Luxury Soul

Last summer we enjoyed the first fruits of a UK soul "supergoup" – The British Collective; a team that consisted of star vocalists Don E, Junior Giscombe, Leee John, Noel McKoy and Omar. Now as we enter a new year, another UK "supergroup" arrives to treat us to some fine music. The Brit Funk Association is made up of former members of Beggar and Co, Hi Tension, Central Line and Light of the World and though the various members have known each other for a long, long time it was in the autumn of 2016 that they decided to get together…

Rhino's expansive six-CD box set of 1970s soul called Can You Dig It?, this wonderfully sequenced collection stands as an impressive survey of the genre in its own right, running the gamut from Al Green and Marvin Gaye to the Chi-Lites, Sly Stone, the Staple Singers, and Earth, Wind & Fire and beyond with nary a slack track in sight. It may technically be a sampler, but in being so it doesn't have the luxury of pausing for breath or historical reflection, which means this compilation, sampler or not, delivers bang for the buck from end to end.

In 1969 Eloise began her career with Columbia Records, but within two years she had joined Holland-Dozier-Holland and was recording their songs and productions for Music Merchant. Her single Love Factory is a soul classic from that period. Linda continued her affiliation on the first of two albums presented here Eloise Laws , Thom Bell more involved as an arranger to bring the Bell-Creed team closer to their more familiar Philly sound. Im Just Warming Up has already been celebrated on an Expansion collection Luxury Soul , while there has been recent renewed interest in another of the albums leading tunes If I Dont Watch Out. All but one track on Eloise Laws has a Philly rhythm, Ronnie Laws completing the album with his production of Almost All The Way To Love. He was one step ahead of the new album All In Time, taking over complete production duties alongside jazz drummer William Jeffrey. Love Aint Easy is just fantastic.