Here it finally is then, Volume 3 of Leipzig label Golden Rules’ highly successful contemporary funk and soul primer LP series. If you know about Vols. 1 and 2, you’ll know the drill with this one – essentially – drop all the tracks as digital singles from spring onwards and finally drop the whole thing in one glorious vinyl LP sometime in the autumn. A fourteen-tracker like its two predecessors, it features a mix of vocal and instrumental cuts from funky floor-fillers, through gritty psych-funk bangers to sweet sweet soul, torch songs and even afro-beat on Alogte Oho & His Sounds Of Joy’s Mam Da’ana.
The breadth of the album’s stylistic range is immediate from the off. Opener Fleet Streak finds Kerbside Collection sidestep their more soundtrack-y predilections for a slice of windmilling instrumental dancefloor funk, followed by the wistful horns-led soul of Carlton Jumel Smith on It’s Gonna Be Alright, the psych-funk of The Great Revivers’ Seek & Destroy and Cole Williams’ gorgeous Shakespeare-referencing torch song A Better Woman.
Although the standard is, as usual, high throughout, of particular note on this one are the psych-funk efforts – Brother Lee’s gnarly monster Winter Sky, Mike Bandoni’s slightly jazzier but still brooding Something Wonderful and The Oscillators’ The Scoop. Having said that, the monkey still has a soft spot for Cookin’ On 3 Burners’ Hammond-funky Wind Up and the aformentioned Kerbside Collection and Cole Williams cuts.
(Out now on Golden Rules)