Soul II Soul
Volume IV The Classic Singles 88-93

THE REVIEW

"Keep on movin', don't stop"

The splendid voice of Victoria Wilson, so many memories...

They were the last years of high school and I was still searching for my musical identity. My friends already had clear ideas: there were the rock fundamentalists (divided into metal, classic, and dark sub-factions), the electro-pop followers (A-Ha, Depeche Mode, etc.), the "commercials," and the pro-songwriters. I was undecided, perhaps music itself didn't interest me much.

Those were also the times of the first Sunday outings to the disco. Obviously, we went there for only one reason, and that reason was not the music. Unfortunately, however, the approach with the opposite sex (perhaps due to our late-adolescent pimpled appearance?) was not very successful, and so it happened that we were also focused on what was coming out of the speakers. One Sunday in the late '80s, the DJ opened the evening with "Back To Life" followed by "Keep on movin'" and I was impressed. I liked that downtempo rhythm, a mix between soul and dance and a wonderful vocal part. Something congenial to my ears until then not much inclined to those rhythms. And so, through a friend, I managed to get a cassette on which these two singles were recorded (the sound quality was terrible, it was recorded from the radio). After literally wearing it out, in 1990 I got the vinyl that contained them, which was "Club classic volume one". So why take this fourth volume to review? Because, in hindsight, it can be fully considered the "Definite Collection" of Soul II Soul, since from 1994 onwards there are no productions worth mentioning. The glory of these tracks and other successes like "Get a life", "Move me no mountain", and "Missing you" have not been replicated. Despite the success and uniqueness of this groove being relatively simple: a beautiful voice (Caron Wheeler above all or Jazzie B himself) a drum machine or a drummer in the flesh and a rhythm 1/3 dance, 1/3 rap, and 1/3 soul.

A well-conceived alchemy initially experimented with at house parties and then became a cultural phenomenon and chart-topping hit (only in the UK, naturally). Unfortunately, however, the release of this fourth collection was the beginning of the group's downward trajectory. To explain the reasons, an introduction is necessary. When talking about Soul II Soul, only Jazzie B, the singer, comes to mind. But not everyone knows that the real brain of the "group" was Nellee Hooper, who later became a producer (only mentioning the most important) of the first albums of Massive Attack, of Post by Björk, of Bedtime Story by Madonna, and several songs by U2. The beginning of the creative crisis coincides with Nellee's departure to other shores. Even if it lasted a little, the epic of Soul II Soul left to the "posterity" some milestones of black dance-oriented music and constituted, in the same field, an important source of inspiration for subsequent productions. A classic.