Send "Various Artists " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 One defining and instructive story often told about Daptone Records, the retro-soul label based in Bushwick, concerns a cover of Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done for Me Lately", which appeared on the 2002 debut by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. So convincingly did the band and the singer transform the song and reset it in a soul-historical context that apparently many listeners, as yet unfamiliar with the band or with Daptone's mission, assumed that this was the original, exhumed after so many decades of obscurity, and that Jackson's was actually the cover. Daptone, however, is not a reissue label. It releases primarily new recordings often featuring old singers, studiously re-creating the sounds of 1960s and 70s soul, as if to unhinge that style from history and prove it timeless, sceneless. The label has been praised for the precision of its revivalism as well as the strength of its roster, which includes Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, and the Budos Band, among others. There's a fine line, however, between revivalism and slavish mimicry, and the concern for historical fidelity that has garnered praise for Daptone acts has caused other contemporary bands to be routinely dismissed for sounding too much like 70s Laurel Canyon folk-rock or 80s Mancunian post-punk. So why shouldn't the same critical standard apply to Daptone?Daptone Gold, which is either a very savvy label sampler or a very generous greatest hits, goes a long way toward answering that question. The nearly two dozen songs gathered here-- some new and familiar, others previously unreleased-- cover a lot of territory, from the urbanized (i.e., pre-Guiliani New York) afrofunk sounds of Antibalas to the soul-jazz struts of the Budos Band to the sanctified, secularized gospel of Naomi Shelton to the old-soul wallop of figureheads Sharon Jones and Lee Fields. Daptone's reach is both deep and wide, looking not to specific scenes or personalities from soul history, but to a generalized conception of the past as fertile territory for musical exploration. In other words, Daptone Gold (which features liner notes by Pitchfork contributor Douglas Wolk) benefits not so much from its associations with Stax or Motown or Philly or Hi or any other prestigious label, but from the excitement and directness of the music itself. The players not only know their history, but they have the chops to translate that knowledge into music that only rarely sounds academic. The Budos Band apparently live in the pocket: On their three songs on Daptone Gold, the horns, percussion, and rhythm guitar immediately click into place and never let up. Especially on "Budos Rising", the horns soar precipitously over the prickly guitar licks and rumbling bongo funk, creating a tense call-and-response with the organ. Similarly, the groove on Antibalas' makossa-style cover of Hector Lavoe's "Che Che Cole" seems propelled by gravity itself, clicking in sweetly with Mayra Vega's spry vocals. And the Dap-Kings, which are more or less the Daptone house band even though they're most commonly identified with Sharon Jones, construct dense grooves that allow space for scribbles of saxophone and organ. On the instrumental "Nervous Like Me", the reeds completely lose their shit while the guitar keeps everything together with a four-note theme. It's chaos rough-drafted into something barely orderly....full text |
| Limewire |
| In the early 2000s, a scrappy little label out of Brooklyn, NY began to emerge as a powerful new voice, becoming the locus point of a vibrant scene encompassing funk, soul, Afrobeat, and more. As the end of the decade approaches, the label has seen fit to celebrate its history with Daptone Gold, a collection that spotlights some of the stars of the Daptone galaxy. Sharon Jones is obviously the most high-profile artist on the Daptone roster, and she figures prominently here, represented by no less than seven tracks of super-powered ’60s-style soul, but that doesn’t mean she’s the be-all and end-all of either Daptone or this compilation. Daptone Gold is stacked to overflowing with head-turning talent, from the Big Mama Thornton-meets-Swan Silvertones gospel-soul sound of Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens to the churning Afrobeat of New York City institution Antibalas, and the hot-stepping mix of Fatback Band and Fela Kuti that is The Budos Band. And somehow, whatever the disparate influences on these artists may be, taken as a whole they bear a sound that’s uniquely New York....full text |
| Tinymixtapes |
| Modern American pop culture wishes it lived 40 years ago. Mad Men, hipster record collections, and the preponderance of vintage stores all hearken back to a time when beehives and sequins were fashion norms and the Shaft theme was the fantasy intro music of choice. In this environment of nostalgia, soul is making a mainstream comeback thanks to bands like Daptone Records’ Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, whose hit 2007 single “100 Days, 100 Nights” blew morose indie band offerings out of the proverbial water, proving that sax and trumpet solos can be rocked by non-Kenny G-related acts. It is with this soul resurgence in mind that Daptone Records has released Daptone Gold, a compilation album packed with enough groove to coax a James Brown howl from even the most bespectacled and skinny-jeaned of indie fans. Daptone gives the album an additional dose of authenticity with a 50-second intro from Binky Griptite. This may seem like an inconsequential detail that takes up valuable disc space, but you have to remember: Daptone isn’t intending you to load Gold onto your iPod shuffle to mindlessly distract you on your trip to the grocery store. The album plays more like a live recording of the most star-studded soul set imaginable; track placement is everything, and there are no singles. That said, Daptone hasn’t ignored Sharon Jones’ mainstream success; the modern Queen of Soul offers no fewer than seven titles on the 23-track album, bookending the collection with “I’m Not Gonna Cry,” which single-handedly brings the sex back into bari-sax solos, and “Stranded In Your Love,” a gorgeous duet with Lee Fields that could more than hold its own in love-song-duet battle with Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell....full text |
Various Artists lyrics
