Back catalogue: Funk Soul & Jazz

Review: KC

Review: Pantechnicons of Philadelphia soul, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes reached their musical peak with Teddy Pendergrass between 1972 and 1975. Their 1975 album Wake Up Everybody hears Pendergrass' last vocal contribution to a band before he went solo; the record is filled with thought-provocations and gnomic lyrics, and became famous more by way of its covers than its originals. Returning the favour, 'Wake Up Everybody' was later covered by John Legend & The Roots, while 'Don't Leave Me This Way' became a disco classic thanks to the vamping vocal verves of Thelma Houston. This 750-copy 50th anniversary repress now comes with a special bonus: a rare 11-minute remix of 'Don't Leave Me This Way' by remixing pioneer Tom Moulton.

Review: The Modulations released their album It's Rough Out Here in 1975, not only impressing both industry and laity with the singles 'Rough Out Here and 'I Can't Fight Your Love', but also spurring the considerable career of a funk quartet whose merit outdoes their reputation alone. The Modulations recorded extensively with MFSB, the house band of the famed record label Philadelphia International; these sessions yielded this album, one considered a gem of 1970s soul music. Exemplary of the long, wistful titles of the Philly funk era and beyond, the titular roughness of the record is also nonetheless embedded in a sea of audible Romance; the Modulations' hard knocks don't exclude the necessity of letting emotion in, with 'Head On Collision With Heartbreak' being an indelible example of this sense of being swept up in one's own emotions in the face of heartbreak, away from the perseverance aesthetics of "gritty" realism one might expect from a title like this.