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The heart of the scene will always be vinyl but the reissue on CD is brilliant. It is vital to get properly mastered releases from labels that are MCPS registered, paying the proper royalties. From there you can make your own MP3s for convenience and efficiency of storage which will sound perfectly good at 320kbs / 44.1khz settings. Labels such as Kent, Expansion, Outta Sight, Joe Boy, Sequel, Spectrum, BBR, BBE, Charly and many dozens more have all put out great reissue releases (with Kent as the most dedicated). CDs are for home and on the move listening, vinyl as the original source for playing at events (with crossover for more Modern Soul of course. There's a lot to collect in CDs, many of which are collectble themselves. I've been collecting soul on CD since the mid-1980s from the first Charly and Sequel releases such as 'Up All Night' and 'Some Modern Soul' through to now. There's a huge treasure trove of music that has never made it to CD and lots that in all likelihood never will, but once you start collecting in whatever form it will be with you throughout your life. Get a good music management software tool such as MediaMonkey and start building your own library. It's great fun. Remastering is a another topic but like reissues it has to be done with care and sympathy for the music. Bringing out the best in a track and retaining its balance is wonderful but adding bass, compression and other aspects can ruin a track, remove its dynamics and flatten its sound. In the right hands, it's a useful tool - the way Kent has revealed the magic inside murky sounding originals is great, but the dozens of low bite-rate, poorly copied unlicensed tracks as MP3s in Amazon, iTunes show the damage of shoddy treatment. Remastering is about bringing out the best of the sound, remixing is changing way is within it and its structure. A genuine master like Tom Moulton can be trusted with this but there are many rubbish 'edits' and 'remixes' out there that will soon be forgotten and source track remembered for its original quality.

Yes Vivian Reed is next week and I am looking forward to that. First time on CD for most of it. Be great to have her post 1970 songs issued too if the few I know from scene plays and compilations are good examples. The John Legend is more of a real instrument album than last couple of them produced by person who does Alabama Shakes. Lyrics seem well considered in interviews and Love Me Now is a good song it seems.

The Linda Jones CD is essential and I am delighted finally to have a compilation of her music on the right home in Kent Records.

Gonna Take A Miracle did get plays I believe and has been compiled as such before.

Stand at the edge of the floor, watch and gradually move your feet a little bit how you see the others doing it. Then away from the venue practice a bit at home with some music on. Classes are inherently wrong for Northern Soul, it does not work like that, this is about freedom of expression immersed into the joyful music. So long as you don't try anything crazy you'll be fine and nobody will notice anyway. Enjoy the journey.

CDs of relevance I received after pre-ordering today: Outta Sight - Soul On The Real Side - Volume 6 (excellent Modern Soul dancers) Let's Groove - The Archie Bell & The Drells story Deniece Williams - Black Butterfly (2 CD collection). I've never heard anyone mentions plays by this artist who is probably too mainstream, but thoughts welcome. new John Legend Also the new Goody Goody reissue, mostly disco apart from I Call It Love but with Vince Montana involved, it's better musically than most in the genre. Was any of it played I wonder at Mecca/Ritz etc.

A load more are due to be released pre-Christmas I'll post up on the Fridays as they are released. Some get delayed so I'll mention them as they appear.

Some great new CDs hit the mat today. Linda Jones new Kent CD - looks like a wonderful collection of her music: https://acerecords.co.uk/precious-the-anthology-1963-72 Kenya collection on Expansion New Orleans Funk 4 from SoulJazz Gladys Knight solo two-albums from SoulMusic.com

The two Kent CD compilations of Stax/Volt dancers 'Do The Crossover' and 'Let's Crossover Again' were great a decade or two ago now and essential listening along with the Ian Levine compiled set last year. I've been working through those three sets of all the Stax singles that were put out years ago and still find songs anew in there that seem never to have become the big plays they would if on other more obscure labels. It won't happen of course, but I'd be equally happy with all the b-sides being issued too. Especially in the '72-closure era a lot of that was ignored it feels but has great songs behind the obvious chart hits. Checking back to the Kent Records page for Stax the other releases there have good selections too. I forgot how many releases they have featured on Stax such as the 'Gospel Truth' and 'Nobody Wins' sets. Many have been and gone and aren't listened at the site anymore.

The book arrived yesterday and I had a quick sneaky read while pretending to be part of a conversation with my wife. It's a great book. Lots to read and return to there. Thanks for all your work on it Steve.

I look forward to listening. The Salsoul, Prelude, later PIR, early NY garage, post-disco era is something I've evolved towards and enjoy a lot now.

Post-Wigan (before my time) the time I noticed NS go overground was mid-1990s with a series of well organized, bigger commercial nights (not niters) bringing in a younger interested general public just as older generation was coming back. When I first got into NS as an evolution from the Mod revival it was back completely underground and very few nights to go to locally as a teenager in the 80s. by the 1990s there was interest with the dance scene at its peak and some people outgrowing that and the internet certainly helped. Soul Togetherness got going and it started to feel vibrant (if mostly oldies for a while). I remember there being no internet, then a few email groups on Yahoo, then KeepingTheFaith group which became really big by which time we were into NS being a media go-to and the CD era really kicking in with the popular supermarket/car garage sold compilations.

I am enjoying this, very varied across dancers in Northern Soul, Crossover to early Modern Soul plus some slower deep, Southern style songs. Beyond the few songs compiled already this is a good release in its own right.

My order arrived today. It is a huge, definitive, enjoyable book that will take a life to absorb fully.

Got my order in for some reading over Christmas.

The book looks great so I have ordered from Steve. I am looking forward to it immensely.

I'm sure all those who enjoy soul music will say this is well deserved (an understatement).

I will listen again to his new collection CD on Kent as a mark of appreciation.

I'm enjoying that very well produced collection of Betty's music.

Some of Jerry Butler's early 1970s albums have not been reissued yet (including the one with Stop Stepping On This Dream). Sharon Ridley's album too I don't think has had a proper reissue.

Yes the Papik album is excellent, I mean this as a compliment but it's great bed-time listening. The last double album was a bit over ambitious and too many novelty cover versions but this seems a return to form.

Soul Love is excellent this year, more soulful and less House music sounding than previous installments. Enjoying the Eric Benet, After 7, Dave Hollister, Bob Baldwin & Papik releases too. Diane Ducane is on the reissued Casino Classics CD box set too.

The new two new songs by Kim Tibbs are great plays. The new releases keep coming. Outta Sight's 'Soul on the Real Side #6' is out on 25th as is a collection of Kenya's music including new tracks and mixes I envisage. The new album by Myles Sanko is good, his last album was stunning and this is slightly more jazzy. John Legend's album is due 2nd December.

Yes it is a great time for Modern Soul - both new and classic. Those Dean Rudland CDs are good with excellent sound quality so I hope he continues them. I am listening to new After 7 as I type which is great. Listening to new Joe Thomas (Joe) advance sounds good too. There is a new Preston Glass release I paid for a download of yesterday (no CD as I can see so far). It's fairly enjoyable but only a couple of songs seem to stand up to previous works. I see too a Heston release on download without CD which has more of an acoustic feel and didn't really connect with me to buy it. Some great individual songs around too such as Something About You by Michon Young and Thought It Would Be Easier by Kandance Springs. Flicking between Solar Radio, Soul 365, Jazz FM and other UK digital soul stations via internet radio keeps highlighting ever more strong new soul music.

New Soul Love 2016 and Ethereal Magic 2 releases received today. Soul Love 2016 has a few extra tracks in the deluxe online version that you get as a free add on if you order the CD at Amazon (and possibly others).