"Loma Northern Soul: Classics & Revelations 1964-1968" by VARIOUS ARTISTS - Classic Dancers and Tape Vault Discovery Exclusives from Warner Brothers' Famed label (27 January 2023 UK Ace/Kent Soul CD Compilation with Nick Robbins Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...It's Your Love That I Need..."

Bubbling under as far back as November 2022 as a forthcoming release, Ace Records of the UK announced this bouncing dancefloor baby as being available sometime in the first month of the New Year (2023). And true to their (slightly late) word - it is. 

 

Also marked out as a special release so to speak - "Loma Northern Soul: Classics & Revelations 1964-1968" has received the British reissue label's first ever 7" Singles Box Set treatment as a 'Limited Edition' retailing at about £45 (or less). Seven by seven 45s have their own 'Kent Soul 40' label bags and include sides not on the CD variant (see details below).

As an imprint of the mighty Warner Brothers catalogue, 'LOMA Records' was active mainly on the American Soul singles front from 1964 to 1968. Fans of its dancers and Northern Soul shuffler sides bought the Warner three-volume series "After Hours" series that began in 2002, each containing super desirable LOMA 45-sides  - with all three of those CDs also reissued on very tasty 2LP VINYL sets too. 

 

But outside of the Light In The Attic/Future Days Recordings VINYL Series in the USA in 2016 (Tracks 3, 6 and 7 on this CD feature from them) - this late January 2023 appears to me to be the first time the LOMA Label has received a full on decent CD retrospective of its own. Ace has even discovered gems in the vaults (there's six unreleased here). There's a ton of talcum powder shimmy shaking to get through, so let's have at it...

 

UK released Friday, 27 January 2023 - "Loma Northern Soul: Classics & Revelations 1964-1968" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace/Kent Soul 40 CDTOP 511 (Barcode 029667107723) is a 25-Track American Label Retrospective CD Compilation that plays out as follows (63:25 minutes):

 

1. It's Your Love That I Need - THE MARVELLOS (Previously Unissued 1966 Loma Recording, 2023)

 

2. Go For Yourself - LARRY LASTER (June 1966 US 45-single on Loma Records 2043, B-side to "Help Yourself")

 

3. Heartstrings - THE INVINCIBLES (Originally Unissued 1967 Loma Recording, first issued on the 2016 US VINYL LP "Loma (A Soul Music Love Affair) - Volume 4" on Future Days Recordings FDR 627) 

 

4. You Can't Outsmart A Woman - KELL OSBORNE (December 1965 US 45-single on Loma Records 2023, A-side)

 

5. Lies - BOBBY FREEMAN (October 1967 US 45-single on Loma Records 2080, B-side of "I Got A Good Thing")

 

6. That's All You Gotta Do - BEN AIKEN (Originally Unissued 1968 Loma Recording, first issued on the 2016 US VINYL LP "Loma (A Soul Music Love Affair) - Volume 4" on Future Days Recordings FDR 627) 

 

7. I Need You - THE MARVELLOS (Originally Unissued 1966 Loma Recording, first issued on the 2016 US VINYL LP "Loma (A Soul Music Love Affair) - Volume 4" on Future Days Recordings FDR 627)

 

8. Mean It Baby - CARL HALL (November 1967 US 45-single on Loma Records 2086, B-side of "You Don't Know Nothing About Love")

 

9. I'm Getting Weaker - THE SOUL SHAKERS (July 1966 US 45-single on Loma Records 2047, A-side)

 

10. Just A Little Longer - THE ENCHANTERS (Previously Unissued 1965 Loma Recording, 2023)

 

11. Please Be True - THE INVINCIBLES (Originally Unissued 1967 Loma Recording, 2023) 

 

12. If You Should See Her - BEN AIKEN (Originally Unissued 1967 Loma Recording, 2023) 

 

13. My Heart Needs A Break - LINDA JONES (February 1968 US 45-single on Loma Records 2091, A-side)

 

14. See The Silver Moon - THE APOLLAS (Originally Unissued 1967 Loma Recording first released on the 2012 UK Apollas CD Compilation "Absolutely Right! The Complete Tiger, Loma and Warner Bros. Recordings" on Ace/Kent Soul CDKEND 365)

 

15. Bright Lights - DELILAH KENNEBRUEW (June 1966 US 45-single on Loma Records 2049, A-side)

 

16. Something's Burnin' - THE MARVELLOS (May 1966 US 45-single on Loma Records 2045, A-side)

 

17. Satisfied - BEN AIKEN (November 1967 US 45-single on Loma Records 2084, B-side of "The Life Of A Clown")

 

18. Runnin' Around - TONY AMARO & THE CHARIOTS (March 1967 US 45-single on Loma Records 2068, B-side of "Hey Baby")

 

19. Got A Thing Goin' - THE INVINCIBLES (Previously Unissued 1966 Loma Recording, 2023)

 

20. The Man With The Golden Touch - CHARLES THOMAS (March 1966 US 45-single on Loma Records 2031, B-side of "Looking For Love")

 

21. Baby, Don't Look Down - BILLY STORM (September 1964 US 45-single on Loma Records 2001, B-side of "I Never Want To Dream Again (There In A Garden)")

 

22. I Finally Got A Break - THE OLYMPICS (Previously Unissued 1965 Loma Recording, 2023)

 

23. The Big Jerk, Part 1 - CLYDE & THE BLUE JAYS (October 1964 US 45-single on Loma Records 2003, A-side)

 

24. I'll Find A Way - BOBBY REED (January1968 US 45-single on Loma Records 2089, B-side of "I Wanna Love You So Bad")

 

25. Better Think Of What You're Losing - TOMMY STARR (April 1968 US 45-single on Loma Records 2095, A-side)

 

NOTES:

All Tracks are MONO

Tracks 1, 10, 11, 12, 19 and 22 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

 

Compiler and genre afficiando ALEC PALAO gets into detial-Nirvana in his 20-page booklet - this time only showing one Loma Records label (Bobby Reed's "I'll Find A Way") and filling the rest of the text pages with Trade Adverts/Reviews and a slurry of Promo Photos - Bobby Freeman, The Enchanters, The Invincibles, The Apollas and more. Apparently tearing up the clubs he DJs at, Palao has been singing the virtues of Ace's latest vault-trawl find - "It's Your Love That I Need" by The Marvellos - and it's not difficult to hear why. Alec also tells us of the superb Soul writers Loma tapped into - Willie Hutch, Lorraine Ellison, Sam Bell, Gene Page, Leon Sylvers, Mort Shuman, Jerry Ragovoy, Van McCoy, Sammy Turner and even Randy Newman (the Billy Storm track). Productions came courtesy of famous names like Richard Tee, Gene Page, James Carmichael and many more. Not surprisingly - and given the prestige Ace Records are affording the release - it's a stonking read. 

Long-time associate Audio Engineer NICK ROBBINS does the Remasters and all are in punchy MONO health. To the music...    

It's easy to hear why joyful struts like "Lies" by Bobby Freeman (man was Tom Jones listening to this when he did "It's Not Unusual") and the make up your mind dancer "Go For Yourself" by Larry Laster send Northern Soul guys and gals into a frenzy - they are fantastic dancers. Kell Osborne channels his inner Jackie Wilson on Brunswick on "You Can't Outsmart A Woman" as he Adam and Eve's his brassy tale of womanly attraction to which no mere mortal (like him) has any defense. 

 

More manly advise is forthcoming during Ben Aiken's "That's All You Gotta Do" giving other lothario-types the big lowdown on Love (what a find this is - stuck in a vault until it was issued on an obscure 2016 US album). And again an amazing find in the relentless Bass, Vibes and Drums of "I Need You" by The Marvellos - the sort of floor-shaker that must have them wild in the Wigan Casinos of the North. Speaking of Aiken - fans who flipped the weaker A-side "The Life Of A Clown" must have been cock-of-the-hoop when they clapped eager ears on its wildly popular flipside "Satisfied". Same B-side head space belongs to the obscure Tony Amaro & The Chariots track "Runnin' Around" - a manic 'sock-it-to-me-baby' floor-stabber that could so easily have been a Motown A-sider. And not for the first time do The Marvellos thrill - their wonderfully upbeat "Something's Burnin'" the kind of official Loma 7" single that must send auction sites into sprinkler-need. And on it goes to the very 007 vibe in "The Man With The Golden Touch" by Charles Thomas while Billy Storm lives up his name in the instrument-packed wall of sound that comes at you for his fabulous full-on dance-meets-guitar-freak-out of "Baby, Don't Look Down". And on it goes...

Also UK released 27 January 2023, the seven by seven-inch Singles Box of "Loma Northern Soul..." is catalogue number Ace/Kent Soul 40 LTDBOX 020 (Barcode 029667031172) and has the following tracks (some as you can see are not on the CD):

 

Single 1

A: It's Your Love That I Need - THE MARVELLOS 

B: It's Your Love That I Need (Instrumental) - THE MARVELLOS

Single 2

A: Heartstrings - THE INVINCIBLES

B: Got A Thing Goin' - THE INVINCIBLES

 

Single 3

A: That's All You Gotta Do - BEN AIKEN

B: Satisfied - BEN AIKEN

 

Single 4

A:  Like I Told You - CARL HALL

B: Mean It Baby - CARL HALL

Single 5

A: Just A Little Longer - THE ENCHANTERS

B: I'll Find A Way - BOBBY REED

Single 6 

A: See The Silver Moon - THE APOLLAS

B: Go For Yourself - LARRY LASTER

Single 7 

A: If You Should See Her - BEN AIKEN

B: Lies - BOBBY FREEMAN