Southbound Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Millie Jackson's classic soul album It Hurts So Good has gone down in time as a shining example of what many hardcore soul fanatics might call 'deep soul'. Darker and more austere than the usual idea of soul at large, deep soul was known for its added grit and pain behind the beltings and breakbeats. Millie Jackson had this yet-nascent formula down to a T. Active in the early 70s and beyond, Jackson released It Hurts So Good as a testament to the test of love, an analogy for life itself. Yes, it hurts, but the pain is worth it when balanced out by the glorious highs. Heartbroken but jubilant, Jackson's sound is refined and always full of energy, occupying a juxtaposition between lyricising about crying and loss, and laying the fonk on thick, groovy and plentiful. The overall sound, firmly rooted in both the funky and tearjerky camps, is that of 'getting on with it'.

Review: Before finding global fame as the Weather Girls, sometime Sylvester backing singers Izora Armstead and Martha Walsh recorded a couple of albums as Two Tons O Fun. This, their eponymous 1980 debut, is the strongest of the pair and here gets a much-needed reissue. Like many disco albums of the period, it combines up-tenpo, peak-time-ready workouts - some, such as the ace 'Earth Can Be Just Like Heaven', 'I Got The Feeling' and 'Do You Wanna Boogie, Hunh', swim in similar sonic territory to Sylvester, while others such as 'One Sided Love Affair' are more NYC style stompers - alongside smoother, more soulful mid-tempo workouts and sugary slow jams.