Best known as the touring DJ with
trip-hop
pioneers
Portishead
,
Andy Smith
's previous compilation CDs proved him a mixologist of uncommon skill and taste, dexterous and batsh*t-crazy enough to weave
Kate Bush
Ultramagnetic MC's
and
Three Dog Night
into a seamless whole. With the self-explanatory
Andy Smith's Northern Soul
, he also proves himself a crate-digger par excellence -- born of his regular Northern sets at London's Jazz Cafe, this 26-cut mix bypasses traditional crowd-pleasers to plunge fully into the realm of vintage
soul
obscurities rarely, if ever, resurrected in the digital era. But Northern purists should also be forewarned that
Smith
mixes his tracks together in contemporary DJ style -- "I for one would buy a CD of a night at the Casino or the Twisted Wheel and would have marveled at the DJ's selections and announcements," he argues in his liner notes, and assuming the disc is indeed representative of a typical Jazz Cafe set, it's hard to argue with his logic. Highlights include
Curtis Lee
's
"Is She in Your Town?,"
Bob & Earl
"My Little Girl"
the Charmels
'
"As Long as I've Got You."
~ Jason Ankeny