Posted on 08/19/2008
I play a lot of records in the office where I work. The more outrageous the rhythm, the more it demands your attention rather than your work, the quicker it’s turned off by the 4/4 police. I’m not sure whether it was the energetic grunting on “The Little You Say” or the raucous horns on “Calypsoul” that did it, but Calypsoul 70 only lasted about four tracks, which is a very good sign.

Calypsoul 70, as you’d guess from the title, is a collection of soul gems from the Caribbean made during the seventies. The music collected here is as broad as the Caribbean itself, ranging from salsa to funk, from reggae to disco, from Cuba to Barbados. It makes for a thrilling musical melting pot with tracks that add a distinctly Caribbean flavour to North American soul, like Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Drum Orchestra’s cover of “90% Of Me Is You” and the marching band/synth fusion of “Disco Groove” by The Checkmates.

The social and political challenges of the decade are represented here in the joyous “Independent Bahamans” (never has the call to ‘take it back home’ sounded so appropriate), the Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron influenced “You Tink It Sorf”, where Lancelot Layne decries our morbid fascination with the ghetto over a riotous percussive backdrop, and the raw emotion of the reggae on “Move Up Blackman” from Tyrone Taylor. Songs like these are as valuable for the historian as the crate digger, and while this makes Calypsoul 70 a good record, it’s also its (slight) weakness.

Calypsoul 70 is caught between being a documentary record of the music of the time and a record to listen to and enjoy. While all of the twenty tracks are good, their combined length makes it hard to listen to all of them in one sitting, no matter how good your intentions as a listener. It makes Calypsoul 70 perfect for a party (and the amount of quality breaks to be found here is ridiculous) but for the individual listener, the sheer length and ambition of the album sadly takes a little part of the shine off an otherwise admirable release.

- Will Georgi