The Independents, Harold Melvin: Whither soul?

THE INDEPENDENTS and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes are two of a handful of talented groups who have managed to break through in this world of synthetic music with some true Soul. The select bunch is indeed select and whilst their music enjoys all of the advantages of today's technical outlook in record production, it retains the basic ingredient of soul in the vocal section. Heading the list are the Chi-lites and Stylistics but over the last few months we have had a couple of welcome additions to the list — the Independents and new supergroup, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.