Various – The Scene Club

Coming to rare soul/ northern soul late in my music digging career this series that charts the connections and history of the scene is an invaluable source. It is clear to these ears that the scene was more about rare than polished quality but the result is more grit and 'realness' than the mainstream material the scene eschews. in many ways this minds me of the later house sounds of chicago in contrast to the preceding polished disco material. What is it about UK music aficionados that makes them gravitate to the most authentic black american sounds. This author suggests that those of working class roots have a common bond of musical brother/sisterhood that soundtracks their harder industrial lives. These are songs for transcendence of a different kind, not the cerebral escapes into thinking music but the escape into the other world of 'feeling' music. Music to dance away the blues of the week and to live, laugh, love and cry to. Heart felt Soul filling stuff. This collection is a great document of a scene discovering and defining itself....Vital