On Sat 5 August, legendary acid house hero Iain McCready returns to the Bullitt Courtyard. It’s the third time the ever-versatile Iain has played for us in recent years: the first was Balearic, the second pretty cosmic, and this time he’s doing a summer soul special. Three, that’s the magic number!
To get you in the mood, Iain has conjured up a chart of his current favs and dropped some nice words too. Here’s the man himself:
‘Can I say before I start how excited I am with the soulful music that is around at the moment? Truly there’s so many inspiring black music records to be had, from the numerous reissues on 45 to full blown modern Philly-style albums. There’s much to choose from, be it Afro, Latin, African, Boogie, Disco, Soulful House and pure Soul releases. It’s never been so good, really. It’s been my pleasure to sift through my back catalogue and mix it up with new stuff. Anyway onto business, in no particular order…
Opening with Nancy Wilson’s stunning ‘Now’ – a beautiful intro making way to phased live strings as the bassline and percussion weave a punctuated path as Nancy strongly delivers her vocal. Building and breaking until off it goes at a mid-tempo trot, the vocals lifting the song: strident, sophisticated and sublime. First class.
Gloria Ann Taylor rolls in with another stunning vocal delivery over a frisky rhythm track with bobbing bass, building her beautifully arranged case to the gospel peak with refrains of ‘Hallelujah, hallelujah’ echoing across the song, lovely stuff.
Asha’s ‘Space Talk’ is well named, sounding from the same planet as Slick’s ‘Space Bass’ (though much slower). It grows into a chugging, swirling groove, all wah-wah’s, phat bass and fills before the cute, girlie vocal adds the glue that binds the lot into dancefloor dynamite.
Chantal Curtis ‘Get Another love’ has become a stone-cold classic, a big garage record that has quietly been taking care of business over the years. I think Kathy Brown covered it well in the early noughties but for me the original bosses it. Strong vocal delivery, there’s a beautiful tone to Chantal’s voice, it’s pacey, jazzy with a blues gig in there too from the harmonica but this is a disco record straight. So the strings pop up with the horn section as the whole thing gets going properly to the end. Wicked.
A bit of a nifty instrumental next from the Andromeda Orchestra – a useful intro builds nicely into a deep simple bassline, great string and sick piano and organ solos keep this lifting and lifting until the Rocky type ‘Higher… higher…’ vocal drops and strings boost it to a crescendo. A great track doing damage on dancefloors and more goodness to the flip with the Mozambique track. In the bag.
More Amour’s ‘Solar Flair’ quickly grabs your attention with its ass-shaking beats, bumpy bassline , spacey swirls, Close Encounter-synths and a wicked Moog(y) keyboard solo. Totally infectious, seriously essential.
Doug Gomez comes on like a Brazilian Ron Trent with ‘Celestial Dance’. the version I have is a bit more up, but live percussion and a wandering piano solo entwined around great strings builds and builds before hitting the spot and the whole band joins in. A dancer’s record to get lost in. Mesmerising.
Around for a while but still essential, Q’s ‘Everybody likes a Good funk’ turns it out, as the name implies. A cracking funk disco backing works its way under the class female vocal ‘Everybody needs a good funk’. True.
A bit of old gold with Direct Current’s ‘Everybody Here Must Party,’ a real disco tune with the bass player earning his money bobbing and weaving a path over a solid rhythm. Strings, handclaps and funky guitar licks all abound, while the three girls drop vocals from harmonies to jazzy skits over the top, holding the listener and pumping up the room. 7 minutes over too quick. Too good.
Charles Earland is well known in Mod Soul circles for his keyboard-led dancers like ‘Yes Suh’ but this soul funker from 1980 shows just how important a player he was. Countless albums from ‘Black Talk’ & ‘Black Power’ in the early days to ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Coming to you live’ he constantly evolved and stayed current . On this mid-tempo stomper the funk bass , guitars and horn section compliment the female vocals in heating up the club. A great opener as it lays out your stall for what’s to come. Mighty.
Masters at Work take on the mighty Fela with this next track – this is no youngster it’s been around for a number of years but still has the qualities to shine. The strong rhythm section underpins the 12 minutes of Afrobeat delight, pulling you into the groove whilst the horns, flute and vocals push along with the rhythm. A great dancer. Epic.
Betty Griffin brings the Gospel and feelgood with ‘Free Spirit.’ Striding along she belts it out over a funky guitar disco workout. A classy soul track that rouses the room.
Domo Domo’s uplifting Latin workout slams it home with this hyped Louie Vega Jazz Dancer. Reworking the Voltage Brothers rare ‘Happening in the streets’ with chopping edits and filtered sections it delivers an energy that’s hard to follow. A future take on the past that will be around for a long time. Classic.
Iain McCready plays Bullitt Courtyard on Sat 5th August with support from Belfast Music Club and Daniel Young (Iris Magazine). We kick off at 8.30pm and entry, as always, is free.
