Back catalogue: All genres

Review: 'Funky Broadway' by The Villagers appeared on the well-received Movements Vol.12 compilation album and was a clear standout amongst standouts. As a response to that it now makes its long-awaited debut release on standalone vinyl. It's a soul-stirring gem that brings classic sounds and heart-melting grooves. On the B-side comes the red hot garage-rock gem 'You're My Baby (Don't You Forget It)' which is originally from 1966, and which coincided with Dyke & The Blazers' original recording of 'Funky Broadway' in the same year. Neat.

Review: Movements Vol.12 fills a bag of rare rhythm & blues, mod-jazz, and mid '70s funk. Launching on a note of obscure rhythm and blues from the 60s, most of the tracks heard thence were sifted from "hopelessly obscure" 7" singles; hopelessly obscure, that is, until now, when many a ravenous compilation curator seek to restore their honour. With most of the tracks doused in vocal reverb, and coming filled with oodles of commonsensical wisdom and everyday tootling advice, we segue from deepfunk to big band to mood jazz and then back to funk, the most impressive in the lattermost category having got to be the 4 Dimensions' 'Hipper Snapper' and Gus Brendel's 'Sax On The Rocks'; the instrumental side of the record is especially great.

Review: Tiny but big-hearted German label Tramp Rec. share Praise Poems, their latest journey deep into the heart of funk music. A curators' comp like few others, Tramp's tracking-down and selection efforts are little-matched here, and their assurances are comparably thorough. For example: "this album needs time and patience to be fully understood. Be prepared to listen to this album in tranquillity. If you do not do so you will most likely rate this release one out of five stars." The mystification of a records by the issuer prescribing how one might listen to it is an old and well-known trick, but we think it may genuinely apply in this case: Gemstones' 'Cold Soul', Cookie Thomas' 'Black Velvet Soul' and Lee Stone's 'What Is Life' are all examples of soft-spoken rarities. All the tracks here, in fact, were recorded courteously and dynamically, and not bombastically; such was characteristic of the best Latin and North American blues, jazz and funk of the 70s.

Review: Tramp Records celebrate a whopper milestone, with the label's 125th record taking shape as a reconnaissant celebration of 1970s soul jazz and funk, forming part of the Praise Poems series. Launched to fare an interminable journey through the many privately pressed, furtively released and/or criminally undersung jazz-funk-soul records of yore, and with an international focus, this is a rather special case of one such compilation series making it to its tenth edition, and still retaining the kind of quality control and assiduity most comp-curators may only dream of. From the opening, ultra-headsy 'Fields Of Laughter' by the chartless American band Color Me Blu, to instrumental AOR from pianist George Melvin's short-lived Quintet, you can expect to hear super-rarities here, with some originals only having heard but two acetates to their names at first press.