No archival music project that I know of has unearthed more quality forgotten music than Buda Music's Ethiopiques series, which restored and re-presented a wealth of Ethiopian jazz from the '60s and '70s. I spent a good year picking through those audio mines - for every gold nugget there are mounds of granite - and it was worth it to get ahold of something that sounded so harmonically and rhythmically bizarre, but with a recognizable soulfulness.
Now I've got a new obsession to rival my Ethiopiques craze: Numero Group's Eccentric Soul series. It's a similar concept, collect works of unrecognized genius, the kind of music that might have had a fighting chance at a legacy in the electronic age - in this case a whole bunch of American soul labels that never rose to the status of Motown, Stax or Hi Records - and package them together for new consideration.
I first became aware of the series during the release of Volume 3, which featured Miami's Deep City Label. I'm still wading through it all, but so far that volume seems the best place to start because it has some of the series' strongest work.
It takes some digging and sifting to get past the mediocre stuff, but the same could be said of the recently reissued Complete Motown series. And besides, in my experience having to do a little work for your music only brings it closer.
Check out some of my favorites so far:
Them Two - "Am I a Good Man" - Eccentric Soul Vol. 3: The Deep City Label
Moovers - "Someone to Fulfill My Needs" - Eccentric Soul Vol. 3: The Deep City Label
The Rising Sun - "One Night Affair" - Eccentric Soul: The Outskirts of Deep City
Tokay Lewis - "What Can the Matter Be" - Eccentric Soul: The Tragar & Note Labels
Eula Cooper - "Heavenly Father" - Eccentric Soul: The Tragar & Note Labels
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