Review: The Boston-based band The Post Pop Space Rock Be Bop Gospel Tabernacle Chorus and Orchestra was led by Webster Lewis and this album was recorded live in Oslo, Norway, in 1971. The original album was released in 1972 and this expanded edition includes previously unreleased songs, unseen photos and the full backstory of the historic concert. It is a rather rare recording that showcases spiritual and soul jazz at its finest and blends instrumental and vocal tracks for a unique, eclectic sound that has made it highly sought after. Newly transferred from the master tapes, it offers improved sound quality and is a must-buy for jazz cats.
Review: Pacific Express were an South African funk/jazz outfit with vibes of Stevie Wonder or Earth, Wind & Fire's music of the day and, originally released in 1979, this reissue showcases the band's pivotal role in shaping Cape Town jazz. Their blend of soul, funk, disco and r&b creates a seamless, groovy atmosphere, with the band's tight rhythm section and smooth instrumentation very much at the forefront. Tracks like 'Come True' highlight the excellent vocal performances and musicianship, with lush piano and string arrangements adding a lounge-like vibe. The standout ballad 'What Is The Answer' is emotionally charged, showcasing the band's depth. 'What I Feel' offers a catchy, upbeat groove, perfectly encapsulating the album's blend of relaxed yet funky vibes. Somewhat incredibly, this the album's first reissue, so our advice would be to jump on it.
Review: Released in 1971, Ralfi Pagan's self-titled album is a defining moment in Latin Soul, showcasing his talent as both a singer and songwriter on the Fania roster. Highlights include the salsa opener "Mi Chamaco," the Joe Bataan-penned "Just One of Your Kisses," and the classic hit "Make It With You." This reissue features lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and is pressed on high-quality 180-gram vinyl, ensuring superior sound quality.
Review: British singer and producer Pale Jay procures his debut EP 'The Celestial Suite': a body of work rooted in the unconscious, one which is said to reflect a deep connection between the artist and his musical guides: be they Donny Hathaway, J Dilla or Khruangbin. Deploying a fragile falsetto floating over dusty beats and serene strings - all glued together by ageless arrangements - Jay's image is one of a hidden, but deeply longing sensitivity, which works rather well with his semi-anonymous, balaclava'd red visage.
Review: Low End Love Songs is the latest record from bucket-hatted, red-ballied soul and funk multi-instrumentalist Pale Jay. The songwriter and crooner aims for a square lot of humility (although his talents might in some respect leave him without need of it) on this new nine-tracker, musing on personal transformation and maturation through the simmering one, two-steps of retro soul and pop production. Commanding an impressive instrumental nostalgia - filtered, detuned, sustained Hammonds; high-tamed drum hits; boosted piano solos; organic bass layers serving a scooped-out headroom in which Jay's jellied vocals can neatly fit - this record plays out like the sonic equivalent of a time-flecked painting, not shunning but embracing opportunities for moments of absentia and mystery, formally spurring us to ask the central question, "who is he? where is he from? what next?".
Review: This magnificent live album captures accomplished West Yorkshire-born singer-songwriter Robert Palmer at his peak. His electrifying performance from the final night of his 1988 Heavy Nova tour was recorded at the legendary Apollo Theatre and was released as his first full-length live album. It's packed with his signature blend of rock, soul and pop and his biggest hits, along with standout album tracks, are performed with both precision while his smooth vocals and charismatic stage presence really shine through on the likes of 'I Didn't Mean To Turn You On' and 'Woke Up Laughing'.
Review: Two-time Grammy Awards winner, MTV Video Award veteran, Brit nominee and icon of the 1980s. Robert Palmer's name may not be as familiar as it once once at the height of music video broadcasting - when his anthem of excess and glamour, 'Addicted To Love', was either fresh off the presses, circa 1986, or still being rolled out as one of the most defining pop clips of all time. Suffice to say, our world - our cultural universe - has shifted since then, and the Batley, West Yorkshire-born, Malta-raised legend isn't necessarily the first artist on your lips when someone asks why the lights are on when nobody's home. That's a crying shame, as beyond that most famous of his tracks there's a big oeuvre to explore. Including 1999's unashamedly sexy, seductive, and slick (perhaps even over-produced) Rhythm & Blues, arguably the most aptly titled record arriving in stock this month.
Orquesta Cimarron - "You'll Never Find Another Love" (3:27)
Tongolote - "Agua De Beber" (2:12)
Los Castro - "24.000 Besos" (2:39)
Pepe Moreno Y El Combo Los Bravos - "Me Voy Pa'l Peru" (7:02)
Los Calvos - "Suenan Los Cueros" (4:09)
Chapuseaux Y Damrion Y Su Conjunto - "Tengo Alta La Presion" (2:50)
Eddie Cano & Jack Constanzo - "Besame Mucho" (3:41)
Don Cunningham Quartet - "I'm Your Slave" (5:06)
Jesus Gomez Y Su Grupo - "Loca Ilusion" (7:15)
Tony Smith Con Orquesta - "Ipso Calypso" (2:52)
Al Valdes Y Su Conjunto - "Gozalo" (3:04)
Moncho Lena Y Los Ases Del Ritmo - "Polin Cha" (2:51)
Review: A unique compilation for its quality, selection, sound and taste; only the best of Gladys Palmera's Collection, one of the largest real-world Afro-Latin music collections in the world, can be heard. With different versions of well-known songs, surprising displays of vocal mastery, crazed jam sessions, virtuosic instrumentation, gatherings-together of musicians unnoticed until now and rare songs by artists who've only just been found thanks to Palmera's archive. Tastemaker extraordinaire, Palmera herself spent hours searching, listening to, choosing, selecting and refining each track for inclusion on this comp, which collates recordings from the 60s and 70s made in different cities in Latin America, in styles ranging from the most traditional Antillean folklore to mixes and combinations with jazz, swing, twist, exotic and bossa nova.
Review: With influences like Parcels, Electric Wire Hustle, Blood Orange the Berlin based French-Italian duo Panna Cotta releases their accomplished 7 track debut EP "Sunrise" with an additional remix of the title track by label head Marcel Vogel. All songs are composed, mixed and mastered on analog gear to preserve the uncertainty of the moment, the imperfection of love.
Review: Hard to define, rule breaking and game-changing producer Theo Parrish is back with another of his challenging and superlative albums. This one - which naturally arrives on his own Sound Signature label - is a collaboration with Maurissa Rose that true sooth the soul. It s full of his usual deadly grooves, shamanistic percussive layers and jazz energies with plenty of his famous luscious, meditative loops. Add in the smooth vocals of Rose - which come in the form of a soulful stream of consciousness - and you have yet another unique album from this true maverick of the form.
Satisfaction Guaranteed (Or Take Your Love Back) (7:42)
If You Know Like I Know (8:47)
You Can't Hide From Yourself (8:29)
Is There A Place For Me (9:00)
Where Are All My Friends (8:10)
If You Don't Know Me By Now (7:20)
Review: The story of Teddy Pendergrass is a great but rather tragic one. The legendary vocalist had a truly great voice that is well known in the soul world but later in life was confined to a wheelchair after a car crash, although his career continued until his retirement in 2007. John Morales is an equally legendary producer who single-handedly invented the idea of the remix. It is he who has assembled this collection of some of Teddy's greatest moments under the fitting title of The Voice. All his classics are here from 'Don't Leave Me This Way' to 'If You Don't Know Me By Now.'
Review: Following Far Out's reissue of Agustin Pereyra Lucena Quartet's La Rana, the label continues its memorialisation of the late, great Argentinian guitarist's music, with the first ever direct from tape, audiophile reissue of Pereyra Lucena's self-titled debut album from 1970. Hailing from Buenos Aires, Augustin was nonetheless obsessed with the music of Brazil; this combined with his Argentinian roots to produce a sound entirely his own. After being scouted in a nightclub, by musician and guitar craftsman Jorge Demonte, Agustin was invited for an audition at Argenitinian label Tonodisc, and before he knew it, was in the studio recording his first album. The album's atypical bossas and spiritual swinging sambas, composed by many of Agustin's heroes, were elevated to new heights by Agustin's dazzling arrangements and phenomenal guitar playing. The almost cosmic reaches Agustin achieved with his sound are balanced against the stylish sophistication and breezy nature of the music.
Review: Izipho Soul chart the best unreleased works of the band Phyrework, dousing the would-be disco-funk pyromaniac in freshly siphoned sonic fuel. The burst radii on these unissued mortar shells and peony whistlers are rather large, and their emotive impact warrants large curtilage zones; you'd better put up a whopping fence around this shoot site. Only a couple of tracks from the original and horribly undersung Phyrework LP from 1978 feature here, because this is a record built to refire the squibs that didn't make it past the licensers' firing line, not bask in the ash of those already fired. Contemporaries of Earth, Wind & Fire and Marvin Gaye, Phyrework bring complementary girandolas of P-funk on 'Never Felt Like This', and twirl fire through the air on the Afrobeat-tinged soul cut 'Make It Last'.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition
Where Is Love (4:01)
Plain To See (5:00)
Make It Last (3:53)
Take Me Away (4:04)
Never Felt Like This (3:53)
You & Me (3:11)
Maybe Next Time Around (3:46)
What Happened To Us (3:05)
Looking For Your Phone Number (3:14)
Fly Away (3:05)
Listen To The Sound (5:02)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***
A fresh compilation album documents the best of the late 70s disco-funk-jazz-everything band Phyrework, synthesising a pyrotechnist's hand and a cutting engineer's ear. The Texan group were signed to Mercury in 1978 and released a hotly acclaimed debut album, and while their talents matched the likes of Sly And The Family Stone and Earth, Wind & Fire, they remained criminally under-world, resulting in the band's disbandment after the release. So this is a salvaging effort worth your while; a whopping nine of the songs have never been heard before, and only a complementary two appeared on the original early 80s single. All produced by Michael Cooper of Con Funk Shun, the likes of 'My Funk', 'Never Felt Like This' and 'What Happened To Us' command an extra jerkiness and synthweight bolshiness not nailed by many of their much-more-famous contemporaries.
Review: The tenth studio album by the American female soul vocal group Pointer Sisters is here reissued by MOV, harking back to a certain, unmistakably breakout moment in glitzy, metropolitan electro-soul that emerged just over 40 years ago. The Pointer Sisters broke into the late 70s and 80s charts especially, at the height of the glam era, and rocked the style as it would visibly cross into Studio 54-esque synthpop and disco. Suitably motoric and 'Automatic', this was far from the Pointers' debut album and yet it was also their most popular, attesting a rare example of a group who found their wave well past their industry initiation. Consecutively, on an almost track-by-track basis, the record moves between pacy rock & roll/r&b and glammy electronique, typifying the distinctly vanguard-edging mood of the 1980s West Coast.
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