The first volume was a must, and on we go, from Hayes’ final 45 of 1972 through to 1976 — by which time Stax was defunct, and he was on his own Hot Buttered Soul label via ABC Records.
Including eight US R&B chart hits including the much-sampled Hung Up On My Baby and Chocolate Chip, Hayes’ biggest hit of this period Joy, and the ever-popular 1976 instrumental Disco Connection, which finally gave Hayes’ his second UK Top 20 hit after Shaft.
Reading from his novels Robinson, The Hard Shoulder and The Passenger, and The Museum of Loneliness, with field recordings and bits from the soundtracks of Asylum and Content. Assembled by Mordant Music.
The Imperial Bodyguard Band singer, who tuned his guitar like an oud. Oromo reasoning about love, existence and resistance, with a tasty Arab twang. Mississippi presented him on vinyl recently.
With a Regis remix.
Terrific collection of spiritual and gospel songs performed in informal non-church settings between 1965-1973 — mostly guitar-accompanied and performed by active or former blues artists.
Sid Bucknor supervising a mix of master musicians from the London scene and JA visitors — Rico, Tan Tan, Lester Sterling, Winston Wright and co. Ace versions of Rebel Woman and the Lumumbo rhythm for starters.
A Bullwackies masterpiece — spooked, reeling roots, saturated in hurt, confusion and resistance, with a knockout Baba Leslie-led dub.
Super-tough, odd, scrubby sufferers with some terrific, knackered piano and quaintly acquiescent lyrics. Giddily cavernous dub. Killer Wackies.
Ace dubwise techno.