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Smooth modern soul from Leroy Burgess – one of the best underground talents of the 70s/80s east coast scene! Leroy's probably best known for his early work with the harmony group Black Ivory – but after the breakup of that ensemble, he moved out on his own to work on a number of excellent projects. Most of that work was scattered over smaller labels – and a number of releases only came out as singles, making a clear picture of Leroy's career at the time a difficult thing to realize. Fortunately, this great set brings together a wealth of work from that period – creating a tight batch of uptempo grooves that shows Leroy's enormous contribution to dancefloor soul after the end of the 70s. Tracks include "Get Down Friday Night" and "Hooked On Your Love" by The Fantastic Aleems; "You've Got That Something", "Dancing In The Stars", and "I Know You Will" by Logg; "Heavenly" and "Heartbreaker" by Leroy Burgess; and "Release Yourself" and "Get Loose" by Aleem.

80s groove from the Ingram Family – a record that features the core vocals of Ron Aikens and Galaxy, plus plenty of great backing funk from the Ingrams! The style here is a great mix of boogie, street soul, and bits of electro – with a style that's a bit like Aleem from the same period, but a bit funkier overall. Ron's lead vocals can be nice and sweet on the mellower tracks, and on the funkier ones the rest of the trio come in and chant with the chorus in a sweet ensemble mode. There's also plenty of great keyboards in the mix too – some with great squishy and splashy bits that really make the tunes sound great! Butch Ingram produced, and titles include "We're Here To Rock You", "You Got It", "Party", "Spend Some Time", "Come Let Me Love You", and "Give Your Dog A Bone".

Number in the excellent Electro series of compilations on the UK Street Sounds imprint, a great batch of prototypical hip hop and beeping electronic funk from the days when this stuff looked like the sound of the future, and for all intents and purposes practically was! Nothing but classic early and mid 80s numbers with snapping synthesized production, this volume features 9 numbers in all, including "It's Time To Rock" by Great Peso & Mr Nasty, "Fast Life" by Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde, "Techno Scratch" by the Knights of the Turntables, "Egypt, Egypt" by the Egyptian Lover, "Breakers Revenge" by Arthur Baker, "Captain Rock To The Future Shock" by Captain Rock, "Release Yourself" by Aleem, "The Buck Stops Here" by Fantasy Three, and "B Boys Breakdance" by the High Fidelity Three.

Beautiful! London-based, West Indies-born trumpeter Dizzy Reece was one of the most fantastic trumpet talents of the late 50s and early 60s – as you'll clearly hear on this previously unreleased session recorded by Blue Note in 1960. Reece had an incredible tone that managed to be very polished and sparkling, yet still stay incredibly soulful, especially when paired with good players – as on this CD! The sessions feature 2 different groups – one with Stanley Turrentine (at a good raw early tone here), Bobby Timmons, and Art Blakey; the other with Turrentine, Duke Jordan, and obscure tenorist Musa Kaleem. Both groups are great, and the record is quite possibly the best that Dizzy recorded for Blue Note – which makes it even more strange that the material was not issued until now. Titles include "Achmet", "Ye Olde Blues", "The Case Of The Frightened Lover", and "Sands". 9 tracks in all, and a delight throughout!

A second volume of underground disco and unstoppable dancefloor soul from NYC in the late 70s and early 80s – M&M Mixes Vol 2, highlighting rare and previously unreleased mixes by John Morales! It features a roster of legendary names, particularly to diggers of deeper disco tracks, but also some soul stars who worked well in that groove – a batch of tunes mixed & engineered by Morales back in the day at M&M Studios and elsewhere. Great numbers by Brass Construction, Inner Life feat Jocelyn Brown, Candi Staton, Fantastic Aleems, Teddy Pendergrass, War, Double Exposure, Salsoul Orchestra and more! CDs version includes 18 tracks on a jam packed 2CDs – many grooving on the longer side, with titles include "Caught Up" by Inner Life feat Jocelyn Brown, "Heartless" by Evelyn Thomas, "Now Is Tomorrow" by Brass Construction, "You Hearts Run Free" by Candi Staton, "Slipping Into Darkness" by War, "Dreamin" by Loleatta Holloway, "Magic Bird Of Fire" by Salsoul Orchestra, "Dancing Into The Stars" by Logg and more.