VA - New Orleans Funk Vol. 3: The Original Sound Of Funk - Two-Way-Pock-A-Way, Gumbo Ya-Ya & The Mardi Gras Mambo

Yet another undeniable (and nicely varied) doozy from Soul Jazz, the 18 enclosed cuts ride that uniquely N.O. (second) line between dressed-up and low-down.

"This new instalment of New Orleans Funk features more classic New Orleans funk in all its forms. The syncopated percussion beat of the second line jazz parade bands, the secret language and dances of the Mardi Gras Indians, the mambo and Latin rhythms of Professor Longhair and the city’s many piano players help make New Orleans a unique musical melting pot.

In the 1960s and into the early 1970s add to this the creative powerhouses of Allen Toussaint, The Meters, Eddie Bo and others alongside the famous musical families of the city--the Nevilles, the Marsalises, the Lasties – and we find ourselves at the birthplace of the original sound of funk - New Orleans Funk.

A seemingly endless line of amazing singers - Lee Dorsey, Betty Harris, Willie West, Eldridge Holmes – released a constant stream of stunning 45s, backed by the super-funk Meters and produced by Allen Toussaint. The multi-talented Eddie Bo, similarly wrote and produced for an elite set of artists including The Explosions, Chuck Carbo and others.

But limited local record distribution meant that most of these artists remained unknown outside of the city borders and as a consequence many of these records are serious collectors items today.

WILLIAM ONYEABOR - Who Is William Onyeabor?

While Luaka Bop recently stated that this compilation was five years in the making, it's been more like an eight-and-a-half-year stretch for anyone whose interest was initially piqued by the inclusion of "Better Change Your Mind" on the label's 2005 compilation of West African funk rarities, World Psychedelic Classics, Vol. 3: Love's A Real Thing. While the label's clearly been biding their time, since Who Is William Onyeabor? is still only Vol. 5 (with the Tim Maia anthology Nobody Can Live Forever the only other addition to the slim but immaculately-selected series in the interim), getting to finally hear such strange, synth-lead-laden Afro-disco dancefloor-filling workout warnings as "Atomic Bomb" and "Why Go To War" properly mastered at last has been well worth the wait. 

If Fela Kuti was a child of James Brown, fellow Nigerian William Onyeabor is something like the next-generation musical offspring of Parliament-Funkadelic. His songs are extended call-and-response disco-funk jams driven by the space-age sound of synthesizers and drum machines—very new tools when Onyeabor was recording in the late '70s and '80s, especially in Africa. After years of existing mainly as secret grails passed between electronic music DJs and other crate diggers, Onyeabor's handful of studio LPs have been licensed and boiled down to a killer compilation.

So, who is William Onyeabor? Part of the album's conceit is that even the compilers don't fully know. The liner notes, by veteran British journalist Vivien Goldman, note that Onyeabor is a crowned chief in his hometown village of Enugu, Eastern Nigeria, where he lives in 'a hidden palace in the woods' and is a booster of the local Christian music scene. But he essentially left his own music career in the '80s, in the wake of the recordings collected here, presumably when he became a born-again Christian—indeed, you can hear a moral, preacherly spirit on a lot of the tracks here." - NPR

THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA - I'll Find A Way / VOLCANO CHOIR - Repave

Those anxiously awaiting the next Bon Iver album can tide themselves over with these excellent new Justin Vernon projects. We're especially enjoying his production work on the Blind Boys of Alabama record with songs boasting guest vocal turns from Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Sam Amidon, Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) and Justin himself on the ethereal cover of Dylan's "Every Grain Of Sand".

"Insouciance isn’t a gospel word, yet that’s what makes the Justin Vernon-produced I’ll Find A Way so engaging. Here, the iconic Blind Boys Of Alabama sound more joyful, jubilant and ready than ever, their faith a source of palpable euphoria, whether laced with tuba, tambourine or resonator guitar.

The Bon Iver leader makes Way a progressive, rootsy affair. As a drum echoes hollow and the piano sustains and spreads like a sunset, Vernon’s reverence permeates Bob Dylan's 'Every Grain of Sand.' What reads as a match made as generational marketing becomes an intersection of faith from different realms. Elegant and elevated, believing’s universality becomes a bond." - Paste

"Over a year after its well-received release in September 2009, a decision was made to adapt Unmap to live performance and to tour Japan, after which it was clear that Volcano Choir existed as a fully-formed entity. There would be another record, but as with Unmap, there was no timeline. There were writing sessions that continued for years, sometimes within a couple of months of one another, sometimes within half of a year between November 2010 and March 2013.

Repave brings Volcano Choir into sharp focus. The glitch-laden, cautious presentation of the band's previous work serves as points of both reference and departure across these eight songs, the product of growing conviction and trust, of a fully-operational band, gifted in shading and nuance, and rumbling with power" - Jagjaguwar

GIORGIO MORODER - Schlagermoroder Volume 1: 1966-1975

Giorgio Moroder has really jumped into public consciousness this year with his participation in Daft Punk's "Giorgio by Moroder," coinciding with a string of reissues. The most surprising one (for some members of our staff) has been Schlagermoroder Volume 1: 1966-1975, as it chronicles Moroder's early career as a bubblegum glam pop performer-songwriter. Moroder's early material has much in common with the Kasenatz-Katz stable of bubblegum bands, and he even netted a UK #1 hit when British glam group Chicory Tip recorded a version of his "Son of My Father" (his original version of the hit is featured in two parts on this compilation).

"Italian disco producer and recent Daft Punk collaborator Giorgio Moroder must have multiple vaults of material just screeching to be heard. Because not only is he uploading hours of rarities on SoundCloud, but he's now releasing a 51-track (!) compilation, cleverly titled  Schlagermoroder Volume 1: 1966-1975.

As the title insists, the release collects Moroder's earlier non-disco and film work, specifically tracks like 'How Much Longer Will I Have to Wait,' 'Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo,' and 'Son of My Father.' If these go over your head, it's probably because most of it was released under the pseudonyms Giorgio, George, and Snoopy—and were released in various languages over several territories." - Consequence of Sound

VA - Eccentric Soul: The Forte Label

Unrelentingly uptempo, this newest volume in Numero's neverending Eccentric Soul stash focuses on Kansas City's soul scene, offering up enough occasional oddness to truly fit the series name (as on Lee Harris' "Lookin' Good," replete with randomly-dropped censor-style beeps not actually censoring anything, or The Rayons' "Baby Be Good," a girl-group number interrupted by the piped-in, poorly recorded spoken sweet-nothings of a male suitor) and some particularly funky half-chorded basslines, as on Tear Drop's "I'm Gonna Get You" and Gene Williams' "Whatever You Do (Do It Good)."

"In 1969, after three years as Soul Sister #1 to James Brown's touring entourage, Marva Whitney came home to Kansas City, putting Ellis Taylor's Forte label back at full fighting strength. She'd calmed aching crowds the day after MLK's death, and she'd lived the life, despite its rigors—to pour out her pain and exuberance on Forte sides including 'I’ve Lived The Life' and 'Daddy Don’t Know About Sugar Bear,' which made national rounds in 1972. By then, Forte had already done more than deliver Marvelous Marva to market.

The Forte Label charts Kansas City yeoman's work, The Carpets and The Derbys, dapper clothiers mysteriously murdered, and marriages made and broken. There's a trove of promo headshots and label scans of every hue detailing all iterations of Forte's logo in print. This is an Eccentric Soul sojourn past vivid floor shakers and lost dance craze records alike—though what moves 'The Hen' required remains anyone’s guess." - Numero Group

VA - Theo Parrish's Black Jazz Signature: Black Jazz Records 1971-1975

Check out Sound Signature label head, unofficial ambassador of Detroit's long-fertile electronic music culture, and endearingly outspoken re-editor, DJ and producer Theo Parrish's mix commission for Snow Dog's ongoing CD reissues of the entire Black Jazz catalog, now featured in our listening post (and specially priced for a limited time)!

"Parrish, as would be expected, takes a low-key, backseat approach to mixing the tracks he loves; no Flying Lotus pastiches or potentially disrespectful attempts at taming grooves into linear house form. Instead, simple, quick transitions and deft choices keep the recordings entirely at the fore. The selections are astounding and the energy insistent from beginning to end. The majority of the pieces chosen by Parrish are hugely amorphous, the by-then elastic forms of the most adventurous modern jazz electrified into further flexibility. Black Jazz Signature captures a sheer flood of music, parts crashing and reforming around each other as they break away, jut out, drop back, or lace themselves around others." - FACT

"To get Parrish to do the mix, Snow Dog Records—a Japanese label that does licensed reissues and mixes of the BJR catalogue—sent a package of hard-to-find LPs to a PO box in Detroit. Some time later, Parrish sent back a few different versions of his mix, all of which sounded quite different—some more challenging, others more serene. The one that made the cut is somewhere in the middle: the whole thing is bright and upbeat, but a frantic, dissonant energy occasionally creeps in." - Resident Advisor

VA - The South Side Of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976

This excellent soul compilation could very well have been titled The Story of Big John Hamilton, as his tunes make up exactly half of the forty tracks here, including his deep soul classics "I Have No One" and "How Much Can A Man Take." We were playing this in the shop the other night, and Big John was mistaken for Otis Redding: he's that good! In addition to Big John, there are twenty more tracks of top-notch southern soul, including the classic "A Shell Of A Woman" by Doris Allen.

"Having explored the West Coast with the three-volume Music City Sessions, Omnivore Recordings has set its sights on Southern R&B with The South Side Of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976. This 2CD 40-track collection gathers all of the As and Bs of Minaret's soulful sides for the very first time. Many of these tracks have been out of print for decades, commanding top dollar on the collector’s market.

For decades, Memphis and Muscle Shoals have been praised to the skies as premier Southern soul recording capitals, and rightly so. But any comprehensive list of important R&B studio destinations should also include Valparaiso, located on Florida's Panhandle, not far from the Alabama state line. That's where Finley Duncan established Playground Recording Studio in 1969, producing a series of stunning singles for his Minaret Records label that inexplicably avoided the charts but stand treetop-tall with a legion of R&B aficionados.” - Omnivore Recordings

JAMES GOVAN - Wanted: The Fame Recordings

The FAME vaults keep producing riches, this time in the form of a compilation from the previously little-known James Govan. The title track "Wanted" appeared on the excellent 3-disc boxset FAME Studios Story 1961-1967, but it's quite a revelation to hear his soulful versions of The Beatles' "Something" and The Band's "I Shall Be Released". Last Saturday night, we put this on in the shop and by the end, four copies had flown out the door (our very own High Fidelity moment).

"The Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised singer has long been something of a mystery. Sometimes known as Little Otis due to his vocal similarity to the great Mr Redding, he has for over 20 years played at the Rumboogie Café in Memphis, but before that his career was low key and extremely sporadic...His 1969 sessions for the company produced 11 songs, among them the George Jackson compositions ‘I Bit Off More Than I Can Chew’ and ‘Your Love Lifted Me’ and wonderful versions of Fame standards ‘You Left The Water Running’ and ‘Take Me Just As I Am’. This is fine southern soul from the label’s greatest period. If James’ career had taken off, the tracks would have made a classic album. Instead they got left in the can." - Ace Records

sissippi-born, Memphis-raised singer has long been something of a mystery. Sometimes known as Little Otis due to his vocal similarity to the great Mr Redding, he has for over 20 years played at the Rumboogie Café in Memphis, but before that his career was low key and extremely sporadic. - See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/wanted-the-fame-recordings#sthash.OJUUfDi2.dpuf

The Mississippi-born, Memphis-raised singer has long been something of a mystery. Sometimes known as Little Otis due to his vocal similarity to the great Mr Redding, he has for over 20 years played at the Rumboogie Café in Memphis, but before that his career was low key and extremely sporadic. - See more at: http://acerecords.co.uk/wanted-the-fame-recordings#sthash.OJUUfDi2.dpuf

THUNDERCAT - Apocalypse

Two years ago, Thundercat's debut album The Golden Age Of Apocalypse slowly but surely won over enough of us here to reach #11 on our Staff Best Of 2011 chart, and the pared-down title variation for this follow-up seems fully fitting, as Stephen Bruner's funky fusoid tendencies and falsetto vocal melodies continue to set him apart from any of his 'beat scene' peers, but with a slightly darker, barer tinge to it all this time around, due in part to the passing of keyboardist collaborator and friend Austin Peralta, to whom last track "A Message For Austin" is dedicated.

"The chord this record strikes hardest is an emotional and highly personal one; it’s a record that conveys with exceptional delicacy the transition from relative naivete to a more reflective and worldly view. For most of us, this happens in our twenties: much has been written on the subject of the 'lost years' when we establish, or fail to establish, relative stability, and peace with ourselves. For Bruner, this transition seems to have been provoked by a tragic event, but for most of us, it’ll be something experienced painfully and gradually for the better part of a decade.

Apocalypse is very literally a rewarding and difficult second album, with its roots in tragedy and loss and its furthermost fronds in hope and moving forward, an album that challenges listeners with an incredible level of subtlety, hidden depths and wash of openly expressed emotion. It might even just be the album that best sums up what the Low End Theory beat scene in LA has always been about: the perfect blend of virtuous technicality and cosmic self discovery with a message delivered wrapped in genuine human warmth." - Drowned In Sound

JERRY MOORE - Life Is A Constant Journey Home

A near-dead ringer for the late Terry Callier in his early New Folk Sound days, Life Is A Constant Journey Home is another predominantly guitar-and-vocal/song-based surprise from the ESP-Disk archives to perhaps enjoy alongside the likewise-underheard Michael Gregory Jackson album Clarity.

"This 1967 reissue is definitely of its time. Recorded shortly before his ordination as a preacher, Jerry Moore's Life Is A Constant Journey Home is a meditative plea for peace and faith, delivered in a smooth plaintive voice and utilizing many of the familiar folk, country, soul and light blues styles of the era. Moore’s message is subtly Christian, but its overtly compassionate and fiery defense of love is certainly all-inclusive. With its light, soulful blues and gently chiding lyrics, the title song opens things up with a mellow but edgy tone. This is a call to wake up, a search for a fast track to insight and redemption." - Music Emissions

VA - Enjoy The Experience: Homemade Records 1958-1992

Running the gamut from oddball entertainers attempting to capture/recreate their live act for posterity to home-recording outsiders hoping to create an LP-sized business card of sorts, this 2CD set documents the US private-press phenomenon in all its strange, colourful, varied and unvarnished wonder!

"[W]hile now one can upload content to platforms where it can be found with little effort by millions for free, from the late 1950s to the early '90s, aspiring stars paid out of their own pockets to press their music on vinyl. And then, without distribution, radio play, buzz or press coverage, their music languished in basements or crawlspaces, accruing dust and mold. It is the spirit of the latter that inspired the art book Enjoy the Experience: Homemade Records 1958-1992, released this month by Sinecure Books in conjunction with New York's Boo-Hooray art gallery, with a companion 2-CD set of some of the choicest bits." - NPR

"Take note: this is not a novelty freak show. Contained in this anthology are examples of some of the most highly regarded rock, soul, jazz, funk and singer/songwriter albums from the '60s through to the early '80s. From the awkward-yet-talented to the genius-yet-bizarre, one thing unites all musicians presented here: they sincerely hoped to become stars, they committed themselves to record, and they left themselves vulnerable to an industry not understanding of nuance, not appreciative of character." - Now-Again

PRINCE NIFTY - Pity Slash Love

A key yet underheralded contributor to many great things about Toronto's local independent music scene(s), from Double Double Land, 6 Nassau, and sound design for the plays of Alex Wolfson to Blocks Recording Club, sporadic live techno supergroup of sorts New Feelings, and Les Mouches/the Owen Pallett band, Matt "Prince Nifty" Smith finally officially follows up 2007's A Sparrow! A Sparrow! with an inimitable blend of guitar pop, R&B-savvy vocal stacking and manic Shangaan/Footwork-like electronic dance touches.

"While we're on the subject of weird melodies, I'd like to introduce you to Prince Nifty. Experimental in nature, the vocals are free-flowing like Gregorian chant. Avant-garde artist Thomas 'THOMAS' Gill is one of the contributors to his latest, Pity Slash Love, most audible in the keyboards of the album's second track."- Ride the Tempo

VA - New Breed Blues With Black Popcorn

If you loved the Vampisoul label's R&B Hipshakers series, you'll also get a real charge off this spankin' new Kent comp filled with rough-edged late-'50s/mid-'60s r'n'b. Funkified dancefloor action guaranteed!

"Make way for a brand new selection of collectables, curios and rug-cutters for R&B fans who feel the beat and need new sounds to scratch their itch...Inevitably it’s the debutantes that will steal the show and attract the more traditional R&B fan. There is a pounding blues by Freddie North from Bob Holmes' tapes, when he was working with Freddie along with Slim Harpo in Nashville in the late '60s. From Los Angeles there is Adolph Jacobs' unreleased Class recording 'Cannibal Stew' that sounds like the Coasters and might even have them singing behind him (he was their guitarist at the time). Then we have a taster for the forthcoming Ace CD of Richard Stamz's Chicago blues productions, with a fine mover from Tony Gideon called 'So Strange.'" - Ace Records

IRMA THOMAS - In Between Tears

The out-there graphics on the cover are a little misleading—this is not Irma Thomas' stab at psychedelic soul, rather it's another stunning set of classic deep soul from one of the greatest of all soul vocalists. Still, the cover concept of 'tears' does make sense, given that most of these tracks are about heartbreak. No less an authority than Dave Godin selected "These Four Walls" from this set for his Deep Soul Treasures Volume 2. The undisputed highlight, though, is the extended "Coming From Behind" monologue that leads into a re-recording of "Wish Someone Would Care," capturing all the desperation of what it feels like "sitting home alone" wanting someone, anyone, to love you.

"In the wake of 1969's devastating Hurricane Camille, New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas abandoned the Gulf Coast in favor of the West Coast, settling in Los Angeles and largely forsaking her singing career in favor of the relative stability of retail work. Thomas finally resurfaced in 1973 with a series of little-noticed singles on the Fungus label that teamed her with producer Jerry 'Swamp Dogg' Williams and guitarist Duane Allman—the resulting LP In Between Tears remains a lost classic that captures deep soul at its most poignant and resonant, couching Thomas' deeply affecting vocals in earthy arrangements that emphasize the singer's gospel roots." - Allmusic

THE DELFONICS - Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics / GHOSTFACE KILLAH - Adrian Younge Presents Twelve Reasons To Die

Wax Poetics associate, imaginary-soundtrack composer and crate-digging producer extraordinaire Adrian Younge stamps his neo-vintage sound onto two new collaborations, using live instrumentation to evoke the patina of sample-based beats.

"Younge's approach towards working with an older artist is less like [Rick] Rubin's and more like Quentin Tarantino's: instead of aiming for gravitas and youth culture appeal, he's placed [William] Hart in his own stylized and slightly warped vision of the past that's both a tribute to the Delfonics' heyday, a radical deconstruction of it, and something altogether original." - Pitchfork

"Though Wu-Tang figurehead RZA executive-produced Twelve Reasons and narrates several of its songs, he handed the production reins to Adrian Younge, a composer who shares his cinematic sensibilities but executes them on a greater scale than RZA ever could. The result is a grandiose extrapolation of Wu-Tang’s signature sound, with a live drummer filling in for static loops and full string and horn sections supplanting RZA’s usual dusty samples." - A.V. Club

VA - Hall Of Fame Volume 2: More Rare & Unissued Gems From The FAME Vaults

With all three screenings now accessible only if you wait in the rush line, one of the hottest tickets at this year's Hot Docs has to be Muscle Shoals, the story of Rick Hall and FAME Studios. Well, if you can't see the story of the music, why not listen to the music itself?

The recently released Volume 2 in the excavation of the archives of FAME Studios contains more examples of the classic Muscle Shoals sound. This time around, they've dug so deep that the first song is billed to an "Unknown Female" and the fifth song to an "Unknown Male"! Not to be missed is an alternate take of Clarence Carter's interpretation of "At The Dark End Of The Street." We also stock Volume 1, as well as 2008's Reissue Of The Year according to both MOJO and Record Collector, the 3CD boxset The Fame Studios Story 1961-1973. A bounty of great soul music awaits!

VA South Texas Rhythm 'n' Soul Revue

Ace/Kent soul compilations never fail to deliver the goods, but this new release showcasing Huey Meaux's productions is one party-platter extraordinaire—all killer, no filler!

"Huey Meaux recorded more soul music in the '60s and '70s than any other producer in Texas, leasing some of it to nationally distributed labels such as Jamie and Scepter and issuing even more of it on the dozens of labels he ran in conjunction with various business partners. He wasn’t the only producer in South Texas, but the number of singles that bear the legend 'Produced by Huey P. Meaux' could fool anyone into thinking he was.

Many of soul’s greatest names got their break with the Crazy Cajun. Some worked with him for only a short time; others such as Barbara Lynn stayed with him for virtually all of their active careers. If Don Robey’s Duke and Peacock labels shaped the template for '50s R&B in Houston, then the hundreds of 45s that Huey put out between 1960 and 1980 provided the same service for those decades." - Ace Records

MAYLEE TODD - Escapology / THE BICYCLES - Stop Thinking So Much

Two terrific local acts are back with anticipated new releases this week, as Maylee Todd follows up her 2010 debut Choose Your Own Adventure, while The Bicycles reunite for their first album in five years!

"An eclectic performer and songwriter, Todd is drawn to a variety of styles and influences, including jazz instrumentation, soul vocals, and even brassy, energetic bossa nova. And yet it’s her disco influence that stands out on Escapology, though the record never succumbs to mimicry. The song structures are employed cleverly enough that the sound never feels retro. Todd’s voice is a highlight. She’s capable of producing a smooth, sleek, almost buttery tone for the more lighthearted numbers, or committing to a more gravelling, insistent croon at moments of longing or rebuke." - Torontoist

"After releasing the best bubblegum-inspired indie pop album ever, 2006's The Good the Bad and the Cuddly, and an almost as impressive but sadder follow-up, 2008's Oh No, It's Love, the Bicycles went on a hiatus that seemed permanent. the Bicycles made lovers of pure pop music happy with the news in 2012 that they were back together with their original lineup and making a new record. Stop Thinking So Much is a triumphant return that delves lightly into the pop the Toronto group mastered on The Good, but also shows an increase in the maturity and musical expansion that began on Oh No. Once again the bandmembers split songwriting and vocal duties, all proving that they could be fronting their own bands." - Allmusic

SWAMP DOGG - Total Destruction To Your Mind / Rat On!

Previously available on a cheaply packaged two-fer, it's great to see Swamp Dogg's first two albums getting the reissue treatment they deserve courtesy of Alive Records. This is top-notch funky soul that pulls no punches in lyrical content. Worth the purchase for one of the most unique record covers you'll ever see...Rat On!

"Industry veteran Jerry Williams, Jr. unleashed his alter ego on his 1970 masterpiece Total Destruction To Your Mind, spelling out his unconventional views in groove-heavy soul music. He makes good on the title’s brag with catchy, original songs that touch on environmental decay, social isolation, dystopian visions, racism and questions of paternity. Williams' lyrics are often Zappa-like in their surface absurdity, but there’s a gripping observation or lament at each song's heart. Recorded at Capricorn Studios in Macon, GA, his band is soaked in the horns, low bass and guitar riffs of Southern soul, and touched by the propulsion of West Coast funk. It’s hard to imagine how this record (as well as follow-up Rat On!, an album better known for its cover than its content) has remained so obscure and hard to find.

Listened to in passing, Rat On! offers top-flight '70s southern soul, with deep bass and punchy horns. But listened to more carefully, the album reveals a daring songwriter who wasn’t afraid to tell it as he saw it, challenging society's icons of freedom with 'God Bless America For What?' and landing himself on Nixon’s enemies list. The album features soulful reworkings of the Bee Gees' 'Got to Get a Message to You' and Mickey Newbury's 'She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye,' and though the original tunes aren't nearly as absurd as those on Total Destruction To Your Mind, their messages are just as powerful, and their grooves are just as deep." - No Depression

VA - Pied Piper Presents A New Concept In Detroit Soul

Any fans of the Motown era and 'four-on-top'/uptempo '60s soul are urged to lend their ears to this compilation of newly-unearthed material from the archives of Motor City producers Shelley Haims, Jack Ashford and Mike Terry, full of fantastic arrangements, moving vocal performances, and tastefully-placed tambourines galore! 

"This CD heralds the biggest unearthing of Detroit and Northern Soul masters in decades. It is as important and thrilling as the Scepter, Wand and Musicor cache, the Dave Hamilton tapes, or the unissued RCA treasure of the '80s and '90s.

On this volume, there are previously unheard gems from the Cavaliers, September Jones, Lorraine Chandler, Nancy Wilcox and Willie Kendrick (not forgetting two great instrumentals from the Pied Piper musicians). There are also the original Giant label releases issued in 1966 on Tony Hester, The Sandpipers and Mike & Ray, and the first Pied Piper productions for indie labels.

Working with the master tapes was a pleasure, and to hear these wonderfully produced Detroit masterpieces as they were laid down has been a revelation." - Ady Croasdell, Ace Records