I've been listening again to Rae & Christian's debut album Northern Sulphuric Soul in the past week. Hard to believe listening to it that the album came out 25 years ago, it still sounds so fresh.
It was one of those acts and albums where I immediately bought into the hype surrounding it. I think one of my go-to record shops had it on sale at a discount price of £7.99 - chart price CDs being in the £11-13 range back then - so I snapped it up pretty quickly.
Mark Rae and Steve Christian first met in 1995 and released their debut EP that same year under a different name. Their first releases as Rae & Christian - and featuring vocals from Veba aka Beverley Green - appeared on Grand Central Records compilations and they expanded into remixes for other artists, to some acclaim.
Northern Sulphuric Soul was released in October 1998 on Mark Rae's own Grand Central Records and I saw Rae & Christian live in concert at The Fleece in Bristol in February 1999. A memorable gig, not least because the venue was affected by a power cut which saw the full band gamely continue for a time in the dark with an "unplugged' set for a short time. But that's a story for another post. Suffice to say they were brilliant.
From memory, I would have sworn that Veba was part of the touring band but Iffypedia seems non-committal in its brief reference to their tour and I'll need to do a little more digging online. Oh, if only I'd kept a gig diary...!
Anyway, whilst I mine that particular seam for a future Dubhed nugget of gold, here's the video for standout album track Spellbound featuring Veba's sweet-as-honey voice. It was released as a single in November 1998 entering the UK chart at #77 and dropping out of the Top 100 a couple of weeks later.
I was equally surprised that Northern Sulphuric Soul didn't even break the Top 150 albums, given the quality of the tunes and high profile guest spots from The Jungle Brothers, Jeru The Damaja and Texas. Was it simply that the independent label couldn't produce the supply to meet the demand? Either way, a shame as both Rae & Christian and Veba in her own right deserved to be heard!
Although there's little information about Veba online, I was pleased to read that she has continued to delight audiences with live performances, in recent years as part of Groove Armada's touring band.
I've honestly not heard this before. I knew Rae & Christian only from their superb remixing skills, and never dove into their own original compositions. Thank you for calling this out, I've got something I need to track down immediately.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mooz, it's that perennial challenge of too much (great) music, too little time, isn't it? I've got the first two R&C albums but only realised when writing this post that there was a third album in 2013. I'd highly recommend the first two and when I get hold of the third, I'm sure I'll be saying the same.
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