – that’s why Funki Dred Records was first set up back in the 1990s, and we figured we’d hit a point at which we’d connected with enough fresh talent to go forward. As for the timing, if we can contribute to wave of feeling sweeping the globe with our positive message we are proud to do so: A happy face, a thumpin’ bass, for a loving race.”

Funki Dred will be releasing music on 12” black vinyl, and collectible coloured vinyl. First on the reactivated catalogue will be an Afrobeat 'Zepherin Saint’ remix of Back To Life featuring the legendary Nigerian drummer Tony Allen. The 12” features the full ten minute plus Zepherin Saint Mix re-working, alongside a punchy ‘Zepherin Saint Radio Edit’ and a ‘Zepherin Saint Club Edit’, and to complete the package comes a different take on this classic track in the form of the 'Tribe Vocal Mix’.