For a third time Vampisoul goes digging into the Spanish ’60s and ’70s, for tracks that are sometimes so obscure that even the compiler Vincente Fabuel struggles to find out who’s responsible for them. “Practically unknown Catalan quintet whose only known quality piece is this surprising go-go style instrumental …” is a phrase used. This music is the Spanish love child of Britain’s blue-eyed soul and everything is similar — the swing, the rude flirt, the kiss-me-honey lyrics.
This is less familiar to an English-speaking audience than the British groups but unfamiliar doesn’t mean inferior although it does mean copying the overseas sound. The variety flows free, the singers strut their stuff, their voices remember the last time they heard Little Richard or Tom Jones. Nico Fioole, visiting from Indonesia, smoothly Elvises on “Wello Wello Wap”. Larry Wald wears a spotted shirt and decides against all human reason that “Great Caesar’s Ghost” is a sane-sounding lyric. Super.