Welcome back to the bracing East Coast and Soul Essence 24, plenty of sounds to review this time…

We start in Crossover territory with the Cooperettes and a timely reactivation of their best ever side ""Win all your love" (IDB) - a sound I have been spinning at both northern and "Across the board" sessions, a flowing Philly midtempo dancer par excellence…... Slower, earthier but just as good in it's own right is veteran LA man Dale Darby's "Don't put our love off another day" (LA Central)….Third up, a very catchy tune comes from The Marvels Mercury releases "One of those old days" which suffers from a sound distortion fault on the pressing (styrene!) - as a result I've had a bit of remastering job done to reduce the distortion by those excellent folks at Vinylcarvers, and hey presto it's playable without burning your ears! …There seems to be something of a buzz at the moment on T&T "Something on my mind" (Cobra) - the old Ashford/Simpson song, which is at the up-tempo end of X-over, so that's been put in the box too this year…..Meanwhile down in old Louisiana, The Barons are well enough known, but an undervalued Mode label side of theirs is "Love is so real", with it's heavy drumming, sounds just right for today….Last year at Essence I got 21st Century "Can I take you home" on an acetate off young Butch, same tune different words to their released side "Got no reason" (Dot) but with more rasping vocals; up the pitch a degree or two and it sounds excellent; surely you must remember when we used to play more 60's sounds at Essence (Poets, Ruby, Dennis Edwards etc.)?

Into the 70's and firstly Michael Thevis was behind labels like Hotlanta, as well as apparently being Mr Big as far as drugs were concerned in the southern US (!)….so as well as investing in what turned out to be great music, he disposed of a lot of the cash he was making into no hope films….from which rather ironically comes the excellent Joe Hinton "Go on find your star" (As One)- a wonderful bracing 70's stormer, but in true soundtrack style way too short…..Richard Marks is a name well known (and respected) to everyone via four excellent Tuska and Shout 45's but I recently bagged his 1976 offering "Innocent bystander" (Free Spirit) off of Soul Bowl - fantastic southern soul - wait 'til you hear it - everything a good 70's southern record should be!....Staying in the 70's I've also found a good response recently to Frankie Kah'rl'sGordy side "Don't fan the flame" - it's the 60's man's last recording before he died, and for my money from Motown's most creative period…..More early 70's comes from the Syndicate of Sound Inc (not the W Coast pop group) and "Make believe you love me" - a really good midtempo burner with a hard as nails vocals and feel - good funk B side too! Finally in that genre, delighted to see Bobby Montgomery's "I need you girl" (Crescent) starting to get the recognition it deserves.

Into the Stepper zone and with all the buzz about Marshall Donovan & Broomfield's "Since I found my baby", I am surprised no one has mentioned their other Augusta45 "That's love" - a winner for the Downbeat Lounge surely, as is High Fidelity's "Strangers in love", a female sound with such a hypnotic base line. Finally I cannot leave stepper territory without mention of Fire and Ice "You really got me going" - only to risk upsetting some people by saying the Brothers by Choice version (Ala) sounds just as good (to me), and won't prompt an unwanted call from your bank manager either! Controversial comments? You bet!

Into the 80's dancers and two plucked from young Mr Barnfather's box firstly courting some more controversy - Ron Van Horn "We've just got to get together again" (Rav). A sound with it's roots back in the days of Rock City etc - excellent dancer rhythmically, but Mrs G reckons Ron sounds like Clarence Carter with a bad cold (and let's be honest does anyonereally like Clarence Carters voice?) - judge for yourself. In other words vocals you'll either ignore or not like….No controversy as far as the Enternal Family's "We've got to give more of ourselves" (Communication) is concerned - an excellent "last hour" sound - you know like Flowers etc - so expect to hear it at 10 to 5 on Sunday morning when the limbs are starting to tire!.....I've had James D Hall's "I wanna get into you" (JDH) for years now, and it's fairly well known, but it took a spin from Simon at "The Plinston" to convince me that it sounds right for today. Two cheapo cheapos next which should have received more attention down the years Rodney Johnson's "Let's get it on" (Travelrama) with it's broken / hoarse voice vocal and swaying rhythm and Gene Boyd's Muscle Shoals recorded "Thought of you today" with another mesmerizing rhythm. You could probably pick up both of these and still get change from a weekend pass!

I haven't majored on acetates yet and won't insult your intelligence by reviewing the couple of cover up's either - but amongst the former category listen out for Frankie Sanders, and the Entramations, and in the latter… ahem…Daybreak and the Pattersons……but above all enjoy the music!