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Certain paths necessitate and call for one singular long sequence in order to arrive at a fully formed conversation or reasoning. Nothing seems to broadcast it more clearly than the trajectory Brussels based Italo-Vietnamese artist Nguyễn Zen Mỹ embarked on during the last decade as Radio Hito.

After a string of highly cherished and sought out tape releases, Radio Hito’s new album ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, co-released by Maple Death & Meakusma, unfolds with devastating
clarity, a profound balance of depth, minimalism and emotional grounding. A ten-sequence song cycle for voice and MIDI soundfonts adapted from the 2021 book by French poet Claude
Royet-Journoud.

Written and recorded between January 2023 and August 2025, the cycle evolved through nearly 80 live performances from Galicia to Kazakhstan before arriving at its recorded form. Set to an Italian libretto adapted from Royet-Journoud’s text ‘L'usage et les attributs du cœur’ (POL, 2021), the work revisits the tradition of the 19th-century Lied — art song built on existing poetry— transposed into a radically economical contemporary setting: voice and Casio CTK workstations.

"I was interested by this incompleteness CRJ mentions - by the ‘suspension’ of meaning questioning readability and intelligibility. I ‘resisted’ to CRJ’s texts since I met him and got to know his work. … It seems to me that when playing the songs, I submit an object to be completed by the audience."

Radio Hito’s distinctive approach to setting poetry to music — spare arrangements, strophic repetition, and a voice suspended between recital, fm transmission and canzone — creates a language of its own, reaching new heights on ‘L’uso e gli attributi del cuore’, songs that are formally rigorous, emotionally restrained, and shaped by the discipline of sustained live performance, interlocking into a coherent cycle.

Rather than illustrating the poem, Radio Hito approaches it as a space of suspension. Royet-Journoud described poetry as a “profession of ignorance” where meaning remains incomplete; these songs extend that trembling state, allowing repetition, digital timbre, and restraint to hold the text open.

Often misread as minimal synth or romantic chanson, Radio Hito’s practice is rooted instead in the lineage of the art song and song cycle: open structures, close attention to language, and a live performance economy that pushes the voice at the heart of the stage. The choice of accessible keyboard workstations — light, portable, and embedded in contemporary popular culture — replaces the historical piano.

Radio Hito creates fantastical, mirage-like songs, intimate yet elusive. Her music is forlorn chanson for the digital age; bringing her haunting and beautiful vocalisations into conversation with MIDI soundfonts and humble-yet-deep casio compositions. Music that strides for simplicity, yet lands miraculously within an entire new universe, a uniqueness achieved from like-minded spirits such as Ghedalia Tazartès, Savina Yannatou & Lena Platonos, Dorothy Carter, cycles that trickle down into estuaries.

“Radio Hito's set is superb. Sitting on the altar steps with a synth, her fabulously expressive vocals colour sparse, pensive compositions.” The Wire

Call it soulful dream pop, proto-trip hop or downtempo jazz - "Tender Rain" is the follow-up LP to the successful "This Is" album and continues to deliver Ghia's unmistakable sonic magic. On this release, the band shares a selection of previously unreleased vocal songs alongside instrumental pieces, all carried by their trademark chilled and almost meditative atmosphere. Most of the recordings date from the early 1990s, while early demo versions of "New Love" and "Teardrops in Your Eyes" may reach back as far as the late 1980s.

The album opens with the title track "Tender Rain," where smooth vocal jazz harmonies merge effortlessly with soulful pop elements. The track originally appeared only on CD in 1993 on the small Mikado label run by renowned German guitarist Ulli Bögershausen. The band recalls that the piece was first pre-recorded using MIDI equipment and a Tascam 16-track recorder before being completed in the studio with drums by legendary drummer Mickie Stickdorn (Carsten Bohn's Bandstand, Cyklus, Elephant, Lake), percussion by Corinna Ludzuweit, and the final touch-Lisa Ohm's remarkable vocals.

At the time, Mikado was also looking for instrumental material for radio and synchronization use. They selected the track "Tropfstein" for a sampler CD and requested more pieces. In response, "und recken ihre schlanken Glieder" (roughly translated as "and stretching their slender limbs") was composed especially for the project, as Frank Simon remembers. Both tracks appeared on the now rare Mikado sampler CD under the alias z. Zt., short for "zur Zeit" ("at present" or "these days").

Several further pieces in a similar vein were created during this period, including the previously unissued "Auf unserm grünen Sofa," "Reise bei Nacht," and "Was ich Dir noch sagen wollte." These tracks are beautifully crafted downtempo pieces featuring smooth, jazzy piano lines combined with touches of ambient and New Age aesthetics. "Auf unserm grünen Sofa" stands out in particular and will likely resonate with all downtempo enthusiasts. Lutz Boberg recalls that many of these recordings were captured during a single afternoon in the studio, fueled by spontaneous ideas and creative momentum.

On tracks such as "Teardrops in Your Eyes," "New Love," and the haunting Dark Spirits Mix of Ghia's song "What's Your Voodoo?", singer Lisa Ohm delivers soulful pop performances with her clear and captivating voice. "Change Your Sex," the third track previously featured on the Mikado sampler, leans more toward late-1980s funk and was aimed at radio and DJs at the time. Its subject matter was relatively daring for the period, telling the story of someone contemplating a change of sex "to get rid of the troubles."

Together with "This Is" and "Curacao Blue", "Tender Rain" forms another essential chapter in the rediscovery of the band's work. More than thirty years after their creation, these recordings still sound strikingly fresh, reflecting a unique style that in many ways anticipated the rise of trip-hop in the early to mid-1990s.

Released in 1979, Tete Mbambisa's Did You Tell Your Mother delivers the ultimate blend of African groove with American modal grace, making it one of the all-time classic albums of South African jazz. With Mbambisa presenting original compositions at the piano alongside Basil "Mannenberg" Coetzee on tenor sax and flute, the acoustic quartet featured here is rounded out by Zulu Bidi from the band Batsumi on bass locking in with Dollar Brand drummer Monty Weber. This 2026 reissue presents a flat transfer of the master tapes with album artwork restored using illustrator Hargreaves Ntukwana's original ink drawing.

A self-taught musician, it was as leader of the vocal group The Four Yanks in the early 1960s that Tete Mbambisa’s music career took off. With encouragement from Abdullah Ibrahim, he dedicated himself to the piano and went on to record with The Soul Jazzmen in 1969. Mbambisa's solo recordings from the 1970s, produced by Rashid Vally for the independent As-Shams/The Sun record label, document his creative peak as a recording artist and have contributed to earning him an honorary doctorate and a place among the figureheads of South African jazz history.

"K8A a.k.a. Kaethe Hostetter is a New York–based violinist. composer, and bandleader, whose work grew out of eleven years living and collaborating in Ethiopia. As a founding member of Debo Band and QWANQWA, Hostetter has been performing Ethiopian music for over two decades, and her solo debut, Woradj Alle, builds on this legacy by reimagining Ethiopian songs through live-looped violin and electronics.
"The album unfolds as a hypnotic, ritual-like performance that expands the instrument into an immersive sonic landscape, that refracts Ethiopian classics through dub, psych rock, and avant improvisation. It is not fusion, but transmission - music that blurs memory, place, and time.
"This collection of musical vignettes is based on my time in Ethiopia, the place I called home for 11 years", Kaethe explains. "The phrase 'Woradj Alle' is one of the first colloquial expressions I learned upon arriving in Addis Ababa, used on public transportation, simply meaning 'let me off right around here'. In choosing this name, I invite you to join me on the rickety minibus journey through my time in Ethiopia, and step off 'the bus' into scenarios, atmospheres, and soundscapes that describe moments I experienced, people I met, and other lasting impressions, striking and mundane."

"In 1910, the illustrator George Herriman created the Krazy Kat comic strip. Ignatz, a vicious mouse, was Krazy Kat’s arch enemy, and his favourite pastime was to throw bricks at Krazy Kat’s head (who misinterpreted the mouse’s actions as declarations of love)
"Ignatz is the alter-ego of Belgian musician Bram Devens. Since 2005, he has released around 20 albums accompanied by guitar, in LP, CD or cassette formats, on labels such as (K-RAA-K)³, Ultra Eczema, Fonal, Mortaux vaches, Okraïna, among others. Ignatz has toured all over the world: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Italy, Finland, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, Lithuania, the United States, Japan, etc.
"Since the beginning of his journey as a singer-songwriter, Ignatz has played wonderfully and mysteriously with the combination of the similar and the unfamiliar, between the repetition and permanent reinvention with slight shift in accents... Now For two decades, when discovering his new songs, whether on record or in concert, his expressive and sonic universe can be recognized in seconds, and at the same time, he surprises every time. This is clearly also the case with ‘I Don't Know’, an album for which (after the cassette ‘Coffee, No Cigarettes’, Taping Policies 2017) he trades his guitar for the piano.
"In the mid-2010s, Ignatz inherited the family piano. As a self-taught musician, he explored the instrument and gave a piano concert in the small Flemish town of Geel, which was filmed by Jef Mertens (who also released the aforementioned cassette) and attended by Beata Szparagowska and Philippe Delvosalle from the label By the Bluest of Seas. After some years, it was in his home in Landen that Bram Devens recorded this haunted piano album, which is unlike any other piano record."

Frizzell & Duque's A Sorrow Unrequited moves with suspended patience, each LP piece built from simple melodic figures, each of which eventually thicken out to quiet overwhelm. Working outside their Zake/City of Dawn aliases, the pair realise a more diaristic exposure here, drawing their inspiration and track titles from Julia Frizzell's poems of the same name. 'We Once Believed We Owned The Sky' tone-sets the vibe with long, tidal swells of strings and synth, dissonances sparing but weighted, while 'Closer, Always Closer' moves in similarly tidal cycles, with momentary swellings and torn cellos fissuring through the overall sadness.

Mit seinem neuen Doppel-Album "Baroque Colours" präsentiert Martin Stadtfeld eine einzigartige Palette farbenreicher Werke des Barocks. Und das in einer ganz besonderen Form: Für den ersten Teil wählte er 19 wunderbare kleine Originalstücke aus, u.a. von Bach, Rameau oder Händel, aber auch von weniger bekannten Komponisten wie Johann Kuhnau oder Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer. Für den zweiten Teil hat Stadtfeld einige seiner Lieblingstücke des Barocks ausgewählt und für Klavier neu bearbeitet. So gibt es aus Vivaldis berühmten "Vier Jahreszeiten" die mitreißenden Melodien aus dem "Sommer" und dem "Winter" neu zu erleben - als kurze, wunderbar klingende Piano-Stücke. Oder den berühmten "Kanon" von Johann Pachelbel in einer neuen Fassung für Klavier zu vier Händen, die Martin Stadtfeld mit der Pianistin Lilian Akopova eingespielt hat. Diese ist auch seine Partnerin bei den vierhändigen Fassungen des ersten Präludiums von Bach sowie der "Passacaglia" aus Lullys Oper "Armida". Ein Erlebnis sind auch die Klavierfassungen von Purcells Musik aus der Oper "Fairy Queen". Nahezu meditativ klingen Stadtfelds Improvisationen über Themen von Bach (u.a. das berühmte "Air" und "Menuett"), über Werke von Arcangelo Corelli sowie über das Kirchenlied "Ach bleib mit Deiner Gnade". Aufgenommen wurden die insgesamt 45 Stücke mit einem modernen Steinway mit einem sehr nahen und warmen Klangbild, so dass sich die Farbenpracht und Intensität unmittelbar auf den Hörer überträgt. Es ist, als ob man vor einem farbenreichen barocken Gemälde stehen würde und dabei immer neue Farben entdeckt.

Silvana Rossi emerges from the new wave of Italo revivalists with a sound that feels both timeless and sharply contemporary, where vintage drum machines, analog synth lines and nocturnal romance collide with a modern club sensibility. Rooted in classic Italo disco but filtered through today’s underground circuitry, her music speaks directly to selectors navigating the space between wave, electro and slow-burning techno. The tracks carry a distinctly personal edge—melancholy, desire, and late-night introspection wrapped in icy melodies and hypnotic grooves. This is music made for dimly lit booths, smoke-filled basements, and DJs who still believe in storytelling through vinyl.

A seductive opener “Elixir Of Love” built on cascading arps and a steady pulse, romantic but restrained, like a whispered confession over a rolling bassline. Perfect for setting the tone early set. Tension-driven and emotionally charged, italo anthem “Breakdown” balances crisp electro rhythms with a sense of inner collapse. A cold wave-leaning cut that hits hardest when the lights stay low and the energy turns inward. Shades Of The Night – a cinematic slow-burner drenched in shadow and atmosphere. This one is all about texture and space. Walk In The Night, another italo classic on the EP, stripped-back and hypnotic, with a confident groove that nods to classic Italo while staying firmly rooted in modern club aesthetics. “Bad Girl” brings a sharper, more playful edge, driving, stylish, and slightly dangerous. A weapon with crossover appeal for electro and wave crowds alike. A versatile tool for both warm-ups and deeper moments. Emotionally direct yet sonically controlled lush pads and restrained vocals create a sense of distance that pulls you in “Don’t Leave Me”. A melancholic highlight for DJs who know how to play with tension.

'Like the sharpshooting carnival contestant who knows that the winning practice isn’t to aim for the red star itself, but rather to shoot out a perimeter around the star and thus remove it, Old Saw have historically dealt with forms by tracing their boundaries rather than going for the target outright. If the first three records hinted at but never touched song-shaped forms, The Wringing Cloth makes at least glancing contact while retaining the layered haze and drawl that threads their sound together.
'Contrary to the often-used ambient tag, Old Saw shows up here in a markedly active and sculpted form — manipulating, unwinding, and pivoting with a strange and warped precision. What has always been uncanny about this music is that it arrives in a state at once familiar and obscured, like a memory weighed down with sensory information but no identifying details to place it.
'The Wringing Cloth walks off further into that geographical dream without time or language until it’s just a speck of light.'

Hardt Antoine returns to Crosstown Rebels with emotive new release ‘One More Night’, featuring Charlotte OC. Set for release on 24th April 2026, the French-Jamaican artist links with the UK singer-songwriter, backed by a remix from Echonomist.

A warm, late-night glow pulses through ‘One More Night’, as Hardt Antoine returns to Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels for his first original release on the label, adding to his captivating remix of Henri Bergmann & Wentink’s ‘Guardian Angel’ in 2024. Anchored by Charlotte OC’s striking delivery, the track draws on the pull of classic disco and modern club sensibilities, balancing introspection with pure dancefloor drive.

On remix duties, Greek DJ/producer Echonomist reshapes the original into a blissful voyage, layering skippy rhythms and shadowy textures for an emotive late-night ride. Rounding out the release, ‘Dreamstate’ offers a complementary original from Hardt Antoine, leaning further into his melodic instincts with a fluid, atmospheric groove.

Hardt Antoine’s output and sound draws on his French and Jamaican heritage, weaving house, techno, soul, and 80s influences into a sonic identity defi ned by rich melodies and groove-led songwriting with recent releases on the likes of Innervisions and KompaktMeanwhile, Charlotte OC brings her distinct vocal talents to Crosstown for the very first time. Following a return to her hometown of Blackburn and a renewed creative focus, her recent work leans into raw, self-assured songwriting, blending vulnerability with strength - qualities that sit at the heart of ‘One More Night’.

OOIOO and Lightning Bolt are both bands whose music is wholly unique and whose creators" influence would be impossible to overstate. YoshimiO, OOIOO"s founder and bandleader, has been a guiding force in uncompromising art across the continuum of rock and improvised music for four decades, from her work in UFO or Die to The Boredoms to SAICOBAB and beyond. OOIOO serves as a core outlet for melding freeform experimentalism with hypnotic rock pulses, defying boundaries with her acrobatic voice, electronics, trumpet and gamelan. Lightning Bolt"s Brian Chippendale and Brian Gibson have remained unparalleled in their ability to transmute frenetic whirls of percussion, gargantuan fuzz and dizzying melody into monolithic vistas. THE HORIZON SPIRALS / THE HORIZON VIRAL is a split that captures the parallels in ethos between these two ensembles, their sense of gleeful abandon and freight train momentum, in inspiring detail.

From the depths of the most independent and revolutionary underground, a handful of tracks from the repertoires (often limited even to a single flexi disc) of some of the heroes who rode the wave, extracting from it—more for themselves and expressive necessity than for us—its most mystical and expressionist essence. New and No Wave, minimal and minimalist electronics, Avant Wave from the land where the sun still rises for now.

Relive three decades of Belgian clubbing history.

We're celebrating the 35th anniversary of Cherry Moon withan essential collection of the anthems that defined a generation. Hard to find tracks, classics and sounds from the underground combined in a splendid 10x12" Vinyl Box Set.

From the first beats of 1991 to the peak of the "House of House", this is the ultimate tribute to a legendary venue.

Obwohl es sich nicht eindeutig einem bestimmten Genre zuordnen lässt, hat ,A Way In" was von Afrobeat, Cumbia, Salsa, Jazz, Reggaeton und Soul - eine Mischung aus kraftvollen Rhythmen und geheimnisvollen Melodien, die Mitchum Yacoubs zweites Album in der Welt der Groove-Musik hervorstechen lässt. Zwischen synkopierten Dance-Tracks, ätherischen Klanglandschaften und gleichmäßigen Backbeats finden sich Geschichten über Angst, Liebe, Aufstand und Heilung. Zehn Tracks, die den menschlichen Geist offenbaren und feiern. Yacoub hat das gesamte Album selbst aufgenommen, produziert und abgemischt und damit den sorgfältig geschichteten Sound sichergestellt, den die Fans seines Debüts ,Living High in the Brass Empire" so schätzen. Wir treffen wieder auf Travis Klein, Bradley Nash und Wesley Etienne, seine unnachahmliche Bläsersektion, die man weder auf Platte noch auf der Bühne verpassen sollte. Mit den aufstrebenden Stimmen von Divina Jasso und Lourdes Iri auf der Hälfte der Tracks mangelt es ,A Way In" nicht an herausragenden Singles, die dich von morgens bis abends begleiten werden.

Toneblind returns with its second release, welcoming 26-year-old Catania native Edo Ecker and his new EP, “Fall In Love.”

With one full EP already behind him, Edo steps confidently into his next chapter, presenting a sound that bridges eras with effortless ease. Rooted in the golden age of Italian house music yet
sharpened by a modern edge, Fall In Love blends Italo and Euro house influences with his distinctive melodic touch.

Warm, romantic synth lines meet crisp, contemporary production, while subtle Mediterranean nuances nod to his heritage — adding depth and character without overpowering the groove. The
result is a record that feels nostalgic yet current, intimate yet undeniably dancefloor-driven. With its second chapter, Toneblind continues to define its path — honouring timeless influences while spotlighting a new generation shaping what comes next.

Courtney Marie Andrews has long been celebrated as an artist who challenges herself, and who finds new interplays of Folk and Americana.. Also a vivid poet and accomplished painter, she brings a multidisciplinary richness to her work that shines throughout her 9th studio album, Valentine. Co-produced with Jerry Bernhardt and recorded almost entirely to tape, the album features complete in-studio performances that prize raw performance rather than perfection. It is Andrews’s most sonically explorative record thus far – she plays flute, high strung guitars, myriad synths, and draws heavy inspiration from her art outside of music. Her voice is gorgeous and acrobatic always, but on Valentine it finds a new depth, an assertiveness that brings new dimension to its biggest anthems and its softest moments. Written during a period of profound endings and new beginnings, Valentine is a vulnerable exploration of love vs. limerence. While anticipating the imminent loss of a loved one who would eventually recover, a new but uncertain romance began to develop. Rather than lift her up, the two emotional poles seemed to bleed into each other to sow doubt, trouble, even obsession. But through her own exploration of music and art, Andrews found a way to grow stronger inside this feeling. “I didn’t want to slink into my pain, I wanted to embrace it, own it” she says. The songs that emerged are devotional in their lyrics but defiant in their energy; it’s the very sound of a woman standing in her first wisdom. With Valentine, Andrews rejects the objectification of love, the love filled with gestures and objects instead of trust, mess, and growth. In doing so, she delivers her most beautiful and loving album to date.

Kumachan Seal: solo project of Japanese vocalist / songwriter / producer Sairi Ojima, who has been playing in numerous indie bands, including Neco Nemuru, since her teens. She began her solo career in 2013, and released her first cassette in 2017. This EM Records release is her first CD/LP album, with all compositions by Ojima, who co-produced the album. Each of the eleven songs reveals beguiling layers of detailed and surprising sounds, with Ojima's DIY sonic core embroidered by vibrant and colorful beats and guitar from EM artist Le Makeup and the quintessential ambient-pop synths and keyboards of fellow EM-er Takao. Le Makeup mixed ten of the eleven songs, with Takao mixing "China Sandwich". The heart of Ojima's musical identity is her clear, aque- ous voice; apart from one instrumental, all the tracks here feature that mellifluous voice, but in an interesting twist, only half the songs have lyrics, with the remainder employing her wordless voice as melodic and textural elements. Although Kumachan Seal can be heard as a sort of bedroom pop filtered through ambient music and the new-age revival, listeners will note that the final two songs, "Atsumono" and "Tiny Cell", are respectively a slightly skewed four-on-the-floor track and a lightly skanking Doo-wop- flavored confection, slightly reminiscent of the UK's Brenda Ray. This album, full of Ojima's calm and cool observation of the world, is available on CD, LP and DL, and includes an English lyric sheet.

Anané’s colourful life in music has seen her do everything from singing at the famous pre-game show at Super Bowl XLI as part of the group Elements of Life, DJ at hotspots like Hi Ibiza, Pacha NYC and Ushuaïa to name a few, while also curating her own monthly residency Nulu Movement, now ten years strong at Le Bain NYC, release unique blends of Afro, house, and pop on labels like Vega Records, and head up her own imprints, Nulu Music and Nulu Electronic. The Cape Verdean-born DJ, producer, vocalist, and songwriter has had countless club hits and has released acclaimed albums like ‘Ananésworld’ and ‘Chapters Of Becoming’, often with a lush, live, and orchestrated style that is truly unique.

With this release, Anané steps forward with her first solo production to date. Here she serves up the sumptuous ‘It Looks Like Love’, a poised, elegant house sound with her own smoking, soulful vocals and classy strings bringing colour to an Afro groove packed with infectious bounce. Neat guitar riffs and silky synths all enrich this most sophisticated sound. The first mix sees Anané link up with veteran Italian Christian Mantini, who has hosted Sunset Ritual parties with Anané and Louie Vega since 2013. Their dub is rooted in warm, rubbery drums that are even deeper and more immersive than the original.

Manda Moor & Sirus Hood are a red-hot contemporary pair who run the Mood label and are defining the contemporary underground. Their remix is more driving, but it retains the soulful vibe with breezy pads and jazzy motifs drifting in and out above the swaggering groove.

Rotterdam-based Chicagoan Jamie 3:26 is a master at blending disco, soul, and house into timeless sounds, and here he delivers a loopy rework that pairs deep drive and sun-kissed vibes with funky, Chic-style bass guitar motifs.

Repress!

Belgian techno powerhouse Charlotte de Witte has unveiled brand-new EP ‘Apollo’, out 14th October on her own KNTXT label.

An uncompromising collection of club tracks, ‘Apollo’ opens with ‘Missing Channel’, a turbo-charged acid techno cut pairing pumping kick drums with squelching 303s. Next up, the title track shifts things into warehouse techno territories, juxtaposing bludgeoning kicks with haunting, ethereal vocals, while ‘Mercury’ cultivates a striking interstellar energy. Closing things out, ‘PPC’ is by far the record’s most experimental track, a shimmering, beatless creation laced with samples of space transmissions.

"The vastness and solitude of space always interested me. A compelling contrast between monumental power and the vacuum in between.” Charlotte explains. “This diversion can also be found in techno music, a pure simplicity divergent in power."

Charlotte de Witte has become known for her dark, stripped-back brand of techno, acid and anything high energy. She’s often crossing borders but maintains a deep form of respect for the underground. Highlight performances across the continents - including being the first techno (and female) DJ to headline the mainstage at Tomorrowland - Mixmag and DJ Mag covers, high-ranking positions in the charts and lists confirm her status as nouveaux techno royalty.

Heavy, breakneck club fodder, ‘Apollo EP’ is Charlotte de Witte at her bold and brilliant best.

NOW That’s What I Call 70s Soul brings together 50 era-defining tracks from one of the most powerful decades in soul music, featuring classics from Motown legends, Philly Soul pioneers, smooth balladeers and funk innovators – all pressed across 3LPs on beautiful blue vinyl… Out April 24th!

LP1 opens with one of the decade’s most recognisable love songs: Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together’, a US #1 and UK Top 10 hit that became his signature recording. It’s followed by Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, the socially conscious masterpiece and title track from his landmark 1971 album, and Diana Ross’ Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, which topped the US chart and became her first solo #1. Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)’ remains one of Motown’s most joyful recordings and comes before Commodores’ ‘Easy’ introducing Lionel Richie’s smooth ballad vocals. The side also includes Bill Withers’ timeless ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’, a Grammy-winning classic, and The Stylistics’ lush ballad ‘You Make Me Feel Brand New’, a UK Top 3 smash, before closing with Rose Royce’s beautiful ‘Wishing On A Star’, one of the most loved soul ballads of the era.

Flip the LP over and The Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’ – the group’s explosive debut single opens the side. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ ‘The Tears Of A Clown’ became a UK #1 and is followed by The Supremes’ Nathan Jones’ showcasing the group’s evolving psychedelic-soul sound. Northern Soul classics from Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons with ‘The Night’, Chairmen Of The Board’s Top 3 smash ‘Give Me Just A Little More Time’ and The Trammps’ ‘Hold Back The Night’. The O’Jays’ joyous ‘Love Train’ leads to The Blackbyrds’ Walking In Rhythm’, before the side closes with the romantic classic ‘Always And Forever’ from Heatwave.

LP2 opens with The Temptations’ epic ‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone’, a Grammy-winning US #1 remains one of the most stunning recordings from the Motown catalogue, is followed by Isaac Hayes’ ‘Theme From “Shaft”’, an Academy Award-winner and a US #1 smash. More funk follows from Ike & Tina Turner, James Brown with one of his key tracks ‘Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine’, Edwin Starr’s powerful anti-Vietnam protest song ‘War’, and Sly & The Family Stone’s hugely influential ‘Family Affair’. The Delfonics’ sublime ‘Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)’ comes ahead of Billy Paul’s timeless ‘Me And Mrs. Jones’ which closes the side…the other side begins with the 1977 #1 from The Floaters with ‘Float On’, before the breathtaking vocals of Minnie Riperton on ‘Lovin’ You’. The Isley Brothers’ Summer Breeze’ and William DeVaughn’s ‘Be Thankful For What You Got’ have become enduring classics and are followed by a run of ‘80s pop-chart crossover hits completing LP2 from Detroit Emeralds, The Moments Raydio and The Tymes’ #1 ‘Ms. Grace’.

LP3 opens with the unmistakable voice of Barry White and his US #1 hit ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe’, before Aretha Franklin’s ‘Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)’, delivers one of her smoothest performances. Al Green’s ‘Tired Of Being Alone’ and Gladys Knight & The Pips’ ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ are followed by minimalist soul classic ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’ from Timmy Thomas, and the side closes with a trio of defining ballads:- George Benson’s ‘The Greatest Love Of All’ Diana Ross’ ‘Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)’ and The Jackson 5’s ‘I’ll Be There’, their biggest hit…while over on the final side…Freda Payne’s #1 ‘Band Of Gold’, opens alongside Ann Peebles’ influential and much covered ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’.Marvin Gaye’s sensual ‘Let’s Get It On’ became another US #1, while Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes featuring Teddy Pendergrass deliver the contemporary standard ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now’. Three massive UK #1s are next…The Stylistics with ‘Can’t Give You Anything (But My Love)’, The Three Degrees’ peerless ‘When Will I See You Again’ and Deniece Williams’ ‘Free’. This amazing collection closes with two timeless ballads: Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘After The Love Has Gone’, a Grammy-winning classic, along with ‘Three Times A Lady’, a huge worldwide #1 for the Commodores.


NOW That’s What I Call 70s Soul, 50 defining tracks from one of music’s greatest decades. Out April 24th.