There’s something encouragingly apt about American Soul and Gospel-singer (and reluctant Disco Diva) Candi Staton rediscovering her form on Damon Albarn’s multi-ethnic melting pot, Honest Jon’s Records; a Poor Law Union workhouse of old school R n B, funk, soul, African and Latin American and based on the legendary record shop of the same name.
The old Ladbroke Grove record store, located on a street that the local Caribbean-Iberian lags would call ‘The Town’, plied its trade on the rag-and-bone trading route from Shepherds Bush to Kilburn. The date – 1974, the location – a former mosque that had at one time been a butchers. In fact, such was the hands-on, hardcore nature of the shop that records were displayed on the marble slabs that had been used for cutting meat, and the floor was stained with blood. Hang around long enough and you may bump into a young Declan McManus rifling through a stack of Bebop 45s or Johnny Rotten and Malcolm McLaren hooking up some Lee Perry and some Rocksteady classics in one of the listening booths on an hour’s sabbatical from the Sex boutique around the corner. Remember that Life On Mars soundtrack compiled by Barney Pilling and full of crusty old period moments? John Kongos’s ‘Tokoloshe Man’ and Atomic Rooster? Well it’s like all that but without the attitude. Whether it’s the horn and organ led melancholy of lead-up track, ‘Breaking Down Slow’ or the breadline arpeggios of ‘Mercy Now’ bleeding beneath Staton’s pleading vocals, the record is haunted by the pensive whir of needle on vinyl and the idle, musky flow of incense on its imaginary gatefold sleeve. It’s a period piece.
Recorded and produced with Mark Nevers (Lambchop, Silver Jews, Will Oldham) and featuring a crew of 70s veterans, the album is a hoarse and credible follow-up to 2006’s ‘His Hands’ and precedes a string of live dates here in the UK in February and March.
If like me, you’re wary of splashing out the equivalent of a few pints and a bag of chips on an artist old enough to be your Grandmother, I recommend that you download the Will Oldham penned, ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’ by way of introduction.
Pinning an Enter The Dragon poster on your wall and switching on the Test Card is optional.
Whilst not essential by any means (when it’s good it’s very very good, when its not it’s bland), it’s old school without the gimmicks and as rootsy as a 400-year-old oak. Has to be worth slapping a preservation order on it if nothing else.