Following Nigeria 70, Strut records grow to the Caribbean for Calypsoul 70, a digest of calypso, reggae, latin, afro and soul styles from the 1970s. This is a tremendously exciting compilation that makes so many new connections and uncovers so many rarities that it amounts to a tote up re-education in 1970s Caribbean music. Crucially, though, it never forgets to be fun, and best of all, there's loads of it.
Focusing on a time when soul, funk, and disco divine Caribbean musicians to make powerful new fusions, the album never falls into a dry, scholarly coming by cataloguing work by style or origin, just plays like a bully party place from the start. The Revolution Of St Vincent's The Little You Say and The Rolling Tones' It's a Feeling set the climate, combining fairy-slipper with wind funk to startlingly original conclusions. Not all of the influences here are musical, however, and the importance of black exponent on many of the track is another revelation, from 'rapso' pioneer, Lancelot Layne, to the soul reggae of Tyrone Taylor. The keynote track here, though, has to be Biosis Now's Independent Bahamas. Neither are African golf links forgotten, thanks to the afrobeat-inspired Freedom In Africa.
Social commentary and political pleas are only one constituent of this compilation, though. Check out the awesome Trinidad steel pan plow of 90% Of Me Is You, the insane carnival of Clarence Curvan's Calypsoul, or the potty arrangements of Checkmate's Disco Groove. Then there's the marching band cover of You Don't Love Me and the mutated Dave Brubeck arrangements of the Wadadli Experience. And as for the latin stylings of Martinique's Marius Cultier, salsa masters Los Van Van, and the soul and disco fusions of St Lucia's Magic Circle and Dominica's Ophelia� well, you get the estimation. It's brilliant. We could go on. And hopefully, Strut Records will.
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