It seems like just yesterday when one of my very first posts to Scenestars was “We Can Make It” by DKD featuring Donnie, from the Giant Step compilation “Simply Good Music Volume One.” Now it’s almost spring again, and it’s time for the second volume in this eclectic series dedicated to all sides of this sprawling urban underground scene that I like to cover.

Due out March 22, “Volume Two” covers all the bases: club jazz with Fertile Ground (”Live in the Light”), soulful samba grooves courtesy of Renovation Unlimited featuring Roy Ayers (”Antonata”), post-Outkast party funk by Plantlife (”Appreciate”), and RSL’s hybrid of world beat, fusion and house (”The Mast”). One of my favorites, previously available only on a limited-edition 7-inch from Giant Step, is “Mr. Johnnie Walker” by vocalist Tiombe Lockhart, produced by Bilal. You might have heard Tiombe with Platinum Pied Pipers on the great “Stay with Me”/”Day Is Done” EP (”Day Is Done” featuring Georgia is also on Volume 2) on Ubiquity Records. Here she gets a little more room to show off her flirtatious, sexy voice over a quirky beat and some brass accents. An ode to whiskey never tugged so hard at your heart strings. This track turned some heads the other night at Dish …

(Yo, check out Tiombe’s mad 80s look here … She looks like one of Prince’s hos.)

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