Athens Of The North Vinyl & CDs

Review: The story of this one revolves around San Diego native Anthony "Antone" Williams. He was one day alone in a studio, messing about with the gear and before he knew he it lay down the haunting rhythm that underpins the tune now presented here by the good folks at Athens of the North. It's a sinister, restless one that got released as a hugely limited 7" on Unity Records with otherworldly soul production and a pained vocal up top. Post punk soul, some call it, and that's a fitting descriptor. A remix appears on the flip but the allure of the original is hard to beat.

Review: Athens of the North has got a couple of belters landing this month (to be honest, when do they ever serve up anything else?). The sone is a modern soul delight by Mark Beiner and his co-writer Ben Iverson, and the subject is Beiner's ex-girlfriend. It is a superb floater that carries you up above the dance floor with its lush horns and crooning vocals, while the flipside is much more raw. 'Crack (instrumental)' is a proto-hip hop beat with early electro stylings and some old school rap bars to add even more flavour. Two very different but equally great jams.

Review: Athens of the North is continually one of our favourite labels here at Juno HQ. The Edinburgh based outlet's tireless mission to unearth forgotten gems or shine a light on deserving tracks that may have been overlooked cannot be faulted. This time out Christopher Jay's 'What Do You want Me To Do' from 1987 gets served up on its own 45rpm. It is a glorious bit of disco boogie with a rugged broken beat, funk in the bass and soul in the buttery vocal. On the flip is a subtle edit that hits just as sweet a spot and it comes with a nice picture sleeve, too.

Review: The glorious Athens of the North label will always be one of our favourites. It is pretty much buy on sight for lovers of soul, funk and disco and this month it is serving up two more unmissable long players. Here it is Ike and The Uptights and their superb sounds which make, what me might bravely, say, could be one of this always high class label's finest releases. Formed by Henry Bradley in Forrest City, The Uptights recorded for Memphis label Action Records and here we get a perfect window into their world of raw and guttural funk.