CYMANDE
SECOND TIME ROUND
PARTISAN
In the early 70s, while largely ignored in the UK, Brit funk band Cymande toured with Al Green and came close to a major US breakthrough. But sustained success never arrived. They split in 1974, but were rediscovered and sampled during the breakbeat era. Album two, Second Time Round, reissued to coincide with a new band documentary, shows why the likes of De La Soul were so fascinated. Here’s a jazz-tinged, politically engaged album made by musicians who, as members of the Windrush generation, brought a distinctive Caribbean influence to all that they did.