1970 The New Sound “The New Sounds” on Turbo Records

Hey, do you like your soul ultra gospel-tinged and both so sleepy and so hard that it falls somewhere between a Ray Charles record, drunk Wilson Pickett, and a Down South Testifyin’ Revival? Yeah, me too. Mainly this action is out of Virginia, where they were first called The Jivers, with gritty vocalist Lawrence Brown, sax breaker Dawson L. Smith, and pew-side guitar slinger L.A. Brown, but it is often the heavy wash of George Melvin’s organ (played with Groove Holmes) that lands each cut firmly in the world of both fearing and revering god. It’s lo-fi, cracking, snare heavy funkish deep soul and the kind of record you can happily listen to 38 spins consecutively and be conflicted over whether to flip it one last time.

​Obsessive soul-heads know that Turbo Records is one of the many indie labels started by THE MIGHTY Sylvia (of Sylvia & Mickey) Robinson, perhaps the mightiest woman in the history of vinyl that most people have never heard of, and if you really want to do a deep dive, is not only a killer business woman, soul diva, disco queen, one time owner of Chess Records, and prescient entrepreneur, is also more or less the Godmother (Sugar Hill Records Top Boss) of Modern Hip Hop. So yeah, lady has an interesting backstory. Either way, this record rules, a slice of pure 1970, back in the day when the day had no back.