Can I get more info & recommendations about this whole modern soul thing? Acts like Durand Jones & The Indications, Bobby Ozora, Kansas City Express, etc

I stumbled across a few of these songs a while back but can't find any good articles or playlists online. Does anyone know much about it? It's an almost complete lift of the whole early 70s US soul thing, and while I usually hate consciously-retro/nostalgic music I can't get enough of this. Monophonics is another act, though they're a bit gnarlier than the slick sound of the above mentioned, and of course Sharon Jones is a big name in it ('How Long Do I Have To Wait For You' is probably the very peak of all this stuff, though I think she was about a decade prior to them).

Here are some of the best tracks I've found:

Bobby Oroza - Should I Take You Home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGHEbmGqJZ0

Durand Jones & The Indications - Is It Any Wonder?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qafjGuMB0gg

Kansas City Express - This Is The Place
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P8RKbdXXL8

Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings - How Long Do I Have To Wait For You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRLAkT1j4Kg

But yeah any suggestions and links to coverage about it all would be great. I mean, I don't even know what all this is even called. Nu-Soul?

There's been a constant stream of musicians putting on suits and doing this for at least the last 15+ years

Black Pumas is the latest one to hit it fairly big (it's a good record though)

Feels like Oroza, Durand, Monophonics and KCE are more of a 'scene' type thing to me, might be wrong.

Listening to Black Pumas 'Colors' and it doesn't really fit the bill, doesn't have that ultra-polished R&B sound the others do, bit too much over-emotive modern singer-songwriteriness, like the glut of UK 20something kids who've wrecked the charts over here. 'Black Moon Rising' a bit more like it but not really my bag. Cheers though, like.

https://www.coleminerecords.com/pages/artists

Fields, who has deep roots in the golden era of funk and soul, paved the way for artists like Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley—he counts them both as close friends—through a community of musicians and producers who went on to form record labels such as Daptone, Truth & Soul and Big Crown beginning in the late 90s.

https://www.motherjones.com/media/2019/06/on-the-road-with-lee-fields-the-expressions/

also search: willie west

this is only track I've heard by them but diggin it
The Altons - When You Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0RqfvE6_eg

I don't hear this stuff as ultra-polished or slick, compared to most modern production there's a lot of self-conscious retro grit (dusty drums, plate reverb, etc). And I think that Kansas City Express track is legit '70s vintage. But do you mean, like, lush '70-style slow jams?

This band was from Milwaukee, I saw them a few years back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAg_jvGHMmM

From Chicago, played on a couple bills with this band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV5MqATbR1Q

And obviously

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV2UInZhMqo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U_yKw_e08k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zotPEnK1TWI

Sorry to interrupt, but could people please take the trouble to provide track info when they’re posting YouTubes and similar links?

It’s such a bummer to read older threads like these and find that most of the links are broken (because they tend to), so you’re basically left with... not very much at all.

Happened to me again the other day while skimming some old Piano House threads.

(I might yet make this my own sic-like mission on ILM)

ural thomas and the pain - smoldering fire
sonny knight and the lakers - it had to change

anyway yes i agree with you ! xp

I've been listening to that Ural Thomas record a lot, thanks for that.

Btw I posted:
Kings Go Forth - Fight With Love
JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound - To Love Someone (That Don't Love You)
Raphael Saadiq - Calling

👍🏻

xp glad you’re enjoying it, J.

another one that came to mind is sort of in a world of its own, from over 20 years ago but not really an antecedent to what is being discussed here far as i know: rockie charles “born for you” from 1997. still fits tho i think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFQOEFBJ5FQ

I just went in a Detroit-style pizzeria in upstate New York this afternoon and they were playing this stuff. I had never heard of two of the acts before.

Also of interest to me since I just heard a recently unearthed album by another band with Indications in the name.

Hmmmmmmm, weird

Discovered Durand Jones's Wait Til I Get Over on AOTY -- one of the highest rated (in aggregate) albums of the year; ht to stevie, as well, who mentioned him in the AOTY thread.

I'm not well read on the neo soul movement but I was enamored with how lo-fi and gritty a lot of this record sounds. His voice is obviously incredible, too. And from what I can glean from reviews, it's a deeply personal and substantive record, though I admittedly need to dig into the lyrics more. It's really, really good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Eq7tpGTjc

My son has been hepping me to this stuff, sending me Durand Jones and Lee Fields CDs as Christmas gifts. I'm a big fan.

Some great stuff ITT

Durand Jones live “Can’t Keep My Cool”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVyv8bDfJWI

And the drummer from the Indications, Aaron Frazer, turned out to have an amazing voice. Here he’s doing “Have Mercy”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1sJfi8ltek

Chitlin Circuit Double-entendre -filled Soul 2004 (and onward) Theodis Ealey's "Stand Up In It" is a song of the year

There’s also modern current southern soul

Nice thank you!