Friday, June 8, 2012

Time To Get Vintage With Electronic Soul


Before there was electronic dance music, before house ruled the warehouses of Chicago and New York there was electronic soul. It was synthesized technology at its finest and from 1974 through 1984 it was a time for experimentation, playing with new toys and unbeknownst to everyone laying down the template for everything that would follow in its footsteps. Thanks to Chocolate Industries, they've gathered up a smattering of these fantastic vintage tunes and compiled them in their latest compilation Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984.

Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 is so raw, so pure and honest you can almost hear the ideas coming to life on every one of these songs. They're not the sparkling productions that we associate with today's soul and dance but rough, under produced songs that were out to try new things and test the limitations of the technology and the listener. Honestly, about half the songs here aren't that great but the other half are cool, original, and groovy. Synths gurgle along to solid basslines and subtle notes of funk run through each tune as various vocalists attempt to lay it down with varying degrees of swagger. At times sounding like long lost Isaac Hayes tunes and at others sounding like Radio Shack Electronic Experiment Kits, Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 is a fascinating glimpse back at how electronics began to take more and more of a role in getting people to boogie.

Good, bad, and ugly it's all worth listening to here and you can't help but respect every track gathered on Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 because all played a part in the development of the genres we hold dear today. Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 is the sort of record that no discerning fan of soul, funk, r&b, or electronica should be without. This is a historical document that features seventeen important tracks that more than likely got your parents to dance long before you were born!

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