MARYANN FARRA 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Never Gonna Leave You is a rarity from the esteemed Brunswick label, credited to the sevensome US disco-soul-funk band active throughout the 1970s and beyond. With production by disco maestro Tony Valor, arrangements by Chi-Soul legend Eugene Record, and a new mix by the great Tom Moulton - not to mention an instrumental accompaniment from Valor's highly esteemed Tony Valor Sounds Orchestra - this 1976 classic is a cornerstone of stone-cold proto-disco, having already been reissued on CD in Japan multiple times since its creation. For its very first vinyl reissue, Never Gonna Leave You is lent the Real Gone treatment, delivering a newly r-rubbed version of the Chi-Lites' 'Stoned Out of My Mind' and delivering instant soul salvation.

Review: First released in 1976, Never Gonna Leave You was the name of both album and single, both of which fell under the shared credit of Satin Soul and Maryann Farra (aka. De-lite-ful), an instrumental soul group and singer both signed to Brunswick Records at the same time, and whom together collaborated for the entire decade. This new Japanese reissue of the full album via Solid highlights the group's success as purveyors of proto-disco, with the title track returning to our ears in all its glory, and with all its best hallmarks - sultry syncopations for rhythm guitar, breathy exhalations for voice - while complements such as 'You Got To Be The One' also amount to a rare - and stellarly-mixed, might we add - prototype of the cross-section of disco and latter-day neo-soul.