Epic Vinilo y CD

Review: ** REPRESS ALERT ** A couple of all time George Duke greats get the official remastered and reissue treatment here. The American songwriting legend's "I Want You for Myself' from 1979 gets a mighty Tom Moulton rework on the A side - which streamlines the essential groove of the original just nicely. On the flip, the sultry late night mood lighting of "Brazilian Love Affair" is funky, soulful and groovy in all the right amounts - the album of the same name from 1980 was hailed as his most popular. Duke was known primarily for thirty-odd solo albums, as well as his collaborations with other musicians - particularly Frank Zappa.

Review: ** REPRESS ALERT ** Here's an official remastered reissue of "Rough Out Here" by East Coast sweet soul vocal group The Modulations for Record Store Day 2019. The sound is large with a sweet Philly mix of moods on this 7" which features arrangements by the legendary Vince Montana. Philly instruments: sitar, keyboards, drums, strings and horns courtesy of Don Renaldo and MFSB come to the fore, resulting in A side "Rough Out Here", a hard hitting funky soul stepper and B side "I Can't Fight Your Love" which oozes the Philly sound.

Review: Given the vastness of his back catalogue, you'd think there would be plenty of re-issue-friendly gold buried in Eddie Palmieri's discography. "Spirit of Love", first released as a single in 1978, certainly ticks a lot of boxes: the spiraling, disco-era chunk of boogaloo/jazz-funk fusion remains popular on specialist dancefloors - especially jazz-dance ones - and original copies frequently change hands online for well over 50 quid. Like the original 7", this edition of the singles also comes backed with the sweaty Brazilian style jazz brilliance of "Lucumi, Macumba, Voodoo", which also happens to be the title track of the LP that "Spirit of Love" was plucked from.

Review: While she will forever be associated with wedding reception favourite "Car Wash", Californian combo Rose Royce made some staggeringly good but lesser celebrated disco cuts in the late '70s and early '80s. "Still In Love" and "Best Love", both of which were featured on 1982 album "Stronger Than Ever", fit into this category. A-side "Still In Love" is undoubtedly one of the band's most anthem-like cuts, with powerful female vocals rising above a hybrid disco-boogie groove and sumptuous orchestration. "Best Love", meanwhile, is a synth-powered boogie master class rich in passionate-emotion-rich vocals and the kind of tasty electronic backing track that recalls contemporaneous releases from labels such as Solar System and Prelude.