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Rating: Northern Soul! What is it about? Well... history lesson:
In the late Sixties - early Seventies, the sound of James Brown, Sly Stone, etc. was beginning to gain a foothold in London; at the same time, however, football fans traveling from the north (Liverpool, Manchester, ...) were looking for r&b, soul, preferably rhythmical in the record shops and from this emerged a whole unearthing of lesser-known American productions: behind the successes of Motown and Stax, there was indeed an underground scene that still produced great music, singers, and bands destined to be remembered perhaps for a single track, but who cared...
That same music was then played in clubs dedicated exclusively to it (the most famous being the Wigan Casino), where, on wooden floors, allnighters (mods or whatever) danced until the morning, fueled by amphetamines, but always equipped with their leather bags stocked with talcum and towels and adorned with patches of the venues they had been to (there's a beautiful photo on the back cover of this compilation).
The music? Soul, obviously! A close relative of the Philly Sound, but without the trademarks of the aforementioned labels: so, yes, often horns ("Since I Found My Baby"), the usual lyrics, sometimes ballads, but also tracks related to beat ("Blowing Up My Mind") or even, at times, to the emerging disco ("Cuz It's You Girl"); above all, forgive the pleonasm, so much SOUL.
If, like me, you step out onto the balcony and see a cloudy sky and think that spring is slow to arrive, give this stuff a chance... it's likely to warm you properly; you might feel like going out in the cold in the evening and hugging everyone; do it! You won't even feel the potential stab in the buttocks...
better than Prozac!
Tracklist
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