VA - South Side Story (2014)

For the lowriders, the souleros, and for any armchair drag racer who still has a record player within reach, South Side Story pays tribute to the aftermarket sounds of soul music, inspired by the record industry’s metric trunkload of cruising compilations, legitimate and otherwise, that soundtracked an entire subculture. This getaway ride mixtape strips aesthetics from the timeless East Side Story series, and poaches music from Chicago soul groups (mostly, of course, from the historically soulful South Side). Tracks never before issued ride shotgun with songs known only from minuscule 45 pressings, with a few chromed-up classics to boot. Roll with a jacked-up masterpiece.

Included here are songs that are completely unreleased, others that are never before issued other than in minuscule pressings on 45, and a few chrome-coated classics, already seen on scads of flash-in-the-pan boots. The Numero Group’s crack team of researchers cut loose on the city of Chicago to assemble the perfect lowriding companion, and the results are unparalleled. From high school rivals The Si-Berians and The Intentions, who both feature their sole recordings here, to unheard material from the original Calvin Harris, to the elite Latino ensemble known as The Mystics, to the missing link in “sweet-as-sugar” Renaldo Domino’s lonely post-Twinight recording, this dazzling collection slices out a delectable cross-section of the city’s sweetest sounds. 13 perfect “souldies” as they are occasionally called, allowing you to throw away any of your many volumes of Gangster Soul Harmony, Lost Soul Oldies, East Side Story, Hood Dreams, Shady Side of Town (or any of the thousands of other similar iterations)