The Topics – Giving Up
The Topics ‘Giving Up’ is an almost impossible to find the original super rare mid 70’s harmony Soul LP issued on the NY TSG label.’Giving Up’ is a great version of the Donny Hathaway song with strings and horns and superb male harmony vocals, taken at a slightly faster tempo than Donny’s take on this great song. ‘God And You’ is a lovely mid tempo floater/stepper with both male and female vocals. ‘At Last It’s Over’ and ‘Moving Down The Line’ are good upper mid tempo Philly-esq shufflers whilst ‘You’ve Got The Power’ is a semi funky soul groove. There are also three nice string laden beat ballads ‘Got To Get You Back’, ‘Please Take The Love’ and ‘All Good Things Can’t Last’ . Overall a strong lesser known harmony soul album thankfully reissued on vinyl by P-Vine in Japan, available in limited quantities.
The Ultimates – You’re my Lady
The Ultimates ‘You’re my Lady’ is another almost impossible to find original LP, super rare mid 70’s harmony Soul LP issued on the NY TSG label.’I Just Can’t Stand it’ is a lovely 2-step mid tempo soul track written by Millie Jackson. ‘Girl I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ is a nice in demand 70’s soul dancer. ‘God Is You’ is a good mid tempo floater. There are some slower beat ballads
‘Loving You Is Easy’ , ‘You’re my lady’ and the mid tempo ‘Yeah Yeah yeah’.Overall a good lesser known harmony soul album thankfully reissued on vinyl by P-Vine in Japan, available in limited quantities.
Smoke – Risin’
Smoke’ Risin’ is a rare male harmony Soul group album from 1976. The album has been in demand and expensive for many years. Amongst the highlights are the excellent modern soul dancers ‘I’m So Glad You Came along’ and ‘Cream Of The Crop’. There are also some good string laden uptempo tracks ‘ You Will Always be a Part Of me’, ‘Have I Really Lost You’ and ‘Now You’re Gone’ plus some good ballads especially ‘Don’t Take Your Love (Away From Me) which builds tempo towards the end when it swings along. This is another strong mid 70’s Soul harmony album thankfully reissued by P-Vine in Japan available in limited quantities.
Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign – 69 Cents
The Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign were a 9 piece band who released two albums in 1973 and 1976 and a couple of 45’s. They also recorded the eight tracks in 1974/5 on this album in Chicago which were previously unreleased until now.
’69 Cents’ is a funky track which evolved into ’69c’ featuring on their ’76 album, however this version is far superior. ‘Love is Why’ is a really nice group harmony soul ballad.This album has been put together by P Vine in Japan in association with Super Disco Edits,available in limited quantities.
