More Soul Than Wigan Casino

Been way too long since we had anything to shake our asses off to courtesy of those gem pop dudes at Fortuna Pop until this dinky little treat arrived on the door step, and hey we have to admit that this another of those priceless four track / four band must have releases.‘ More soul than Wigan Casino’ gathers together the assembled talents of Kicker, Butterflies of Love, Comet Gain and Airport Girl, each going head to head with a lost classic from 60’s soul heaven. Kicker, what can I say, let’s be honest here there just aren’t enough Kicker records in the world for my liking, here seen getting to grips in splendid style with the Inciters 1965 hit ‘Since you left’ and when I tell you this is pure pop gold you better believe it. So sunny in demeanour I swear you can get tan from just playing it, so authentic it sounds like its stepped through a rip in time and the vocals well – damn just buy it and prove me wrong. Debut album (about time to) out shortly via Track and Field. Butterflies of Love will always hold as special place in the heart just for mere fact of being responsible for putting out the sublime ‘Rob a Bank’. This time they set about taking the Smokey Robinson penned Mary Wells hit ‘Two Lovers’ as their own. Recorded at the legendary Toerag studios (White Stripes and just about anyone else looking for that crisp decayed 60’s sound) this wired rereading sounds like its stepped off one of those great lost and found Pebbles compilations, of course you know that means its top drawer stuff. With hand forced up my back I’d have to say the Comet Gain’s delicious stab at Dena Barnes’ ‘If you ever walk out of my life’ edges the set as the best thing here, swirling organs, chiming sunburnt kaleidoscopic chime happy chords very much moulded in that classic Byrds-esque vibe and latterly Clock Strikes 13 – kinda makes you feel fuzzy in the places where you want to feel fuzzy and so gorgeous you’ll weep in joy. Closing the collection the near perfect Airport Girl tangle themselves up with ‘Lipstick traces (on a cigarette)’ originally recorded by Barry Spellman / O’Jays. Airport Girl are the masters at teasing out just about every emotion known to nature with each passing release, oneminute ecstatic the next low at the point of breakdown and this shimmering soft psyche re-spray is no exception. Like being punched and tickled at the same time, this bitter sweet winkle boot wearing honey has classic the laid back sheen of Jesus and Mary Chain arcing in the same stratospheric environs more commonly occupied by the Velvets. Perfect stuff. (Losing Today)