Funk | Soul 360 Items

The 20th volume of our flagship Eccentric Soul series has all the boxes checked: Guntoting, skip-tracing record producers, child stars, rip-offs, the “World’s Greatest Bail Bondsman,” swindles, soaring falsettos, and a dwindling rust-belt cityscape offering mere glimpses of hope before the record industry escaped for the coasts. Helmed by the O’Jays Bobby Massey, Saru was a creative vortex that pulled Cuyahoga County’s greatest talent in, making a strong case for Cleveland to contend with Detroit, Philly, and Memphis as America’s soul music’s capital. Includes obscure and unknown sides from the Out of Sights, the Elements, Pandella Kelly, David Peoples, Sir Stanley, the Ponderosa Twins + 1, Ba-Roz, Bobby Dukes, and of course, the O’Jays.

Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label takes a look at the underside of Chicago soul through twenty tracks of blistering R&B, sweet soul, and discofied funk. Hundreds of hours were spent researching, interviewing, re-mastering, and compiling the history of Bandit and the life of Arrow Brown. Unearthed in the process were two cassette tapes worth of acappella rehearsals that we've done our best to preserve in their lo-fi, in-the-red state. Numero 003 might be the deepest we'll ever dig. No map, no shovel, just a stack of 45's and a city of three million people.

New Series Reflecting Soul Togeterness' Love For 70s Northern Inspired Crossover & Modern Soul Inc. Loads Of Currently In Demand Dancefloor Fillers

Finally available on single LP format! All 5 parts of Dam-Funks magnum opus!

A limited edition 7” release by MIAMI, both tracks taken from the “PARTY FREAKS” LP. Again DYANMITE CUTS give you never been on 7” release. Including a wonderful re-production of the original sleeve.

Strut presents the definitive reissues of two all-time classic Caribbean soul and funk albums, The Beginning Of The End’s ‘Funky Nassau’ (1971) and ‘Beginning Of The End’ (1976).
Emerging from Nassau in the Bahamas in 1971, the band was formed around the Munnings brothers (Ray, Leroy and Frank) and the first song they recorded, ‘Funky Nassau’, became a No. 1 Billboard R’n’B hit, selling over a million copies. “We wanted to create something new,” remembers Ray Munnings, “something that was truly Bahamian. We loved funk but wanted to include elements of junkanoo, the indigenous music of The Bahamas.” An album was written within a week and recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami. “We brought in more Bahamian themes, like ‘Monkey Tamarind’, a wild fruit that grows there.”
By the time of their second album in 1976, the band was managed by Don Taylor, also Bob Marley’s manager. “Don took us to Byron Lee’s studio in Jamaica and used Teddy Randazzo (Little Anthony & The Imperials) to direct the sessions,” recalls Munnings. “He gave us more of an uptempo jazz funk sound with Chicago-style horns.” The album led to a run of incredible bad luck. Booked to support Marvin Gaye’s ’What’s Goin’ On’ tour, the US Musicians Union stepped in and ordered a US group to fill the slot. They were then added onto a major Bob Marley tour in 1976 before he injured his foot, cancelling all dates.
These definitive official reissues of ‘Funky Nassau’ and ‘Beginning Of The End’ are remastered by The Carvery from original tapes and feature full length tracks from the studio sessions. Both albums feature a history of the albums and the band by vocalist Ray Munnings, alongside rare photos. ‘Beginning Of The End’ appears on loud-press 2LP for the first time.

One of the most coveted unreleased Low Rider / Soul Ballads. A Huge tune, up there with Darling dears (google that shit). Only released on a Japanese compilation 20 odd years ago without the bands consent (and with some of the channels missing) we bring you the full unreleased Version for the first time. This is a big one for people who know the score.
If that's not enough, we found this rather good unreleased disco gospel number on the master tapes of their Private Press LP sessions (also coming soon) but we had to give the ballad to the A side, roll the windows down and blast it.

Truth & Soul is proud to present the deluxe re-issue of Lee Fields' "holy grail" album! The CD and double LP also features songs from his singles catalogue and is also repackaged with a new cover
and never-before-seen photos of Lee Fields.

15 newly remastered tracks. Great psychedelic brazilian soul!

Another big retro-soul-money anthem!

Motown's First Ladies of Funk finally release their vinyl
debut, some 45 years after it was originally scheduled!
As the '70s dawned and Motown relocated to the West Coast, the
era of their honey-toned '60s girl groups came to a resounding
halt. The Sisters Love were the antithesis of the traditional
Motown group and came to the label from A&M, armed with a lot
of funk, sass and attitude.
Paired with some of Motown's finest writers and producers - Hal
Davis, Gloria Jones, Pamela Sawyer, Paul Riser and Willie Hutch
- they got off to a rousing start with the gritty "Mr. Fix-It Man"
and went into high gear for the UK only release "I'm Learning To
Trust My Man".
Motown had them playing arenas with The Jackson Five (probably
not their smartest move!), issued the odd single and scheduled
more but Sisters Love's anticipated breakthrough didn't happen.
In 1980 New York DJ Danny Krivit pressed up an extended
eight-minute re-edit of "Give Me Your Love", an old B-side from a
1973 single! That song was somewhat of an underground classic
but the Krivit mix brought in a whole new legion of fans amongst
the rare groove crowd, both in the US and the UK.
Sisters Love had long been rumored to have recorded a complete
album for the Motown subsidiary MoWest. Get On Down Records
combed the vaults with Motown's help and the result is the
original 10 cut album, plus a bonus cut, "Give Me Your Love."
Although Gwen Berry passed away some years ago, the other
three members of the group - Jeanie Long, Lillie Fort and
Vermettya Royster have all been actively involved in this release.

Includes two bonus tracks.

Following up on the massive worldwide success of their debut album 55, Bacao Rhythm & Steel band is back with another heavy duty offering. Picking
up where they left off and incorporating a ton of new recording techniques they take a huge step forward with The Serpent’s Mouth. Named after the
eight-mile strait between the island of Trinidad and the coast of Venezuela, The Serpent’s Mouth is a journey through both originals and covers,
combining classic elements that wide-eared music fans already know, and mashing them up in new and unique ways.
Take “1 Thing” – on it, the group attacks the galloping, chopped Amerie smash hit, with singing pans that follow the R & B vocal. The sound is crisp
and up-front, arguably more muscular than the 2005 original. On “Great To Be Here,” they take on the Jackson 5 B-Boy favorite (which stretches back
to the Zulu Nation / Bronx block party days) – uncoincidentally, the original version featured a guitar lick that emulated a steel pan run. Here, it gets
an even more pulsating groove, adding open-drums breaks throughout, to get DJs salivating. The group veers through more inventively-constructed
covers as the album’s sequence continues, including Gang Starr’s “All For The Cash”, Mary J. Blige’s “I Love You”, and the recently unleashed first
single, “XXplosive” and “Burn,” paying tribute to both Dr. Dre and Mobb Deep for a bi-coastal funk party. And, as band leader Bjorn Wagner states,
“My favorite cover on the album is probably ‘Crockett Theme,’ which is the theme to ‘Miami Vice.’ I always loved the melody, and the cosmic vibe of
the song, and I was honestly surprised that it worked without synthesizers.”
This time around the group’s originals are even stronger, as evidenced by cuts like the flute-fueled break-fest of “Hoola Hoop”, the slow and spacey
“Touchdown”, and the album’s title track, the future-epic-adventure-movie-soundtrack cut “The Serpent’s Mouth.” Wagner explains, “I wrote the song
with Bernhard Hummer as an instrumental fantasy story – think of pirates, smugglers and a dangerously beautiful sea passage towards the island. It
became an allegory for our mind travels into the world of the steel pan.”
The Serpent’s Mouth is sure to please past fans and newly-minted ones alike. It seems like a new era for Steel Drum music is upon us, and Bacao is
firmly leading the way into the hearts of music fans around the world.

Reissue of these sampled to death classics! Should be in every decent collection…

"It'd be easy to mistake this release for yet another soul revival album made by a dude who wasn't there the first time around - but it'd be the listener's mistake to make. What kind of record is a man with a punk past going to make when he's been a mod, a rocker and a rare soul collector in between? One that draws on a familial history of activism, sacrifice and earnest hustling - the very same things we're all being called upon to conjure as a society in this present moment. This is a body of work that lets neither performer nor listener off the hook, yet still understands the need for care and cause in the spaces between. Consider it: A band of fighters meant for the clear-eyed lovers of the world. Ben Pirani is not fooling around, and neither are the working musicians who agreed to make this record with him." - Jocelyn Brown Colemine Records is proud to present the debut LP from Ben Pirani. A record that feels so very easy and familiar, but at the same time fresh and relevant. Like the hype sticker says, "Soul music that's so positive it might just spark a revolution!"

Big Crown Records is proud to present this tough as nails split 7”

The A side is Paul Ramos version of the Mandrill classic “Fence Walk”. Originally released on the Harlem label, and later licensed to Falcon only to oddly appear on their Kris Bravo LP. Ramos stays close to the original, but adds enough to the tune to make it a must have for funk collectors.

The B side “Funky Resurgence” comes by way of vibes player/bandleader Ulysses Crockett who was a stalwart on the Bay Area scene of the 1960's first with his Latin Jazz group Afro Blue Persuasion and later Ulysses Crockett Magic. He also played in The Skins w/ the legendary Bill Graham. "Funky Resurgence" was one of several compositions he wrote for the 1971 play "Resurgence." During this period, Ulysses was also going through law school and he remains a legal voice, writer and activist in the Bay Area.

"Fire Walker" is Jungle Fire's sophmore single that's blazin' up dancefloors around the world!