Kent 218 - Fatback's Soul Shop (2003) + Booklet - Rare Soul (FLAC 359MB)

UPGRADE from the old blog...the fatback label came before the band, about the same time as the remarkable shop that is pictured on the front of this CD. known as the home of fatback it was bill Curtis' business centre for his band, and a booking agency for local talent, an academy of music, a place to organise parties and functions and much more. Named after Bill's unusual style of drumming,it became the label name when Bill ventured into the record business and he also adopted it for his band,s name when he was eventually ready to record them. That was after the label had closed and Bill had set up BC Project ii for the initial fatback singles,credited to johnny king and the fatback band. These songs were proto-funk numbers but also contained some fine melodies which was inevitable with the band's strong musical roots on vinyl they are as scarce as a sexually naive new r&b video and one of the three is in an extended version from the (then) found master tape. The link between Gerry Thomas and Bill Curtis is how Gerry progressed from the Jimmy Castor Bunch via Gerry and Paul & the Soul Emissaries to the Fatback Band, which he didn't officially join until the late 70s. The music is of high quality throughout and tracks like "peace,love not war" by the early Fatback Band,"i need you" by the Puzzles and Mary Davis' mega rare indemander "who will it be" are particular highlights and bonuses  in the form of unissued tapes that had the two great songs left on the shelf and included here. Also two catchy numbers from a singer named Jimmy Williams are also  ncluded, being 16 tracks worth of material it is a rare Kent CD. This is now a long deleted album that is now quite hard to obtain containing many unissued tracks seeing release for the first time back in 2003. A quite brilliant album and one of my faves from the Kent label! This is the early days of the fatback sound with five classic northern dancers mainly from the torch... herein befor they went on to acieve super stardom as one of the top funk bands in the world. a great mix of both genres!

AMM

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