Various Artists – ‘Spring Originals’ album review: Ace Records revisit the golden age of New York funk
Like lone tigers living deep in the isolation of the jungle, funk and soul fanatics tend to live entirely on instinct. Digging through crates of old vinyl, you soon get to know which of those scratchy, obscure old record labels can be trusted to deliver solid grooves, and those which are best left to the bottom-feeders. Since its first emergence in the late 1960s, Spring Records has been in the former camp.
The Skinny: In this endlessly shifting digital age of on-demand music, it can often feel as though there are no more discoveries to be made – record collectors reduced to Alexander the Great, weeping at the thought of there being no more musical conquests to be made. Labels like Ace Records, on the other hand, continue to uncover, dust off, and reintroduce a litany of utterly incredible tracks from the depths of funk and soul obscurity, and the cult label New York label Spring Records has been their latest target.
Last year, Ace unleashed Spring Revisited, inviting dance music producers and aficionados to delve into the Spring archives and rework some of its most beloved offerings. Now, on Spring Originals, the label presents those original recordings from the funk and soul golden age.
Featuring the likes of Millie Jackson, Joe Simon, The Fatback Band, and a multitude of others, the result of this Spring celebration is one of the most exciting, driving, grooving funk compilation records in recent memory.
Some of these tracks, no doubt, will be all too familiar for those who continue to chase rare funk records on wax, but Ace has interspersed them with rare mixes, previously unreleased material, and impossible-to-find versions that might as well be brand-new releases as far as the layman is concerned.
Not only does the resulting record beautifully exemplify the magic of that label, but it also shows just how well its material has aged over the past half a century.
Spring Records, in its original form, folded back in 1993, yet, even today, the infectious funk mastery encased on this new compilation feels unsuspectingly cutting-edge. Of course, the sound, production, and style of the music are endearingly retro, but its spirit is as affecting and euphoric in this modern age as it ever has been.
Standout Track: Fatback Band – ‘Night Fever’
The Verdict: With Spring Originals, Ace Records reaffirm their devotion to preserving these essential slices of funk and soul history, remaining faithful to the spirit of the original recordings and flooding modern-day dancefloors with the kinds of sounds that have never gone out of style over the past 50 years. To call this new album essential listening for funk fanatics would be a gross understatement.
Release Date: April 24th, 2026 | Label: Ace Records
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