Compiled by Chris Gill (Northside Records) and Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos) & featuring 18 tracks " The Soul of Melbourne" album showcases the cream of the local scene including The Bamboos, Chet Faker, Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes, Saskwatch, Kylie Auldist, Electric Empire and more.
The Melbourne soul scene has been simmering slowly but amassing in stength like the lava in volcano that is about to erupt. With such a wealth of talented bands and musicians in the thriving Melbourne soul scene it looks like the volcano has well and truly exploded.
Here are some examples of how the world is taking notice of Melbourne Soul; Clairy Browne’s album entered the U.S. Billboard charts last month; The Bombay Royale hit the #1 position on the U.S iTunes World Music chart; The Bamboos were nominated for three ARIA awards; recent multiple AIR award-winner Chet Faker is topping music blog charts globally; and overseas labels such as Tru Thoughts and Freestyle Records in the U.K. having signed a whole bunch of local Melbourne acts.
The Soul Of Melbourne It is the first compilation to showcase the modern Melbourne Soul music renaissance and will undoubtably go down in history as a pivotal document of the scene. It's available on CD right now or if you can hold on the vinyl will be on its way in around two months.
Checkout Chris Gills (Northside Records) own mouth watering description of the album below.
"THE SOUL OF MELBOURNE various (Northside Records) CD $20 - presented by myself and Lance Ferguson this project is a special one for me. After dancing away for 20 years on the dancefloors of Melbourne town I figured its time to let the rest of the world know about what great music we have coming out of this town. Part of the appeal of this comp is the bands that are NOT on it. The ones that will be on future comps. It was VERY hard to pick just 18 songs, but these are a glimpse of what is Melbourne. It is a show of SOUL in this town. Soul music has many different faces, from the fat funk the Bamboos lay down with Kylie Auldist or the pretty funky soul that Saskwatch drop. The future dreams of Chet Faker, or the dense percussive storm of Gypsy Brown. Then there are also the exclusive moments on the comp. Chicago great Syl Johnson’s live performance on 3PBS with The Bamboos and the sneak peak of the spiritual jazz of Menagerie. There is the unreleased cuts from The Putbacks and also Cookin On three Burners. Plenty of goodness for everybody. Buy it for yourselves, buy it for people who don’t know about our soul music. Spread the word and what ever you do - DON’T STOP DANCING! The vinyl is coming but up to 2 months away."
Northside Records can be found at 236 Gertrude Street Fitzroy VIC and here.
