Blitz Magazine (Los Angeles) Review

THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

By Mike McDowell

SOUL, INC. VOLUME ONE - Soul, Inc.
(Gear Fab Records)

Between 1965 and 1969, Louisville, Kentucky's Soul, Inc. recorded some five dozen tracks of considerable depth and versatility, and managed to land a spot on the roster of Dick Clark's highly acclaimed Caravan Of Stars tour. Yet somehow national acclaim managed to elude them.

In this first of three volumes chronicling their fascinating career, Soul, Inc. runs the gamut from traditional rhythm and blues (covers of the Falcons' I Found A Love and Ellas "Bo Diddley" McDaniel's Who Do You Love) to novelty originals (the Kingsmen and Ajax commercial-inspired Stronger Than Dirt), psychedelia (UFO), hard-edged garage rock (I Hate You and I Belong To Nobody), plus the Byrds-inspired Sixty Miles High (complete with reference to that band's 5D album) and two versions of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Interestingly enough, the quality of these independent recordings (issued on such labels as Rondo, Boss and Star) not only sounds sonically superior to much of the major label rock released at the time, but even caused more than one observer to remark that some of the tracks sound as if they were cut as late as the 1980s, which is not the case. Soul, Inc. was just a rare example of a band that was truly ahead of its time.