VA - Can You Feel It?: Modern Soul, Disco & Boogie 1976-86 (2018)

After so many successful compilation series' on Tramp like the critically-acclaimed Movements, Feeling Nice, and Praise Poems comps, the people behind the label decided that the jewel of golden-era funk & soul was so brilliant and multifaceted, it was necessary to found a new one. Can You Feel It? is all about DISCO and MODERN SOUL!

SIDE A: Silky Vincent opens the set with his final 45 he had cut for the local Hook Up label out of Akron, OH. Maurice Mander's "Pickem Up And Puttem Down" has not seen a proper re-issue treatment yet - in contrast to their label mates Heem The Music Monsters 45. The Deep South Dance Band recorded their song at the famous Malaco studios with the house-rhythm section and Frederick Knight on lead vocals (check out "Feeling Nice 4"!!!) "Touchdown Cleveland Browns" could have become the theme song for the team, unfortunately it didn't.

SIDE B: Keither Florence is no new name for the educated Tramp musicologist (check out "Praise Poems 5"!!!) Afrodisia (from Worms, Germany!) cut "A Fool No Longer" in 1980. It is that good that some might mistaken it for an unreleased Midnight Star recording. The Oakland Express delivers proper west coast boogie-funk just like Empulse although the latter hail from Detroit, Michigan.

SIDE C: Mel-O-Madnezz certainly rings a bell too. Tramp's limited 45rpm single re-issue ("What You Getting High On" b/w "Beautiful Day") was sold out quickly (as a bonus 7-inch of "Movements 9"). The contribution of The Progressive Sounds Band is quite obscure as is "The Freeze" while "Boogie Man" is a well known funk classic.

SIDE D: The album finishes with four mellow tracks. First of all we have the wonderful "Don't Look Back" by Tobias - what a hook! The same goes for the The Tams' "This Precious Moment" - what a groove! Tyree Glenn Jr., son of legendary saxophonist Tyree Glenn Sr. (who had played with Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong) does a very fine job on "S.O.S." and the Jeffords Brothers' "Sights and Sounds" with its catchy almost pop-ish arrangement is the perfect last track for this album.

So there you have it, 19 obscure but brilliant Disco, Modern Soul & Boogie grooves where the majority have not been compiled anywhere else. This could be the beginning of another successful series - we'll see.