This week's new soul vinyl

Freakway - Hot Touch
The spiel is Freakway are a Minneapolis funk band living in Tokyo. It smells a bit fishy to me, because this underground disco boogie peaked in Philly 79-80 and was last seen in the wild in 1982 before electro took over. Unless you were listening to Cameo. My gut tells me this is a repro, or a studio find, but whatever way you listen to it, full marks.



Shateish - I'm Leavin'
A clever nu-soul reinvention of Etta James's I'd Rather Go Blind. Sometimes this thing works - like Dimitri From Stoke On Trent's I Pay a Little Slayer or Featurecast's One Step - and this lockstep groove really works.

I'm Leavin' has been doing the rounds as an MP3 for 4 years. This 7" is overdue, though, and I was happy to shell out.


Shateish "I'm Leavin" (prod by Nottz) from Raw Koncept on Vimeo.

Liz Vice - There's A Light
Not exactly new - the vinyl came out last year, but has just hit the UK import racks - but what a sound! What a voice! And her band sound like they were schooled in Sam Cooke soul and Stax electric keyboards.

This is a gospel record every bit as good as Leon Bridges' Coming Home, also from 2015. Liz didn't get the same notices as Leon last year, although I know which I've played more. And I played Coming Home a lot.