- Norman Jay returns once again with the third volume of his acclaimed Good Times compilations - you know the ones which embrace all forms of music whether it be old skool funk, disco, hip hop, reggae, soul and everything else - bringing back the music of old and yesteryear to todays generation yet still being cutting edge enough to include some modern and new cuts from the producers of today.
CD 1 gets the good times rolling with Johnny Guitar Watson's I Need It on a old skool funk tip while the Jasper Street Co. get the disco all spiritual on Praising His Name. Uplifting and very danceable with Jasper Street giving praise to the Lord almighty.
Tenor Saw's Ring The Alarm has had a couple of covers done on it, but it's good to hear the original tune for a little headnodding action on a ragga tip.
Main Source represent for hip hop on the jazzy Looking At The Front Door - top tune! Jazzy bassline and nice female vocal samples laid out on a beat that should rock the dancefloor. Ex-Digable Planets' King Britt provides the only exclusive cut to the CD. If I Lost You (Scuba Mix) features the vocals of Michelle Shaprow on a beaty uptempo groove.
Unfortunately for this review, the rest of the CD would not play in my bashed up CD player - sorry! - however it does finish off with Bushy's Drop - a huge breaks track from 1998/9 which made John Stapleton's Dope On Plastic 6 a must have compilation from that year. Strange bass line that seems to work well with trademark Catskills beats.
CD 2 begins with a more laidback vibe with Sound Of Blackness on The Pressure Part 2 on a chilled out soul/R&B tip. Jamiroquai's Love Foolosophy gets the remix treatment by Mondo Grosso losing the beat and stripping it back down to Jamiroquai and acoustic guitar.
The acid jazz/soul theme continues with Stories by Full Flava featuring the vocals of Carleen Anderson ex Brand New Heavies vocalist. Jennifer Holliday's Love Stories sounds like it should feature on a TV-advertised love song compilation rather than this, using the trademark 80's style love song synthesiser melody and cheesy chorus line.
Freda Payne's Unhooked Generation is one for the crate diggers in all of us, being the cut which created the Strong Island break. It's strange to hear it in the original form though. The Casualeers' Dance Dance Dance takes a time warped trip back to the 60's for a little soul and rock'n'roll - the way it used to be hollering out for the "good times".
Angie Stone's Wish I Didn't Miss You brings out the house grooves courrtesy of a remix by the Pound Boys before Norman pulls out a jazzy drum'n'bass mix of Virtual Suspects' Got To Have Your Love.
Finally, The Jackson 5 wrap up the series with It's Great To Be Here - yet another classic tune from the block party era championed by DJ's the likes of Afrika Bambaataa.
A few of these tunes can be found on various albums and compilations however it's the hard to find tunes that Norman seems to pull out from his crates that make getting the Good Times series a worthwhile purchase.