Terry Callier: LifeTime (Talkin' Loud)
All hail TC, the Chicago soul legend whose return to centre stage in recent times is proof that sometimes justice can be done. After a series of remarkable but unheralded albums during the 1970s, he retired from music, but by the early 1990s he had attracted a cult following on the Northern Soul scene and was persuaded to return. Unlike Time Peace, his comeback album, this is a far more focused collection. Moving subtly between jazz, soul and folk idioms, Callier's voice is one of the most mesmerising you will hear. When My Lady Danced may demonstrate a laid-back, laconic style, but a remake of I Don't Want To See Myself Without You with the Visual Ministry Choir shows just why the Northern Soul kids went wow in the first place. Lets hope Terry's time has come.
Jim Carroll
Deep Dish: Yoshiesque
When it comes to deep house, Washington DC's Deep Dish have few equals. When it comes to merging their trademark sound with all manner of twists, turns and strange directions, however, Deep Dish's Ali and Sharam relocate to another planet. Yoshiesque is one mighty mix album, taking you down familiar Deep Dish roads but, over the course of two CDs, delivering you to a very different destination to the one you imagined arriving at two-and-a-half hours earlier. While some of this may be due to their wonderfully eclectic track selection (snatches of the Lo-Fi Allstars and Culture Club rubbing up against dubs from their own Yoshitoshi label), there's also a sense of magic to what the duo can produce with two decks and a mixer. Irresistible, pumping and, of course, deep.
Jim Carroll