We're Getting Stronger - The Gold Mind / Salsoul Recordings 1976-1982 (Clamshell Box)

Based on crossover success, Gloria Gaynor might be considered the ultimate disco powerhouse, but no disco overview of any form would be correct without the presence of Loleatta Holloway. The singers 1976-1982 output for Salsoul subsidiary Gold Mind and Salsoul proper is anthologized on this compact box, a five-disc set that essentially supplants the BBR labels individual album reissues and two-disc compilation released a decade earlier. After the gospel-rooted Chicagoan went secular with two albums for the small Aware label -- "Cry to Me," the title song off her second LP, put her in the Top Ten of the R&B chart in 1975 -- she and songwriter/producer husband Floyd Smith found a more stable home at the emergent Salsoul. Holloway was immediately matched with producers Norman Harris and Ron Kersey and the team of ace session musicians at Philadelphias Sigma Sound, charting first with the ballad "Worn Out Broken Heart" and truly hitting her stride with the dancefloor trilogy of "Dreamin," "Hit and Run," and "Ripped Off." Those belters highlighted Loleatta (1976) and headed a four-album run with Salsoul that continued with Queen of the Night (1978), Loleatta Holloway (1979), and Love Sensation (1980). All four LPs are expanded here with essential contemporaneous 12" mixes. Disco fanatics will no doubt gravitate toward the classic club-tailored versions carried out by the visionary likes of Walter Gibbons, Larry Levan, and Tom Moulton; moreover, the format gave Holloway more space for her signature monologues. The album versions are nonetheless immensely enjoyable themselves, and each album holds deep cuts with stunning performances, proving repeatedly that Holloway wasnt merely a disco singer. Disc five, "Remixes and Reincarnations," collects previously released tracks dating from 1979 to 2022. Theres Gibbons tougher and leaner Disco Madness remix of "Catch Me on the Rebound" and Shep Pettibones "special club version" of the Salsoul Orchestras Patrick Adams-produced "Seconds," Holloways final Salsoul recording. The remainder consists of subsequent re-edits, house and post-dubstep remixes, and so forth, with a 2001 Danny Krivit re-edit of the Salsoul Orchestras "Runaway" easily the closest to its source. The engrossing liner notes in the rich booklet detail the career of a singer who was mistreated in many respects, from the scrutiny she received when she replaced Shirley Caesar in the Caravans to the unlicensed sampling of the number one club hit "Love Sensation" on Black Boxs "Ride On Time" -- a theft exacerbated by the Italian production team using another woman to lip sync for the video and live appearances. Holloways catalog likewise has deserved better -- a package of scope and quality just like this one. ~ Andy Kellman