Having met the man himself and questioned Eddie “ET” Townes about his wardrobe at the time I can assure you it was NOT his choice of apparel! LOL. No matter, what we are dealing with here is a quality 1986 release from the Total Experience label courtesy of Lonnie Simmons, who as you are aware was closely associated with The Gap Band. The album features, incidentally, Gap Band percussionist Victor Orlando and a phenomenal and very unique vocalist called A. Hilmon...who is a certain Tonye Hilmon who joined forces with Eddie to create Nu Soul Habits and go on to release a stunning album for Motown in 1994! More about that another time. Fans of the mid 80s soul scene will love this, and although not the best album of it's time certainly one that has stood the test of time and if you, like me, love the up tempo material from the time will want a copy if you don't have the luxury of it already. The title track is a real mover and foot-tapper and Eddie hits the vocals very much like Skip Martin of the Dazz Band here, and is very good. The electronic love jam “Never Is Forever” follows on straight after and is very warm, sexy and slightly reminiscent of what was coming out of Minneapolis at the time. The KILLER track on here is “Magic In The Air” which spotlights the vocal skills of Tonye Hilmon. If you only buy the album for this song then no-one, least not I, would blame you. This really is the cat's whiskers of the album and for my ears is one of the best songs ever recorded and released in 1986. Such a classy year and a classy, classy song. Here we are 22 years later and it's as essential now as it was on the day of release. The up tempo summer sounds of “Don't Make Me Wait” harks back to the Dazz Band sound again, and is excellent to boot. “My Name” is a persistent purple groove and “Candy” also owes more to the style of Jesse Johnson than anything else. So, a funkier and more brash effort from the mid 80s, but with some very smooth moments - “Magic In The Air” being the real diamond in the rough here. Never released on CD, you can pick this album up relatively inexpensively and with a track like that it has to be worth searching out!
Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe
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