Reviews

Even the name that the talented Parisian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Greg Bette has chosen for his project – Garçon de Plage, the French term for “beach boy” – gives an idea of the music that influenced his work. And so it comes as no surprise that his second album “Amour Aveugle” is all about West Coast harmonies, sophisticated arrangements and French pop grandezza, in other words, smooth yacht pop à la France – somewhere between Michel Berger and The Doobie Brothers.

Once a month we take a look back at the classics and rather unknown album highlights of West Coast music from the 70s and 80s. Join WEST COAST SOUL on a foray through our record collection and travel with us back into the past.

To mark this year’s 50th anniversary of RAM by Paul & Linda McCartney, over 100 musicians have come together under the direction of Denny Seiwell, the original drummer of Paul McCartney & Wings, and multi-instrumentalist and producer Fernando Perdomo to re-record this seminal album. The result is “RAM ON”, a generation-spanning labour of love that meticulously recreates the original and impresses with its attention to detail and great musicanship.

Once a month we take a look back at the classics and rather unknown album highlights of West Coast music from the 70s and 80s. Join WEST COAST SOUL on a foray through our record collection and travel with us back into the past.

Once a month we take a look back at the classics and rather unknown album highlights of West Coast music from the 70s and 80s. Join WEST COAST SOUL on a foray through our record collection and travel with us back into the past.

Once a month we open the vaults of the WEST COAST SOUL record collection and take a look back at the classics of Soul, R&B and Funk from the 70s and 80s. Join us on a foray through a golden era of music history.

After two excellent EPs, Anglo-French duo Discodor finally released their wonderful eponymous debut album last month, full of lush arrangements, cinematic grooves, and slow funk that oscillates between French lounge plushness, library music sophistication, and hip, swinging 60s soundtrack grandeur. An album in cinemascope.

After a nearly ten-year hiatus, the legendary instrumental soul group Menahan Street Band will release their third album “The Exciting Sounds of Menahan Street Band” on February 26th, via Daptone Records. The result is an album that you no longer expected, but now do not want to miss. Great cinematic instrumental soul-funk, with which the musical collective from Brooklyn seamlessly connects to old great deeds. Definitely one of the soul albums of the year.

A homage to the disco boogie jams of the early 80s – funky and smooth

With “Magic Mirror”, LA native singer-songwriter Pearl Charles has released her second album and takes her listeners into a musical wonderland, where the 29-year-old lives out her preferences for ABBA melodies, Laurel Canyon hippie dreaminess, sun-warmed West Coast soft rock and 70’s country-folk bliss. All this sounds very vintage, but never loses its current pop appeal. Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty would love this album.