‘Politics have failed.’
Stone-classic Bullwackies (as excursioned by Rhythm & Sound for Burial Mix), sensationally throwing in two unreleased dubs, newly extracted from the master reels. Both are equally unmissable but quite different, with contrasting effects: the second dub adds ninety seconds, including whip-dem spring reverb. Drawn from the Selective Showcase LP, the vocal mix is more open and dubwise than the Sing & Shout LP offering, with less keyboards.
Asked whether it should be mash or march, after some pondering Bullwackies replied: ‘That’s a good question.’

Stone cold murder. Archetypal, slow-mo, eastern-sounds post-ska from Jackie Mittoo, Dizzy Moore, Roland Alphonso and co, around 1965.

Dynamite, previously unissued rocksteady version of the monumental Skatalites scorcher from a few years earlier.

Rollicking, mid-sixties, post-Skatalites ska thriller, led by Bobby Ellis and Roland Alphonso, with slightly different soloing to the original release.
Backed with a charming, forsaken, rare Summertairs: ‘I love you, Errol… come back today… but not too late… Errol, my dear.’

Tough pan-Caribbean wig-out, complete with twanging guitar and characteristically hot organ; plus The Jamaicans’ lovely version of the Sam Cooke.

A deadly, zonked Soul Syndicate excursion on Westbound Train, with Keith Hudson as the Fat Controller. Introducing a young LT — his first recording, he says — stylistically indebted to Dennis Brown.

Beautiful, heart-wrenching, anti-war roots.
Sublime singing, led by Tony Tuff, over the kind of rhythm you could run for hours.

Fiery, head-banging deep funk by this Louisiana guitarist; originally out on Eddie ‘Goldband’ Shuler’s ANLA label, in 1967.

Holy grail Detroit funk recorded in 1969 for Dave Hamilton; backed with a tape-find Northern dancer.

Sanctified, southern soul — lost, crying, frank harmonising, and swaying horns and organ — recorded at FAME, Muscle Shoals, in 1964, by cousins Johnny Simon and Ervin Wallace from Atlanta. Lover’s Prayer is a scorcher.
The vinyl is a facsimile of the original LP (on Russell Sims’ Nashville label); the ‘Complete Sims Recordings’ CD from Kent adds ten more sides.

Contemporary psych legends Acid Mothers Temple and Reynolds collaborating in the studio in 2017. Improvisatory, shamanic, ecstatic, nuts.

Their last Prestige, in 1970, trying out a more extended, jamming, funky style of boogaloo on Cloud Nine and a couple of Sonny Phillips’ tunes, out of five. The Pazant Brothers are in full effect on horns; jazz heroes like Seldon Powell and Bernard Purdie sit in.

No-messing funk with whiffs of reefer, hooch and baize.
Eddie and Al Pazant came through with Lionel Hampton and Pucho. These are their locked-down, brassy, smoking, streetwise blends of R&B, soul, latin and jazz, from the late 1960s and early 70s.
Fab.