The Piaggio Soul Combinations – Space Diary

We have a feeling members of the mod set will be pleased to hear Italy’s premier Northern Soul heroes, The Piaggio Soul Combination, have decided to go psychedelic for their Hypnotic Bridge release. Mod sensibilities and psychedelia have always worked so well together, we think. Paul Weller’s bass player (and Blur’s sometimes DJ) Andy Lewis produced the A-side (which features legendary Italian psych-garage guru Dome La Muerte on guitar), and the amazing vocal therapist and singer Marina Mulopulos is guest vocalist on the B-side. All in all, this one is a mindblower. The Piaggio Soul Combination is a musical collective from Pisa, Italy, where long-standing mod Marco “Piaggio” Piaggesi combined the best singers and musicians of the local Latin-Soul scene to create a dynamic fusion of sound. Mixing Italian, American and Caribbean musicians, the band builds a solid foundation of polyrhythms before adding tasty bass lines and groove-laden guitars. A tight-as-hell horn section and a fat organ sound complete the picture, offering a boiling pot of Soul grooves, up-tempos, Latin-jazz movers with Northern Soul. In 2020, they started their collaboration with Arkansas-bred lead vocalist Lakeetra Knowles.