JON LUCIEN 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: You'll struggle to find a more sumptuous of folk-soul bliss than Jon Lucien's 1973 single "Lady Love". Similar in tone to some of Terry Callier's finest works, it features Lucien delivering a smooth and sultry vocal over twittering flutes, soft-touch acoustic guitars and swirling instrumentation. This timely reissue pairs the full-length 'Rashida" album version with another cut from the same set, "Love Everlasting". This glassy-eyed affair boasts more of a samba shuffle than the better-known A-side, but a similar reliance on evocative orchestration and Lucien's wonderfully delivered lead vocals. In a word: essential.

Review: This excellent seven-inch single mines the rich seam of Terry Callier style folk-soul that is Jon Lucien's incredible 1973 album "Rashida". On the A-side you'll find the brilliantly breezy, horn-heavy samba-soul sunshine of "Would You Believe In Me", a song so beloved to Lucien that he re-recorded it several times later in his career. On the B-side you'll find the arguably even sweeter and more loved-up "Kuenda", where Lucien delivers attractive scat-style, double-racked freestyle vocals over a backing track rich in finger-picked folk guitar arpeggio lines and atmospheric field recordings of nature. It's a joyously simple track, but one that will stay with you for hours after you've put the record back on the shelf.

Review: While some AOTN releases are perplexing exercises in digging and detective gymnastics, others are more of a straight-up selector pleasure for label bossman and soul merchant Fryer. Like these two classics from jazz funk artist Lucien. Both staples in Fryer's sets for 20 years, neither are hard to track down - "Would You Believe In Me" is on his 73 album Rashida while "Sunny Day" is on his 74 album Minds Eye - but neither of them have ever been on 45" before, either. Whether you're familiar with Lucien's unique fusions or this is your first encounter, this release works a treat.