This masterful 1974 outing from keyboardist Gene Harris is a jazz album directly informed by R’n’B, soul and funk artists of the time like Roy Ayers and Sly Stone, Harris’ hybrid jazz funk/soul jazz sound neatly summed up in the title of his dreamy summertime rare groove anthem Losalamitoslatinfunklovesong. Astral Signal comes from that confident and expansive period in US jazz and soul, when kicking off an album with an interlinked, three-track psychedelic soul medley was a perfectly standard move, and it’s a suitably bold beginning for a rich and ambitious album. It moves between strident, tripped-out, multi-layered jazz-funk dancefloor monsters, and the sunniest of beguiling West Coast soul jazz. In addition to Harris’ keys, the prominent electric basslines from supreme session player Chuck Rainy absolutely pop, powerhouse drum warrior Harvey Mason supplies the beats, there’s a three-part brass section, reeds, piano and layers of thick percussion, all of which results in big, full productions that churn like finely tuned, complex interconnecting funk machines. Superbly done.