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Chilled Soul Vol. 7

Fifty-six tracks and the most genre-indifferent volume in the series — jazz vocals, Persian classical, Icelandic folk, gospel and British soul in one sitting.

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ChilledSoul 7

The seventh volume is where the series' definition of soul music stops being a genre and becomes a temperature. Nothing here is filed under the same heading and everything belongs.

The connective tissue is a preference for acoustic space, unhurried tempos and voices used at conversational volume. Once that is the rule, an Ella Fitzgerald recording and an Icelandic songwriter's debut turn out to be doing very similar things.

What to listen for

Axiom Of Choice's "Valeh" is the most unusual thing here — an ensemble working in Persian classical tradition with Mamak Khadem singing, placed in the middle of a soul playlist without comment.

Sweetback appears twice, which is a knowing choice: they are Sade's band recording without her, and their instrumental records are the missing link between her catalogue and instrumental trip-hop.

Ella Fitzgerald's "Azure" is the oldest recording on the list and the one that makes the case for the whole exercise — a Duke Ellington song sung so lightly it barely disturbs the air.

Herbie Hancock's "Don't Give Up" with P!nk and John Legend comes from The Imagine Project and is a far better record than that description suggests.

Ásgeir's "Going Home" is the Icelandic entry, Pamberi's "Calypso Do Lite" is the Trinidadian one, and Somi's "Ginger Me Slowly" is the jazz-African one.

The Emotions' "God Will Take Care of You" and The Stylistics' "Children of the Night" are the classic-soul anchors, both Charles Stepney and Philadelphia productions respectively.

London Grammar's "Hell To The Liars" and Rachael Yamagata's "I'll Find a Way" are the best-sung contemporary tracks.

Robert Glasper's "Open Mind" is the instrumental centre, and Sade's "It's Only Love That Gets You Through" is the record everything else here is arranged around.

Go deeper

Sweetback's self-titled debut is the essential find from this set and one of the best instrumental soul records of the nineties.

Axiom Of Choice's Niya Yesh is worth hearing in full, and Somi's The Lagos Music Salon is the album this volume most clearly recommends.

What holds it together: not genre but volume. Every track here is sung or played at conversational level, with acoustic space around it, and once that is the rule a 1950s jazz vocal and a Persian classical ensemble turn out to be doing very similar work. The set is the strongest argument in the series that soul is a temperature rather than a category.

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