Format Details: Jewel Case
Description
Europe, and the UK in particular, has taken the uncharted territories of black American soul music and made it its own. Fans of Northern Soul, Rare Groove, Deep Soul, Deep Funk, Modern Soul, Crossover and Popcorn and many other sub-species often look at their areas of interest through the eyes of European DJs, collectors, researchers and web sites. Kent, being a label that caters very much to all these genres and their fans, often approach the music from those angles but we always try and remember that this music is black American first and foremost, and was made within the cultural context of its particular era. We use a lot of hindsight, as forty years of accumulated knowledge should not be ignored, but once in a while we look at the music through nostalgic eyes. The CELLAR OF SOUL series is one of the best examples of this and is particularly memory jerking as the team of compilers were all collecting the music at the time, and know the impact that these sides had on them and their friends. It is therefore soul music, as it appeared, when it first landed on these shores. There was a large cultural difference between black American and primarily, white UK teenagers anyway, but the different ways in which we heard the music further diverged the two groups' tastes. In America the many and varied radio stations gave the music-lover opportunities to hear hundreds of new releases and to buy whichever grabbed their approval. In the UK soul releases were far fewer, subject to the whims of the largely clueless record executives and had little chance of making it onto the very limited national radio stations' playlists. It made it frustratingly hard, but exciting, work for the fans to find any sort of soul to listen to. Once found, the uncensored decks of the discotheques turned out to be the best medium for collectors to share this great music with the crowd. Understandably brave young British soul brothers and sisters weren't going to just sit down, listen and appreciate in that milieu; they were going to get up and dance their arses off. Hence most UK soul releases were aimed at DJs and dancers and KENT'S CELLAR OF SOUL VOL 2 reflects this. There are only a handful of ballads on here, but the listening is still more than tuneful with a good selection of melodious mid tempo numbers that were more acceptable in the mid-60s than in the BPM (beats per minute) conscious days of the 70s. The actual dances were more varied too, and frantic soul sounds like Bobbi Lynn's Earthquake and the Olympics' Mirwood powerhouse Mine Exclusively could be programmed into the evening without any adverse dance-floor reaction. The notes go into some detail on the UK influences on American soul and its re-interpretation over here. The most obvious example on this CD is Geno Washington's first Piccadilly single Water, which was written by a top pairing from New York's Brill Building but only ever recorded in London by this US ex-serviceman and his all Brit Ram Jam b
Tracklisting
Z.Z. Hill
Wilson Pickett
Willie Bollinger / Willie Walker
William Bell
William Bell
Wee Willie Walker
Warren Raye & The Infernal Blues Machine
Walter Jackson
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
