Good To The Last Drop - From The Ember Tape Vaults Rare Sixties & Seventies Soul (Fantastic Voyage/Future Noise - 2009)

Ember Records was founded in London by Jeffrey S. Kruger. He enlisted a journalist, John Abbey, to seek out soul nuggets in America to give them a proper UK release. With a discerning licensing policy and the subsequently constant quality of his soul 45" releases, Ember Records became a major force in British music industry. Most of the artists Ember licensed never really made it, except maybe The Jones Girls or Johnny Otis, but all need to be absolutely rediscovered, from the psyche soul of Milt Matthews Inc to the gospel of Mary Frazier Jones. Adidas paid Pilooski to make an edit of Why Can't There Be Love by Dee Edwards for a commercial a few years ago and the original is also featured on this compilation. Good To The Last Drop (the name of a Johnny Otis song) gives is a good occasion to have a large overlook (23 tracks) on this rich and excellent catalogue. Most of the songs featured had never been released before on CD and have never been released again since so, Northern Soul and Mods heads just enjoy.

Download =>  Good To The Last Drop

The Best Of Lash Records - Rare R&B & Soul Productions - 1961-1975 (Lash Records - 2009)

After the Ref-O-Ree label from Nasville, let's focus on Lash Records from Philadelphia. Created by brothers Al and Howard Ravitsky and a friend, Gil Lipschitz. It really amazes me to see those three jewish guys create a record label dedicated to underground doo-wop, R&B and soul, cuting sessions after sessions 7" in search of a national success that never came. But it's not the fault of the music, authentic, raw and good as I like it. It's not a surprise that Lash Records was popular among Northern Soul heads, his late 60's and early 70's recordings by the likes of Timmy Carr, Benny Sigler, Alfreda Brockington or Patty Hamilton being incredibly funky. A welcome discovery that allows you to possess nearly  all Lash releases (30 tracks) for a very decent price.

Download =>  The Best Of Lash Records

Downtown Soul From The Nashvile Indies (Blue Label/SPV - 2011)

Under this ugly cover you'll find an interesting compilation of deep and jazzy soul sides recorded for Nashville label Ref-O-Ree (with the exception of two tracks produced for Spar) between 1968 and the mid-70's, when the label went out of business. Ref-O-Ree was created by Ted Jarrett in 1968. All the singers from Nasville soul scene came by his studio to quickly record incandescent soul tracks and when no singers was avalaible, instrumentals were cut. Some were later used as backing tracks for proper singers. I had never heard of Rufus Hunter, The Precious Three, The Avalon Strings or Bob Holmes before buying this compilation but they were all extremely talented. The only downside of this compilation is the complete lack of informations on all those artists in the liner notes.

Download => Downtown Soul From The Nashville Indies