Wicked late work by Barry White's instrumental group – soaring strings, snapping beats, and a tight dancefloor sound that shows that these guys were undaunted by disco! The orchestrations on the set are handled by Dave Roberts – and the sound is a nice update on the classic feel of the Love Unlimited Orchestra – with slightly longer tracks than before, and beats that still snap like the old days, but which also complicate the groove in a new way. Titles include "I'm In The Moon", "Jamaican Girl", "Bayou", "I Wanna Boogie & Woogie With You", "Young America", and "Vieni Qua Bella Mi". CD

Nice nice album of Barry White's funky instrumental tracks, with trademark heavy beats underneath, and the Love Unlimited Orchestra soaring in a soulful groove right up front! The Maestro's in fine form, both as a writer and leader, and the album's filled with tasty funky soulful goodies – like "Satin Soul", "Power Of Love", "You Make Me Feel Like This", and "Dreaming". CD

A killer batch of instrumentals from Barry White – the gliding sweet funkiness of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, the instrumental ensemble that backed Barry on most of his own hits, and who were his best side project of the 70s! The package really includes some great stuff – including 12" mixes of some of the group's best tunes, a few hits, and some lesser known gems pulled from the groups LPs. 15 tracks in all – and titles include "My Sweet Summer Suite (12" mix)", "Brazilian Love Song (12" mix)", "Don't You Know How Much I Love You", "Satin Soul", "Love's Theme", "Theme From King Kong", "Theme From Together Brothers", "Blues Concerto", "Midnight & You", "Let The Music Play", and "Can't You See". CD

Solid gold! "Love's Theme" is Barry White's famous instrumental that became one of the monster sellers of the 70s – and a theme for just about every locally produced sports show! The flip's nice too, and both cuts are prime prime mellow soul! 7-inch, Vinyl record

Excellent instrumentals from The Maestro! Barry's in fine fine form here – and he's just about the only one who could make a record with so many strings sound so funky! The album includes the excellent groover "Bring It On Up", which has a tightly snapping rhythm underneath soaring violins and harp – and just about ever other cut on the album sounds as great! Titles include "Midnight Groove", "Forever In Love", "Give Up Your Love Girl", "You're All I Want", "Makin Believe That It's You", "I Wanna Stay", and "It's Only What I Feel". Maybe the best Love Unlimited Orchestra album – with loads of great tracks! LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderful album of funky instrumental tracks from Barry White – often overlooked because of the "greatest hits" association you could make with the "gold" in the title. The record's got that perfect Love Unlimited sound – heavy beats underneath, and the orchestra soaring over the top in tight rhythmic washes of strings and keyboards! Tracks include "Spanish Lei", "Barry's Love", "Satin Soul", "Power Of Love", "You Make Me Feel Like This", and "Dreaming". LP, Vinyl record album

A stunner of a soundtrack from the maestro Barry White – his only entry into the blacksploitation film genre of the 70s, and a complete doozy throughout! For the album, Barry's stripped down the bigger space of his own records, and his Love Unlimited productions – into some shorter tracks that really focus on that blend of funk and strings that he could do so well – making for a batch of killer instrumentals that really offer up a special Barry White take on the funky film sound of the 70s! Love Unlimited also sing on two tracks – "Somebody Is Gonna Off The Man" and "People Of Tomorrow Are The Children Of Today _- but most of the record is instrumental, played by the Orchestra – and tracks include "Killer's Lullaby", "So Nice To Hear", "Killer Don't Do It", "Can't Seem To Find Him", "Alive & Well", "Theme From Together Brothers", "Do Drop In", and "Here Comes The Man". CD

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A key moment for the Philly soul scene of the 70s – and the first album to feature the MFSB backing group as a solo act on their own! The ensemble were responsible for key sounds on countless soul singles of the time – yet also find a way to soar beautifully on their own – in a sweet instrumental groove that matches the strength of Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra, and which was definitely a key inspiration for the sound of the Salsoul Orchestra! There's definitely a bit of early disco in the mix, but the style's more uptempo east coast overall – that pre-disco groove that was going down in the clubs – with larger strings added to a core group of funky rhythm players. Gamble & Huff production make the whole thing sparkle, and arrangements are by Vince Montana, Bobby Martin, and Jack Faith – on titles that include "Love Is The Message", "Cheaper To Keep Her", "TSOP", "Zack's Fanfare", "Touch Me In The Morning", and "My One & Only Love". LP, Vinyl record album

Sweet funky grooves from 70s Poland – material by a radio/TV orchestra, but one who've clearly learned a lot from Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra and some other great American acts of the time! Keyboards, basslines, and tight drums really set the stage for the tunes – so that when the larger orchestrations come into the mix, things are still plenty darn groovy – yet maybe a bit more down to earth than more polished mainstream disco of the period! Titles include "Cos", "Ballada Dla Malgosi", "Legenda", "Bez Zmian", "Hymn Proximy 2", and "Dekoder". CD features four bonus tracks too! CD

A very groovy entry in this all-great series – a set of compilations that have been giving us really wonderful funk for many years, and which just seems to get better and better with each new entry! The tracks here are a hip mix of styles – not just familiar funk and soul sources, but some funky tracks from other surprising records too – presented together in a way that makes for a nice sense of variety, even while the cuts are all still staying in the groove! Titles include "Who Is She & What Is She To You" by Madelaine, "Golden Ring" by American Gypsy, "Just One Time" by Juicy Lucy, "Condor" by Geoff Love, "Steal Away" by Photoglo, "The One You Love" by Joey Newman, "Metropolis" by Walter Hawkins, "Happiness Is Just Around The Bend" by Main Ingredient, "Seacoast" by Archie Whitewater, and "Strange Games & Things" by Love Unlimited Orchestra. CD

Not a disco record overall – and instead, a sweet set of sax-driven instrumentals from the great Monk Higgins – earlier a key talent in the funky 45 underground on the Chicago scene in the 60s, then a hip jazz arranger in LA at the end of that decade! Here, Monk's blowing with an updated vibe – in a cool combo that also features work from Joe Sample on Fender Rhodes, Freddy Robinson on guitar, and Jim Horn on flute! The record includes a great version of "One Man Band" with a nice long drum break – and other tracks are a bit mellower, with more of a Love Unlimited Orchestra sound – and titles include "Space Race", "Soul Train", and "Love's Theme". LP, Vinyl record album

A sweeeet little collection of work by one of the greatest studio combos ever – the mighty MFSB, backing group on most of the best Philadelphia soul albums of the 70s! MFSB were heard behind countless big Philly artists in the 70s – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, The O'Jays, and many others – but this set focuses on the sides the group made under their own name – in a succession of amazing instrumental soul records that really set a whole new standard for the genre at the time! Most numbers are full on strings, but have core funky rhythms – a Philly equivalent to the Love Unlimited Orchestra sound of the west coast, but a bit more funk-based overall. The set really goes for the best groovers of the group's early records – and includes an all-star lineup of tracks like "Sexy", "Back Stabbers", "K Jee", "Family Affair", "Freddie's Dead", "Love Is The Message (Love Groove Bonus)", "Love Has No Time Or Place", "Lay In Low", "Cheaper To Keep Her", and "Human Machine". CD

4 tracks that aren't included on the regular vinyl version of Danny's entry in Strut's Grass Roots series – all of them club slammers, two of them edited by Danny! Titles include "Point Zero (Danny Krivit edit)" by Voyage, "Happiness Is Just Around The Bend (long mix)" by Main Ingredient, "Theme From King Kong (Danny Krivit's breakdown)" by Love Unlimited Orchestra, and "Lansana's Priestess (original LP)" by Donald Byrd. 12-inch, Vinyl record

One of the greatest soul compilation series ever! Kenny Dope put together this 3rd volume, and we might be tempted to say that it's the best one of the 3! Strange Games has a deceptively simple approach – but the compilation features the kind of grooves that will keep you coming back and back again, and which will play well with both fans of older soul and modern beat-heads alike. Nearly every track has been sampled at some point over the past 10 years – so you'll recognize many of the beats and riffs – but the tracks are also totally excellent, and hold up extremely well on their own as smooth modern soul classics. Titles include "Superman Lover" by Johnny Guitar Watson, "Standing Right Here" by Melba Moore, "Free" by Deniece Williams, "Holding You, Loving You" by Don Blackman, "Was It Something I Said" by Sylvester, "I've Been Watching You" by Parliament, "I'm Your Mechanical Man" by Jerry Butler, "I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You" by Leon Haywood, "Stars In Your Eyes" by Herbie Hancock, "Thoughts Of Old Flames" by Pleasure, "What Am I Missing?" by Rufus, and "Freddie's Dead" by MFSB. Also features a few cuts that have been on other compilations – by artists like Ramp, Labbi Siffre, Love Unlimited Orchestra, and Barry White – but they're all great anyway, and are fine to have again! CD version features 3 CDs! Disc 1 is a mixed set of tracks – and discs 2 and 3 are unmixed, and include 21 cuts between them. Packaged in a totally great slipcase, too! CD

This is the kind of Italian disco we can get our ears around! Bebu Silvetti is on keyboards, and at the helm of the orchestra – working here like an Italian Barry White, on a groove that's very similar to the best work of the Love Unlimited Orchestra. The tracks have a harder focus on the drums and beats than you'd expect – which punches things up nicely, and is a perfect complement to the breathy vocals and smooth Euro grooving over the top of the mix. Great stuff – a real treasure, and with a lot more soul than you'd expect! Titles include "Primitive Man", "Spring Rain", "Two Cups Of Coffee", "Voyage Of No Return", "Coconut Rain", and "Contigo". CD also features a bonus track – a single edit of "Spring Rain". CD

30 tracks on 2 CD's – including work with the Love Unlimited Orchestra. CD

Way more than just classic disco – hardly the hits package you might expect, and a really well-chosen batch of grooves that gets right down to the music that really mattered on the dancefloor back in the day! As you'd hear in the best clubs of the late 70s, the grooves here come from a range of different sources – funky jazz, clubby soul, crossover club, and more – tracks from both big labels and small, laid out back to back at a level that really recreates the excitement of a hip disco back in the day – not in a live mix, so you can enjoy each song on its own, but still in a way that makes you feel like there's a legendary DJ guiding the grooves. Titles include "Love Magic" by John Davis & Monster Orchestra, "Thanks For Loving Me" by Double Discovery, "Do Your Dance" by Rose Royce, "Keep On Dancin" by Gary's Gang, "Counting On Love" by Peter Jacques Band, "Gone Gone Gone" by Johnny Mathis, "What A Difference A Day Makes" by Esther Phillips, "Makes You Blind (re-edit)" by Glitter Band, "Just A Groove" by Glen Adams Affair, "Livin Up To Love" by Companion, "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" by Manhattan Transfer, "Turn The Music Up" by Players Association, "It Burns Me Up" by Change, "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This" by Idris Muhammad, "Lady Bug (disco mix)" by Bumblebee Unlimited, "Bama Boogie Woogie" by Cleveland Eaton, "Can't Live Without Your Love" by Tamiko Jones, "Dancin" by Grey & Hanks, and "Cherchez La Femme/Se Si Bon" by Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. 2CD set comes in a cool 7" package – with 24 tracks in all! CD

A very groovy entry in this all-great series – a set of compilations that have been giving us really wonderful funk for many years, and which just seems to get better and better with each new entry! The tracks here are a hip mix of styles – not just familiar funk and soul sources, but some funky tracks from other surprising records too – presented together in a way that makes for a nice sense of variety, even while the cuts are all still staying in the groove! Titles include "Who Is She & What Is She To You" by Madelaine, "Golden Ring" by American Gypsy, "Just One Time" by Juicy Lucy, "Condor" by Geoff Love, "Steal Away" by Photoglo, "The One You Love" by Joey Newman, "Metropolis" by Walter Hawkins, "Happiness Is Just Around The Bend" by Main Ingredient, "Seacoast" by Archie Whitewater, and "Strange Games & Things" by Love Unlimited Orchestra. LP, Vinyl record album

Fantastic collection of rare groove tracks, featuring loads of lost 70's classics, and a number of hip hop sample cuts to boot! Includes "90% of Me is You" by Gwen McCrae, "Strange Games & Things" by Love Unlimited Orchestra, "Hollywood Dreaming" by Fathers Children, "Reasons" by Minnie Riperton, "Hunk of Heaven" by Lemuria, "Girl You Need a Change of Mind (12" mix)" by Eddie Kendricks, and "Another Day" by Ray, Goodman, and Brown – as sampled by Brand Nubian. Great stuff all through, and really makes us think of some of the best of the Mastercuts series from way back! CD

Great stuff from the girls who first put Barry White on the map! The record is the group's second – and by this point, Barry had developed that tight snapping drum sound that made his orchestral albums work so well. You'll hear it to good effect on most songs on the LP, which have a great groove that's in the best Barry White mode of the 70s – but which kind of dominates the girls' vocals a bit. Not that anyone should complain that much, as it's the overall package that's always made Barry's albums sound so great – but we do wonder how the group felt when they had to sit out the first track, which was the instrumental "Love's Theme", a song that went onto become Barry's biggest song ever, and which probably sold the album a lot more than the vocal tracks. Still, you can hardly detect a note of disharmony – and the album soars from track to track, through titles like "Under The Influence Of Love", "Say It Again", "Yes, We Finally Made It", and "It May Be Winter Outside". LP, Vinyl record album