Idolator

As a companion to Dan's open thread Tuesday, which I still need to dig through and fully suss out, and as a way to liven up a dreary Friday, I am going to use this space to tip you off to three (well, four, actually) records that I've been listening to in the spaces between Mets games recently. Hey, the best time to flout the "music-recommendation posts get low pageviews" maxim is the hours before the weekend begins, right? Israeli funk, recently excavated '90s indie, and UK R & B after the jump!

Various artists, Soul Messages From Dimona
This compilation from the tireless archivists at the Numero Group collects music made between 1975 and 1981 by a group of American expatriates living in Dimona, Israel, and it's pretty fantastic, melding together gospel, funk, and soul with lyrics that apparently contain precepts of Black Hebrew culture. The Tonistics' "Holding On" sounds like a lost Jackson 5 song that was shelved because it got a little too freaky; I also like the Soul Messengers' "Our Lord And Savior," which makes the "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" melody the backbone for a fiery funk spiritual. [Numero Group]

Air Miami, Fourteen Songs/Sixteen Songs
My adoration for the band Unrest has been chronicled here in the past, and I've spent the past few weeks catching up with the two CDs of demos from Mark Robinson and Bridget Cross' follow-up project Air Miami. The band's sole album, Me. Me. Me., has been in my springtime rotation since its release in 1995, and these early versions of that album's songs (as well as the chiming "Airplane Rider" and a few new-to-me tracks) serve as a fine gateway to Me. Me. Me.'s fully realized takes. (The Sound Of Indie has an MP3 of one of the demos.) [Teen Beat]

Estelle, Shine
The new full-length by this UK singer meshes the best things about the other two records discussed in this space into a breezy, summery R & B album that inspired me to tell my listening companion "I like this, it's really nice, you know?" about 10 times during my first listen to it earlier this week. And hey, the wholesale lifting of the melody from George Michael's "Faith" on "No Substitute Love" shows that at least her influences are in the right place. [MySpace]