Uptempo, Rare Groove (or Off Track as it is now known) at it's best. Im not afraid to say that I never checked for these guys until this landed in my inbox. I'm embarrassed to not to have done so because this is a superb collection of tracks. I frequent the backstreet & 2nd hand record shops on a regular basis & i've never even seen volume 1 anywhere for me to pick up. I can make an educated guess & say that this is because volume 1 is just as good as volume 2. Sparkles 'Let Yourself Go' & Eddie Benitez' ';We Are The Ones' are my personal favs on here but if you can find a 'weak' track on this entire compilation then you're not yet ready for this type of music i'm afraid. Test yourself with the taster track below peeps. Not only is this superb but there's 2CD worth to get through as well. Don't sleepNow i've got to go out & spend the best part of £200.00 on pretty much all of the artists showcased. DAMN!!!
This Ain't No Kon
A Special Blend Of Herbs & Spices
One of my favourite groups is back peeps. The Herbaliser have never disappointed me with any of their critically acclaimed releases so far & this time around is no different. Now I don't want to accuse these guys of jumping on any bandwagons but there is a more Nu-Funkish sound to Same As It Ever Was, Their last album, Take London, was Hip Hop & Nu Jazz taken to another level (even more so if you got the bonus disc version) and Jean Grae & Cappo were all over the album (niceness). Jean makes her now customary (i guess) appearance on the Moody 70's b-line of Street Karma. The main vocal charge on the album overall though goes to Jessica Darling (me neither) who shows up on 5 out of 12 tracks. Yungun also drops by on the straight up head nodiness of Just Won't Stop. If these guys ever dropped a pure Hip Hop album my musical life may very well be complete. They've kept things short n sweet this time too which just means you have to rewind to take in the quality all over again. Superb stuff.
When The Grass Is Greener
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Was there ever a time when everything went right for you. That day when you got the winning goal/basket /point /wicket /touchdown / home run. That night in the club when every girl/guy (ain't no sexism here people) gave up the number. That day when your numbers came up & you walked into work the next day only to flip a finger at the boss & walk right back out again. That 16 bars you wrote in one sit down & was just straight fire. I reckon that when the major players stepped in the studio with al Green for the 1st time to start recording Lay It Down, they had that same feeling. And so the bloody well should because the result is a masterpiece. This is about as perfect as a modern day soul album can sound. From the opening guitar riffs of the title track to the final funky keys of Standing In The Rain, I was completely blown away by what i was hearing, Questlove & James Poyser, with help from The Dap-King Horns, Chalmers Alford & Adam Blackstone Have created a new benchmark for what others should be aiming for in my view. They have Managed to keep classic soul essence in tact while bringing the sound forward & making it completely relevant with what goes on today. We all know that Al Green is a musical God but the fact that his voice & the soundscapes are so mind blowingly cohesive without so much as a minor mis step is amazing. Plus Anthony Hamilton (twice), John Legend & Corinne Bailey-Rae all make great appearances too. I'm not going to go into detail about any individual tracks this time because i would be doing them a grave disservice. Any soul fan be you young or old, into Classic or Nu, this is the must have of the year so far. An absolutely fantastic album.
