I find it astonishing that, despite the presence of career-defining tracks such as “So Much Love”, “Son of a Preacher Man” (how many times have you heard this destroyed at kareoke?), “Breakfast in Bed”, “Just One Smile”, and “Just a Little Lovin”, this was the album that effectively ended the career of Hampstead’s finest daughter.

There isn’t really much that I can add about Dusty Springfield that you couldn’t find with a quick google search – likelihood is that it’ll be much more concise, accurate and informative than my standard ramblings. But this is one of those rare records that betters any “best of” compilation. I listened to it for the first time on a recent trip to Edinburgh, aiming to use it as background music whilst I walked from Edinburgh to Leith. My mp3 player had other ideas however, and the album demanded my attention – to the point that the day became all about the album, rather than anything to do with the city I was visiting. The stand-out track for me is “I Can’t Make It Alone” which combines the heartbreak and longing of a ballad, with the raw energy and lush strings of a modern 4hero track.

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Download: Dusty Springfield – I Can’t Make It Alone.mp3

A lot of my friends will attest to my awful memory. At times I make Guy Pearce ala ‘Momento’ look like a wise old elephant. Be this as it may, I’ll never forget the time I strapped on those big chunky headphones at the “staff recommendations” listening post at HMV on Oxford Street, and listened to the opening beats of a CD from a little known San Francisco-based deep house label called ‘Naked Music‘. This started a 5-year love affair with the Naked Music sound, which eventually petered out after getting watered down by a lot of other labels trying to muscle in on their sound.

IMHO “Beautiful Tomorrow” by Blue Six (aka Jay Denes) was probably the best full-length album to come out of from the label, and offered a slightly different deep house sound, than that offered by label-mates Miguel Migs, Dave Warrin, and Gabriel Rene. It’s unashamedly melancholic in places, (probably why I love it), and peaks with “Music and Wine” which seemed to feature on all the generic deep house compilation CDs from 2002-2005.

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Download: Blue Six – Close To Home.wma

This album didn’t receive anywhere near the attention it deserved at the time of it’s release back in mid-2001. It’s one of those magical albums that’s hard to pigeon-hole, easy to pass by, but impossible to forget. I’m not surprised that Dani Siciliano (on vocal duties for the album) and Matthew Herbert (on production) got married after working together on this – I’d have married either of them if I was in the studio whilst this was being made. This is truly an album that covers all bases. You’ve got “It’s Only” and “Leave Me Know” representing Herbert’s trademark soul-tinged deep minimal house. On the flip side you’ve got “I Know” and “On Reflection” straying into more mainstream jazz tings. Even Slum Village saw it essential to sample Herbert’s “Foreign Bodies” on their “Trinity: Past, Present and Future” album.

There’s two other Herbert-related beauties you shouldn’t miss either, The first is picko-d’s excellent tribute mix, and if you search the interweb hard enough you should find the second which is a recording of Herbert live at BBC’s Maida Vale studios for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide show.

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Download: Herbert – On Reflection.mp3