From the stacks of Stax comes sensuous, tainted love songs from the same group that brought about the criminally slept on concept album Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth. Up until recently, the story of 24-Carat Black seemingly begins and ends with the release of their sole debut album, eventually sampled numerous times by thet likes of Digable Planets and Jay Z. While Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth was a product of it's time period, a time when the Civil Rights movement had achieved its most tangible goals and had to contend with more abstract hardships such as ingrained prejudice and systemic inequality, Gone - The Promises Of Yesterday is a timeless deep soul collection. Hibernating in keyboardist and session engineer Bruce Thompson's basement for 35 years, the tapes of Gone progressively decayed and had fallen into soggy disrepair. Only the 6 tracks presented here are what was salvageable, but these 6 cuts are all killer, absolutely no filler. Exploring themes of desire and heartbreak, the album grooves, but not in the traditional dancefloor sense (peep the included audio samples for a taste of this buried treasure). For fans of that early-70's conscious soul, think Isaac Hayes, The Pharaohs, Black Renaissance, or even The Temptations. 6 tracks in all, includes a printed inner that features archived photos and liner notes. Released by Numero Group. Recommended.

• printed inner w/ liner notes
• music label: Numero Group 2019

reviewed by Ralphy Corduroy 2/2019

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