Back catalogue: Soul

Review: Measured Mile records puts two classy soul tracks onto the same 7". Originally released in 1974, Act 1 - 'It's The Same Old Story' is often looked over classic of the era. Act 1 hailed from Detroit and featured Raeford Gerald, Roger Terry, Reggie Ross and George Barker. The band had two minor hits but often people recall 'It's The Same Old Story' as their favorite of their only full album. Ivano Fossati's 'Night Of The Wolf' is found on the B-side. A jam song that verges slightly into Latin music, asks for quite a sum of money for its original copy. Both tracks add up to a real gem of a 7".

Review: French label Boogie Butt gets us moving and grooving once more with a tasty new EP in the form of The Boogievison EP. It features a lead single from Ian Ash & Ella May, 'I Want To Thank You,' which pairs some jazzy chord work with a low-slung and warm house groove. The bass is funky and the vocals are seductive. It comes as an instrumental as well as a more direct and harder-edged Mr Doris & D-Funk remix. On the flip is Jessie Wagner & Fostin meet Ian Ash with 'Try Again,' a lovely soulful house groove with sublime and emotive vocals over another lush bass guitar. All very sweet tunes, these.

Review: The legendary Ike and Tina Turner were at the peak of their collective powers back in the late 60s. For this Record Store Day, two of their most sought after classics make it on to a special 7". First up is an ice-cold early funk jam 'Bold Soul Sister' that has big funk guitar riffs from Albert Collins. It landed initially on the Blue Thumb label in 1969 and has since been pillaged by hip hop producers for all its golden samples. Reverse this one and you'll find 'Somebody (Somewhere) Needs You' which was a classic North Soul tune and has since become hugely sought after. It was written by Frank Wilson and an original will cost you over L150 so don't sleep on this one.

Review: It is always a highly anticipated event when Ikebe Shakedown drop new music and that is the case here once more. First up they tackle a legendary Ennio Morricone track as the A-side. Their take on 'Adonai' retains all the Western soundtrack charm of the original but with added horns, plenty of filthy but funky guitar riffs and a driving rhythm section sure to make its mark on the club. 'Waiting For The Storm' is a brand new cut that slows things down on the flip with jumbled drums and loose claps making for a more sensuous sound.

Review: Inokashira Rangers are kwon around the world as a legendary group of Hammond-heavy reggae masters with a fine knack for laying down big cover versions. Their take on 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was recently reissued to great acclaim recently and now we get two more gems. First is Radiohead's 'Creep' which has haunting leads and echoing pads capturing the freaky vibe of the original. There is a more laidback vibe on the flip with 'I'm Not In Love' which has noodling synths and lazy drum loops sinking you in deep.

Review: Over the last decade, Inokashira Rangers have proved that you can turn pretty much any track - whether it's a TV theme tune, rave banger or grunge classic - into a reggae or rocksteady gem if you know what you're doing. They're at it again on their latest "45", which opens with a storming, largely instrumental reggae-soul version of Edwin Starr's 1968 soul classic '25 Miles'. Their version - full of reverb-laden drums, fuzzy organ motifs, mazy solos, warming bass and JB's guitars - is naturally hugely different to Starr's version, but recognisably the same song. Their flipside take on Spinners' classic 'It's a Shame' is rather more difficult, with the trio slowing it down to a skanking reggae crawl while retaining the familiar melodic refrain.

Review: Japan's brilliantly curious but highly listenable Inokashira Ranger band has covered everything in imaginable in their storied 10-year-plus career. Now they turn to The Nolans for some buttery lovers' rock with a warm and familiar edge. 'I'm In The Mood For Dancing' biomes a rolling rhythm with bright Hammond chords and swaggering riffs. The vocal comes from Yuima Enya and is nice and sweet and soulful. 'Central Freeway' on the flip is a smiler-sounding tune with easy-going drum sways and effortless cool vocals.

Review: Inokasira Rangers is a reggae band from Tokyo who've been around since the 1990s, but they're hardly (criminally) known outside of Japan. Their latest release, 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You,' promises to change that, covering Frankie Valli's timely original from the late '60s, not to mention Crystal Waters' dance-pop hit on the B. A Shibuya-kei sensibility runs through this sweet pair of covers, but the main mode is lo-fi reggae. The Waters cover is particularly charming, as if this were the original, and the song had existed as a folk song for generations prior to the glitzy rave version.

Review: Regularly spotted passing hands for high triple figures, the Poindexter brothers' New York troupe's second D'ar Recording Company single finally enjoys a reissue. "Beautiful Philosophy" has a little northern soul stomp to it while still shimmering with 70s pop charm and some incredible harmonies while "Too Sweet To Be Lonely" takes The O'Jays' classic to emotional new highs with yet more fine tuned chorused vocals - too sweet to sleep on!

Review: Isley Brothers hand many great tunes in their oeuvre but the superb soul gem 'My Love Is Your Love' stands out from the crowd. We don't think it has ever been on its own 45 rpm before now so shout out to Outta Sight for pressing it up. As well as the gorgeous A-side with its warm and sunny disposition, you have the more traditionally Motown-sounding flip, 'Tell Me It's Just A Rumour Baby, with its driving rhythm section and classic tambourines next to great vocal leads and rousing backing singers.

Review: ** REPRESS ALERT ** Immortalised, slowed down funk from The Isley Brothers, an American R&B/soul group from Cincinnati, Ohio, established in the early 1950s. This 7" houses the much loved and often sampled in the hip hop world, "Footsteps In The Dark" (Parts 1 & 2) and "Between The Sheets". The latter is a silky smooth R&B classic whilst the arguably more well-known "Footsteps In The Dark" is an arrestingly beautiful, hood classic/soul masterpiece. The bassy but laid-back harmonious ballad with delicious percussion and Ronald Isley crooning an uneasy lyric on maintaining "a love that lasted for so long" amid the constant temptation of infidelity, makes it worth the entry price on its own.

Review: Repress time: released last year on a limited run of 45s, Chet Ivey's double-A "Dose Of Soul" / "Get Down With Greater" returns to the relief of collectors and funk lovers who missed out. Two of many swelteringly funky gems on his Sylvia Funk Recordings album curated in 2017, "Dose Of Soul" has a raw edge and looseness that's held together with Ayers-style vibraphone chords, while "Get Down With Greater" is much more of a traditional funk jam, with the organ player and bassist playing at their fullest of flavours and Ivey leading in his inimitable 'poisonous' style. Don't sleep!

Review: Inokashira Rangers are renowned for their ska/reggae covers of some of the world's best-known songs, with versions of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Creep' and 'I'm Not In Love', all laid to sweet 7" over the years. Here they team up with regular collaborating singer Sofia Manari, who takes centre stage in covering two J-pop classics closer to home. 'Love Squall', originally written by jazz great Yuji Ohno, hears a vocal rendition, while Mariya Takeuchi's 'Plastic Love' gets a similarly jubilant reworking on the B.

Review: Athens of the North has got some fantastic and previously unreleased lo-fi goodness on their hands here. It comes from Lee Tracy and Isaac Manning's back catalogue and has been boosted subtly by some studio drumming from ECLA which adds a little more heft to it. 'Foxy Lady' is a lithe funk jam with shimmering synths and snappy snares over nice broken beats. It is backed with 'Jesus Going To Clean House' which is a standout cut from the album that has got many heads falling over themselves so good is it. The vamping chords and dusty deep house drums could all be a forgotten Chicago classic while the vocal is a real one packed with emotion.

Review: Jazzman dip into the unreleased archives of Arkansas label Alley Records and pull out these two absolute gems that will find a welcome home in any self respecting Northern Soul or Funk selectors record box. This dinked 45 from Ike Noble and The Uptights is just the start for Jazzman with further sevens plus an albums worth of material planned after a successful trip to Arkansas. If you like your funk rippling with overwhelming vocal emotion you will love the raw and infectious nature of both "That's The Sound Of My Heart" and "That's What I Get". The A Side leans on an uptempo Midwestern funk vibe whilst Ike's tearing vocal turn on the flip is the perfect accompaniment to a pounding backing from the Up Tights.

Review: Deftly weaving everything from 70s soul to AOR to city pop into his sound, contemporary Japanese musician Cantaro Ihara makes pitch-perfect groove-forward pop music. His second album to follow his P-Vine debut, C, released in 2020, Portray moves into an ever-expansive compositional smorgasbord, erring more on the side of the symbolic and sprawlingly stylistic than the purely non-contextual, channelling a knowledge of music unbound by genre. From a Japanese-language cover of free soul legend Weldon Irvine's 'I Love You' to the Ihara original 'Twiny', the lead singles are already off to the races. Then comes a feature from Japanese trumpeter Yusuke Sase on 'Baby So In Love', which catapults the album into neo-soul territory, bringing a new twist to a timeless sound. Meanwhile, a feature from Bialystocks keyboardist Go Kikuchi on 'Yoru no Nagare (The Flow of the Night)' sees one of Ihara's most instantly iconic melodies played with a gentle sophistication that could move you to tears in one moment, and have you two-stepping the next. To conclude: this is a mellow, wide-ranging city pop bombshell from a rising star whose light is too bright to miss.

Review: The late and undeniably great Tina Turner won her first solo Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female at the 12th Annual Grammy Awards thanks to this album. It is often said to be a masterpiece of the era and is one of Ike and Tina's most blues-orientated albums. It came during the revival of those sounds in the 60s when bands like The Rolling Stones were obsessed with biting on the first wave of blues greats. The Hunter leads heavily on the Stax sound of the era with producer Bob Krasnow keeping things clean and simple. Electric blues guitarist Albert Collins features prominently through the nine classic tunes.

Review: Milwaukee outfit Impulse are one of those soul bands that melt the heart. Their buttery smooth vocals and the funky grooves down low are a perfect accompaniment to late night smoochy sessions or dance parties alike. Made up of Wisconsin musicians incising Michael Reese, Cedrick Rupert, Jeffrey Williamson and Robin Gregory, they wrote and recorded their self-titled album at Wally Heider's Studio in San Francisco but it never ended up getting a proper release, until now. There are some raw and guttural sounds like 'What's That Sound' in among the more loved-up moments, which helps make it a real doozy.

Review: A long-time-coming reissue of a lesser known live funk album, showcasing the deft J-funk stylings of the genre's foremost legend Jiro Inagaki on the A - as well as lesser-spotted curios from fellow artists Taeko Morino, Eddy Clan and Akira Ishikawa on the B. Packed with futuristic synths and boasting a rather dry, untainted sound, we're most impressed by Morino's slow Anglophone ballad, which we'd describe as most haunting and mesmerising.

Review: Unlike most disco re-edit EPs, Salsoul's latest instalment of 'Reflex Revisions' are "proper" remixes, making full use of original master stems and session tapes sourced from the parent artists themselves. With all four tracks handled by French producer and remixer The Reflex, we know we're in good hands here - he's been at it since 2012. Reflex Revisions don't just add a janky kick beneath a beatgridded 16-bar loop, but rather, they move and sway with the tracks' original feels. Our case in point: 'A Little Love' completely reimagines the drum section found on Aurra's 1983 original, making the whole sonic experience much clearer and brighter. As much can be said for Metropolis' downtempo 'I Love New York', on which Reflex here makes the song grander, wider. Compared to most re-editors, this is an impressive feat occurring in a different ballpark.

Review: Instant Funk was a Philadelphia based funk and disco band active from 1976 - 1983. The outfit was formed in the early '70s by Raymond Earl, Scotty Miller and guitarist Kim Miller as The Music Machine, but was later renamed by their manager Jackie Ellis due to their ability to "find a groove and lock into it instantly." Their self-titled release here was originally issued back in '79 on the seminal Salsoul Records, and features such timeless hits as 'I Got My Mind Made Up' (You Can Get It Girl), 'Crying', 'Wide Worlds Of Sports' and 'Dark Vader'.

Review: Prolific American soul, disco and funk band Instant Funk - who were once Bunny Sigler's backup band - dropped an impressive five albums between 1976 and 1983 and they are all collected together here on a bumper five CD collection from Robinsongs. Every possible conceivable funk style is taken in here from the slow and sultry to the fiery and harder edged. The musicianship is next level and all of the band's biggest tunes are here from 'I Got My Mind Made Up (You Can Get It Girl)' to 'It Ain't Reggae (But It's Funky)' via 'Philly Jump' and many more, all with comprehensive sleeve notes by MOJO's Charles Waring.

Review: Super soul group The Ironsides teased this new album with a tasty 7" on their home label Colemine back in October. The whole record was laid down at Transistor Sound Studios in the North Bay Area of California and is full of more of the life-enriching sounds you might already know and love the band for. It is a great fusion of classic psych-soul sounds with sweeping orchestral arrangements and is inspired by library music and soundtracks from the 60s and 70s. Guess including Colemine artists Kelly Finnigan and Monophonics appear to help make this most lovely of records even more special.

Review: A record unlike any other, 'Is That What You Want' is a fascinating slice of what some might call 'outsider soul', but even that label can't do full justice to the music here. Part of a wholly unrecognised community of DIY musicians living in East Philadelphia in the 1980s, Lee Tracy and Isaac Manning were a vocal, instrumental and production duo whose efforts flew sorely under the radar at the time that they laid these slick slices of experimental joy to tape. Bleeding a shocking transfusion of gospel, electro, lo-fi, funk and soul, this is a worthy slice of Afrofuturism existing outside the jazz connotation. "We never went to no studio," retorts Manning, showing off the pair's homespun ingenuity. Bolstered by a slew of DIY videos shot in Lee's front garden, this has everything from black Southern IDM to machine-glitched proto-raps. It deserves all the recognition it can get.