16 of the best new independent soul tracks from the past year, all highlights in their own right. Includes some awesome unreleased tracks, Trace Ellington 'Let Love In' is a great mid-tempo dancer, as is Nina Provencal 'Falling', Rhian's rare groove tinged 'Ivory Moon' and Yewende's chugging 'Run'. Also includes the best tracks from recent albums by Antoinique, Maya Acucena, Emerald Jade, Monet, Myron, Conya Doss, Geno Young, Adrianna Evans, Alison Crockett, Marlon Saunders and Real Kofy Brown. Also check Heston's wonderful 'If', another great dancer.
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL
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Another eagerly awaited follow up to a big album, Dwele delivers an album that's possibly better than his heralded debut 'Subject'. His distinctive vocals and arrangements are evident again throughout. Highlights are the groove ridden 'Holla', funky mid tempo foot taper 'Pimp's Dream', Catchy mid tempo dancers 'I Think I Love You' and 'Know Your Name' the beat ballads 'Weekend Love'and 'My Lova', Also check out the mid tempo groove's 'Lay It Down ' and 'Some Kinda' and the ballad 'Wake The Baby' feat Boney James' soulful sax. Quality throughout.
Also highly recommended 'Subject' CD £9.95 (Until 30th Nov)
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Eagerly anticipated follow up to their landmark 'Surrender To Love' album, this has a slightly more mainstream feel but is Quality throughout. Check the stunning ballad 'Where Would I Be', the infectious 'Sneak a Freak' and the riff laden 'As Of Yet'. Also try the lilting serenity of 'My Time' or the soulful title song. Fatin's vocals soar throughout the album; he is a great singer in the tradition of Teddy, Womack etc. This is Contemporary Soul Music of the highest calibre.
Also Highly Recommended 'Surrender To Love' CD £9.95 (until 31st Dec)
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Great album of mainly uptempo grooves featuring the sassy soulful vocals of Cindy Mizell backed by one of the UK's finest bands Mr Gone. 'Don't Give Up Now' is a strong dancer with a driving bassline, 'Set Me Free' is a nice mid-tempo plodder with synth strings. 'Call Me Anytime' an irresistible soulful funky dancer and probably the best track, although 'Just Make A Move' and 'Introduce Me To Love' are both Good dancers and the cover of 'Let It Flow (Sausalito Calling) is also great. Refreshingly different album which is highly recommended.
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Excellent album that features some heavyweight names and combines contemporary soul with jazz funk. 'What You Gonna Do' feat Glenn Jones and 'Used To Be' feat Christopher Williams are great modern dancers, whilst You Don't Have To Say You're Sorry' feat Jazmyn and 'One More Bridge To Cross feat Vesta are nice ballads. The real killer soul track is 'I'm Changin' feat Maysa a floater that really grows on you. On the jazz side Roy Ayers and Kenny Garrett 'Urban Jungle' is a jazz funk dancer, Roy also teams up with Pucho for 'Pier 69', Bobby Lyle's 'Brazilian Heat' and Jon Lucien's 'To Be With You' are also noteworthy. Strong throughout.
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Eric has his own style, and this follows a similar path the 'The Vault' and 'Esoteric', at the soulful end of R&B. The album comprises mainly of new songs like the mid tempo 'N2U' featuring Martha from Floetry, and 'What I Gotta Do'. There's a couple of dancer's that will get attention 'Painkiller' and 'Hesitation' and a couple of nice ballad's notably 'Just a Dream' but the real killer is one of his early tracks 'The Moon' making its first appearance on CD from his aborted Warner's album 10 years ago.
Also Recommended: The Vault 1.5 CD and The Esoteric CD
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Strong EWF album, although the introduction of a lot of guests actually distracts from rather than adds to the quality of the album. 'Pure Gold' and 'Pass You By' are classic EWF mid tempo ballads, 'Work It Out' and 'Love Dance' vintage EWF grooves and 'Liberation' is typical of their instrumentals with vocal background humming. The real highlight is the collaboration with Raphael Saadiq 'This Is How I Feel', a horn accompanied beat ballad that draws on both the bands and Raphael's distinctive sounds to produce a future classic.
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Husband and wife duo Darryl and Patricia Hatcher produce a contemporary soul album like a modern day Ashford and Simpson. The emphasis is on the songs and soulful harmonies. The highlights are the title track, a joyful mid tempo floater, a cover of Rufus 'Sweet Thing' given a touch of Ramsey Lewis 'Sun Goddess' as a backing track, and themid tempo 'More Loving' which has a great hook. Also check the dancer 'Return Your Love To Me' and the ballads especially 'Baby Come Close'. Quality Soul Music.
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Bright and Breezy British Jazz-Funk (ala Light Of The World), the Funkadrome are a 15 piece tight band with a great horn section. This is a really good album, mostly uptempo grooves like 'Undercover', 'You Set My Soul On Fire', 'Runnin', 'Funkadrome' and 'Another Day'. There are also some nice mid tempo tracks like 'Crusin Supernova', 'Clear Blue Skies' and possibly best of 'Trippin'. Strong throughout…parrrrty!
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Independent soul with a slight jazz tinge, this is a varied album from Gabbie who has a strong voice and sounds similar to Antonique in places. 'Now I Know' is an organic mid tempo groover, whilst 'Something So' a catchy foot tapper with a nice hook. The breezy radio friendly 'Sunshine and Colors' is another highlight, and 'Diva By Design' is spoken word over percussion. Interesting and well worth checking out.
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Carleen makes probably her best album, contemporary soul with an edge. The killer dancer 'My Door Is Open' is one of the tracks of the year, a full on funky soul groover with horns that belts on relentlessly. She shares the limelight with Jocelyn Brown on the uplifting 'Parting The Waters'. 'Gotta Believe In The Future' is like an early BNH funky soul dancer, the riff laden 'All In My Mind' and the organic sounding plodder 'A Different Me' are the other highlights. Carleen's delicate but powerful voice shines throughout.
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Excellent Steve Harvey production mixes slinky Soul with Latin touches. Her sensual vocals are well suited to tracks like the sleazy title song, the Earth Wind And Fire influenced 'Star' and the shuffling dancer 'Much Too Much'. 'My Oh My' hits a subtle yet up-tempo Latin groove, whilst the hauntingly beautiful 'Somehow' just simmers and smokes. 'Take Me' seems to encapsulate Latin Jazz vocal in just four minutes of dance-floor heaven. 'Starlite' is a candidate for album of the year.
Also available ‘Star’ 7“
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Long awaited follow-up to 'One', Ian(Martin) delivers an album that is full of fine grooves from the quirky 'Release' featuring Sy Smith, the catchy 'It'sYour Nite' to the amazing 'Brother' with vocals from Gavin Christopher. The Modern Soul dancer 'Movin On' will get feet a moving with its incessant grooves and early 80's vibe. Jeff Robinson puts in vocal appearances on 'Knockdown Side' and 'Le Chemin'. An super album that grows on you.
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Paul Simpson's Da Producers ( of Marvin Gaye Lets Get it On Remix fame) make an album full of steppers aimed at the Chicago stepping scene (soul's answer to line dancing !) but ideal for the UK's Modern soul scene. 80's style productions, strong lead vocals and a heavy modern soul beat. The best tracks are 'Dance The Night Away', 'Step It Up', 'This Is a Party', 'Get Up, 'Windy City' and the instrumental 'Steppers Paradise'. This is going to be huge at weekenders.
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This quality bright jazzy soul album would have Robbie Vincent waxin' lyrical. Lisa sounds like a slightly jazzier version of Teena Marie. Right from the start of the breezy 'Lazy Monday Afternoon' the quality oozes and is maintain across all nine tracks. The dancer 'Lets Have It All', the jazz funk title track, cover of Leon Ware's 'Wanna Be Where You Are' and George Duke style brazilian tinged jazz funker 'You Are The One' are all highlights. Best of all is the two stepper 'Second Nature' reminding me in places of Joanna Gardner's classic 'Pick Up The Pieces'. Quality album throughout.
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Superior New soul album with that has a hint of classic 70's soul. 'Next Of Kin' and 'Chocolate Paradise' and god mid tempo bouncy dancers, ' Good 2 CYA' and 'Inseperable' are nice beat ballads and 'Cant Get Enough' a catchy finger snapper. Also check the ballad 'Rose Of Concrete' and his awesome recut of Bobby Womack's 'Womans Gotta Have It' which makes it contemporary whilst retaining the essence of the original. Strong album.
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Ty possesses a great soulful voice, with 'Love Notes' he follows up to and surpasses the much heralded 'N-Tysing'. 'Life On Track' and 'Don't Change' are great mid-tempo grooves. 'I Miss You' is a good beat ballad, 'Step Out Tonight' a good modern stepper and 'Breathless' a head nodder. This is a consistently good 80's style soul album throughout, with good songs but the real highlight is Ty's voice.
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Lori has a Phyllis Hyman style voice and she sings similar material to our heroine. 'For Loves Sake' is a great mid tempo beat ballad reminiscent of late 70's/early 80's soul, which really allows her powerful voice to shine. 'Keep On' is a mid-tempo dancer that sounds like it should be a Mtume/Lucas production. 'I Don't Need To Know' and 'If You were mine' are quality soul that will appeal to fans of Phyllis and of that era.
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'This Journey's In' is one of the definitive tracks of the decade so far, a fantastic piece of up tempo music that every soul and jazz fan should own. The rest of the album is very strong, 'Everybody Say Yeah' is a great uplifting party and club track, 'Stray Away' and 'Shake It' are also good funky dancers. 'Talking Me Down' and 'Got Your Madness' are more jazzy soul grooves, whilst 'Sinkin' and 'Mark Of His Ways' are almost two step soul. Rebirth are one of the best full bands around today (7 piece), tight like the comparable Fertile Ground, using real instruments, singing meaningful lyrics and playing funky soul grooves. Outstanding One of the albums of the year!
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Atlanta based Morton produces a good midtempo acoustic soul album in a similar style to Anthony David's of last year. Again it is the songs that make this album work. The catchy 'No Ordinary Love', 'How We Were', 'Heavenly Father', and 'My Superstar' are the standout tracks, but this is essentially an album to listen to throughout, and it has a definite Stevie Influence. Quality music. SPECIAL EDITION - 2 EXTRA TRACKS
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Trumpeter from the Five Corners Qt produces what could be the Jazz album of the year, heavily influenced by Freddie Hubbard, this is Jazz Fusion at its best and sounds like it could have been recorded Freddie for CTI in the early 70's. '1974' is a great uptempo fusion track. 'Kulo' is more mid tempo with some great fender rhodes and Jukka sounding incredibly like Freddie, 'Duddamdej' and 'Timber Up' have a jazz dance feel to them with great arrangements. This is great throughout and totally essential.
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Jazz dance album from former members of Nu Spirit Helsinki. This is hip jazz 2005 style with a 60's Blue Note influence. 'Trading Eights', 'Devil Kicks' and 'Three Corners' have already been big jazz dance hits on 10" singles, and they are joined by 'Lighthouse' another killer dancer and 'Unsquare Bossa' plus two tracks featuring Okou on vocals the modal 'Case Study' and more mellow 'Blue Cycles' plus three with the legendary Mark Murphy the best of which is 'This Could Be The Start of Something Good'. This album will appeal to those who bought Gerardo Frisina and Nicola Conte last year and is every bit as Essential
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Quality jazz dance/fusion set from Five Corners drummer Teddy. Standouts are the infectious bass driven groove of 'Feel' featuring the soulful vocals of Okou. 'Askaa' has a heavy groove and some great horns and percussion. 'Steady','Spaces And Echoes' and 'Damn Straight' are mystical haunting fusion pieces with great Trumpet playing from Jukka Escola . 'Inujam' and 'Around The Clock' are great Afro-funk workouts. This album is refreshingly different and highly recommended.
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Excellent Hammond Organ led fusion/jazz groove set features archetypal Soulive grooves like 'Reverb' and 'Freedom'. Vocal guests include Chaka Khan on thesingle 'BackAgain'andIvan Neville on both the heavy 'Got Soul' and funky 'Take It Easy'. Funky Jazz ofan exceptional standard that is consistent from start to finish.
Also recommended 'Turn It Out' 2CD
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Metro Blue is possibly the best Smooth Jazz album of the last few years with echoes of Richard's superb 'Chill Factor of 5 years ago. Elliot's playing is smooth yet soulful and the grooves ooze under-stated Funk. Check 'Inside Out', the riff laden 'Say It's So' and the slinky 'Coastline'. The bubbly 'Chill Bill' and the atmospheric 'Mystique' featuring Peter White add variety and depth. Very strong album that will appeal to Fusion aficionados as well as Smooth Jazzers.
ALSO RECOMMENDED: CHILL FACTOR
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