Elegant Soul The Three Sounds

United State Of Mind is a fantastic new album which brings together three very different UK music legends: Robin Trower, Maxi Priest and Livingstone Brown. Three artists with distinctive, trademark sounds and styles that dovetail and fuse to-gether, creating an excellent whole that's full of atmosphere, allure and a whole lotta soul. USM combines Marvin, R & B, Jimi tones and subtly funky blues to excellent effect' CLASSIC ROCK 'Soul drenched excellence' GET READY TO ROCK 'Elegant and soulful, yet gritty and danceable when called for, United State Of Mind is a collaboration built on mutual love and respect ' the heartfelt lyrics, the stunning call and response between Maxi's vocals and Robin's guitar, not to mention the additional flourishes brought to the table by Livingston Brown all serve to make this an absolute joy. Put simply, United State Of Mind is an inspirational offering.

“Fear is a theme that comes up pretty quickly if you try to understand the strange mood of our society,” says GET WELL SOON’s Konstantin Gropper about his stylistic volte-face from LOVE to THE HORROR. “It seems to be a big common denominator.” Inevitable then, but also entirely in keeping with an artist who has already made an album about the apocalypse – 2012’s grandiose The Scarlet Beast O’Seven Heads – and writes songs titled ‘I Sold My Hands For Food So Please Feed Me’ and ‘We Are Safe Inside While They Burn Down Our House’.

Like Stevie Wonder and Allen Toussaint before him–and Prince and D'Angelo afterward–Shuggie Otis was a musical visionary whose early 1970s recordings showed he could do it all, writing, arranging, performing, and producing some of the decade's most satisfying, innovative, and, unfortunately, overlooked music. This reissue of his 1974 Inspiration Information album–a soulful song cycle that took three years to create and was worth every minute–ranges from early drum machine-driven experiments like "Xl-30" and "Aht Uh Mi Hed" (note the Sly Stone spelling influence) to Otis's most stunning pop confection ever, "Strawberry Letter 23." (The latter song, which ended up being a big hit for the Brothers Johnson, is one of four bonus tracks taken from Otis's 1971 Freedom Flight album). Otis, who once turned down an offer to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, continues to perform around the Bay Area on his own and with his father, bandleader Johnny Otis. Hopefully, the long-awaited resurrection of this material will help bring him the attention he deserves.