Review:
In truth, it's rare that a soul compilation will genuinely surprise you musically, but this thrillingly odd set from Chocolate Industries does that. Put together by Chicago digger and occasional Wax Poetics contributor Dante Carfagna (recently described by one magazine as "the Indiana Jones of record collecting"), Personal Space focuses on heavily electronic experimental soul, blues and funk released between 1974 and '84 - mostly by the artists themselves on tiny local labels around the US. It's a brilliant collection, comprising fuzzy synth-blues (see Jerry Green's "I Finally Found The Love I Need"), sparse electronic groovery (Spontaneous Overflow, Makers), dewy-eyed electro soul, and frankly out-there space funk (Starship Commander Woo Woo,).