For those who start holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, Numero Group today drops their epic 10-year anniversary box set of Eccentric Soul 45s. A magnificent collection from the Chicago-based archival label, it’s a must have for collectors and those lucky people who own operating juke boxes. Also out today and scheduled for review in the print magazine: Neurosis’s powerful Honor Found in Decay and The Coup’s delightfully dance-able Sorry to Bother You.
Various Artists
Eccentric Soul: Omnibus Vol. 1
Numero Group
For the past decade the Numero Group has specialized in digging up rare records from all genres and reissuing them. That being said, they have a special place in their hearts for soul music, so in celebration of their 10 years in operation they dropped this huge (in size and scope) box set. The box comprises a walloping 45 singles (and it’s their 45th release…) and I’d be lying if I said I’ve been able to give the whole box the multiple listens it deserves. Each of the singles present is a one-off by working bands who never quite made it, and whose legacies never really existed. But over the course of digging through record vaults, the Numero Group kept finding 45s here and there that didn’t fit anywhere in their other fourteen Eccentric Soul releases, so they compiled them here for an excellent look at forgotten American Soul. It’s really a collection for soul completists only, but there’s a lot of great human history here.
Check out two tracks from the Omnibus: