Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Millie Jackson emerged from the Deep South before properly coming of age in the grit of Newark, New York, but her voice always sounded like it was made for the spotlight i bold, sharp, and unfiltered. Across the 70s, she carved out a singular space in soul and funk with her fearless delivery and barbed wit, speaking plainly about lust, betrayal and resilience long before it was fashionable to do so. Her run on Spring Records placed her alongside The Fatback Band and Joe Simon, where she balanced tender ballads with club-ready burners, always laced with her signature no-nonsense bite. 'We Got To Hit It Off', first released in 1979, sits squarely in that lineage i a disco-soul gem with just enough snap to make it timeless. Spring Revisited brings Jackson's original into sharp new focus: Dimitri From Paris uses the original session tapes to craft a mix full of glitz and muscle, while Opolopo offers two flips i one smouldering and stripped, the other buoyant and synth-heavy. These versions don't only overwrite the source, but underline its brilliance for new rooms and younger ears.

Review: Millie Jackson's classic soul album It Hurts So Good has gone down in time as a shining example of what many hardcore soul fanatics might call 'deep soul'. Darker and more austere than the usual idea of soul at large, deep soul was known for its added grit and pain behind the beltings and breakbeats. Millie Jackson had this yet-nascent formula down to a T. Active in the early 70s and beyond, Jackson released It Hurts So Good as a testament to the test of love, an analogy for life itself. Yes, it hurts, but the pain is worth it when balanced out by the glorious highs. Heartbroken but jubilant, Jackson's sound is refined and always full of energy, occupying a juxtaposition between lyricising about crying and loss, and laying the fonk on thick, groovy and plentiful. The overall sound, firmly rooted in both the funky and tearjerky camps, is that of 'getting on with it'.