VA - Eccentric Soul: Twinight's Lunar Rotation [2CD Set] (2007)

Operated by a pair of cutthroat radio promotion men, Chicago's Twinight label made its strides via "friendola" - the trading of favors, not dollars, for local radio airplay. Much of the outfit's 56-single output - excepting the work of bona fide hitmaker Syl Johnson - was written and recorded by moonlighting on-air talent eager for a leg up in the Second City's notoriously crooked record racket. Twinight's Lunar Rotation spins 40 former tax write-off tracks on 2 CDs - or 54 cuts on 4 LPs - into works of true soul beauty revealed by the light of a new day.

Chalk up another shoot-the-moon collection of long-lost soul to the master excavators at the Numero Group. Upping the ante to a two-disc set accompanied by trivia-filled liner notes, Twinight's Lunar Rotation is a treasure chest--40 tracks of sweaty, sassy R&B goodness, churned out by the prolific and independent Chicago-area Twinight Records in the late '60s and early '70s. Committed to producing anything they thought could sell or merit radio airplay, the producers at Twinight generated ballads, minor gems like George McGregor and the Bronzette's "Temptation Is So Hard to Fight," hip-shaking instrumental soul workouts and smoky psychedelic guitar grooves. Tight funk ensembles Pieces of Peace and the Dynamic Tints come off like a mini-Tower of Power, and the teenaged Mystiques (discovered at a high school talent show) capture the urgency of adolescent obsession with "Put Out the Fire." This lunar rotation is worth taking for a spin. --Ben Heege