Listen to Pratt & Moody's new soul gem "Hard Way To Live"

Pratt & Moody's new 45 "Hard Way To Live" with Cold Diamond & Mink sounds like a Darondo session outtake from 1973.

Here's the scoop from Timmion HQ...

Pratt & Moody return on May 15th with a new 7" single on Timmion Records, pairing “Hard Way To Live” with “You Bring Me Joy” – two deep diving soul cuts that reaffirm their place among the true pioneers of the modern sweet & beat soul revival. Written and recorded together with Timmion’s trusted house band Cold Diamond & Mink, the single continues a lineage that has consistently blurred the line between contemporary songwriting and timeless soul aesthetics.

The A-side, “Hard Way To Live,” finds Pratt & Moody firmly in their beat ballad lane. Built on a warm, funky foundation, the song balances emotional weight with melodic lift, as its chorus opens into crossover soul-pop territory. Lyrically, it wrestles with life-earned scars and the quiet difficulty of letting go of pain that they cause – the feeling of keeping on running even after you’ve spent the last of what you had.

On the flip, “You Bring Me Joy” unfolds like a slow-burning David Lynch scene, its dramatic crawl evoking soundtrack soul before bursting into a Stax-inspired chorus. Tremolo-soaked guitar lines nod to classic dark surf music, while Emilia Sisco’s gospel-tinged background vocals elevate the track into full emotional bloom. Together, these two songs offer a vivid preview of Pratt & Moody’s upcoming album – a deeper plunge into soulful storytelling, their tried and tested lowrider soul chops, and modern clarity, soon to follow on Timmion Records. 

You can pre-order a copy of "Hard Way To Live" via Bandcamp right here. Check it out below. 

 

Jeb Loy Nichols tightens up with a soul swinger for Timmion

Jeb Loy Nichols got down with Timmion studio crew Cold Diamond & Mink and came up swingin' with "Can't Cheat The Dance" 

Here's the scoop...

Straight outta the green hills of the Welsh countryside comes Jeb Loy Nichols, the newest sensation in Timmion's growing roster of accomplished soul belters. A seasoned and versatile music scene veteran who has knocked out 13 albums under his own name over the past 25 years – apart from his work with The Fellow Travellers, Okra All-Stars and Strange Faith (with Nostalgia 77's Ben Lamdin), Jeb has all the skills required to polish Cold Diamond & Mink's rough grooves into shining gems and provide tasteful production-ready sleeve art to boot. Yes, apart from being a top-notch singer/songwriter and guitarist, Jeb is also an in-demand graphic artist. 

"Can't Cheat The Dance" on the A side is a rolling southern-style soul cooker in an Eddie Hinton vein, which the Wyoming-born singer attacks effortlessly with his praise for an honest dance over a stone-solid "Tighten Up" groove from  Timmion's reliable studio crew Cold Diamond & Mink. The slow-burn flipside "We Gotta Work On It" kicks off with a churchy sweet organ groove and a simple acoustic guitar which gives Jeb all he needs to tell his story of overcoming life's little ups and downs in a way that recalls Charlie Rich at his bluesy best. You can get a copy from Timmion's Bandcamp page right here. Listen to "Can't Cheat The Dance" below. 

Perhaps even better news than the new double-sider is that Jeb and Cold Diamond & Mink have cut a whole 10-track album of soulful goodness for Helsinki's Timmion label dropping June 11th which you can now pre-order right here. While you're waiting for it to arrive in the mail, check out Jeb's great 2019 recording with the Westwood All-Stars, June Is Short, July Is Long on Compass Records, his previous album Country Hustle (City Country City) from 2017 – available here, and the two stellar volumes of Country Got Soul – featuring Tony Joe White, Dan Penn, Townes Van Zandt, Bobbie Gentry, Jim Ford, George Soulé, Travis Wammack, Donnie Fritts and others – which Jeb compiled for Casual Records back in 2003 and 2004. 

Born in Wyoming and raised in Missouri, Nichols absorbed the sounds of both rural America and the records played around his house. “We got it all”, he says, “my mom played jazz records, Don Shirley and Ella Fitzgerald, while my dad played bluegrass and Hank Williams.” But it was from the radio that Jeb received his most lasting education. Through the day and late into the night Jeb would listen and take to heart the disparate sounds of the airwaves. “The main station I listened to was out of Kansas City and played country music all day, then at nine o-clock at night they’d switch and become a soul station. It was magic, all this great music; Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, The Staples Singers, all of it right there, in my bedroom, for free.”

When Jeb was fourteen the family moved to Austin, Texas. “The best thing I learned in Austin”, Jeb says, “was how great live music could be. I saw everything from Funkadelic to Bob Marley to George Jones to The Ramones.” It was in Austin that he first heard, and was knocked out by, The Sex Pistols. “That was all new, the sound, the fury, the politics, all of it.” And it led straight to the road again, this time to New York. “I was seventeen”, recalls Jeb, “and New York was like nothing I’d ever seen. I’d always felt like an outsider and then there I was, in a town of outsiders. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.” In New York he was awarded a full scholarship to study painting at Parsons School of Design. He also started hanging out at clubs like Tier 3, The Loft and the Mudd Club where he became friends with members of the Slits and Neneh Cherry. “It was a great time to be in New York, the whole scene was so wide open.” It was the emerging hip hop scene that was most fascinating for him. “It was 1979 – and nothing in the world was more exciting than rap. The Treacherous Three, Funky Four Plus One, Grandmaster Flash – that stuff was so great! And then you had DJs like Larry Levan, it was fantastic.”

After three years in New York, Jeb hit the road again, this time to London. He shared a house with Ari Up from the Slits, Neneh Cherry and producer Adrian Sherwood, and, as he had in NYC, dove into London’s artistic community. “I formed a country band with Joe Brack and we played every kind of show you can think of. We did some bluegrass, some country, a lot of old protest songs.” In 1990 a tape of songs ended up at OKra Records, a small label in Columbus, Ohio. OKra offered Jeb a deal, and Jeb put together a band that included his wife Loraine Morley, On-U Sound man Martin Harrison, and jazz trombonist John Harbourne. The Fellow Travellers merged country-tinged, acoustic-based songs with a dub bottom. “It was fun”, says Jeb “it just worked. We all played what we wanted and stayed out of each others way, and it sounded great. I’ve never had more fun.” The Fellow Travellers released three more albums and were described in Spin as “the lonesome children of Merle, Marley and Marx”.

In 2000, after releasing three solo records, Jeb Loy and Loraine Morley moved to Wales where they’re slowly reclaiming ten acres of neglected scrub land, renovating a barn and putting in a large garden. “I’m sure I’ll move again”, he says, “but not just yet. This feels good, feels like something close to home.”

Listen to "Can't Cheat The Dance" below. 

That time Allen Toussaint and The Meters cut a Blaxploitation soundtrack

Allen Toussaint's soundtrack for the 1974 film Black Samson is way overdue for proper release.

Allen Toussaint's "lost" Black Samson OST

Take a cursory scan through Allen Toussaint's discography and you'll notice there's an unusual three-year gap between his Reprise albums, Life, Love and Faith from 1972 and Southern Nights released in 1975. Having just knocked out two successful albums with The Band – 1971's Cahoots and 1972's Rock of Ages, Toussaint's solo career was beginning to take off. In the first quarter of 1973, The Pointer Sisters' cover of his "Yes We Can Can" zooming up the charts and his production of Dr. John's single "Right Place, Wrong Time" was shaping up to be a massive summer hit, clearly this was no time for a ski trip to the Alps or a cycling jaunt through the Burgundy region of France. 

From the moment he finished work on Dr. John's In The Right Place album at Criteria in Miami during the latter part of 1972, Toussaint was busy setting up his own recording operation, Sea-Saint Studio, on the east side of New Orleans in the Gentilly neighbourhood. He'd cut a fantastically funky session with Crowbar's harp-honker Richard "King Biscuit Boy" Newell from Hamilton, Ontario using The Meters as the backing band – released as the King Biscuit Boy album on Epic (check out "Mind Over Matter") – and was ready for the next major step... finding a side door into the movie world. 

After Isaac Hayes scored big in 1971 with his Shaft soundtrack, followed in 1972 by Curtis Mayfield's smash success with Superfly and Marvin Gaye's crack "Trouble Man," then in 1973 James Brown chimed in with Black Caesar and Roy Ayers' delivered Coffy, Toussaint didn't want to be left out of the action. A Warner Bros. production Black Samson, a crime-drama set in contemporary New Orleans and directed by by first-time filmmaker Charles "Chuck" Bail, must've seemed like the right opportunity knocking. Bail was a former stuntman who'd taken spills in 50's TV westerns (Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Big Valley, etc) leading to work on low-budget biker flicks during the latter 60s (Werewolves on Wheels, Hells Angels on Wheels), and was keen on finding a less bruising way of earning a living in the film world. 

After taking some lumps in 1973's Cleopatra Jones, Bail figured it was time to make a move after seeing first hand how money could be made in the emerging Blaxploitation genre. He was also sharp enough to know that the film's soundtrack would play an essential role in any such project's financial success. He'd need the right musical accompaniment to create a genuine sounding Big Easy ambiance and help sell the whole Black Samson concept. Based on a story idea from the producer, Daniel Cady (Grave of the Vampire, Garden of the Dead), Black Samson was about a staff-weilding New Orleans club owner who tries to keep his neighbourhood free of drugs and gang activity with the help of his pet lion. The role of Samson would be played by veteran TV actor Rockne Tarkington who, along with a few scenes in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible, Bewitched, was the first black actor ever to have a speaking role on the Andy Griffith Show. Evidently his mid-60s work on NBC's Tarzan series, ABC's Cowboy In Africa and the 1965 safari-comedy Clarence, The Cross-Eyed Lion (which spun off the Daktari series) made him the logical choice to work alongside a trained-yet-unpredictable apex predator. 

There was similarly a very short list of available music auteurs who could be hired to create an authentic sounding contemporary Crescent City feel. What Toussaint lacked in cinematic experience, he more than made up for in proven skills as a writer, arranger and producer. He also now had his own recording studio in New Orleans, the  funkiest group in town, The Meters, were his house band and he had all of the finest local singers on speed dial. In short order, Toussaint scored Black Samson, The Meters made sure it was funky and he called on Willie West to voice the title track. 

Millard Leon "Willie" West grew up  in rural Raceland, Louisiana and started recording soulful R&B sides in 1959 for Dotty Lee's Rustone label and later with Connie LaRocca's Frisco imprint before connecting with Toussaint for a couple of Dessu and Josie label releases. Solid performances all but no traction. West's Black Samson work led to a Toussaint-produced session for Warner where he was given the rare chance to record two of his own compositions backed by the Meters and a horn section yet sadly, the hard whumpin' "It's Been So Long" went nowhere in 1974. But that didn't stop West. He continued working with The Meters and regularly performed on Bourbon St. through the 80s. After Katrina, West moved to the Minneapolis suburb of St. Cloud and has been doing some of the most powerful singing of career with the production team of Cold Diamond & Mink for Finland's Timmion label. Check out "The Devil Gives Me Everything Except For What I Need."    

Unfortunately, Black Samson turned out to be a box office dud and despite Toussaint's inspired work with The Meters, Warner Bros didn't bother putting out a soundtrack album. Later that same year Chuck Bail went onto direct the Cleopatra Jones sequel, Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold followed by his crowning achievement, 1976's Gumball Rally which spawned a brief-but-lucrative road race comedy fad – think Cannonball, Cannonball Run I & II, Smokey & The Bandit, etc. Yet even after Black Samson's theatrical re-release in 1981 and a Warner Home Video VHS release in 1994 and DVD release in 2010, a standalone Black Samson album never materialized. 

Considering how many soundtrack recordings from the 70s and 80s – good, bad and mediocre – have been reissued over the past few years, it's more than a bit perplexing that a Black Samson OST hasn't appeared in some form. At a time when there contemporary musicians are putting together fake groups to create Blaxploitation-style soundtracks for films that don't even exist, it seems strange that some established reissue operation that specializes in 70s funk, soul and/or soundtrack reclamation projects wouldn't consider putting out a Black Samson OST – especially if the original analog tapes still exist. Apparently they do according to an L.A. Times article, which reported how the tapes eventually wound up in the hands of Los Angeles music collector Mike Nishita, brother of keyboardist Money Mark Nishita.  

So the story goes, most of Toussaint's original master tapes from his Sea-Saint sessions – including his soundtrack for Black Samson – were maintained on site at the studio. Many people naturally assumed that all of those tapes were lost in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. So the story goes, the multi-track masters stored on the ground floor of Sea-Saint studio were destroyed. However, a number of quarter-inch reels which were kept near Toussaint's office on the second floor survived the flood. 

In the wake of Katrina, music biz veteran Bill Valenziano (who'd purchased Sea-Saint Studio and it's contents from Toussaint and his longtime business partner Marshall Seahorn back in 1985) found that some tapes could be salvaged and shipped them to Los Angeles where he lives. Valenziano apparently then sold a few to another party, hung onto some and then stashed the rest in a storage unit. You probably know where this is going. Yes, the locker's contents eventually went up for auction and the buyer flipped 16 tapes to Mike Nishita for $100 a box. Among those reel-to-reel tapes was a version of the Black Samson soundtrack. 

That was in 2019. Two years later, there's still no sign of a Black Samson soundtrack album appearing anytime soon. Hopefully some day, an enterprising reissue label honcho will get in touch with Nishita and whatever other parties are involved to work out a plan for a proper release of the complete Black Samson OST. But for now, the snippet below will have to suffice.               

 

One For The Weekend: Fred w/ Cold Diamond & Mink

Here's the scoop...

The ever-mysterious Fred broke out on the contemporary soul scene with the crossover soul gem "Love Can Last Forever" in 2016. After a four year hiatus between releases, it's time for his sophomore single "Sweet Thing," and it's immediately apparent that like a fine wine, Fred's voice has improved with the passage of time. Since his premier release kicked off the Timmion sub-label Stylart, the label's busy in-house production team Cold Diamond & Mink have put deep soul gems on the dancefloor at a steady clip and this new track shows that they're still very much in-sync with Fred. 

"Sweet Thing" is a sophisticated mover with a shimmering electric piano, tastefully arranged horns and strings to boot. When paired with Fred's impassioned delivery beautifully accompanied by on-point backing vocals set to a simmering mid-tempo groove, it all really comes together. 

We are nowhere nearer to cracking the enigma of Fred's personality, but he does seem less complicated than on his first release. "Sweet Thing" is exactly what it sounds like, a soothing piece of soulful sunshine. Something to enjoy in good company. Get a 7" copy via Bandcamp right here. Have a listen to "Sweet Thing" and the instrumental flip "My Baby's Outta Sight" below. 

Pratt & Moody come up with another deep soul gem "Wheels Turning"

Helsiniki-based production team Cold Diamond & Mink strike again with Pratt & Moody's "Wheels Turning" out October 2nd.

Here's the scoop...

Pratt has definitely carved his name in flaming letters on the pages of contemporary soul music during the past few years. This has been achieved with the modern classic "Lost Lost Lost" currently clocking close to 2M Youtube plays, as well as its sequel single "Words Words Words" which is also doing well out there in the world. With "Wheels Turning (Gonna Run Away From You)" Pratt skids away from his guitar wielding partner Moody and rides towards a morbid dusk with only Cold Diamond & Mink by his side. 

Those, who are familiar with Pratt's work under his birth name Tuomo Prattala, know that he's a dynamic solo artist, songwriter and musician on his own. So it comes as no surprise, that this new platter brings everything that fans of dark but sweet ballads crave for. The lyrics are loaded with metaphors and we'll let you decipher them for yourself. 

What needs no explanation, is that Tuomo is pitching high as he rolls away, leaving a trail of bitter heartache behind. Have a listen below. Pre-order a copy of the single right here. 

Carlton Jumel Smith cruises with 70s soul vibe on 1634 Lexington Avenue

Check out Carlton Jumel Smith's "This Is What Love Looks Like!" off his forthcoming album for Timmion out May 10th.

Here's the scoop...
After Carlton Jumel Smith hit hard in soul circles with his deep Timmion debut single "I Can't Love You No More" and following it up with the tight "This Is What Love Looks Like!", Carlton's back at it with an album full of solid gold contemporary soul.

The material mined here is none other than the vintage groove troves of classic 1970's R&B, something the dependable Cold Diamond & Mink crew brews up effortlessly in the studio. Carlton's songwriting and performances carry strong echoes of Curtus Mayfiled's classic 70s Curtom productions, Stax and Hi label Memphis soul and naturally Motown. We're talking about the musical traditions he's absorbed since witnessing James Brown at the Apollo as an 8-year old.

Setting the mood with the dancefloor ready "Woman You Made Me", Carlton follows it up with the devastating Chi-Town-styled group harmony groover "Remember Me."

Fans of the Menahan Street Band will be all over the moody "Help Me (Save Me From Myself)." The album's flipside sequences the otherworldly shuffler "You Gonna Need Me" with Carlton's welcome update of his widely slept on "I'd Better", swapping its programmed modern soul for a warmer, more organic approach.

On his album Carlton Jumel Smith explores different shades of the golden era of soul music, and it would be hard to find anyone doing it with such taste and style in 2019. Check out "This Is What Love Looks Like!" below. Carlton Jumel Smith's 1634 Lexington Ave is out on Timmion Records May 10th – get it right here.

Sami Linna Quartet previews new album with swingin' "Mode For Tomorrow"

Guitar slinger Sami Linna is backed by a solid organ combo featuring Jukka Eskola's Hammond hero Mikko Helevä. 

After expanding its roster and musical scope into jazzier terrains with Jukka Eskola Soul Trio, Finland's venerable Timmion Records now introduces Sami Linna Quartet. Led by guitarist Linna, this international group of elite players paves way for their full length album with the single release ”Mode For Tomorrow” b/w ”Umoya”.

The single hints to what’s to come with a deep modal tune referencing 1970’s spiritual jazz on the A-side, and groovy soul jazz on the flip. You can immediately hear that these compositions have been crafted with thorough understanding of the tradition, but with passion and capability to breath them to life in this modern age.

The lineup is truly something to write home to. Linna himself has over 20 years of experience working in the Finnish jazz scene, same as saxophonist Jussi Kannaste. Organist Mikko Helevä plays in Jukka Eskola Soul Trio as well as a host of other top jazz groups. But it is drummer Dana Hall who’s is the most seasoned member of this experienced troupe. Namedropping might seen lame, but in this case we’ll take it there as Hall has worked side to side with Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron, Bobby Hutcherson, Ray Charles, Horace Silver, and Benny Golson to name a few.

Both tracks get a single edit treatment here and the full length versions will be available on the coming album. This is not jazz for the faint hearted, but the real deal meant for real people. Check out "Mode For Tomorrow" below and grab a copy of the Timmion seven-inch right here.  

Happy Birthday Willie West!

Cheers to soul great Willie West who turns 77 today! Here are a couple of Willie's typically stellar performances. 

Pratt & Moody hit on contemporary soul classic with "Words Words Words"

With the stone-solid backing of Cold Diamond & Mink, Pratt & Moody's harmony soul gem could break beyond the funk scene. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Ernie Hawks

Fab Finnish flautist Ernie Hawks steps forward from the ranks of The Soul Investigators with a funky fresh LP for Timmion.  

Introducing the Jukka Eskola Soul Trio

The new album from Finnish jazz trumpeter Jukka Eskola – released by Timmion on May 5 – is already sold out on vinyl.

One of the most prominent and busy players on the Finnish jazz scene at the moment is trumpeter Jukka Eskola. After over a decade of adventures in different spaces of jazz – from the dance floor burn of The Five Corners Quintet to the raw expressive modes of Mikko Innanen's small big band, Jimi Tenor's cosmic jazz and his own prime CTI styled solo recordings – Eskola takes things back to basics with his latest project, the Jukka Eskola Soul Trio.

Composed of the 38 year-old Eskola on trumpet and fluegelhorn, Mikko Helevä on organ and the Stance Brother #1 Teppo "Teddy Rok" Mäkynen on drums. When Helevä needs to take a break from the bass pedals, the trio gets assistance from Ville Herrala on the upright. In addition, tenor saxophonist Timo Lassy features on “Hong Tong” and “Subterranean Variations” and Magnus Lindgren spices the groove with his flute on "Railyard Boogie".

The Soul Trio's self-titled debut album for Finland's Timmion Records will be a delight for lovers of mid-60's American soul jazz from labels like Blue Note and Prestige. At parts the approach is even less sophisticated as on "For Anne Lee", where the group proceeds to lay down some of the rowdiest bar room hard bop. Creating an extra air of hipness, the package is completed with European Clarke-Boland-ish touches that hint at reinvention more than simple emulations. This record carries all the right ingredients for a grade A contemporary jazz album: virtuoso players, who know the heritage as well as how to play around it, and who know how to work as an entity surrendering strictly to the groove.

Whaddya mean you don't know Cold Diamond & Mink

Cold Diamond & Mink are the mysterious houseband of Timmion's subsidiary Stylart. Check their recent soul instros. 

That's Cold Diamond & Mink playing in the background of the trailer for Jim Jarmusch's latest film Paterson.

Happy Birthday Willie West!

Check out the amazing single Louisiana soul great Willie West cut with the High Society Brothers for Timmion. 

Straight outta Finland: Little Ann, Willie West and Elder William Smith

Talk to any of Ann Bridgeforth's fellow workers at the Marysville Parts and Distribution Center in the gigantic industrial park that is Marysville, Michigan and they'll recall she was a pleasant and reliable packer/checker but that's about it.
Few of them had any idea that the woman working next to them every day on the line for more than 20 years was once a hugely promising soul singer in Detroit who could've been the next Diana Ross or Mary Wells had she been given a shot with Motown.
Unfortunately, Chicago-born "Little Ann" Bridgeforth (she was the youngest of seven brothers and sisters), who began her singing career as a teenager doing Sunday matinees at Michelle's Playroom, only got as far as TCB Studios on Highland Avenue. It was there that Bridgeforth recorded her initial sessions under the direction of session guitarist and freelance producer Dave Hamilton resulting in a single for Ed Wingate's Ric-Tic label, Going Down A One-Way Street. Like many artist's first releases, it went nowhere and Bridgeforth wasn't given a second chance. Before leaving Detroit in 1969 to join her homeboys George Clinton and Funkadelic in the more happening (and less fiery) city of Toronto, Little Ann recorded at least eight more songs with Hamilton who safely packed the tapes into boxes and left them to gather dust.
Soon after settling into her new Toronto home, Bridgeforth hooked up with the members of the jazz trio Fat Chance but after a few years of shuttling back and forth between Toronto and Montreal lounges without advancing her music career, she'd had enough. Bridgeforth returned to Michigan where she found gainful employment with Chrysler packing auto parts and her singing was confined to church services and weddings.
That would've been the last anyone ever heard of Little Ann, only, sometime in the early 80s so the story goes, UK Northern Soul dealer John Anderson acquired a mysterious acetate of an unreleased Little Ann track What Should I Do? and offered the then completely unknown seven-inch to  influential Wigan Casino selector Richard Searling who new a smash hit when he heard it and promptly turned the song into a Northern anthem as a cover-up. Dubbed "When He's Not Around" and credited to Rose Valentine and the Sisters 3, the tune would continue to fill floors for the next 15 years without anyone ever knowing the true identity of the artist responsible. It stands as one of the longest running cover-up mysteries and may have remained unsolved to this day if Northern punters Gilly and Tats hadn't saved up their money for a trip to Detroit in 1990 to meet their heroes Melvin Davis and Dave Hamilton. When Gilly and Tats played their cassette recording of "When He's Not Around," Hamilton immediately recognized his own recording of Little Ann singing "What Should I Do?" Case closed. It wasn't long before Ace/Kent reissue producer Ady Croasdell was trawling through Hamilton's tape archives for more amazing unknown artifacts and Bridgeforth was summoned from her 9-to-5 job to perform in England before adoring crowds of tear-eyed Northern Soul fanatics. Some 35 years after her ill-fated career began, Little Ann was finally getting her due.
Sadly, Bridgeforth's unlikely return to the stage wasn't to last. Suffering from kidney disease, she would spend the final two years of her life on dialysis, finally succumbing in January 2003 at the age of 57.
A few of Little Ann's "lost" recordings have appeared on various volumes of Ace/Kent's Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers series although the Helsinki-based Timmion label's new 9-track Deep Shadows LP is the first complete collection of the sweetly swinging and engagingly atmospheric songs she cut at TCB Studios back in the day. Better late than never.

Also from Timmion comes the unexpected return of New Orleans soul survivor Willie West. Perhaps best known to Big Easy R&B lovers for his Allen Toussaint produced numbers on Deesu, West's one-off Warner single B-side Said To Myself backed by the Meters (with Herman Ernest subbing on drums for Ziggy Modeliste) is a favourite amongst the funk elite. Although, instead of simply reissuing one of West's classic burners or perhaps some unreleased jam from the Black Sampson soundtrack sessions, Timmion has released a magnificently moody new tune The Devil Gives Me Everything Except What I Need backed with understated elegance by the High Society Brothers grooving in a low-key El Michels Affair mode. You can listen to the track here.

And while the just-issued Elder William Smith gospel funk single His Voice b/w He Spoke by the All Nations Quartet is on the Psalms label, the insanely limited seven actually has a not-so-obvious Finnish connection. This clever studio concoction neatly pieced together by DJ/collector Kris Holmes with sampled sermonizing dropped over head-nodding beats and organ fills was mastered at Timmion in Helsinki by Jukka Sarapaa of Soul Investigators infamy. Since I got one off Kris, there's only 199 hand-numbered copies left so stop reading this and grab one quick. Check it out here.