If the intention of Daptone Gold is to prove that the Brooklyn retro-funk label has a far wider remit than it's often given credit for, it succeeds handsomely. Most of these gospel, soul, African-manqué, and ballad selections, were either singles or album cuts — though Binky Griptite with the Sugarman Three's "A Lover Like Me," recorded in 2002, and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings' cover of Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Giving Up," from 2008, are previously unissued — and all of them are a piece. Not simply because of Daptone's warm analog house sound and dedication to turn-of-the-'70s musical tropes, either, though those help. Daptone has always prioritized singles, and having so many good ones — particularly those that have been unavailable for a while — in one place is a boon. Afrobeat squad Antibalas' version of the Hector Lavoe salsa classic "Che Che Cole" — here in a B-side "Makossa" version from the 12-inch, and long out of print — filters Cameroonian proto-disco through a revisionist lens. House band the Dap-Kings burn through the heated (and, despite its title, fully assured) "Nervous Like Me," previously only available on a 7-inch on fellow New Yorker Kenny Dope's Kay-Dee label.… read more »