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Gospel melts into Soul in this dazzling collection of sides originally released by the Chess subsidiary.


Devised by the same team supporting the likes of Muddy Waters and Etta James at Chess, the vintage of Checker Gospel celebrated here is distinguished by its expertly raw, rugged, live feel — thumping bass and pounding drums, bluesy guitar and horns — and its keen engagement with contemporary realities and politics, with an underlying, unwavering commitment to the Civil Rights movement. Not forgetting its sheer, startling, richly diverse soulfulness.

Key architects of the Chicago Sound and Motown are amongst the scores of contributors: Charles Stepney, Gene Barge, Eddie Kendricks, and Leonard Caston Jr. are in the house… Morris Jennings, drummer on Curtis’ Superfly and Terry Callier’s What Color Is Love… Louis Satterfield from The Pharaohs and Earth Wind & Fire… Ramsey Lewis’ guitarist Byron Gregory… Phil Upchurch… Laura Lee…

Producer Monk Higgins joined Checker in 1967, bringing his experience of R&B and Gospel hit-making for the labels One-derful and Satellite, together with a loyal cohort of musicians. A protege of Willie Dixon, engineer Malcolm Chisholm set up the Ter Mar studio as if preparing for a live gig, carefully teasing measures of bleed into the microphones. With Ralph Bass from King Records running A&R, they knew exactly what they were after. ‘I’m using horns and an R&B sound in gospel recordings,’ said Bass. ‘We have no charts. All the musicians are given the chord changes. I want the cats to think when we’re cutting. I want spontaneity, and that’s what we’re getting.’ And: ‘There is more to gospel than just finding solace in the church. This follows the same message of Martin King, who was fighting for a new way of life. Kids are tired of hearing Jesus Give Us Help. They want a positive message.’

Focussed on the late sixties and early seventies, the twenty-five recordings here are all killer no filler, but try these four, random entry points: the heavy funk ostinato of the Violinaires’ Groovin’ With Jesus, working itself up into a post-James-Brown brass frenzy, sure to knock your socks off; Cleo Jackson Randle’s title track, for those who like their Gospel straight-up and hard-core; Eddie Kendricks’ achingly timely choral call-to-arms, Stand Up America, Don’t Be Afraid; the East St Louis Gospelettes’ heart-stopping, fathoms-deep rendition of Bobby Bland’s I’ll Take Care Of You.
A beautiful gatefold sleeve; a full-colour booklet with excellent notes by Robert Marovich; top-notch sound. Another knockout selection by Greg Belson and David Hill.

A shoo-in for soul compilation of the year.

300 copies

BerettaMusic, known for discovering and developing Detroit talent and serving as a launching ground for several well known artists such as Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Luke Hess and many others, exposes another great new talent in Detroit with his first vinyl release, Nic Joseph.

Nic is a rising star in the house music scene and has been honing his sound the past 10 years incorporating driving deep house and soulful Detroit techno elements. He has had some massive house releases this year on Simma Black, Too Many Rules & Origins and has made a
big splash in the UK. His last release, “On Me” peaked at #13 on the top 100 Beatport House chart amongst thousands of other tracks and was featured on Defected Radio’s show. His music is currently supported by the likes of Simon Dunmore (Defected), Sam Divine (Radio 1), Josh Butler, Mark Knight (Toolroom) and Kevin McKay. Nic delivers 3 of his signature style driving house tunes for the first time on vinyl and they are not to be missed!

Airport Society are the Detroit duo of Brian Kage and Ryan Sadorus who founded the label BerettaMusic together nearly 20 years ago. They are on remix duties serving up their signature deep, late night dark Detroit warehouse inspired sound. Drawing inspiration from Basic Channel, Echo Space and Terry Lee Brown Jr., this mix will fit great into those deep dark German style house sets.