[ aquarius records — Soul Funk ]

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Showing results 651 through 700 of 794.

An ambitiously titled new collection from Afrostrut, the premiere label of Afro-Funk reissues. It's a lot to call a cd set the "definitive" story of funk from Lagos, but Strut really went above and beyond the call of duty on this one. Sure you've got all

RealAudio clip: Allah Wakbarr
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Y'all went crazy for Sound Way's Nigeria Special compilation a few lists back, and we expect Nigeria Disco Funk Special -- the second installment in a 3-part series -- to be just as enticing a proposition. Whereas the first Nigeria Special was a sprawling collection of sounds and styles intended to show the sheer diversity of Nigeria's musical output in the early '70s, this volume is far more musically concise, consisting of mostly instrumental cuts that are heavily indebted to the American funk and disco being imported into Nigeria at the time. This collection of deep funk, Afro-boogie and serious disco will transport you (and your booty) to the sweat-soaked discos of Lagos, where native sounds shimmy up next to imported grooves bringing the dancefloor to a fever pitch of go-go bells, funky drums, wah wah guitar, popping bass and blasting horns. This is tight, dirty funk being filtered through afrobeat and highlife.... the results are absolutely AMAZING! Like all things from Sound Way, Nigeria Disco Funk Special comes with gorgeous packaging, extensive liner notes, archival photos and repros of original album artwork. Take your pick between a super slick digipak for the cd version and a gorgeous gatefold sleeve for the 2LP. This is heavy shit. Don't miss out!

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It's appropriate that Nigeria Rock Special kicks things off with a supremely heavy slab of organ/bass/drum groove by Ofege called "Adieu," as this is the third and allegedly final installment in Sound Way's incredible Nigeria Special series. We were skeptical that this volume would be able to live up to the high standards set by the first two, but honestly this is probably the best of the three. No joke, it's so effing good that when we put it on in the store all of us just look at each other and kind of do that squinty head bobbing groove thing where you're kind of like, "holy crap how good is this? SO GOOD!" In fact this is one of those rare compilations that manages to transcend its genre and appeal to people who may not normally be into African music -- it's not every day that you see some of the serious blackened noisemongering customers digging stuff from the "international" section! First thing, the title might be a little misleading... if you're coming to this expecting to hear stoned out proto-metal clomp or extended blues riffage, you might be a bit disappointed. While there are fuzzed out guitar explorations aplenty on this disc, the overall feel definitely leans more towards the funky side of things. If you're a fan of the Boscoe lp we reviewed a few lists back, or the Skull Snaps record, or even Black Merda (or anything from the now sadly out of print Chains and Black Exhaust compilation) you are going to LOVE this record: imagine blown out, psychedelic instrumental passages layered over heavy, heavy, heavy bass and drums with no shortage of traditional highlife and afrobeat flourishes and you're in the ballpark. In fact, with the exception of a few tracks (most notably, Question Mark's "Freaking Out," which, believe it or not, sounds kind of like Can covering something from the Nuggets box), the western influence is actually less present in this collection than it was in the last volume. There are too many standouts to list them all, but we would be remiss not to mention that Mono Mono's "Kenimania" comes on like Fela tackling a Booker T jam; or that Ofo The Black Company's "Enario" is a simmering pot of mid-tempo funk and call and response vocals that holds up as a worthy successor to their mighty "Allah Wakbarr" (a song you might remember from two other essential compilations: Nigeria 70, and World Psychedelic Classics Vol. 3); or that the treble-kicking guitars of Colomach's "Cotocun Gba Gounke" create a mind-blowing hybrid of Middle-Eastern-tinged desert blues and Hendrix-ian pyrotechnics; or that Joe King Kologbo & His Black Sounds' "Another Man's Thing" is a frenetic polemic that switches gears from hyperactive shuffle to deep funk throb-n-stab in the blink of an eye! Look, we know we've been pushing these Nigeria Special comps hard for the last few months but it's for good reason: the three volumes together form a meticulously curated, beautifully packaged collection of songs that spans two decades and demonstrates the intense creativity and musical diversity in post-revolution Nigeria. Taken by itself, Nigeria Rock Special is a gripping, exuberant, and infectious listen from start to finish and definitely comes with as high a recommendation as we can dish out!

MPEG stream: More Bread To The People
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Now on vinyl! Twenty eight tracks of rare and unreleased funk and exotic outerworldliness specially selected by Luke Vibert from the music libraries of Chappell, Southern, iM and PIL. Artists featured include Nino Nardini, Jack Arel, Eddie Warner, David Holland, Anthony King and more. Don't be misled into thinking this is Luke Vibert's music, it is him doing the selecting and

Oh yeah! I'm sure you all remember in your youth, just going nuts on the dance floor, shaking and frugging and getting down to the latest smash from the likes of The Shock Absorbers ("It's Your Thing"), The Keith Mansfield Orchestra ("Soul Thing"), or Ken Woodman's Picadilly Brass ("Mexican Flier"), right? Whew, those were the days! What, you weren't making the scene in swinging sixties London? Well this comp should give you some idea what it maybe might have coulda been like, it's called On The Brink. Subtitled: Return Of The Instro-Hipsters. And the cover blurb goes on to state: "A happening and eclectic mix of vintage instrumental grooviness from the UK, with sitars, flutes, organs, horns and fuzz guitars." And that's no lie. This cd, compiled by none other than noted psych record collector Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond, is a veritable cornucopia of late '60s/early '70s instrumental toe-tappers from studio-bound big bands and nightclub combos letting their hair down and getting their funk on, swank stuff that could be the soundtrack to the coolest cocktail party ever. Delightfully goofy, some of this, dated of course, and verging on the psychedelic for sure... especially Stanley Myers' "Organ Fantasia In D Major", now that's an awesomely groovy freakout. Myers is one of the few names we already know here, session sitar guy Big Jim Sullivan being another, but it's nice to also become acquainted with the often ephemeral likes of The Chris Barber Soul Band, Trax Four, The Mike Cotton Sound, The Les Reed Orchestra, The Fidd, The Vic Flick Sound, and all the rest. 20 bands, 20 tracks, jazzy and snazzy, lush and bombastic, racy and romantic... not a clunker in the bunch, though we might have to frown about how much The John Schroder Orchestra's "Nightrider" sounds sooo much like the famous theme to Batman. Definitely if you love library music, or those In-Kraut compilations, this is kinda like the UK version of the same sort of thing, almost... and being British and from the swinging sixties, it's also no wonder that a lot of this could fit nicely in a spy movie, some of it very James Bond/Austin Powers sounding. The cd booklet includes notes on each track, photos, and lots of bright color. Right on.

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Out of all of Motown's small subsidiary labels, Mowest may have been the most stylistically diverse. Created as an outlet for Motown's West Coast based artists, its brief existence between 1971-1973 before Motown set up shop in Los Angeles full time, covered a fertile period of music-making that was freed from pre-defined genre constraints. Where else could the soulful exuberance of the Commodores, the slow proto-disco groove of Odyssey and The Sisters Love, the late-period vocal pop of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and the stoner hippie vibes of Lodi commingle together? As usual, Light In The Attic does a stellar job of highlighting the amazing aspects of this brief label, re-introducing to the world some of its lesser known artists such as The Nu Page, Suzee Ikeda, and G.C. Cameron, while showing the early career promise of Syreeta and Thelma Houston. This is a side of Motown at its most adventurous yet relaxed, letting the sunny soulful vibes wash over us like warm ocean waves. Super Recommended!

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Another collection of Jamaican artists doing funk, yes. But does it sound anything like predecesors Darker Than Blue and Studio One Funk? No. In fact, on many of these tracks you wouldn't even guess that they were recorded in Jamaica. To be sure some, like Tommy McCook's "Bubble Strut", have the underlying rhythmmic passport to prove their citizenship, and King Cole's "Knock Three Times" is about as soul as early Jimmy Cliff, but most are straight up 70's disco funk. Scratchy wah-wah guitars, horn sections, goofy moog keyboard solos... We keep looking over at the CD player here to be sure we're listening to the right album. All the tracks here, recorded between 1970 and 1975, were produced at Randy's legendary studio. Includes a nice, full-color booklet with liner notes by the ubiquitous David Katz.

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This 2001 compilation is the impressive debut in the recorded realm of Bay Area clubland kingpin DJ Tom Thump. If you dig downtempo, soul and house sounds, you're probably already very familiar with Tom Thump. For those of you who aren't, rest assured he's a gent you can trust as a purveyor of the smooth funky, jazzy good times! This skillfully mixed compilation will carry you deep into the night in fab style.

Great! In 1998, local hip hop music maker, record collector, and impresario Peanut Butter Wolf started a series of vinyl 7"s meant for one-off releases that didn't fit with his straight up hip hop label Stones Throw. (Hey, if you didn't know already, PB Wolf is da guy dat came up with the idea of the all-45s sets that brought Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow together for their now famous shows.) Featuring folks like Madlib, Breakestra, A-Trak (his sublime "Enter Ralph Wiggum" track), Lootpack, etc, and then later expanding to reissue funk/soul classics from the late '60s/early '70s, the 7"s were meant to be collectible, with exclusive tracks. (In fact, even though this disc compiles the 7"s, it takes only one track from each single so the 7"s are *still* collectible.) I didn't pay them enough attention when they were still singles, so this comp is welcome, and as a collected entity it only serves to show how rad PB Wolf's taste is. Man, some of the old funk tracks appearing here are *unbelievably weird*, and the contemporary tracks are sufficiently soul and funk-influenced that sometimes it's hard to tell if they're old or new. That's awesome! Hands down one of the very best soul / funk / hip hop comps we've heard in forever, and the fact that it covers old and modern stuff just puts it over the top. A great, exciting listen thru and thru. Highly recommended.

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A pretty great collection of "party funk and get down jazz", as the record is subtitled, People Get Ready collects just addictively grooving singles here, including a Lee Dorsey track that never made it onto any of his albums. Another fine collection

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What a great comp! Rare but amazing examples of "Black music" (that's the European term) from the '70s, done with a heavy helping of at-the-time cutting edge electronics. Spaced out soul, in other words. Well, obviously it wasn't just cosmic krautrockers and spacey prog bands in the '70s messing around with the latest in synthesizers and other electronic music-making devices. Why wouldn't soul, funk, gospel, and RnB artists also make use of all that newfangled machinery? Of course they would, with folks like Herbie Hancock and Sun Ra leading the way. And they did. Especially those making music at home, without access to big studio budgets. That's the "Personal" part of the title, the songs here pretty much all being solo DIY home-brewed recordings, enabled by the technology... Which, along with the futuristic/sci-fi vibes that go along with the tech, give a lot of this a bit of an additional eccentric "outsider" feel, just check out the artist known as Starship Commander Woo Woo, for instance! So, the compilers of this collection have dug deep, to find all these fantastic selections of what you could call "electronic soul", that in the mainstream we'd really only previously heard from Shuggie Otis... so if you can imagine Shuggie Otis really way out in spaaaace, you've got an idea of what's happening here. Fat, buzzing synths. The mechanical tick-tock of primitive drum machines. Spacey FX galore. Mega multitracked masterpieces. Yeah, it'd all be novelty, if these songs weren't good. But, they ARE good. Obscure but definitely grade-A stuff in our book. The sci-fi sounds (which make a lot of this seem simultaneously '70s retro but also very up-to-date electronica-ish) are put to use by artists who come across like mutant Stevie Wonders and Sly Stones. There's 17 tracks here, from names we doubt you've ever heard of before: Jeff Phelps, Guitar Red, Johnnie Walker, U.S. Aries, The Makers, Cotillion, Spontaneous Overthrow, Jerry Green, Johnson, Key & Cleary, The New Year, T. Dyson & Company, Steve Elliot, Deborah Washington, and the aforementioned Starship Commander Woo Woo. Kinda hard to pick faves, some are simply groovy, some super bizarre, many both at once... The only omission we can think of, is that even though this gets into the '80s, there's nothing from Wicked Witch on here (see our review of EM's reissue of that if you aren't familiar). But what's here is plenty weird & wonderful, from the twangy zipzap of bluesman Guitar Red's "Disco From A Space Show" to the heavily echo-effected "My Bleeding Wound" by The New Year... Nicely presented, the cd in deluxe hardbound booklike slipcased packaging, complete with liner notes including thumbnail images of each original release. And the vinyl version is a 180 gram double lp, also nicely packaged.

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Where were you from 1965 to 1973? Well, if you weren't born yet or for some reason were otherwise occupied, check out the hot sounds that were coming out of Philadelphia back then. This 17 track soul, funk and early disco compilation on the excellent Soul Jazz label (who also brought us the wonderful Studio One Rockers as well as the 100%, 200% and 300% Dynamite Jamaican

After near-obsessive listening to this comp, the first song, "Collage", by The Three Degrees is absolutely my favorite. So much blazing soul I can barely handle it. The rest of this Soul Jazz comp (a second volume of their Philadelphia Roots series) is so totally amazing as well. Funk, soul and the roots of disco from 1965-73 are featured here and lay down some serious soulful grooves. Philly-style! And I don't mean with cheesesteaks mother fucker!!! Every single track is a glistening sun-beam of soul from the era. Aside from my afore-mentioned fave, other hi-lites include an instrumental version of The Family's "Family Affair", Nat Turner's little bit funky "You Are My Sun Sign", The Ethics' "I Want My Baby Back", the legendary Delphonics with "Ready Or Not Here I Come", and Norma & The Heartaches' "Hot Pants". Yeeeow! Soo gooooood!!!!!

MPEG stream: Collage
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Looking at the cover of this comp, what catches our eye? Well, of course the words PSYCH and FUNK in big electric pink letters. Pretty much had us right there, we're easy like that. But then the fine print on the sticker on the front adds an extra tingle of excitement: "None of these tracks have ever been reissued"! So what we have here is a survey course on some obscure shit, an international collection of freaky, fuzzy, funky jams from the golden years, circa 1968-1975 or so, mostly from groups we'd never heard of before. The ones did know were a good sign, being super groovy and decidedly eccentric. (Though we do have to point out that at least a few of the cuts here actually have been reissued before, that's how we knew 'em!). Here's the lineup: Hunsu Ozkartal Orkestrasi (Turkey), Kukumbas (Nigeria), Mulatu Astatke feat. Belaynesh Wubante and Assegedetch Asfaw (Ethiopia), Kim Sun (South Korea), Petalouda (Greece), Mehr Pooya (Iran), Staff Carpenborg and The Electric Corona (West Germany), The Group (Italy), Armando Sciascia (Italy), Wadih Essafi (Lebanon), Omar Khorshid (Egypt), Metin H. Alatli (Turkey), George Garanian with The Melodiya Jazz Ensemble (Russia), and Eskaton (France). 14 tracks in all, all of 'em b to the a to the d to the ass. Get ready for plenty of percolating percussion, infectious bass lines, analog synth buzz, chicken scratch guitar, greasy organ, drugged out FX, and in many cases Middle Eastern or African or other 'exotic' ethnic elements as appropriate to their nation of origin. Highlights are almost impossible to pick. All the African stuff is killer (Ethiopiques fans take note), so are the Turkish tracks (you want weird? check out how the Metin H. Alatli cut somehow segues from Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith music to stoned cocktail bellydance improv!!), so is everything else. We dig how eerieness and jazziness are combined on "The Feed-back" by The Group (aka Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, featuring Ennio Morricone), and also Armando Sciascia's suspenseful "Circuito Chiuso" is pretty eerie too. Both are from Italy, where it seems that it's hard NOT to sound like you're scoring a phantasmagoric horror flick a la Goblin. Also, we love love love the grandiose extended electro-funk from Magmoid progsters Eskaton that closes out the disc. But why keep writing about this, you know you need it - unless your record collection already includes all these rarities, and there's no way it does. Lovingly compiled with the help of DJs like Cut Chemist and Stone's Throw's Egon, Psych Funk 101 is truly a lesson in, well, a variety of awesome vintage funkiness, in the tradition of other cool comps like Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word, Obsession, Trap Door, and the Afro-centric Love's A Real Thing. Housed in a handsome digipack, it boasts a thick, 36 page booklet featuring a two-page spread on each track, with full color repro of the original LP or 45 sleeve from whence the cut originated, along with a page of text giving more info than you'd expect. FYI this also came out on vinyl, but was gone so fast, we don't have any to list. However, we are told it is being repressed, soon we hope...

MPEG stream: What You Can Do In Your Life
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Dirty, DIRTY! sex rhyme booty beat music from Brazil. Sounds interesting, mmmmno? I think it might be called a couple of other names, but this comp's titled Rio Baile Funk: Favela Booty Beats. The sound is a rudimentary hodgepodge of beats/breaks/melodies appropriated from all sortsa other music: Os Mutantes, Def Leppard's "High and Dry", an assortment of late 80s/early 90s Hip Hop, and 90s New Wave/Top 40 all mixed into an incessant percussion, over which a (for the most part) singular (and sometimes a child's) voice yells totally explicit sex rhymes! Now, I don't know Portugese, but it doesn't take rocket science to imagine what they're yellin about here. First of all, what comes to mind with the term dirty sex ryhmes? Hmm, ok. If you haven't gotten the hint yet, imagine where it comes from: the ghettos of Rio and its millions of homeless children ruling the sprawling city with violence day and night. In a place like this, nothing but this type of music would be appropriate. Regardless, the beats are amazing, the lyricism (well, yelling) is hilarious but fierce, and the overall sound is fresh, inspiring and ridiculously fun. Crazy recommended!

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Despite the crappy looking cover, a pretty cool "race music" collection full of classic blues and gospel that set the scene for today's hip hop and rap.

The term "counter-culture" seems to be Rough Trade's catch-all tag for this extremely eclectic compilation. This two disc set features a total of 41 tracks from around the world - many familiar artists (Bright Eyes, the Breeders, ESG, Bis, Johnny Dowd, Melt Banana, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cabaret Voltaire, Mountain Goats, Tom Waits, Prefuse 73, Tracy And The Plastics, Glass Candy And The Shattered Theatre, James Yorkston, Dempsey, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, Joy Zipper, Langley Schools Music Project) as well as many you may not yet be familiar with (Rubicks, The Be Good Tanyas, Trash Money, Akufen, Baxter Dury, The Bug Vs The Rootsman, My Robot Friend, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Crossover, The Books and Pink Grease). A genuine musical cornucopia!

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Soul influenced tracks from Brazil dating mostly from the mid to late seventies. Laced with funky electric bass, rhodes piano, horn sections, female choruses singing backup, and even the occasional string section, this is a perfect soundtrack for swank retro cocktail parties to get those guests dancing. A must for fans of the saucy soundtrack releases on the Crippled Dick Hot Wax

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SORRY. Vintage high school & college marching band versions of funk classics, from the '60s and '70s! "Chameleon", "Loose Booty", "Cisco Kid" (amazingly dirgey and gloomy sounding, like much of this disc--kind of a lonely-in-a-crowd feeling), etc. Fun/cked up. Compiled by the Quannum Projects guys, it seems, from old tapes or maybe thrift-store vanity LP pressing finds. Very cool.

What a smokin' comp! Do you like your soul & funk nice and raw and sizzling? Then be ready to discover that from 1968-1980 in Michigan lived an amazing scene of d.i.y. soul artists releasing sometimes only one single but putting so much oozing flare and charisma to their true soul sounds it nearly sets your speakers on fire! Luv N' Haight has compiled 14 of these artists on this truly great collection of soul, funk and jazz rarities from Michigan over those dozen years. Tommy McGee, Manual B. Holcolm, Robert Jay, El Riot, etc. never became household names, but if their luck had been a little different and the break that never came their way did, there is no doubt they would have earned a spot in the same breath as Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, and Sly & The Family Stone. No weak tracks in the bunch, great in depth liner notes that tell the story of each track, no doubt this is one of the strongest soul reissue collections we've heard in a while.

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While labels like the Numero Group and Soul Jazz have been doing a great job of digging up amazing old soul sounds from the past, this collection of soul and funk from Spain from 1966-1976 popped up out of nowhere and has ended up being maybe one of the best soul collections we've ever heard! It's everything you want soul and funk from that era to be. It's infectious, playful, gritty, groovy and totally addictive. While none of us had too much experience with the soul scene in Spain, this comp proves that it was pretty damn healthy and vibrant. These songs are damn near impossible not to be swept away by. Even Andee who is maybe the least funk-obsessed AQ-er was caught totally digging on these sounds. And then for those of you who are already attracted to great funk sounds of the era, this is like hitting the funkrock jackpot! After getting this the first day it arrived at AQ, I (Irwin) managed to play cuts from it during no less than three different DJ sets in the next 48 hours. And every single time I played a song from it I was immediately met with someone running to the DJ booth (and the phone lighting up when it was during my radio show) with the same excited question...What the heck is this and where can I buy one!!?? What makes this collection so outstanding are the strange splashes of eccentric spirit that keep it from sounding too same-y and keep the disc from ever losing steam, like lots of soul collections tend to do. This is one of those amazing records you can't help but fall in love with! If you have a pulse or a heartbeat or are at all alive, you won't be able to resist!

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Inspired by the Wu Tang (hence the title), here's yet another set of seventies soul compilations. We can't argue with their selections. 21 tracks, awesome stuff to put you in the mood from the likes of Ann Peebles, Al Green, Syl Johnson, Lyn Collins, Booker T & The MGs, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, O.V. Wright, and others... Both vol. 1 and vol. 2 have a good mix of classic tracks, for the most part not-too-obscure yet not-too-obvious stuff. Syl Johnson, Ann Peebles, The Emotions, and Al Green make appearances on both volumes, so I guess they're the compilers favorites or something.

Volume two of "Shaolin Soul" features Teddy Pendergrass, Al Green, Sly Johnson, Baby Huey, Mad Lads, Ann Peebles, Jackson 5, Detroit Emeralds, The Emotions, Black Ivory, The New Birth, Southside Movement, Eddie Holman and more (20 tracks). Again, lots of gems here, as with vol. 1 it's mostly lush love song soul rather than blaxploitation car chase funk, more smooth than gritty.

Sixteen of the incredibly rare 7" tracks used by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist on their recent Brainfreeze performances. (It's just the tracks mind you, no mixing or scratching involved here.) This is a very strong collection. Incredible funk and raw soul and

If you wept when you missed out on the DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist "Brainfreeze" live 7" extravaganza cd last year, and then jumped for joy when "Slurped Vol. One" compiled a stack of those very 7"s, well, jump a little higher baby 'cause there's more where that

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No doubt we've loved so much of what Italians Do It Better has released recently, in so many ways they really helped reignite the love of dance music in indie culture. With different shades of smoky, slow burning spaced out disco, techno and house music, their roster really reads like an exciting list of some of our favorite synth heavy late night dance floor favorites. Solid Gold is a collection of tracks from 12" singles IDIB have released over the last few years by folks like Invisible Conga People, T&K, Bottin, Twisted Wires, and even Beyonce's sister Solange. We dig this collection so much because as much as we like so much of the Johnny Jewel fueled sounds that have come from the Italians Do It Better camp (Glass Candy, Chromatics, Desire), it's nice to hear a set of songs that have a bit of a different angle and perspective to dance music, than just one group/guy's vision. From total spaced out ravers to cold and thrilling chillers we've been listening to this loud and nonstop ever since it came in to the shop. We even noticed that folks who are usually a bit dance music shy are getting way into this as there are so many awesome prog and psyched out synth moments on this record. Much like their last compilation After Dark, Italians Do It Better have once again provided us with a seamless compilation that flows so perfectly from start to finish and is making us move in the most sensual and satisfying ways. So smoking!

MPEG stream: I Feel Electric (Tiedye Remix)
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Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouuuuul... umm... gospel? Yes it is, Amen!! Praise Soul Jazz for bringing us one quality compilation after another! Amen!! Actually, this one could be called a masterpiece. Each song has a solid and glowing fullness to it that's certainly not matched on any other comp we've heard. I'm going on a bit of a tangent here, but I once watched a show hosted by David Attenborough called "The Biological History of Music". As you can imagine, Attenborough drowned himself in different situations, mostly in Nature and knee deep in swamp poo. His goal was to study things like bird calls, whale songs, etc. juxtaposed with the most lude clips of Jimi Hendrix performing live on stage I'd ever seen. Attenborough's theories throughout this special pronounced that music seemed biologically created for three different purposes: 1) mating; 2) protecting/gaining territory; and 3) spirituality. Of course, the whale songs were not be analysed for their spirituality (unfortunately), but several spirituals and gospel songs were used as demonstration. Really, this Soul Gospel compilation would have been THE proof for Attenborough's third biological purpose for music! The songs are each a powerful combination of the Spritual and Secular, proclaiming a belief in something "other", or rather, simply well seated in a sense of "otherness". One of the more moving tracks is one by Odetta. Her "Pastures of Plenty" is deep and haunting. Definitely my favorite. For followers of Soul Jazz releases, this comp is a must have. For lovers of Soul and Gospel, your desire for this is obvious. For anyone who's seen that show of which I speak above, you gotta take a gander at this and you'll see what I mean!

MPEG stream: New York Lightning
MPEG stream: Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday
MPEG stream: Pastures Of Plenty

So we don't usually do much mixing of music and praising the lord around here... unless it's the dark lord that is... but when Soul Jazz hits us with the follow up to their amazing Soul Gospel compilation we can't help but get on our Sunday best and raise our arms in complete surrender to these totally irresistible sounds. Spanning the late 60's to the end of the 70's these 20 songs go beyond beyond simple soulful songs in the gospel tradition. When Louise McCord tells you "you better get a move on" you've pretty much got to. When the Marion Gaines Singers tell you to "Do Your Thing" you dang well better. When Marion Williams belts out tales of "Bad News, Bad Times", you can't help but feel her pain. Songs that soar so high, with vocal delivery that's just so right on. As always immaculate packaging, liner notes, and photos make this a total must-have. Are you a Believer? We think that maybe after these 20 songs you'll be a convert like us. Amen!

MPEG stream: Since I've Been Born Again
MPEG stream: Do Your Thing
MPEG stream: Let Them Talk

Bet you don't have any Black Hebrew soul in your record collection. We sure didn't! But leave it to the folks at the Numero Group to extract this amazing document of the diaspora of black folks from Chicago and Detroit who converted to Judaism and made the pilgrimage to Israel, and more precisely to a city located just west of the Dead Sea called Dimona. When in Israel it was the music and spiritual soul that many of these people brought with them from Chicago and Detroit that would become the soundtracks to their new lives. Musically this is very much in line with the best of spiritual soul and gospel of that era (early '70s) and you can hear the influence of many of their Chicago brethren (Pieces of Peace, The Dells, Earth Wind & Fire). But of course what makes this so cool is the totally unique context that these songs came out of. On a few tracks they even sing some lines in Hebrew and the amazing pictures and in depth liner notes of this very obscure movement and moment in time makes not only for a great record but an even more amazing historical document.

MPEG stream: Holding On
MPEG stream: Our Lord And Savior
MPEG stream: Modernazation

FYI: if you *don't* like naked ladies, you'll want to avoid perusal of this disc's booklet, which mostly consists of vintage full-color cheesecake shots of a bevy of well-endowed "soul sisters". But don't let that put you off... just forget for one second that this cd is billed as a collection of '70s African-American porno flick soundtracks. For one thing, it sure doesn't sound like the typical "boogie nights" retro-porn soundtrack. No cheesy throbbing synths or disco beats. No orgiastic moans even! Instead, what you get here is avant-groove jazz funk of an almost experimental, freeform nature. The vibe can be lively but not "sleazy"... bad-ass though. Very funky and full of nasty geetar and jamming Hammond organ. To tell the truth, there's so very little documentation presented here that we can't say we're 100 percent convinced that this is what it says it is, instead of something perhaps made by some clever musicans today creating replica vintage avant-funk soundtrack for imaginary x-rated flicks... though we should stress have no evidence of that at all, and we'd be mighty impressed if that was the case. Supposedly these tapes were recently found in a studio in Oakland, where the recordings we're told took place circa 1972-75, and the musicans that get credited here were, it seems, operating under pseudonyms (for obvious reasons perhaps). The films are alluded to only in the track titles, but who knows if those cited are real (anyone seen "Chocolate Cherry"?). There's no dialogue or sound effects or anything, since this is the original, raw soundtrack music only, what later was to be utilized perhaps in edited form in the finished film. Puzzling. But no matter, this stuff IS great! There's the aforementioned avant-funk that surely fits into the '70s blaxploitation aesthetic, but this funk is full of sizzling feedbacking guitar that is hard to square with scenes of, um, lovemaking. But actually a lot of this is in more of an introspective mood that the wah-funk stereotype. More laidback that about getting laid. A long portion of track five ("Music From 'Copper Cuties'") consists of variations on a pensively repeating, gentle piano figure, generating a mood far from you might expect to be "exposed" to in an ostensibly X-rated flick. And only the last track "Jam Back At The House" has vocals, they go with that cut's smokey groove but do serve to break the almost mysterious feel set by the preceeding tracks a little. Overall, this is way more amazing than we ever thought it would be. What we though might be kitschy and/or kookily amusing turned out to be downright fresh and intriguing. Miles Davis had a track on his album Get Up With It entitled "Rated X" -- maybe he'd been checking out the cinema and was inspired by one of the films that used music like this? Definitely this comes close to what we'd imagine would be how that "big freak" would have scored a porno soundtrack!! So, this is one for fans of those Deep Note porno soundtrack comps and maybe moreso for folks who simply dig weird and wonderful jazz/funk obscurities, which would seem to be a lot of people who hear it (and then buy it) when we've been playing it in the store!

MPEG stream: Some Jive Ass Wasting My Time
MPEG stream: Music From 'Copper Cuties'

This selection of long-forgotten disco favorites is surprisingly decent (not great, but better than mediocre) -- full of trilling organs, declamatory guitarpicking, solid bouncy bass, and barked lyrics a la Chic. The sort of stuff played at Studio 54, the

RealAudio clip: You Ought to be Dancin'
RealAudio clip: When You're Young an in Love

We didn't know much about the music of the Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) islands, heck, we barely knew where they were (in the Atlantic, off the coast of Africa, a former Portuguese colony, fyi). Like, we knew that Cesaria Evora was from there, but that's about it. We did NOT know about such Cabo Verde artists as Antonio Sanchez, Dionisio Maio, Abel Lima, and their unique Cosmic Sound - a super groovy kind of heavily synthesizer-fueled tropical funk. But now we do and man are we ever happy!!!! Good grief this compilation is good, 15 tracks from almost as many artists, packed with percolating percussion, soulful vocals, echoing FX, a few doses of psychrock fuzz guitar (on Joao Cirilo's "Po D'Terra" in particular) and SO much synth, electric piano, and organ all over the place, wild and woozy. So yeah, synthed-out tropical funk, a special Cape Verde style of dreamy dance music mixing Afro-grooves with the latest in keyboard technology (circa the '70s), for fans of cumbia, Afrobeat, etc. All the tracks are great, we aren't gonna attempt to describe 'em all, maybe one will suffice - we were really wowed by Pedrinho's "Odio Sem Valor", when it breaks into a disco gallop and the flanged synths get a groove on that will keep you nodding 'til the morning light. But EVERYTHING here is catchy & fun & loaded with cool sounds, underpinned by insistent, irresistible rhythms. And the mystery behind this cosmic sound that's finally been revealed? Well, we're still not really sure if we're fully in the picture, facts-wise, as the label's blurb for this consists of a fanciful tale (even less believable than the Swedish band Goat's origin story) about how a container ship packed with Moogs and Korgs and other synthesizers mysteriously fell from the sky and landed in a field near a remote Cabo Verde village one day in 1968, with its cargo eventually being distributed to schools across the country, magically making musical prodigies out of schoolchildren and modernizing local dance rhythms like the once-banned Funana... believe it or not... but that's just 'cause we haven't yet delved into the big 42 page booklet that comes with this slipcased cd, which (leafing through) appears to contain LOT more information about these artists, along with vintage photos and record graphics in full color, all of which presumably supports (or at least, adds to) the story. In any case, the music will make you believe. Another winner from Analog Africa!! FYI, a double vinyl version is forthcoming soon as well...

MPEG stream: Pinta Manta
MPEG stream: That Day
MPEG stream: Odio Sem Valor
MPEG stream: Po D'Terra