Various Artists - Shrine Northern - The 60S Rarest Dance Label - [Vinyl]

� Ace Records is proud to announce the purchase of the Shrine label and Eddie Singleton�s independent productions. � To celebrate Kent have compiled an album of the very best dance recordings the label made in 1965 and 1966, primarily in Washington DC. � The business�s failure made this music incredibly hard to find for record collectors and Shrine is rightly known as the rarest soul label. � It is much more than that though. The music was made by some of the original founders of Motown, Raynoma Liles Gordy and her Motown-schooled cousin Mike Ossman, New York music business luminaries Eddie Singleton and Harry Bass and the up-and-coming talents of Washington�s Keni St Lewis and Maxx Kidd. The acts included the hugely respected Ray Pollard and fellow New Yorker J.D. Bryant, talented and established Washington and Baltimore acts Eddie Daye & The 4 Bars, Bobby Reed and the Enjoyables. Importantly, they discovered and developed the local talent of the area in the shape of the Cautions, Les Chansonettes, the Prophets and Shirley Edwards. � It took decades for UK Northern Soul fans to realise the significance of the label. It finally clicked for Stafford�s Top Of The World all-nighter DJs who searched out the incredibly hard to find later releases and played them to the cult-following of the rare soul scene. The scarcity was caused by Shrine pressing up a batch of fourteen future singles but only getting a handful released before they folded. The vast majority of the later releases were destroyed in a warehouse fire or simply binned as stillborn commercial failures. � Such was the scarcity that when the first Shrine compilations were issued in 1990, the Prophets tracks from Eddie Singleton�s master tapes were assumed to be unreleased - until Shrine sleuth Andy Rix later obtained one from a group member. � The music captures the exuberance of soul music in its peak years. The rhythms are pounding, the vocals soaring and the songs positive and cleverly composed. Undeniably Motown-influenced, they never copy others� songs but feature the group harmonies of New York City on the Counts, Enjoyables and Prophets singles, while the Ray Pollard and J.D. Bryant tracks have that city�s big ballad soul sound. Les Chansonettes and the D C Blossoms are shimmering femme group sounds at their most tantalising. � The label produced soul in many shades but here we�ve concentrated on its in-house dance specialties. Don�t worry about the price-tags; just listen to that quality.

Various Artists - Shrine Northern - The 60S Rarest Dance Label - [Vinyl]

0029667018111