Birth of soul - Los Angeles special

"The latest volume in Ace Records' superlative series on the genesis of the genre cherry-picks from the city's vast output with 24 cuts spanning 1960-1964. The emphasis is on high quality plus rarity with six of the tracks previously unissued".

"Proto soul and adjacent sides, deep and hidden, from the glitzy city: An excellent compilation that's instructive in its indexing of the many threads of music that contributed to LA soul, but also, and most importantly, a blast of a set to listen to in its own right".