Funk | Soul 407 Items

The second album of Sault follows their debut "5" which came out just three months prior to this one. Heads all over the world were still in awe of "5", when all of a sudden "7" dropped. Now, by the end of 2020, they are four critically acclaimed albums deep into buiding their own legacy.

A veritable sonic triptych: awash with ever so funky tripped out modern-day psychedelia. Adorned with jazzy trumpet, sax and flute, softly undulating beats and slinky guitar - shapes that hark back to the old school with a reference to what's current. A retro modernity is in effect here: a nod to the past, however, with a vision of the future.

It's a strong and melodic album that drips with swaggering, insouciant cool, set against a panoply of unified silky grooves and rhythms with a slippery electronic, yet organic backbeat. It gets taken into an entirely new emotional realm when Barrie's dubbed up vocal hooks kick in. The female vocals on 'I Am A Woman', 'Walkin' and on 'You Are My Sunshine' are top-notch.

Suffice to say there are no fillers on this album, just finely distilled and exquisite slow jams. Even the most cursory listen to RRR #3 informs you that he's still doing things that no one else does. This is, without doubt, his best work to date, the icing on the cake on this clever and well-produced concept. A triple dynamite delight. (Emrys Baird – Blues & Soul)

Therryi Jay - vocals
Gareth Tasker - plays everything except the wind instruments
Kenny Wellington –trumpet
Jake Telford - flute
Andy Sax – saxophone
AprilFoolChild - flute
Fritz Catlin - makes sure everything is ship-shape
Barrie Sharpe – production/mix/vocals

“I was a product of the times and the product became the producer. I designed the clothes, ran the club, played the records, was in the band and made the music, which created the scene that changed youth culture worldwide. I just kept falling up hill.” (Barrie Sharpe)…

Michael Kiwanuka releases his third studio album on 25th October 2019. Store exclusive special edition format includes Kiwanuka pressed onto heavyweight pink vinyl and includes a bonus 7".

‘KIWANUKA’ was recorded in New York, LA and London. Michael returned to the studio with Danger Mouse and Inflo, the same production team that combined so magnificently on Love & Hate, KIWANUKA finds a new assuredness in Michael’s writing, and takes the basic sonic blueprint of that last record to a dizzying new realm.

Michael will tell you of his love for records that entwine their songs with incidental skits and shape-shifting spiralling outros, so the listener experience is almost that of listening to one long, dramatic song. KIWANUKA fulfils that winding, dream-like haze, unhurried.
KIWANUKA is Michael serving from the heart, from the mind, and from the soul.

On the album title, Michael explains “This album, it’s kind of a defiant thing; I’m engaging with who I am and I’m not going to have an alter ego, or become Sasha Fierce or Ziggy Stardust, even through everyone’s telling me I need to be this, that or the other. I can just be Michael Kiwanuka.”

CLUB SOUL PRESENT AN ORIGINAL 'CLASH SINGLE' FEATURING TWO ALAN TOUSSAINT TEAMMATES GOING HEAD-TO-HEAD ON ONE NORTHERN SOUL CLASSICINCLUDING WILLIE HARPER'S SUPERIOR VERSION ON 7" VINYL FOR THE FIRST TIMEINSPIRED BY THE NEW 16-TRACK ALL-NIGHTER LPThe All-Nighter has been an integral part of "the scene" since the phrase Northern Soul first came into popular use following the now legendary Blues & Soul article entitled "The Up-North Soul Groove" in June 1970 by journalist Dave Godin (issue no.36). During the heyday of the Northern Soul scene the All-Nighter was the preferred format for the travelling soul fan. It separated the scene's top venues from the hundreds of regional soul nights in pubs, clubs and community halls across the land. The All-Nighter was the ultimate experience and the only place to hear the best, the rarest and the breaking sounds spun by the leading DJs. It was born in Manchester's Twisted Wheel in September 1963, found its feet (its dancing feet) at the Golden Torch in Stoke-on-Trent from 1970-72, and truly came of age at the Wigan Casino Soul Club from '73 onwards establishing itself as the premier National and even International event of the 70's. Willie Harper's originally unreleased recording of the Toussaint dance classic "Here Comes the Hurt Again", a feature track on the All-Nighter compilation (CHARLYL308), is put into direct competition with its B-side recording from Lee Dorsey of the same track on this new 7" on Club Soul. Both recordings have recently been remastered for a sound that will take Soul revellers back to the heat of '60s dancefloors as though it were yesterday. Presented on dinked vinyl in single sleeve packaging.

Her amazing major debut, on wax!

140g vinyl, remastered, double LP with the original LP along with a second record of 14 rare tracks Sweet And Nice is the vital debut album from Jamaica’s undisputed first lady of song Marica Griffiths. It’s reggae at its most soulful. Slinking through a tight ten tracks of R&B and pop-sourced material, it became an instant best seller. 45 years after its initial release the LP is available again on vinyl, now as a double LP, with an extra record collecting 14 rare tracks.

Central AYR Productions.. Recorded in various places and others spaces, mostly around Orlando Florida. Multi-Instrumentalist and Vocalist, Anthony Cole is the latest chapter of the PPU family album. AYR, pronounced "air", was formed in 1993. AC recalls "those were very productive and indulgent periods of my life", "the next level in black light". We've got countless hours of 4-track cassette recordings to sort through, these were the first few standout tracks, presented to you in their unedited entirety. Stay tuned for more of the what we call Dirt Music, only in the underground, building on where PPU began.

An extremely rare and in-demand record from the disco-funk group has been unearthed and restored. The Movers enjoyed huge success in the 1970s, releasing album after album of ground-breaking sounds, including fusions of South African marabi jazz, funk, disco and jive. The line up of the band shifted throughout its existence - however this particular album produced by David Thekwane features musicians Jabu Sibumbe, L Rhikoti, Lloyd Lelosa and Sankie Chounyane.

12 tracks of horn-led funk from one of the great unsung bands of the late 1960s. The Pazant Brothers, Ed and Al are jazz and funk royalty having played with Kool & The Gang, Pucho & The Latin Soul Brothers and Lionel Hampton.

Their recordings for GWP were made under the auspices of producer Ed Bland. They are highly sought after by producers and DJs, and represent the very best of their recorded work. This is the first time that this work has been available on LP.

Includes sought-after singles ‘Skunk Juice’, ‘Juicy Lucy’ and ‘Chicken Scratch’, as well as a previously unreleased version of ‘High Heel Sneakers’ and two vocal tracks with Betty Barney recorded live at MOMA which have never been on vinyl before.

Two sun shine soaked, Latin infused Eddie Palmieri joints from the 1978 album Lucumi, Macumba, Voodoo get the official, remastered reissue treatment – with original copies of the 7” trading hands for upwards of £60.
Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, multi Grammy award winner Palmieri is a stratospheric salsa master. And for the Lucumi, Macumba, Voodoo LP he assembled a powerhouse, 30 strong jazz orchestra, featuring the likes of Dom um Romao, Steve Khan, Lew Soloff, Jon Faddis, Hiram Bullock and Palmieri’s brother Charlie.
In an era dominated by disco, ‘Spirit Of Love’ took to the dancefloor, drawing on the glamour and magnetism of the late ‘70s. Palmieri’s distinctive style still weaves its way through though, melding Afro-Caribbean rhythms with modern jazz. ‘Spirit Of Love’ is full to the brim with striking vocals, cow bells and big horn sections, blended with psychedelic guitars that riff off against clavinet touches and expressive Montunos melodies. Spirit of the salsa, for the disco dancer!
On the flip ‘Lucumi, Macumba, Voodoo’ is a masterpiece of Latin fusion, with Palmieri’s unique arrangements squeezing that Puerto Rican flavour out of every added instrument. Trumpet blasts and sax solos marry with woops and whistles and Latin chants. Couple that with sensuous piano melodies and irresistible percussive elements and it’s a recipe of Caribbean spice that’ll liven up any record collection.

Originally released on a promo-only limited edition special 12" mix in the U.S., "Anung Anunga" was pressed in extremely limited quantity, making it one of the rarest Columbia 12" releases ever - a mint copy will currently set you back around £100.
Produced by veteran dance music producer Bert Decoteaux, "Anung Anunga" is the perfect fusion of red-hot Cuban musicians with a contemporary dance production.
The result is simply stunning and continues the tradition of artists like Candido and Joe Bataan crossing over into the Dance Music world.

This is the instrumental version of Lee Fields’ latest album.

Produced by Leon Michels and Thomas Brenneck, and brilliantly performed by the Expressions, “Special Night” was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered entirely to tape in three weeks at the legendary Diamond Mine Studios in Queens, NY. A sense of urgency, equal parts fun and inspiration, and a decent amount of beer and Jack Daniels were the driving forces during the sessions that produced Lee Fields & The Expressions latest offering.

Barbara Brown released a handful of singles in the late 60s but left even more in the studio. Over the years those recordings have slowly been released, but “Got To Be Somebody” imagines them in context as an LP that might have been released at the time.

These 13 tracks include all four singles that were released by Barbara – sometimes under the name Barbara & The Browns – and the music is now recognised as some of the greatest to have come out of Memphis at that time.

These tracks are produced by Charles Chalmers and feature the cream of Memphis musicians including Reggie Young, Bobby Wood and most of the rest of the American Studios session players.

Brown was a local singer who worked in gospel with her sisters before recording for Stax and then signing to Sounds Of Memphis / XL. She scored one Top 100 hit with ‘Big Party’ in 1964.

Our Deep Soul series already sports Eddie Parker’s acclaimed ‘But If You Must Go’ and now we have his supremely soulful version of ‘Crying Clown’ taken from the same sessions. Already a great ballad cut by him in the 60s, this sparser piano-led take is as intense as soul music gets. It is backed with the beautiful melancholy of Detroit great Sandra Richardson’s ‘Deserted Garden’, previously only available on our first “Jack Ashford - Just Productions” CD.

Recorded in 2000 with essentially the same team as “Shades of Bey” and “River Man” and a similar variety of tunes and textures. It includes covers of two Milton Nascimento classics (“Bridges” and “Saidas e Bandeiras”), a cover of “Fragile” (by Sting) and standards such as “I’ll Remember April”, “Just Friends” (with strings), “Invitation" and “Little Girl Blue”, as well as the sultry original “Tuesdays In Chinatown”. This is Andy Bey in fine form, and includes performances by Ron Carter, Geri Allen, Mino Cinelu and Steve Turre. First time on vinyl.

The first full length album and cassette release on Outrun, Sundae is a mini modern funk odyssey by Scotland’s High Park Funk, one in which we visit many of his standout modern funk and boogie gems. From the introductory Sundae, the lights are dimmed for a special listening experience—and we get what we are promised. Bright and gleaming cuts like Tell Me How You Feel and Kounting Stars, the Kleeer-esque My Melody, and the sloppy spoonful of funk served on Grandad, are what make this stripped-down, funkafied album a lovely addition to a growing funk tape collection. This is a album for lovers of glassy, beautiful chords, stanky bass lines, scintillating synth leads, and of course, glorious doo-wop talkbox ditties.