Basil - Out of My Face (1991)

Basil Clarke possesses an outstandingly beautiful singing voice; he’s also a very fine songwriter. Why he isn’t a global superstar is a total mystery to me. He started out as lead vocalist in a Manchester-based band called  Yargo in the mid-late 1980s, featuring former members of Biting Tongues, with Phil Kirby (drums) and Paddy Steer (bass guitar) together with guitarist Tony Burnside. They mixed jazz, blues, soul, reggae and rock, with Clarke receiving comparisons with Marvin Gaye, and made their debut in 1986 with the Get High EP on the Skysaw label, featuring Andy Diagram on trumpet.

Their profile was raised by a performance on Channel 4 music progamme The Tube. Their debut album, Bodybeat, was released in 1987 on their own label of the same name. In 1988 they were signed by London Records, who reissued their debut album and followed it with Communicate in 1989. Also in '89, they recorded the theme to Tony Wilson's Granada Television show The Other Side of Midnight, which was also released as a single. They reverted to the Bodybeat label for a live album in 1991, which proved to be their final release.

Clarke then recorded as a solo artist, releasing the Out of my Face single in 1991, and made a guest appearance on the Future Sound of London album Accelerator in the same year. He also contributed vocals to The Strange Parcels' album Disconnection album in the mid-1990s.

- FVHK5K

De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays" (1991)

De La Soul were a hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York, comprised of Kelvin Mercer (Posdnuos, Mercenary, Plug Wonder Why, Plug One), David Jude Jolicoeur (Trugoy the Dove, Dave, Plug Two) and Vincent Mason (P.A. Pasemaster Mase, Maseo, Plug Three). The three formed the group in high school and caught the attention of producer Prince Paul with a demo tape of the song Plug Tunin'. Prince Paul was also sometimes referred to as Plug Four. The Plug names are alleged to come from the numbers that each bandmate's microphone was labeled on the studio soundboard. Posdnuos was always plugged into plug one, Trugoy was plugged into plug two, and so on.
A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays" is from their second studio album De La Soul Is Dead. The track also includes vocal contributions from Q-Tip, R&B singer Vinia Mojica and Def Jam main man Russell Simmons (as the DJ from fictional radio station 'WRMS'). The song was generally well received by critics and sold well; it peaked at no.22 on the UK Singles Chart, no.6 on the  Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and no.43 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs charts. The song is considered another collaboration from the Native Tongues posse, as both De La Soul, Q-Tip and Mojica are members; however, it would become among the last of these collaborations to appear on a De La Soul album.
The song's main beat is based around a sample of a riff from The Mighty Ryeders' Evil Vibrations; aside from this, the song also samples vocals and the horn riff from Frankie Valli's Grease; vocals from rock band Chicago's Saturday in the Park, Young-Holt Unlimited's Light My Fire, horns from I Got My Mind Made Up by Instant Funk, a drum break from Tower of Power's Ebony Jam and a vocal sample from Chic's Good Times.

- FVS

Donna Gardier - I'll Be There (1991)

Donna Gardier; yet another British Soul singer criminally overlooked.
Her early musical influences are all strong-voiced US females – from the Jones Girls and Chaka Khan to Vesta Williams and Patti Labelle and Aretha Franklyn. Gardier, a lifelong Londoner, began singing in church at the age of five, but only broke into the music business by accident. “A friend of mine who was a professional singer had double-booked herself and asked me to cover for her,” she recalls. She went to the session, for a band called Kid Can’t Dance, and found herself asked to join the band, going on the road with them and singing on their album.
This was followed soon afterward by her debut solo album on Virgin Records, which launched her professional career with the singles Reach Out and I'll Be There.
In the mid-90's she fronted UK band Raw Stylus, who recorded the classic singles Pushing Against The Flow and Believe In Me and toured extensively with them in Europe, the US and Japan. Believe In Me made Billboard No1 for Hot Dance Music. Her stint with Raw Stylus began by complete chance. A friend was auditioning for the band and called Donna in the middle of the audition after telling the band "I know who would be perfect for this".
“I went along the next day and they chose me as the band’s lead singer,” says Gardier. “The friend who recommended me became one of the backing singers.”
Donna describes her style as “a strong gospel type of vocal” and her interest in gospel grew greatly following the break-up of Raw Stylus; in recent years she has sung with different gospel choirs, along with doing a lot of session work.
When the opportunity came along to cut an album for Dome and resume her recording career as an artist in her own right, she jumped at the chance and immediately began working on material with Lennox Cameron. Her last album, Home was written and recorded by herself and Cameron. Donna says: “I enjoyed doing my first solo album, but the reason why I particularly like this new album is that it is true to me, coming from the heart, true to the person I am today. On my original solo record I didn’t write any of the material, whereas on this album I have written all but one of the songs”. The exception is an intimate acoustic version of the Marvin Gaye favourite How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), produced by the Birmingham-based Full Flava team.
From 2004 to 2005 she recorded with Sting and was part of the Sacred Love tour. She has also been on tour with the Four Tops and the Temptations and more recently with Billy Ocean.
At present Gardier is writing songs for another solo album and is a member of the Sunburst Band, who are the live performance of the creative works by the famed dance music DJ, Joey Negro.

Info courtesy of Donna Gardier's website.

Soul Family Sensation - I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby (1990 & 1991))

In 1989 Johnny Male teamed up with Guy Batson and Jhelisa Anderson to begin the project Soul Family Sensation. Their debut album New Wave was praised by the UK media as was the single, I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby. 
Despite interest from the style press and radio play for the single release, SFS bombed. Too white for the dance kids, too black for the indie kids it seemed, SFS were stuck in a sort of no-mans land inbetween.
I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby was re-released in 1991 and spent 4 weeks in the UK Charts, reaching no.49.
Their second LP, Burger Habit, recorded without Jhelisa under the band name of Sensation, disappeared without a trace and SFS split. Male,  after reputedly writing songs for Jimmy Nail, turned up next in Republica.
Jhelisa Anderson of course has become an accomplished solo artist singing, writing & producing under the name Jhelisa. She has made two albums and struck gold with Friendly Pressure. Her sister is P.Y. or Pamela Anderson (No, not that one) who sang with D*Note and Incognito and of course, her cousin is Carleen Anderson, daughter of Vicki Anderson & Bobby Byrd.
I've loved this song since day one, both versions here are absolutely sublime. Don't be misled by the alternate title of the remix, it's another version of the same song but remixed by the iconic producer Marshall Jefferson, produced just before he took a break from music in 1990; he then returned to DJing in 1993.

Original 1990 version

1991 re-release