At the time these albums first surfaced in the UK at the beginning of the seventies nearly al working club DJ's (myself included) were looking for those tracks that could effectively be used to work the dance floor, and the real class within the album was often ignored. It was not until some twenty years later that DJ's/Collector's began to realize just what gems could be found on these LP's and so we suddenly had the market which went on to be known as 'rare groove'. 100 Proof  were unquestionably a real soul outfit of the highest order featuring the vocals of Joe Stubb's (brother of 4 Tops' Levi) and the excellent Steve Mancha. Between them they delivered us some of the best material ever heard on Hot Wax/Invictus and one only has to listen to the track 'One Man's Leftovers' to appreciate the quality of dance music this label could conjure up whenever the fancy took them. Forget the corny occasional lyrics this track is a classic and has a back beat not too dissimilar to Wilson Pickett's 'She's Looking Good'.

'Age Ain't Nothing But A Number' is another slice of uptempo magic which can match anything that the seventies disco boom threw out some seven years later. 'Backtrack' being another example of fine uptempo material with a backing that reminds me of Honeycones' 'One Monkey Don't Stop No Show'.

If that wasn't enough experience the great '90 day Freeze' which should have a bigger hit than it actually was and proves beyond doubt that dance music is not just a computerized generated backing track, and that real and meaningful lyrics can be used to good effect as here.

The band even choose to cover the Bee Gees song 'Words' and even make it sound better than the original and certainly more soulful. That being the case too for the cover of the Association's 'Never My Love'

Want to know the best track on the set? It is without question the Darrell Banks influenced 'I Don't Care If I Never Get Over You'. This is a piece of Detroit magic at it's very best. So soulful and sure to please anyone who loves their Detroit music and again re-iterates the point made earlier that the best soul music is not always songs that you can dance too.

Personal rating 9/10
Expect to pay around £9.99 in the UK
Released August 1999.