The mysterious Rubin only recorded a single side in his obscure music career – but it became a Northern Soul classic. (more…)

This Welsh group is new to me but it seems they’ve been going since 2019 when they formed as what Americans call a “jam band.” The sextet are named after their home town of Church Village, ten miles from Cardiff, calling themselves Church Village Collective – CVC for short.

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I don’t know how you can make a song sound this funky with little more than a bunch of drums from Africa and Asia. But dammit, Nina Simone can. And she did.

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I’ve always loved soukous music, with its lively rhythms and circular electric guitar melodies. And if this doesn’t get you dancing then your feet must have fallen off. Either that or you’re dead. 

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Do we really want to hear an elderly church minister sing a song blissfully unaware that it celebrates the pleasures of heroin? Well yes, it turns out we do.

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Glenda Collins slipped through the cracks of UK pop in the Sixties, leaving a slender legacy of obscure singles recorded with Joe Meek – until releasing her debut album more than 60 years later.

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On a steamy summer’s day, who doesn’t enjoy a bit of soca music? Well I do, but I’ll admit I don’t know much about it beyond what seems to have become the Notting Hill Carnival’s signature tune, Arrow’s infectious singalong tune Hot Hot Hot.

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Unlike some other old punks of my acquaintance, I am no longer a fan of being hectored by angry men thrashing guitars and pummelling drums into oblivion.

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Glasgow reggae collective Mungo’s Hi Fi team up with toaster Pupajim for a celebraton of two-wheeled transport in the catchy Bike Rider.

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I love it when a group lives up to its name. And rarely, if ever, has a group lived up to its name as much as Alogte Oho & His Sounds Of Joy. It’s written all over their faces, it’s in every note they play and sing, and it’s in every sinuous groove their bodies make.

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