To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Incognito releasing their debut record, the Brit Funk pioneers are releasing an anniversary 8CD, 106 tracks retrospective CD set cased in a rigid box with individual card inner sleeves and a 52 page booklet with sleeve notes written by Charles Waring and photos from the band’s archive.

Released on 19th November, CDs 1-5 have been curated by the bands founder and driving force Bluey with CD two and four containing previously unreleased* tracks. CD six is a rare Japanese-only live album recorded in 1996 while CDs seven and eight have been compiled by the bands long time supporter who released seven of their albums through his own record label Talkin’ Loud – DJ and Acid House pioneer Gilles Peterson.

The 52 page booklet features a 10,000 word sleevenote written by Charles Waring and based on a recent interview with Bluey. In the detailed sleeve notes Charles plots the journey of Incognito: from Bluey’s childhood to their early successes as part of the 1980s Brit-funk scene; the band’s re-emergence and global fame during the Talkin’ Loud years under Gilles Peterson’s wing; encounters with legends such as Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan and onto Incognito’s recent successes on independent labels such as Dome and Edel. The notes are interspersed with photos of the various incarnations of the group from Bluey’s personal archive.

Incognito are one of the pioneers of Acid Jazz and Brit Funk in the UK. Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick founded the band in 1979 and they have gone on to release 18 studio albums, five compilation albums, six remix albums and three live albums. Bluey remains as important to UK jazz today as he did in 1979 – his recent project with Gilles Peterson as STR4TA has been widely acclaimed – and this box-set deservedly shines a light on the five decade legacy of Incognito showing how they are one of the UK’s most important groups working in the soul, jazz and funk arena.