Jonas [2021] - All Systems Go [Jonas Music] (Full EP)

A few weeks ago I posted the single "All Systems Go" by Jonas (Rendbo) from Copenhagen who has been crowned as the 'Godfather of Scandinavian Soul'. On 9 Jul 2021 the full EP was released which contains five tracks that have been in the vault for some time which he has now been able to complete during lockdown.

The lead track, already released as a single, features Sharlene Hector (Basement Jaxx) and rapper Kuku Agami. On other tracks, as well as his partner Daniel Fridell, he has collaborated with London artists such as Omar ("Keep Me Coming Back Home" which has a bit of a reggae vibe), Lynden David Hall ("Whatever You Like" who died aged only 31 in 2006 so that's at least how long these songs have been in the can) and rising neo-soul star Ego Ella May ("Safe" who's album "Honey For Wounds" was posted only last week). The last track he wrote with Clare Dove and Honey LaRochelle.

My choice cut is "Whatever You Like". By the way he sings "master patience" ... not what you thought he said ... it's the accent!!!!

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Details

Rating:	7.8
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	EP
Media:	Digital
Label:	Jonas Music (Self Released)
Cat No:	None
Year:	09/07/2021
Value:	£4.95

George Riley [2021] - interest rates, a tape [Self Released] (Full Album)

George Riley is a relatively new artist from Shepherd's Bush, West London who released her first single "Herstory" in 2019 and launched her debut album "interest rates, a tape" on 24 Jun 2021. Two tracks from it "cleanse me" and "power" have already been released as singles in March and May respectively.

This is not one for the purists/traditionalists as she describes her music as a "futuristic take on soul infusing the sonics that soundtrack her immediate surroundings, including jazz, R&B, trip hop and electronica".

As there is a video for "say yes" published the same day as the album, I would imagine that it is the next single, which is probably my pick of the album along with the last track "no certainty". "power" starts off OK but then it turns into a break-beats track half-way through.

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Details

Rating:	7.6
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Year:	24/06/2021
Value:	£7.99

The Decisions [2021] - We're In Love / I Love You [Soul-Direction #SD-005]

The latest, and fifth, 45 release on Alan Kitchener's Soul-Direction label is set for release later this month. It's from a group known to Northern Soul followers for their "I Can't Forget About You" and for several sides to sweet soul lovers / lowriders, even though they only released five singles it total.

The Decisions were a group of school friends from S.H. Archer High School, Atlanta, GA who graduated in 1965. The group consisted of Hildred Thomason (deceased), Fred White, Henry Little, Howard Simpson and Harvey Poole, although Poole left later to join the U.S. Military. They formed their own label 'York' in the late 60s, on which they released two singles in 1969 before joining Sussex in the early 70s where they released three more singles, two in 1971 and another in 1972.

After leaving Sussex three of the members, which included Fred White, formed Unity who released just one single on Apex (Newark) in 1973. It was the only release for both group and label.

Their Northern Soul favourite "I Can't Forget About You", written by group member Fred White, was issued as the B side of both 1971 Sussex singles and also gained a UK release on the second issue which has kept the price down.

The two tracks being released by Soul-Direction are from an almost lost master tape of tracks recorded in 1968 and would have been a possible release for the bands own York label. The tapes were sent to an L.A. music executive in 1968 by the group but were never returned. Alan has somehow got his hands on them and made them available for the first time, released on limited edition vinyl 7" 45 only. Click on label images to pre-order.

Discography

1969 - Really Do Love You / Do I Love Her [York #158]

A: Crossover / Sweet Soul Harmony

B: Crossover

Both sides written by Fred White

1969 - Color Me Blue / Somebody [York #159]

A: Sweet Soul

B: Crossover

Both sides written by Fred White

1971 - It's Love That Really Counts / I Can't Forget About You [Sussex #214]

A: Sweet Soul

B: Northern Soul

A side was a Bacharach & David song, the B side written by Fred White with both sides arranged & produced by Dennis Coffey & Mike Theodore.

1971 - You Look Like An Angel / I Can't Forget About You [Sussex #218]

A: Sweet Soul

B: Northern Soul

Both sides written by Fred White and arranged & produced by Dennis Coffey & Mike Theodore.

1972 - Do You Love Me / Stop Playing Around [Sussex #238]

A: Mid-tempo

B: Crossover

Both sides written by Fred White and co-written and produced by Michael Stokes. There's an excellent Michael Stokes bio over at Soul Walking who was only 17 at the time of this release.

Unity

1973 - We Can Make It / Too Young [Apex #AP-483]

A: Sweet Soul Harmony

B: Crossover

Both sides written by Fred White

2021 - We're In Love / I Love You [Soul-Direction #SD-005]

A: Crossover

B: Sweet Soul Harmony

Both sides again written by group member Fred White.

Details

Rating:	8.3
Genre/Style:	Crossover / Sweet Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	7"
Label:	Soul-Direction
Cat No:	SD-005
Year:	07/2021
Key/BPM:	N/A
Value:	£15

Beau Williams [2021] - White Flag [Timeless]

I received the new single from soul/gospel veteran Beau Williams yesterday called "White Flag", and whilst it's a more funky tune than is usually posted, I felt that it deserves to be shared from an artist who has 'paid his dues'. 

I don't know what it is with the neo funk bands, but I can tell almost immediately that it's new and not as authentic as back in the day, perhaps it's the production. This new single is the business, the real deal, it's tight and funky and most of all authentic, from an artist who is now 71 but whose voice still sounds strong.

His name may not trip off the tongue but his career goes way back, as far as 1971 when he released a couple of singles as Bobo Mr. Soul on, what is becoming a bit of a legendary label, Houston's Ovide (which featured many tracks on the compilation I posted last week: "Get Your Point Over!").  

Curiously and coincidentally, his first single, "Answer To The Want Ads", was co-written by none other than Greg Perry (another artist featured last week whose first album "One For The Road" has just been reissued) along with Norman 'General' Johnson (Chairmen Of The Board) and Barney Perkins. I presume that it's an answer song to Honey Cone's "Want Ads" (who included Perry's wife Edna Wright (aka Sandy Wynns)) as the same writers wrote that song. The flip side is an early 70s heavy, psychedelic  funk tune "H.L.I.C." written by LeRoy Lewis a member of The T.S.U. Toronadoes, which has just appeared on a recent compilation "Get It!" by Tuff City who also released "Get Your Point Over!".

His next single from 1972 has been gaining attention in recent years, a song written by Phillip Mitchell, "Hitch Hike To Heartbreak Road" as it's a good crossover dancer. The flip is a wonderful deep soul cut written by Archie Bell "She's My Woman". It was recorded earlier on Ovide by Archie Bell & The Drells in 1967, but I actually prefer Bobo Mr. Soul's version.

He continued in the heavy/psychedelic funk groove on another release (which I'm guessing is the next release as no dates are available but may have been before Ovide) as James Williams & The Ghetto Sounds with "Wazuri" the only release on Ghetto, another Houston label, perhaps an off-shoot, one-off, from Ovide for this release? 

It wasn't until 1982 that he resurfaced as Beau Williams releasing four albums on Capitol before turning to gospel in 1989.  From that era, probably his best known song is "All Because Of You" from 1987. He had three entries in R&B chart, the previous single along with two ballads "You're The One" in 1984  and "There's Just Something About You" in 1986.

In 2014 Truth & Soul unearthed a couple of previously unreleased tracks and issued them on vinyl for the first time, "I'll Be Home Soon" / "Outside Love".

Since the late 80s Williams has been involved in gospel music and the new single due for release on 16 Jul 2021 comes as a bit of a surprise which I thought I'd share.

You can read more on his website.

Details

Rating:	7.8
Genre/Style:	Funk
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Timeless
Cat No:	None
Year:	16/07/2021
Key/BPM:	N/A
Value:	£1

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes [2021] - Pray Before You Start Your Day (Inspirational Mix 2) [Shamack Entertainment Group]

Well this was a surprise. You may be thinking, as I did, why is this being released now? So, I did some digging and contacted the company behind it which is run by (James) McKinley Horton. It transpires that he manages Harold Melvin's estate with Melvin's wife Olivia and they are making a documentary about Harold Melvin's life called "To Be True". This documentary is motivated by the death of Melvin's daughter Trudy last year who had worked for twenty three years keeping her father's legacy alive. The single is being released to promote the documentary which is nearing completion. You can view a trailer for it here.

"Pray Before You Start Your Day" was released on 6 Jul 2021. It was originally written in 1996 by Melvin and Horton and was due for release but Melvin had a massive stoke shortly afterwards and died in 1997, aged 57, and it was never released.  Three mixes have been produced by McKinley Horton, Bert Price, Cory 'Fortune West' Wilson and George Short. Mix 1 features Horton's son Izaiah James on a more contemporary version, whilst Mix 2 is the original vocals with a new production featuring Harold Melvin on the second verse and Dwight 'Blackie' Johnson with Anthony Quarterman. McKinley also sent me a third contemporary mix which isn't commercially available.

McKinley Horton played keyboards on a couple of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes albums (their first two of the 80s: "The Blue Album" and "All Things Happen In Time") under the moniker Mickie Horton and also co-wrote six of the eight tracks on their next album "Talk It Up (Tell Everybody)" in 1984. 

He became a member of Cashmere who had a few hits between 1983-85, four of them reaching the UK pop charts, the biggest being "Can I" which they performed on Top Of The Pops in 1985 as it reached #29 and spent 8 weeks on the chart. 

Cashmere evolved from Chicago's Heaven & Earth with members Dwight Duke and Keith Seward being joined by Horton and drummer Daryl Burgee. Heaven & Earth have links to The Soul Majestics as the lead singer Dean Williams joined them around 1978. The Soul Majestics released only two known singles but their first is a sweet soul/lowrider classic "I Done Told You Baby"

Horton also wrote Eugene Wilde's (aka Ronald Broomfield one of Miami's talented Broomfield family) 1984 hit "Gotta Get You Home Tonight" and worked on Vanessa William's 'Dreamin' in 1988. He has also worked with Jimmy 'Jam' Harris & Terry Lewis.

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Please note this is a draft video which is not complete

Details

Rating:	8.4
Genre/Style:	Modern Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Shamack Entertainment Group
Cat No:	None
Year:	06/07/2021
Key/BPM:	8B/157 : 9B/119
Value:	£1.79

Beautychild [2021] - Unapologetically Me [Self Released] (Full Album)

I can find no other releases from Beautychild, so I assume this to be a debut album (under this name at least) which was released a month ago on 15 Jun 2021. I believe her to be Myiesha Mason after tracking down her facebook page, which says she went to school in Iowa but now appears to live in California.

It's neo soul leaning towards R&B with the best track, for me, being "Nothing Like You".

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Details

Rating:	7.7
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Year:	15/06/2021
Value:	£7.99

Honey Blue Feat. TUMI THE BE [2021] - Get Down [Cream]

Honey Blue is a four-piece band from Melbourne fronted by Alexandra Kneale. They debuted last year with "Want You" which they released two versions of, the first on 5 Sep followed by another version featuring Freeds (on rap) on 28 Sep. "Get Down" is their second single, released 6 Jul 2021.

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Details

Rating:	8.2
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul / Blue-Eyed
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Cream
Cat No:	None
Year:	06/07/2021 : 05/09/2020
Key/BPM:	6A/85 : 11A/86
Value:	£1

VA [2021] - Too Slow To Disco - Yacht Disco Edits Vol. 4 [DJ Supermarkt]

The latest edition of "Too Slow To Disco - Yacht Disco Edits Vol. 4" has been released on 7 Jul 2021. I featured a few tracks from earlier this year from another edition (e.g. Ferdinand Debeaufort "In Your Smile" which is great mix of  Ollie Nightingale / Lynn White featured on Vol. 2). Like the others, it's only available via BandCamp.

The series is essentially remixes of classic, mainly 70s, tunes. Don't be put off by the word Disco as they are not, in the main, obvious cheesy disco songs.

A few highlights include a new version of Patti Austin's "Body Language" by Marco Magrini - "Sweet Body (M.M. Re Construction Mix)", DJ Laurel "4 More" (a mashup of Al Johnson & Jean Carn's modern soul classic "Back For More"), Ambrosia/Brothers By Choice "How Much I Feel" ("I Don’t Know (LNW Redux") and Brief Encounter "Human" ("Human").

It's quite good fun trying to figure out what's been sampled. A few other tracks (that I recognise) include new versions of Elkie Brooks "Shooting Star" ("Star Shooting"), a reggaefied Luther's "Never Too Much" ("A Thousand Kisses"), Stylistics "Stop Look Listen" ("Your Love All The Time"), George Benson "Never Give Up On A Good Thing" ("Working Every Night"), Willie 'Beaver' Hale "Groove On" ("On Groove"), and Ace "How Long" ("How Long Has This Been?").

Twenty five tracks for €15 plus if you purchase the full compilation you will receive an exclusive DJ Mix by Dj Supermarkt (aka Marcus Liesenfeld from Berlin) himself, featuring all 25 tracks in the mix sent to you by mail.

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Details

Rating:	8.4
Genre/Style:	Modern Soul / Yacht Soul / Remixes
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	DJ Supermarkt
Cat No:	None
Year:	07/07/2021
Value:	€15