The Fabulous Fugitives and their Review featuring Michael Sharkey on Cultures of Soul Records

It's always good to look outside the usual things I regularly listen to just to wipe the slate clean and start over sonically. It's easy to go down that garage rock rabbit hole for days but after just listening to '70s funk and soul like this you just might be able to hear some new thread running straight back to the blues.

Cultures of Soul, along with Electric Cowbell and Colemine Records have been occupying that funk and soul hole in this overwhelming genre. At the WFMU record fair I'm always tempted to check out the reggae vendors with thousands of 45's to just randomly test the waters if for nothing else than the culture of the seven inch singles is huge there. The crazy turnover of people recording and pressing records for a show that same weekend is amazing. Or it used to be anyway. In funk and soul singles that history with the 45 runs just as deep and this one from The Fabulous Fugitives is a reissue of a record from 1975 and it's one of those timeless documents that honestly doesn't sound tied to that specific date. It's slightly raw sounding almost something of a demo and I like it even more because of those rough edges.

A-Side's "What the World Needs" starts out in that smooth soul with a slight reggae slant and jabs of muted guitar. Michael on vocals actually reminds me of Faithful Man by Lee Fields, a record Ive been ridiculously into lately. Michael must have been younger here but there's something similar here in the instrumentation too. Plenty of layers of weird percussion while staying loose and the vocals aren't exactly the same volume, blowing out a bit here and there like a nice homemade session. The horn section gives this repetition momentum to the answer which is peace and love of course. A clarinet back there even carves out a little solo alongside Michael who is undeniably a great vocalist that would remind anyone of a lot of guys from that '70s golden era of soul. It's an understated track that leaves plenty of room for Michael to smoothly bring in his own groove even getting a little carried away but who can blame him.

B-Side's "You Made Me Cry" kicks off with that high pitch snare wound impossibly tight rolling in setting the frantic tone for a tighter organ section running off with this melody. Michael is able to slide in this melody when there's so much of that James Brown treble electric flying around you'd think it would have to stay instrumental. A hell of a drummer on this session and the soul is kicked up a notch to a sort of warning. Michael manages to keep it smooths along with that clarinet during a great breakdown. Just as raw and demo sounding as the A-side with enough roughness to keep it super interesting and real. Like real people actually recorded it.

Pick this up from Cultures of Soul Records.

Emanuel Taylor on Cultures of Soul Records

I’d like to preface this single review by saying I’m really glad to read the Cultures of Soul Records description of this record by Emmanuel Taylor:

“It sounds like Stevie Wonder, looks like Stevie Wonder, and smells like Stevie Wonder so it must be Stevie Wonder, right?”

I was worried my upcoming Stevie Wonder references were probably laughable having been exposed to nothing more than top 40 radio funk and soul growing up. I also can’t keep crying ignorance thanks to all the records from Colemine and Cultures of Soul…but it’s still a huge unknown in my book, but that being said maybe now it’s obvious and my Stevie reference is actually even worse.

"You Really Got a Hold On Me" begins with Emanuel’s high tremolo, quivering Stevie Wonder power. This is a super punchy record with a slight wah with even a string section sliding in behind the arrangement. Beating the snare like a TV static filled shaker. The tom fills are just groups of tighter snares arranged in a circle. Tambourine solos and rolling lower strings under his quick vocal delivery. He’s got a high, ultra controlled vocal that he arranges with a falsetto backup, a little like those Nick Drake arrangements with the orchestral string notes in the background. This track has a huge, heavy sound with a hint of garage in it's raw, straightforward percussion. There are layers here of clicks and high hat stand hits, tambourine clangs, a huge amount of style without the usual sort of obvious trappings. It’s really a hyper alternate B-Side Stevie hit, belting out a crystal clear vocal, without peaking and a weird sense of Bee Gee’s prowess. His range is crazy - the backup ladies could only dream of getting to this place. There's a slight disco feel here, but the strings reel it back in or it's these heavy brass sections. The piles of percussion could be the starting place of the disco funk and they keep pulling it back into soul the entire time.
"Society" starts with beat perfection and the title vocal in a ‘across 110th street’ style, this is solidly almost in the eighties. Something about the production here has more of that crazy chorus of odd orchestral timing. Rising horns taking liberties with their own micro melodies peeking out of the whole. Something about the vocal compression…maybe the more upfront use of wah, a more synth bassline and this orchestral stuff is taking more of a backseat. The disco is gone and replaced with a heavy rock funk, more about vocal acrobatics and everyone stepping in to flutter all over the scales.

A nice find, with not much out there about Emanuel, plain white sleeve from Cultures of Soul Records.

Jordan Valentine and the Sunday Saints on Cultures of Soul Records

Cultures of Soul, around since 2010 in the flu ridden city of Boston has been involved with putting out and promoting a number of singles of the soul and funk variety, including this one from locals Jordan Valentine and the Sunday Saints who cover "Tell me what's on your mind" on the A-Side, and waste's no time in getting right into Jordan's heavy soul vocal, the star of the show. It's recorded clear as hell, but that's probably thanks to the perpetually fuzzy singles I'm used to, so listening to this crystal horn section, organs and jittery electric is all adding up to a funk and soul you don't get to much of these days. But horizons have expanded thanks to electric cowbell and colemine records, and along comes another label delivering up this ridiculously impressive contemporary soul/funk and out of Boston no less.
It's got to be imntimidating to accompany an epic kind of orchestral funk like this, you're steering this funk ship and better have the combined skills in range and dynamics to match everything here and she's heading this up easily.... with emotion.
Convincing you to tell her what's on your mind, in the classic struggle of (mis)communication between the sexes. A slow dfade out almost does this a disservice...I mean....guys, she's still going.

B-Side's "Follow Me" has me going back in time for a minute - well even this source genre is WAY before my time, but thinking about this coming out in the past few months has me thinking about what it might have been like to walk back from the record store with something like this back in the day, a plain sleeve black vinyl 45. Perfectly classic, they're really blowing out this track... she's losing her mind and hitting big vibrato with the guitar almost going into rock places, with a Make Up scream, the gospel yeh-yeh now informing this in a weird way. Remember when I was talking about Jordan being able to match that instrumentation? Well they do their best to keep up with her on this side in wah licks, the best kind and a slow buildup to bust out again...is that the funk equivalent of the heavy drop in dubstep?
What am I even talking about. A wah solo and stuttery groove - chicken head, cut off step, it's overwhelming on vinyl, this huge sound they insist on pummeling you with, that's the breaks.

Get this from Cultures of Soul who says:

Growing up Jordan's been heavily influenced by her mother's southern cooking and her love of Motown. There are two great tracks on this 7 inch out now. The A side is a masterful cover of "Tell Me What's On Your Mind" and the B side is an original sister funk track with howls of joy reminiscent of Betty Davis.

The kind folks over at CoS gave me a few extra copies of their releases if you want to send me an email at jdean99 at gmail I'd be happy to send them your way...along with some new 7inches stickers.