‘Psychedelia, Afro-Roots & Champeta In 1980s Barranquilla.’

Stuffed with staggering selections, comprising maybe our favourite compilation in this mind-boggling series. Deep, hypnotic, mystical music, often a bit wasted; featuring several extended 12” and 10” mixes, sparkling with electronic effects. Almighty sides like George Dudley’s Gates Of Zion and Lloyd Robinson and Devon Russell’s effervescently jazzy Push Push, sublimely channelling Curtis.
It’s a must.

No particular theme this time around… except scorchers only admitted.
A fresh, personal selection, stuffed with bangers and welcome strays and surprises; like getting a killer mix-tape from an old friend.
Jazzbo riding a vicious mix of Sidewalk Doctor, for example, and Spear’s majestic Door Peep Shall Not Enter… Wiggle’s Diggles by Noel Bailey the Hippy Boy… two sublime Sugars…
The broom to sweep the room!

Soul Jazz back in Port-au-Prince after twenty years, to record again with the Drummers of the Société Absolument Guinin. Mesmeric rhythms and beats traditionally used to induce spirit possession in the Vodou religion — ‘dynamic and riveting in their intricacy and power,’ said the Quietus about the first volume.

Almost preposterous, this beautiful snapshot of a US expat community fetched up in Dimona, Israel, in the second half of the seventies, holding faith with its love of Chicago soul and spiritual jazz.

‘The twentieth volume of our flagship series has all the boxes checked: gun-toting record producers, child stars, rip-offs, ‘The World’s Greatest Bail Bondsman’, soaring falsettos, and a dwindling rust-belt cityscape offering mere glimpses of hope before the record industry escaped for the coasts. Helmed by the O’Jays Bobby Massey, Saru was a creative vortex pulling into Cleveland the best talent in Cuyahoga County — the Out of Sights, the Elements, Pandella Kelly, David Peoples, Sir Stanley, the Ponderosa Twins + 1, Ba-Roz, Bobby Dukes and — of course — The O’Jays.’

‘Venomous Tex-Mex R&B and early rock n’roll from San Antonio’s West Side scene. From 1961-67, Bexar county kingmaker Abe Epstein cut every teen combo to grace the Patio Andaluz stage, launching the careers of Doug Sahm, The Royal Jesters, Sonny Ace, The Dreamliners, and hundreds more throughout the decade.’

A terrific compilation of vintage UK street soul — at its nexus with rare groove and lovers rock, so intensely nostalgic for us at HJ — by the same crew which put together the excellent For The Love Of You volumes.
A dozen gems here: treasurable DIY labels and whites teeming with raw longing and overproof sincerity, riding limber Soul II Soul-style grooves, wannabe Jam & Lewis, and crunchy, synthy, electro-soul. (The System were the US overmasters of this.)
Just a touch of cheese, a smidgen of sublimely out-of-tune singing, splashes of sploshy beatbox and dodge sampling, a brazen Roy Ayers pinch… components of loveliness.
Calling all midnight ravers and undercover lovers. You know who you are.