Soul Fire: The Majestic Collection – A great collection of super funky soul. These 2 CDs have selections from the Soul Fire record label (including all of it's subsidiaries, see insert for more info). Most songs are instrumentals, but a few have some great vocals on top. You'll hear stuff from straight up funk to soul ballads to latin funk to afrobeat to psychedelic funk and more. Most are laid back and groovy with solid rhythm sections, horns, funky flute, and tons of organ. All songs are good so pick one out and play it. CD1 is all previously released material and CD2 has some unreleased stuff. A great look back at a great label putting out new funk.
Katie P. 7/7/05
My Picks: CD1: 2, 5, 6, 9, 11; CD2: 1, 3, 4, 7, 12, 18

CD1: (All previously released material)
1)Laid back groover. Solid funky midtempo beat with a nice horn section. Great soulful vocals from Lee Fields. Similar to James Brown.
2)Slower dragging midtempo instrumental. Psychedelic organs on top of a hypnotic groove. Solid!
3)Odd rhythm that changes a bit once the band leader picks it up. Faster midtempo with a bit of an afrobeat feel to it. Talk/rap about halfway through. Nice horns and organ come in near the end.
4)Percussion starts it off. Quiet drumming and then wah-wah guitar comes in. Background noises of what I imagine you'd hear in the Everglades. Solid driving beat. Instrumental.
5)Starts with funky guitar. A nice laid-back midtempo beat. Dirty organ on top. Instrumental.
6)Fades in with a dirty overblown sound. Solid midtempo groove. Sounds like a bass clarinet (or maybe it's a sax) on the melody. Damn! Instrumental.
7)Slower midtempo. Soulful and laid-back. Nice flute with simple rhythm guitar and percussion layers. Instrumental.
8)Groovy organ with faster midtempo latin beat. Solid horns and a solid groove. Vocals in either spanish or portuguese (I can't really tell).
9)Faster midtempo with funky organ and guitar. Instrumental.
10)Solid midtempo funk (as the title would suggest). Nice play between the guitar and organ. Nice horn section too with a cool sax solo at the end. Instrumental.
11)Slower laid-back beat. Beautiful soul ballad. Lee Fields has such a great voice.
12)Fades in with organ and a dragging midtempo beat. Laid-back and full of soul. Instrumental.
13)Noodling organ falls into a funky slower plodding beat. Horns have a washed-out/echo effect going on. Nice flute solo. Instrumental.
14)Fades in to droning organ and a cool funky beat. Some horns and a flute add to the guitars. Instrumental.
15)Solid midtempo laid-back funk. Nice full horn section. Has a bit of an afrobeat feel. Instrumental.
16)Fades in with organ and sax. More horns come in as the song builds. Solid midtempo funk. Nice horn solos. Instrumental.

CD2: (Some previously unreleased material)
1)Faster midtempo funky flute with a solid guitar line behind. Fun! Instrumental.
2)Lowdown and quiet. Nice bass line with flute and organ on top along with layers of percussion. Almost an uptempo beat. Instrumental.
3)Nice walking bass line with other instruments popping in. Settles into a nice jazzy uptempo lowdown beat. Horns section comes in with just a flavor of randomness. Instrumental.
4)Solid faster midtempo drums. Funky guitar line with horn hits. The crew sings on this one, and of course there's plenty of hand claps! Laid back and funky!
5)Groovy midtempo with psychedelic wah-wah guitar on top. Hypnotic rhythm section. Instrumental.
6)Starts with some tribal chanting/singing. Drums come in to a midtempo beat. Builds with percussion and chanting for the first 1:30 and then horns come in with some echo/spacey effect on them.
7)Laid back and funky with a touch of psychedelia. Flute is sort of muffled in the background. Low vocals occasionally saying “beer, so nice, right on...”
8)Slower midtempo with a very slight latin feel in the syncopated rhythm. Tight horn section and hypnotic organ. Instrumental.
9)Fades in to a funky lo-fi recording. Heavy bass and wah-wah guitar with James Brown-esque male vocals.
10)Lowdown bass line and cute organ with a bit of a ska/reggae beat. Instrumental.
11)Fades in with tons of percussion layers. Short little percussion interlude.
12)Solid funky music under Lee Fields giving the men advice about women. Listen up!
13)Slower midtempo with lowdown organ. About half through someone comes in whistling. Instrumental.
14)Midtempo afrobeat groove. Solid horn section. Male vocals talking here and there.
15)Short simple beat on drum.
16)Midtempo soul/funk. Solid horn section and nice rhythm guitar and organ.
17)Starts with low quiet bass and adds in a midtempo beat with flute. Instrumental.
18)Heavy funky number with great horns. Lee Fields vocals are a bit lo-fi. Faster midtempo. Damn!