The long awaited follow-up to the superb compilation Loving On The Flipside, from ten years ago.
‘Contained within this anthology are some of the greatest soul ballads that go sweet with a beat. Most of these songs have never been compiled. Some have never been issued in any form. Some, like the Ledgends entry here, have been sampled to great success (in that case for Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s Deeper). Some haven’t been sampled, but, like Herb Johnson’s entry, are patiently awaiting their day.’

Twenty-five tracks drawn from the golden era of Motown, 1961-1968: fifteen of them never released before.
Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Marv Johnson, The Temptations and The Four Tops will be familiar names, though the recordings here are rare; The Hit Pack, The Serenaders and Gino Parks will maybe ring a bell; Michael Thomas and Johnny Earl will require this introduction.

‘This thirteen-track compilation exhumes forgotten brilliance from the Afroamerican underground of the 1970s. Awash in fuzzed-out guitars, wah-wah pedals, lysergic-soaked grooves, and enough inflation depression to fill the tank of a shag wagon, If There’s Hell Below imagines a world where Hendrix lived on and Funkadelic never crawled out of the garage.’
Transparent red vinyl.

‘A sonic snapshot of America’s steel capital, probing the fertile cavern between the departure of the Jackson 5 to Motown and the collapse of U.S. steel… a love letter to Gary, Indiana, salvaging twenty-plus lost songs from the southern-most tip of Lake Michigan. Housed in a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket, with a 16-page booklet crammed with photos, ephemera, and an in-depth essay, Skyway Soul connects the dots between The Spaniels, Michael Jackson, and Freddie Gibbs.’

‘Operating in the farthest margins of L.A.’s cutthroat music business from 1961-1991, Mel Alexander’s Consolidated Productions was among the longest running Black-owned independent record conglomerates of the 20th century. Disentangling a web of imprints — including Ajax, Angel Town, Car-A-Mel, Emanuel, and Kris — this first volume gathers 28 smouldering R&B cuts by the likes of Lee Harvey, B .B. Carter, Marilyn Calloway, the Del Reys, the Deb Tones, the De Velles, Gene Russell ’s Trio, Jimmy ‘Preacher’ Ellis, and Ty Karim.’
Presented with customary class and attentiveness by Numero.

Thirty-four sides originally released by Jesse Jones’ twin labels out of Atlanta, between 1968-1977. Southern to Northern, classic R&B to modern soul, dancers to romancers.

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.