| RECOMMENDED NEW SOUL - NOVEMBER 2009 |
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 REVELATIONS FT TRE WILLIAMS – THE BLEEDING EDGE CD £14.95
Strong contemporary southern soul album in a late 60's/early 70's style, arranged by Patrick Adams featuring real instruments and horns. The Lead Vocals of Tre Williams shows some similarity to that of Anthony Hamilton. The mid tempo strutter 'Graceful Bow' has a Willie Mitchell/Al Green feel to it, the excellent beat ballad 'Cheatin/Secret Lovers' and the mid tempo 'Remember The Last Time' are real highlights. There's a good cover of Latimore's 'Lets Straighten It Out' with a long instrumental intro.
The beat ballads 'Sorry's Not Good Enough' , 'Everybody Knows', and 'I Don't Want To know' and the mid tempo 'How Do I Tell Him' are also good. Great refreshing real soul with a capital S.
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 RAD – GETTING DOWN IS FREE CD £14.95
Vibrant album from the Californian vocalist and keyboard player who has made some consistently good underground funky soul albums over the past 15 years. As usual she has a great band backing her ft Fred Wesley, Patrice Rushen, Eric Leeds, Billy Johnson and David Garibaldi (T.O.P). ‘Getting Down Is Free’ is a really good uptempo funky soul jam that really grooves along., ‘If It’s Love That You’re Giving’ ft Patrice on vocals and keyboards is an upper mid tempo with a nice feel to it., Patrice also features on the funkier ‘Dukey Rd’, and ‘Under The Radar’ is a sultry semi funky track with a nice sax solo.
The more melodic and jazzier ‘Packed My Bags’ and ‘No One’ provide a nice contrast to the more hard hitting tracks. Great to have her back and hear all those great instruments. in full flow
also recommended ‘Higher Plane’ CD £14.95, East Babe CD £14.95 Make Every Second Count CD £14.95
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 MARCELL AND THE TRUTH – SYMBOLS CD £12.95
Marcell possesses a great old school classic soul voice, and on his second album lives up to his great debut that wowed us three years ago. 'Lost In The Moment' is a strong up tempo dancer, and 'Can't Wait' and 'All I Know' are good mid tempo dancers. The shuffling mid tempo 'Just To Be Loved' and Greatest Love' and the ballads 'Whole Again' and 'Wish You Were Here' are also good. The killer though is the slow message song 'Symbols' with heartfelt lyrics and a great vocal performance. Really good Soul album, good songs and that voice !.
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 SOULPERSONA – SOULACOASTER CD £11.95
UK Produced album featuring some quality vocalists. Darien guests on the nice dancer 'Can't Hide' and the mid tempo 'Don't Go'. Princess Fressia takes lead on the up tempo 'Walk On Through', 'Perfect Life',
and 'Fressia's Late Night Fantasy'. Kia Bennett is featuired on trhe mid tempo ' So Natural' and the slower 'Lifetime'. Sybil Thrasher (of Ramp) guest on the killer 2 stepper 'In Your Eyes' and the atmospheric 'Imagine'. Interesting and varied album.
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 JOSS STONE COLOUR ME FREE CD £13.95
Strong and varied album from the UK soulstress with that powerful voice. ‘Free Me’ is a Miami style strutter that grooves well, the beat driven uptempo ‘Could Have Been You’ and mid tempo ‘Big Ol Game’ both feature Raphael Saadiq, and ‘Incredible’ and ‘ You Got The Love’ are semi-funky grooves. ‘Governmentalist’ has a strong message and a great groove and features an unobtrusive rap from Nas, ‘Girlfriend On Demand’ is a big ballad ft Paul Riser Orchestra, and there is a good cover of Ray Charles bluesy ‘I Believe It To My Soul’ ft David Sanborn and with an all star band.
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 TRACY HAMLIN – BETTER DAYS CD £14.95
Quality real soul album from a lady with a really nice soulful voice. 'Free' is a nice breezy upper mid tempo track, 'Better Days' a good mid tempo foot tapper and 'You've Got To Let Go' a great mid tempo.
The ballads 'You Are The One' and 'No Regrets' are also strong and there are good covers of 'Use Me', ' Until You Come Back To Me' and 'Good Morning Heartache'. Nice album
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 WHISPERS – THANKFUL CD £14.95
The Whispers are one of the most popular vocal harmony group of all time, they return with their first ever gospel/soul album , produced by Magic, Fred Hammond and themselves. The album has their unique 'full' sound and the Scotty Brothers are in fine voice with beautiful harmonies. 'Walk With Me' is a great upper mid tempo dancer, 'For Thou Art With Me' , 'We Need You' and 'This Is How I Feel' are all good mid tempo songs. The ballads 'Did You Know', 'Who Could It Be' and 'Praise His Holy Name' are also strong. Really uplifting album with a message.
also recommended ‘For Your Ears only CD £9.95
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 LENNY WILLIAMS – UNFINISHED BUSINESS CD £16.95
The evergreen Lenny is still in fine voice on this mainly self penned set of new tunes.
'Sunday Afternoon' is a really nice catchy upper mid tempo hand clapping track. 'Sorry I Didn't know It Was Yo Momma' is a good mid tempo track ft Kim Waters, whilst 'Cheatin On The Cheatin is a southern style mid tempo. Lenny always excels on the ballads 'I Can't Stop Lovin You' 'Somebody Else' , 'Amnesia' and 'Six In The Morning' prove this point. Nice album that would have benefited from more real instrumentation. 1
also available ‘It Must Be Love’ CD £11.95
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 GIZELLE SMITH AND THE MIGHT MOCAMBOS – THIS IS.. CD £13.95 LP £14.95
Strong heavy Funk album recorded in Germany (and part in the UK). Gizelle has a rasping voice in the style of Alice Russell and it is used to good effect on 'Working Woman' and the horn led 'Hold Fast'. 'Nothing For Nothing', 'Gonna Get You', 'Love Alarm' and 'Snake Charmer' are fine Funk grooves, each having its own individual character – but there are 6 or 7 great Funk tunes in all. 'Everything Holds Blame' is a slow burner on which the horn arrangements are just smouldering. Modern Soul folk will go for the 60's sounding cover of Bobby Reed's 'The Time Is Right For Love'. The band get a chance to stretch out on the JB inspired instrumental 'Free Vibes'. Strong grooves, horns, infectious riffs and good songs and 60's style harmonies make this a highly recommended Funk set.
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 MOUNTAIN MOCHA KILIMANJARO – MOUNTAIN MOCHA KILIMANJARO CD £13.95 LP £15.95
Instrumental band hailing from Japan take a retro route on the contemporary Funk. Full band including horns wear their influences on their sleeves. For example ‘Time Has Come’ has an early Meters vibe, whilst ‘Yellow Soul Force’ takes its inspiration from James Brown as does the wicked ‘Baggy Pants’ with its wonderful horn lines and the gritty, infectious ‘Don’t Touch Just Watch Me’. ‘Why Am I Standing Here’ has hints of early 70’s Kool And the Gang, and the cover of ‘The Blackbyrds Theme’ has self-explanatory influences.
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 RANDA AND THE SOUL KINGDOM – RANDA AND THE SOUL KINGDOM CD £13.95 LP £13.95
Australian Funk band release a fine set of modern day Funk grooves. Musically highly influenced by James Brown, the group playing is of a high standard and extremely tight. The horn section is particularly tough. Check the mainly instrumental 'Feel It In Your Soul, the gritty 'Not Gonna Let You'' and the riff laden 'Getting Down To It'. Also try the Afro Beat/ Afro Funk 'Lysistrata's Quest' which is a real scorcher. The Funk flows on almost every track with the riff driven (check horns and guitar) 'You Can Make It Funky' and the single 'Find Your Groove' being outstanding. If you like contemporary Funk heavily influenced by James Brown.
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