UK man about soul and dance DAVE LEE is a producer who likes to ring the changes and deliver music in all kinds of hues and flavours – the constant being his passion for soul which always shines though. Thankfully, Dave’s now cast off his alter ego and for his latest project he’s resurrected his AC SOUL SYMPHONY collective – you may remember, their take on MFSB’s ‘Manhattan Skyline’ from a few years back.
For some time now, Dave’s been working with that collective to create what he calls “an epic disco record album that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible”. That epic ‘Metamorphosis’ album has just won release having been prefaced by a single that paired the theme from ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ with a cover of the Chi-Sound classic ‘Windy City Theme’. Both were big, big productions delivering the kind of music that was synonymous with Love Unlimited, MFSB and Salsoul Orchestra back in the day and the 15 track album delivers plenty more of the same.
Album tracks that you may be familiar with (apart from the aforementioned two) are the theme from the classic TV series ‘The Avengers’ here re-titled ‘The Philly Avengers’ ( a nod to its MFSB treatment) and the disco classic ‘K-Jee’. The other cover is a more obscure Philly item … ‘It’s Got To Be Love.’ Written by Phil Hurtt, Richie Rome, it’s best known in a 1977 RCA version by disco diva Darcus. And guess what? For his new version Dave gets Ms D to bring her vocal splendour. It’s the LP’s only full-on vocal and like everything else on the set it’s full length. No wimpish edits here!
The rest of the tracks are orignals – some with a little borrowing here and there. Amongst ‘em is ‘The Talented Mr Adams’ (a tribute to Patrick Adans, of course), ‘I Want To See You Dance’ and ‘Losing My Mind At The Disco’ – those last two leaving little to the imagination – both bob on for the glitter ball vibe and like the rest of the collection packed with soulful, dance energy. Out now!