Back catalogue: 50s/60s

Review: The fourth edition in Original Gravity's Down In The Basement series, which gathers instrumental soul and swing cuts onto worthy 7" slabs, resounding the fervent 1960s decadal gap in which mod reigned supreme. With juleps flowing and kneecaps knocking, Abramo & Nestor bring newfangled electric pianistic swing with 'Dig It!', while a twinned "hit it!" injunction is heard from Floyd James & The GTs on the reissued 'Work That Thang'; James' voice is tubed and speed-delayed to terrific effect, achieving a sprung intonation. Curtis Baker brassifies the bonanza with the lively 'Fried Fish 'n' Collard Greens', while The Native Yinzer's exiting excitation 'The Hip Strip' quilts our ears with a mnemic, down-feathery Hammond-breaks bit.

Review: Accomplished keyboard player Hank Jacobs enjoyed much renown on the American West Coast live music circuit at the height of the soul era, having already scored a recorded instrumental hit with 'So Far Away' in 1964. His subsequent gigs as a session musician might've proven him capacious only for life in showbiz as a sideman, but this possibility would be firmly and permanently negated by 'Elijah Rockin' With Soul'. The record emerged by lucky chance from a recording session with arranger Arthur Wright, and Jacobs afterwards went on to make four further releases on Alton Scott's Call Me label at Wright's behest. Now, spanning two favourite Jacobs 'sides with different regional appeals, this new one from Kent Soul hears 'Elijah' as the A track - a precocious future compliment for the Northern soul scene - and 'East Side', an instru *mental* recording with a walloping full-colour sound, more propitious to the LA scene.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


If you use the online network-cum-existential-need-to-know community Reddit, then it won't surprise you to learn there's a vast and almost unfathomably broad sub group dedicated to The Beatles. Within this, at least a handful of people have posed the question: "if the Beatles had done an MTV Unplugged concert in approx 1968 what stripped down classics might be in the resulting brilliant Unplugged Album?" Forgive the grammar - we took the speculative quandary verbatim from an internet that long-since descended into a linguistic void. Nevertheless, those stumped by this query will be delighted to know that such a record does exist for us to use as a touchstone. Albeit without the MTV bit. And what tracks made the cut? Well, 'Why My Guitar Gently Weeps', 'Revolution', 'Julia', 'Cry Baby Cry', and 'The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill', among others.

Review: In 1960, composer Leonard Bernstein called Elvis Presley "the greatest cultural force of the 20th century," praising how he revolutionised the music, language and fashion of the day. And it is fair to say Elvis's influence paved the way for the '60s social revolution. This exceptional triple album contains 54 tracks, mostly alternate versions, with all of them offering a unique compilation of Elvis's diverse talents. It celebrates his versatility as an artist while honouring the brilliant songwriters who helped make his work legendary, flamboyant and so timeless.

Review: Irma Thomas, born Irma Lee in New Orleans, is routinely hailed the Soul Queen of the city. Once billed among Aretha Franklin and Etta James, Thomas eventually found her own recognition as an originary light repping New Orleans, less an international, commercial success story. Beginning her career in 1959, she was one of many voices who sung for a watershed moment r&b and soul, as labels like Minit and Imperial helped solidify the genre's identification with Louisiana, with its designs on the Southern soul genre at large. In 1966, Thomas released her second solo album, now reissued here through MOV. Including the iconic song 'Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)', which was co-written by Randy Newman and country star Jeannie Seely, the track became a hit, finding a toehold on the Billboard Hot 100. Beyond its commercial success, the ballad has garnered widespread recognition, notably appearing in several episodes of the hit series Black Mirror. But it's the record as a whole that really stirs our guts, obviating Thomas' early-career openness to romance and excess: "oh-oh, take a look at this girl, I'm the girl that wants you..." goes the title track...

Review: Paul Weller is perhaps one of the best non-soul musicians to ask to compile a rare soul compilation. Rather than documenting soul music as it proliferated in the 1960s, Ace Records' soul aim was to capture a genre, fashion and style as one man saw it in retrospect, in light of his involvement in the mod revival of the mid 1970s. Weller would later go onto form and front The Jam, but in late 1974, shortly before his involvement in the punk movement, he was about none of that business at all. Punk partly grew on febrile tissues of mod, which was in turn an offshoot of 60s soul; and it is true that we may hear a foetal form of the sound in the brasher cuts on this record, be it Billy Stewart's 'Summertime' or James Carr's 'Pouring Water'. Also clock Brother To Brother's 'In The Bottle', a super-early drum machine blues gem perfect for the house heads.