The Soul Vault has usually felt quite at home in the world of Northern Soul. This one doesn't.
Here, things open up. And not by a little.
The opening makes that clear straight away. Billy Garner kicks things off with Brand New Girl, all raw energy and attitude. Moments later, Dream Team arrives with a truly heart-wrenching vocal performance, and before long Frankie And The Damons push the sound into territory where soul, funk and a touch of garage energy comfortably coexist.
And that's how the whole session unfolds.
What makes this volume interesting isn't a single style, but the way several of them live side by side. Some tracks would sit perfectly on a Northern Soul dancefloor, others lean towards raw, hard-hitting soul, some hint at the funk sounds that would dominate the early seventies, while others drift into denser, more psychedelic territory.
The first half balances rhythm, emotion and energy without ever losing momentum. Ida Sands, Lonette McKee and Sam Dees bring depth without slowing things down, while a succession of lesser-known names serves as a reminder that many of soul music's finest stories were written far away from the spotlight.
From Joe Hicks onwards, the sound gains weight. More groove, more tension and an increasingly late-night atmosphere. Barbara Stant, Albert Washington and Little Flint take things into deeper territory before The Politicians arrive with*Psycha-Soula-Funkadelic, blowing apart any attempt to file this session neatly under a single label.
Dee Edwards provides one final moment of elegance before O.V. closes proceedings with This Hurt Is Real, a title that more or less sums up the spirit running through much of the music collected here.
This isn't a linear session. It was never meant to be.
It's a journey through some of the lesser-travelled corners of soul music between 1966 and 1972, when the boundaries between styles were still loose enough for all of these sounds to share the same grooves.
![]() |
| Dream Team |
![]() |
| Ida Sands |
![]() |
| Lonette |
![]() |
| The Anglos |
01. Billy Garner - Brand New Girl (197?)
02. Dream Team - There He Is (1967)
03. Frankie And The Damons - Man From Soul (1967)
04. Lester Tipton - This Wont Change (1966)
05. Arnold Albury And The Casuals - Thats A Bet (1970)
06. Steve Flanagan - I've Arrived (1967)
07. Ida Sands - Prophesize (1967)
08. Lonette - Mind Intruder (1967)
09. Dream team - I'm Not Satisfied (1967)
10. Sam Dees - Lonely for You Baby (1968)
11. The Anglos- Since You've Been Gone (1967)
12. Tony Mathews - My Wish (1967)
13. Frankie And The Damons - Bad Woman (The Damons) (1968)
14. Joe Hicks - Don't It Make You Feel Funky (1969)
15. Billy Garner - You’re Waisting My Time Part 1 (1971)
16. Barbara Stant - Shadow In Your Footsteps (1972)
17. Albert Washington - Somewhere Down The Line (1971)
18. Little Flint- Pain (1970)
19. Politicians - Psycha-Soula-Funkadelic (1972)
20. Dee Edwards - Why cant there be love (1971)
21. O.V. - This Hurt Is Real (1969)




















.jpg)





























