A short-run reissue of this excellent roots production by Carlton Lewis. Same singer as Jazzbo’s Step Forward.
Jubilant, party-hearty deejay cut to a thumping, body-rocking Jah Life do-over of the almighty Love Without Feeling rhythm. Sister Carol smashes it out of the dancehall and into the trees. The dub is knockout, too: raw drum & bass, in your face.
‘Mi have di potential an mi have di credential… in a dance hall, concert an’ rehearsal… mi will mash it, as per usual.’
Characteristically daring report of Haile Selassie’s visit to JA, kicking off in Amharic. A knees-up crossing of gospel, ska and rhythm and blues — the pianist and drummer taking different views — with vocal backing by The Gaylads. Plus a Soul Brothers on the flip.
All-time-classic Stalag excursion.
Tough early-eighties Fatis digi, over which our hero finds himself trying to get next to a gay woman who looks like a man. Even his Japanese shoes fail him.
Soulful steppers by TL, fresh from Tubby’s Firehouse.
The superb bebop pianist versioning the Jackson 5 — from his Greasy Kid Stuff LP in 1970, with Idris Muhammad, Lee Morgan, Hubert Laws and Buster Williams.
Sister Janie by Funk Inc on the flip — with James Brown’s Sex Machine its point of departure.
Soul scorchers from Louisiana. A brilliantly convincing cover of Howard Tate, about relationship mindgames, hazily riven with sexual desire; and hard, driven funk on the flip, about men treating women badly. The red-hot band is Buckwheat and his Hitchhikers, before he turned to zydeco — recorded cyclophonically, according to the original label.
Classic Latin soul, following up Watermelon Man, co-written by Pat Patrick from the Arkestra. (Subsequently a massive UK hit for Georgie Fame, using Jon Hendricks’ lyrics, arranged by Tubby Hayes.) Both sides, failsafe boogaloo destroyers.
Magnificent, smoking sister-funk, both sides. ‘What is wrong with the men / Trying to do us in.’ Produced by West Coast legend Miles Grayson.
An ace, urgent version of Joe South’s stinging denunciation.
Easy to imagine Andy and South — who also wrote Walk A Mile In My Shoes — getting on very well together.