This anthology – the first to survey the lofty 60s and 70s achievements of Lee Anthony’s legendary Little Rock, Arkansas-based True Soul Records – has been 13 (!) years in the making. It’s so expansive that had to release it in two parts on CD, and as a 4 LP box set.
Download: Classic Funk “Funk’s Gonna Fly.”
The LA Weekly had some nice things to say about our 2-volume True Soul anthology. An excerpt:
“Lee Anthony grew up in that very shack in the days of violent segregation, went on to teach high school, run a record store and a recording studio and, crucially, release a string of marvelous soul and funk singles. That shack label now is sought after obsessively by collectors of the genre worldwide and big-name sample artists such as DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist.”
We’re now offering a pre-sale of the CD/DVD of Vol. 1 at Stones Throw’s webstore; Vol. 2, and the deluxe 4 LP box set will be available on Monday, July 27th.
Read: The LA Weekly on True Soul: Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax.
Buy: True Soul, Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax Vol. 1
Download: Thomas East “Slipping Around” (45 Version).
More Info/Pictures: True Soul, Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax Vol. 1.
One of our favorite soul/funk albums is East of Underground’s near-mythical, self-titled LP. Originally produced and released by the US Army in 1972 to use as a recruitment tool, this album flew into our top ten list when Chicago-based collector Dante Carfagna first sourced a copy in the late 90s. It never left.
We were overjoyed to be able to include the paranoiac soul of their “Smiling Faces” on our Forge Your Own Chains anthology. Now, we’re readying to present a 3 LP/3 CD box set of the East of Underground’s album – as it was originally issued, as a double LP with the little-heard SOAP album – and The Black Seeds/The Sound Trek album that the US Army released the following year. A September release date has been set; more information coming soon.
Our favorite Swiss producer-vocalist-visionary Dimlite has an album coming out soon. Yes, you heard that right – he’s finished an album. It’s called The Grimm Reality and we’ll be releasing it this fall – well, if you know our history with Dimlite by now, you’ll know that we’ll almost certainly leak a song or two and offer an exclusive pre-sale earlier than that.
At any rate, here’s a little teaser – a video Dimlite calls “humorous + minimalistic” – for a bonus track called “Orchard-wards” from his forthcoming opus.
Mark your calendar, buy your plane tickets, dig out your original copy of Thomas East’s “Funky Music” because this one is going to be special….
We’re going to be selling both volumes of our Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax CD – and we’ll have a small number of the 4 LP box sets. Get ’em a month ahead of release!
Palate will be raffling off 20 $20 gift cards at 5:00 pm, and the first 20 folks to purchase the True Soul Vol. 1 CD receive the True Soul Vol. 2 CD, free.