Music Reissues Weekly: Loma Northern Soul

LOMA NORTHERN SOUL Top-quality collection of an intriguing label’s Sixties soul sides

Top-quality collection of an intriguing label’s Sixties soul sides

One of the essays in the booklet accompanying Loma Northern Soul describes the titular label as an “outlet aimed at secondary or tertiary record markets, issuing product that it was hoped would prove strong in R&B radio, yet had the potential to crossover and do battle with Motown in the pop charts”.

Music Reissues Weekly: McNeal and Niles - Thrust, Wilbur Niles and Thrust - Thrust Too

MCNEAL AND NILES Ohio funk rarities with surprising links to the state’s new wave scene

Ohio funk rarities with surprising links to the state’s new wave scene

An original pressing of 1979’s Thrust fetches at least £1000. Its 1980 follow-up Thrust Too can be a relative bargain at around £400. The prices are partly explained by J Dilla having sampled Thrust Too’s “Survival of the Funkiest” and Thrust’s “Summer Fun” being sampled by Daphni. Both funk-soul albums – the first credited to McNeal and Niles, the second to Wilbur Niles and Thrust – were barely circulated and barely sold. Text-book collector’s items.

Album: Nia Archives - Sunrise Bang ur Head Against the Wall

★★★★ NIA ARCHIVES - SUNRISE BANG UR HEAD AGAINST THE WALL The jungle-pop star shows precisely what she's made of in this condensed statement

The jungle-pop star shows precisely what she's made of in this condensed statement

We are way, way past the point where it makes any sense to talk of jungle or drum’n’bass “revivals”. Thirty years from the emergence of jungle from the rave scene, its tempo and tropes have remained a staple sound for generation upon generation of clubbers, boy racers and festival goers. It is woven into the fabric of global, and particularly British, culture just as integrally as, say, indie rock guitars are.

Album: Van Morrison - Moving on Skiffle

★★★★ VAN MORRISON - MOVING ON SKIFFLE Van's enriching tribute to songs that raised him

Van goes back to the beginning with an enriching tribute to the songs that raised him

This double album takes Van Morrison back to one of his early muses – Skiffle and its repertoire, that precursor to the rock'n'roll years that took hold of Britain in the 1950s, having percolated across the USA through the first half of the century, combining folk, blues, country, bluegrass and jazz into one steaming head of home-brewed folk, hopped up on washboards, jugs, washtub bass and the like.

Nu Civilisation Orchestra & ESKA: 'Hejira' and 'Mingus', Poole Lighthouse review - redistributing the future

★★★★★ NU CIVILISATION ORCHESTRA & ESKA: 'HEJIRA' AND 'MINGUS', POOLE LIGHTHOUSE Can a 19-piece band rise to some of the most challenging material of the 20th century?

Joni Mitchell re-interpreted - can a 19-piece band rise to some of the most challenging material of the 20th century?

I had high hopes for this show. After all, Eska Mtungwazi is pretty much the only singer on earth I’d go out of my way to hear sing Joni Mitchell songs.

Album: Larkin Poe - Blood Harmony

Sisters keep doing it for themselves: Megan and Rebecca Lovell are on song

The Larkin Poe story goes back to 2010, when they released four beautiful and distinctive seasons-related EPs, displaying the Lovell sisters Rebecca and Megan’s rich, absorbing vocal harmonies, slippery slide guitar work and a winning with with crunchy blues-rock riffs. They’ve released five albums since then, and Blood Harmony is, for the Georgia-born siblings, a musical homecoming to the sultry humidity of the American South of their musical and familial roots.

Album: Bruce Springsteen - Only the Strong Survive

The Boss serves up 15 soul classics

Bruce is back! His 21st studio album (can it really be 50 years next year since Greetings from Asbury Park?) and his second covers album. It’s a musical world away from the first, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006), but like that collection it’s a deep dive into a genre totally different to his own – American soul classics from the 1960s and 1970s.