East of Underground
(Wax Poetics)The Dynamics
First Landing (Hacktone)Bob & Gene
If This World Were Mine … (Daptone)In these years of retro-soul, yesterday’s forgotten vinyl is getting a second chance on CD. The best of the bunch is the self-titled 1971 debut from East of Underground, an amateur sevenpiece of U.S. Army soldiers, recorded at the height of the Vietnam War in Frankfurt. No word on how many of the unit made it back home safely, but ad-libs from “California Dreamin'” testify they dreamt of returning to St. Louis, L.A., and Detroit. “Smiling Faces” is sublime, and “People Get Ready” has a rawness even the great Curtis Mayfield couldn’t convey. Detroit quartet the Dynamics were Memphis-bound for 1969’s First Landing, a lost bit of Motor City soul. While not exactly groundbreaking (the topic of love is only abandoned to mourn love lost), “Ice Cream Song” is pop perfection and alone justifies the purchase. Bob & Gene’s If This World Were Mine…, meanwhile, isn’t a reissue at all, but a miraculous first pressing of lo-fi love letters from two Buffalo teenagers. In the mid-1960s, Bobby Nunn and Eugene Coplin emulated their idols after school, singing in the small home studio that Nunn’s father, William, built. Bob & Gene released a single on Nunn’s tiny Mo Do label promoting a forthcoming LP, but a lack of funds meant the masters collected dust in the family garage for 35 years until New York record collector David Griffiths happened across the 7-inch in 2002. With some remastering magic and Daptone connections, Griffiths resurrected a lost gem that nearly never was.
(East of Underground) 
(The Dynamics) 
(Bob & Gene)
This article appears in December 14 • 2007.
