Andy Smith's Northern Soul

Best known as the touring DJ with trip-hop pioneers Portishead, Andy Smith's previous compilation CDs proved him a mixologist of uncommon skill and taste, dexterous and batsh*t-crazy enough to weave Kate Bush,Ultramagnetic MC's and Three Dog Night into a seamless whole. With the self-explanatory Andy Smith's Northern Soul, he also proves himself a crate-digger par excellence -- born of his regular Northern sets at London's Jazz Cafe, this 26-cut mix bypasses traditional crowd-pleasers to plunge fully into the realm of vintage soul obscurities rarely, if ever, resurrected in the digital era. But Northern purists should also be forewarned that Smith mixes his tracks together in contemporary DJ style -- "I for one would buy a CD of a night at the Casino or the Twisted Wheel and would have marveled at the DJ's selections and announcements," he argues in his liner notes, and assuming the disc is indeed representative of a typical Jazz Cafe set, it's hard to argue with his logic. Highlights include Curtis Lee's "Is She in Your Town?," Bob & Earl's "My Little Girl" and the Charmels' "As Long as I've Got You." ~ Jason Ankeny