A truly amazing album – unlike anything Eddie Kendricks ever did before, or since – and one of those records that really helped shape the sound of soul in the 70s! The music is as rich and powerful as the image on the cover – with some righteous undercurrents that really mark the time and place of the record, yet also help it transcend so many other standard soul modes of the period too! Arrangements are wonderfully complex – as you'll hear on the classic groovers "Girl You Need A Change Of Mind" and "Date With The Rain" – each very different numbers, but both a showcase for Kendricks' wonderful vocal approach. Other titles include the progressive "People Hold On" – plus "I'm On The Sideline", "Day By Day", "If You Let Me", "Let Me Run Into Your Lonely Heart", and "Someday We'll Have A Better World". LP, Vinyl record album

It's Wu-Tang's world, and we just live in it – as we're reminded again by this great series of older funky cuts sampled by the group! As with other volumes, most of these numbers emerged at some point or another in Wu-Tang and related productions – but this set presents the full original songs, unmixed – a pretty damn great blend of 70s funky soul on its own, even if you've never had an ear for hip hop! Artists are a great mix of soul stars and underground legends – and titles include "What The World Needs Now" by Carla Thomas, "I Get High" by Freda Payne, "Get Myself High" by The Dynamics, "That's All Right With Me" by Esther Phillips, "Intimate Friends" by Eddie Kendricks, "Ain't Got The Love Of One Girl" by The Ambassadors, "Girls Can't Do What The Guys Do" by Betty Wright, "Our Generation" by Ernie Hines, "I'm Your Mechanical Man" by Jerry Butler, "Have Mercy On Me" by East St Louis Gospelettes, "Here I Go Again" by Jean Plum, "Let's Do It Again" by Staple Singers, "Only One Can Win" by The Sylvers, "Don't Make The Good Girls Go Bad" by Della Humphrey, "Dead" by Carolyn Sullivan, "Trouble" by Brenton Wood, "Float On (single edit)" by Floaters, "I Wish You Were Here" by Al Green, and "A Good Man Is Gone" by Monk Higgins & Alex Brown. (Funky Compilations, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool record, and one that digs deep into the earliest days of the disco scene – that time in New York where there weren't any records being made as strictly "disco" cuts – and DJs had to make their pick of soul and funk records from a time when the music was really changing things up! The album's heavy on New York and Philly-based tracks, and some of the artists here are ones who'd had an earlier life in soul music, but were picking up the rhythms, adding in some larger arrangements, and creating grooves that really knocked the whole thing out of the park! The presentation here is based on a famous 1975 article that looked at the underground scene out in Brooklyn for New York magazine – later made famous as Saturday Night Fever – and as such, the tracks here are full of surprises, and very different than the usual disco-inspired compilation. Titles include "Just As Long As We're Together (single version)" by Gloria Scott, "After You've Had Your Fling" by The Intrepids, "Welcome To The Club" by Blue Magic, "Mellow Me" by Faith Hope & Charity, "Got To Get You Back" by Sons Of Robin Stone, "Date With The Rain (LP version)" by Eddie Kendricks, "Georgia's After Hours" by Richard Popcorn Wylie, "If That's The Way You Feel" by White Heat, "It's The Same Old Story" by Act 1, "Tell Me What You Want" by Jimmy Ruffin, "Night Of The Wolf" by Ivano Fossati, "The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy" by John Gary Williams, "You Can't Hide Love" by Creative Source, "Wendy Is Gone" by Ronnie McNeir, "Free & Easy" by Satyr, and "Keep It Up" by Betty Everett. (Funky Compilations, Soul) LP, Vinyl record album