S.O.U.L. - What Is It & Can You Feel It (1996)

What Is It is S.O.U.L.'s 1971 Musicor album. Original copies (Musicor LP MS-3195) were selling for £150 when DJ Russ Dewbury suggested BGP might like to reissue it. The club buzz was high and when you hear the music you'll know why. A sampler's dream, it features some of the wickedest breaks and a jazz anthem, if ever there was one, in Burning Spear. At the time, Ace had recently polled their dealers throughout the UK, Europe and Japan and they had voted this album their No 1 priority reissue. Though a club fave, no-one knew much about the band but a DJ in their hometown of Cleveland tracked the group down and brought them back together. All were deeply moved and flattered in the UK interest in the album and subsequently they visited the UK as part of a much-acclaimed, sell-out tour with BGP fellow rediscovery Terry Callier.The group's second Musicor album Can You Feel It (Musicor LP MS-3230, from 1972) is now reissued as either a single vinyl LP or (with What Is It) as a 2 albums-on-1 CD for those who prefer extra long-playing little silver discs.Produced by the same team - Steve Feldman and Richard Talmage at (the appropriately named) Groove Sound Studios, New York - it offers more fine grooves on a whole bunch of original material and Stevie Wonder's My Cherie Amour.