Album Review: Various - The Best Of Perception And Today Records

American DJ Spinna is untouchable when it comes to selection of fine funk and soul. His club sets are a wild mix of hedonism and education. Spinna is as likely to drop the rarest of rare grooves right into the biggest of party anthems, making the anthem sound like an obscure soul gem and the rare groove like a familiar clubbing soundtrack. So letting Spinna loose on the back catalogue of late '60s/early '70s Perception Productions and Today Records, makes perfect sense.

Perception and Today covered a lot of territory, from political Afrofunk (Adam Wade & John Pate's Brother) and yacht disco (Wanda Robinson's Instant Replay) through to fusion funk (Madhouse's Get Some Of This) and wonky jazz (Tyrone Washington's Submission). The artists range from the obscure (The Eight Minutes, Debby Taylor) to the well-known in certain circles acts (JJ Barnes, The Fatback Band) and the purely iconic (Astrud Gilberto, Dizzy Gillespie). That sounds like a typical night out for Spinna.

And somehow a big soul ballad like You And I by Black Ivory sits comfortably amongst the noodling jazz of Bartel and proto-acid jazz of James Moody. Nor does Wanda Robinson's feminist poetry jar with the crooning of Bobby Rydell and mod-soul of Julius Brockington.

Slip this into your dance-to-educate pile and folks will think you are a crate digger from when vinyl was cool the first time around.