ltd 7 inch with soulful disco

two overlooked rare disco masterpieces produced by soul legend lenis guess. when we met lenis in new york this year, the super rare shake lp *music is the only way we can communicate* was lying overlooked and forgotten on a dusty shelf. lenis had the tapes there too, so it wasnt long before we picked two of our favourite tracks for this killer 45. one for the rare disco and boogie heads and never before on 45, these wont be around long.

superb soulful disco boogie 45! rare disco, boogie and funk collectors will know this lp soon to be reissued on jazzmans highly collectible holy grail series. as a prelude to the main event we thought it only right to drop the two strongest disco smashers on one 45. neither issued as a single before and as always no repress, what else to say, loud, rare and totally essential.

every so often the soul scene champions a secret record that’s too good not to share to a wider audience, here we have just the thing. a record styled on the raunchy sound of chaka khan but with the subtlety, confidence and timing of marvin gaye. spun since the day it was released on northern / modern soul dancefloors, the charm and sophistication has been completely lost on the rest of the world - probably mostly because nobody ever got to hear it. there are almost no copies anywhere, i know because it took me over 5 years to get one. you are talking £500 all day long if you can find someone willing to sell it to you, otherwise its a shootout on ebay. so in the interests of democratising beautiful and important music we are very proud to present this wonderful reissue.

lew kirton was born in barbados where he learned to sing with a local anglican choir, and at the tender age of 13 displayed his prodigal talent with the number one hit in the caribbean with >what about you?< he went on to tour with the blue rhythm combo (a band well known to funk collectors all over the world) after which he moved to canada. he appeared on a highly regarded talent show >take a bow< which led him to becoming a member of the soul band the missing links.
before becoming a solo artist lew made the move to the us where he was the drummer with sam and dave soul review, a skill in which he was self taught. he then joined the the invitation who had a few hits on silver blue records and toured with bobby womack, carla thomas and wilson picket.
his first solo record on tk disco >heaven in the afternoon< blew up on the uk northern soul scene due to a catchy verse and anthemic chorus. in 1980 he recorded his just arrived lp which was released on alston, another label in the roster of tk productions. the album stands up as a solid soul album today but for me >something special< was the stand out track which we have as a b-side here. a sex fantasy laid onto vinyl i almost feel like i?m intruding! >something special< was also played off the album on the uk soul scene, although never issued as a single until now.

here is another exclusive record we heard from top funk and soul dj ian wright. freak is a mid 70s outing originally on miami label blue candle and the original is on 7inch only so disco collectors probably wont have heard this one before. life goes on is a sublime disco soul track that really comes into its own near the end with the gospel style call and response. the flip is a james ingram penned proto boogie number called thats what time it is turned out to be really popular with the women down at soul spectrum. thanks to some deals behind closed doors every dj at the club has their own copy of this rare 45 so now its ok for us to let the cat out the bag, so here for the first time on super loud 12inch pressing jazzman presents freak.