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

Late stuff – but one of the best Barry White-related albums from the 70s! The record has the Orchestra moving at a much slower pace than usual – perhaps in an answer to all the too-fast too-orchestrated disco that took a cue from Barry's earlier work – and the record bravely hits a mellow and midtempo groove that's perfect for the modern soul and steppers dancefloor. The best example of this is the sublime "Whisper Softly", a wonderfully stripped-down number with spacey keyboards, great piano, and a stepping modern sound that makes it feel like it was recorded 20 years too early. Other tracks include "Stay Please & Make Love to Me", "Enter Love's Interlude", and "Love You, Ooh It's True I Do". 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

The great Webster Lewis joins Love Unlimited Orchestra for this nice mellow later album, one of the group's last good albums! Features the slowly funky "Welcome Aboard" – a tight mellow track with an excellent stepping groove that's nice and sweet. Barry White produced, and other tracks include "Easin", "Antigua Blue", "Strange", "Wind", "Dreams", and "Night Life In The City". CD

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! (Sound Library, Soul) 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! (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD

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! (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD

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! (Funky Compilations, Soul) CD

A lost treasure from Barry White – the one and only album recorded by Danny Pearson, one of the few singers that Barry did as "special projects" during the 70s! Like Gloria Scott and Tom Brock – two other White-produced singers of the time – Pearson's got a wonderful approach that's quite different than Barry's own work – a fragile, sensitive, sweet soul style that's a lot like indie work from the New Jersey/Philly scene of the early 70s, produced with a bit more of the Barry White flair. The sound is sublime – with magical orchestrations by White and Gene Page, wrapped lovingly around Pearson's great vocals. Titles include "Honey Please, Can't You See?", "What's Your Sign Girl?", "Is It Really True Girl", and "Walkin In the Rain With The One I Love". LP, Vinyl record album