Three excellent, diverse vocal excursions on a heavy, mid-eighties, Channel One-style rhythm by The Gladiators Band. The dub follows Frankie.

A double-header, with Prince Allah reviving the Melodians on the flip. Both extended. Mixed by Prince Jammy.

Two pieces of sweet lovers rock, with backing by The Wailers.

Family Man and Jimmy Riley had worked together in the late sixties — a Hippy Boy and a Unique — way before this terrific collaboration in tough, anguished sufferers, woozy with the natural mystic, around the same time as Cobra Style. Signature Wailers music-making seals the deal, with classy, burning horns.

Uku Kuut and his mum, on boogie patrol.

Superb, previously unreleased ska group-vocal, with Baba Brooks and co in fine form.

This is terrific. Rawly soulful trio jazz.
‘There’s no denying the expressiveness of Jones’ music. His sustained, lancing high notes, coarse overblowing and strategically managed vibrato can signify open pain and more complex syntheses of emotion. On No More My Lord, the sole cover in an otherwise original sequence of compositions, bassist Chris Lightcap’s bowed bass and Gerald Cleaver’s scrabbling percussion amplify the dolour and desperation in his playing…’ (The Wire).

Yellow vinyl.

Tasha and Channel One productions, newly corralled, with three stone exclusives. The highlights are an FJ duet with Michael Palmer retrieved from dubplate duties, and from the Riders a next version of Youthman Invasion and a trigger-happy Illegal Gun. Wonderful photos by Beth Lesser and Syphilia Morgenstierne.

Open-hearted, fresh, lovely, bumptious recordings of women’s singing, from Rang’ala village in southwest Kenya. ‘Dodo’ is a type of traditional Luo music mostly used for entertainment at weddings, drinking parties and wrestling festivals. Songs in praise of the happy couple, the hardest drinkers and the best wrestlers.
Try the magical fourth song, Arum — about barking like a hornbill.

Refreshing, rootedly odd, mostly unaccompanied four-part-harmony singing recorded in Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow, by members of Trembling Bells and Muldoon’s Picnic. Elements of Sacred Harp, Gregorian chant, medieval madrigal and English folk, with poetic influences including Maya Deren, Saint John The Divine and Dennis Potter — a unique blend of the visionary and the earthly, the intimate and glorious.
Silk-screened sleeve.

Utterly magnificent, sublimely soulful survey of the Gospel Roots label, subsidiary of the mighty TK Records at the height of the Miami Sound.
A&R was co-ordinated by Gospel legends Ira Tucker — from the Dixie Hummingbirds — and Ralph Bass, veteran producer with Savoy, King and Chess. The label was run by Timmy Thomas, who had recently smashed with Why Can’t We Live Together, for another TK spin-off, Glades. Operations were overseen by Henry Stone himself, unlikely King of Disco, who had recorded a young Ray Charles, and pushed forward James Brown. They drew in artists from all over the US, from St. Louis, Columbus, Memphis, Brooklyn, Cabrini Green in Chicago: unknowns like Camille Doughty, reluctant to jeopardise her job at GM (‘Generous Motors’) in Detroit, and huge-sellers like the revered Brooklyn All Stars, who started out on Peacock in 1958.
Choral belters, deep ballads, harmony quartets, epic city-blues, gritty funk, powerhouse female soul… Killer-diller Philly like a scorching version of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes’ Wake Up Everybody; and Jean Austin’s raw Spirit Free, co-written by Ronnie Dyson, produced by Jesse James at Future Gold. Chicago Sound like The Fantastic Family Aires — named after the family’s furniture store on North Cicero, but reminiscent of the Staple Singers at their best — through to the full-blown glory of The Fountain Of Life Joy Choir, led by Marvin Yancy from The Independents, and featuring Natalie Cole… Singers like Versie Mae Gibson, from the Jordans, by rights up there with Irma, Etta and Ree… Bangers 100%-guaranteed to find their way into Theo Parrish sets; and mortal delirium for the prissiest of soul and gospel purists.
Beautifully presented… the LPs with a 12”-square, full-colour, sixteen-page album of photos and original artwork, the CD with a forty-page booklet — and truly outstanding notes, including insightful new interviews across the board; mastered at Abbey Road.
Dread and civitas, grit and transcendence.