The V.01 standard was a set by house legends Ron Trent and Jerome Sydenham, so what’s Need 2 Soul up to with Benji B? I suspect you thought Benji was all about beats and hip-hop like his 1Xtra Radio Show, Deviation. Well I so did until I went to the Dance Tent at Big Chill this year where he did this great house set before Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson came on stage. And if you’re still not convinced, he’s picked a Larry Levan mix of a gospel choir (‘Stand On The Word’) to kick off CD1. Now that is house and big with it.

We just can’t give Carl Craig enough respect at the moment after the Reworked project with Moritz Von Oswald. And apart from his original work, his remixes are equally acclaimed. That said, if I was going to be pushed for a top 3, in no particular order, it’d be his remixes of Theo Parrish’s ‘Falling Up’, The Congo’s ‘Congo Man’ and Cesaria Evora’s ‘Angola’. All three are very different but are all are classic; Benji plumps for ‘Angola’ and you can’t fault that.

Third Ear Recordings are a label usually on the leftfield of hip hop jazz but Rick Whilhite’s ‘Ruby Nights’ is really house on the remix and then Mr. B himself features on a track with Om’Mas Kieth (of Sa-Ra and best mates with Daedelus) on an exclusive track ‘Do It Up’; now didn’t Benji guest of Finn Peters’ album Butterflies? Apparently our man is a bit of a gamelan expert whilst “Tonight, Tonight” ain’t exactly pushing it, but fair play to him.

Now Afefe Iku was one of the stars on the recent Scretsundaze Vol. 2 compilation and he turns up here on a re-edit of Luisito Quintero track. Fans of Louie Vega’s little side project will already know how good the source material is (original remix version HERE) but Mr. Iku, doesn’t let anyone down as all of the “Wake Up Africa” is worthy of the seven and half minutes of playing time.

Whilst on the subject, we love Sonar Kollektiv as much as anyone (check their celebratory release SK200 that’s out) and Âme is one of their best in the deep house zone. ‘Hydrolic Dog’ set a new standard when it came out in 2003 (great strings!) before they went global with ‘Rej’. And then Benji gets in Ovasoul7 on ‘I Cling’, the big track before the 2008 ‘Change You’ hit by Motorcitysoul (from one of the album’s of the year, Technique).

And talkin’ of greats; disco legend Cerrone vs. Louie Vega with more percussion by Luisito Quintero how good does that sound? And equally great for us FLY types is Womack & Womack ‘Conscious Of My Conscience’. It’s 20 years old and I think you’re forgiven if you’ve forgot how good that was. And to keep on that scene, the exclusive track by Yew is all soul - who are these guys?

Back to (sort of) Africa, Djini Brown’s Afro-Bionic is still hot at the moment and CD1 ends on the high of another track on Yoruba Records. I can’t say I realised Yoruba did soul like this so it’s a very pleasant high note to end on.

I must admit that Benji has more than impressed with his selections but getting onto CD2, Glenn Underground (aka Glenn Crocker) comes from the home of deep house (Chicago) so expect (and you get) as many highlights on his selection as there is on CD1.

Glenn follows Benji’s lead with two of his own tracks, ‘Indians & Bagpipes’ (very world house) and his superb tribute to the masters of jazzdance-fusion, Azymuth with a track called ‘Mental Fusion’ (if you’ve got Butterfly, you’ll want this). Added to that, there’s some more Louis Vega, a Phil Asher remix here, a bit of Kenny Dixon Jr. (aka Moodymann) there and you’ve a hell of a good compilation.

He’s also had the good taste to include Allen Hoist’s ‘With Love’ (you’ll remember the Kaidi Tatham mix was big for us a couple of years ago with our Soulution Records feature). I love this CD as much as Benji’s it’s that good.

So a suitable double act to follow the house stalwarts Ron Trent and Jerome Sydenham. Benji and Glenn have followed, excelled and absolutely crammed 2CDs worth of goodness in and made V.03 a real hard act to follow.

When’s the next party? Need2Soul take over The End on December 13 before the famous London club closes it’s door for the last time at the end of January next year. So if you missed the album launch party at Cargo, that looks like the place to go next as the release date has been put back a month. Definitely backs up the old adage that good things come to those that wait; can’t get enough of this.

Reviewed: Various Artists - Need 2 Soul Vol.2 Present Benji B & Glenn Underground (Need2Soul) Cat. No. N2SCD002 Release date: 19th January 2009.

Links
www.need2soul.com
www.myspace.com/need2soul
www.benjib.com
www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/benjib
www.myspace.com/djbenjib
www.myspace.com/ovasoul7music
Gilles Peterson :: 27 November 2008 :: Maida Vale Sessions Mix
Olafur Arnolds - ‘Fok’ (Live in Session)
Portico Quartet - ‘The Full Catastrophe’ (Live in Session)
Finn Peters - ‘Butterflies’ (Live in Session)
Finn Peters - ‘We Three Kings’ (Live in Session)
Portico Quartet - ‘Dawn Patrol’ (Live in Session)
Olafur Arnolds - ‘Sidrokkarinn’ (Live in Session)