Soulful house trio, Tortured Soul, flew into London yesterday for their first ever UK appearance. Bubblegum Cowboy couldn’t resist heading down to Cargo to see what all the fuss was about…

There’s something about those house beats taken down a few bpm and laid out with some minor sevenths, a touch of Rhodes and a soulful vocal that just oozes cool. Add some jazzy inflections – those sulphuric-style licks and semi-tonal chord shifts and you’ve got the Tortured Soul album. This is seriously sexy stuff – Al Green for a new generation of lovers – there isn’t a girl in the world who could resist “Fall in Love,” a glass of red wine and subtle Ikea lighting (real class BGC). This album should be part of every man’s armoury and has already been blamed for over 100 unplanned pregnancies in the States. And it’s not just child welfare groups that are talking - the critics quite like it as well. If you’ve got any of the Stereo Sushi CDs then I can’t recommend this enough.

However, listening to the CD can’t prepare you for hearing Tortured Soul live. While the CD is soulful, the live act just shows how deeply rooted their house influences are and I, for one, didn’t expect them to hold a dance floor quite like they did. The beginning and the end were about as funky as it gets. They also gave us a master-class in house drumming – some of the beats Christian laid down were insane. Tortured Soul aren’t the most technically gifted individual musicians around but as a band they were incredibly tight and created something completely unique. Album tracks such as “Epic” took on a whole new life – the extended live accelerando whipped the crowd into an absolute frenzy and while, on the album, it’s just a filler, live it was simply phenomenal.

Of course there were also the more sensitive soulful moments – almost all the breakdowns were met with cheers and whistles, and the lighters even came out for “I Might do Something Wrong!” Get it together guys, this isn’t a Meatloaf gig. As the set ended it was met by a roar from what was a relatively small crowd. That’s just testament to how good they were.

Need 2 Soul DJs Phil Asher and Aaron Ross kept the party going until closing. All in all, this was the perfect way to spend a Sunday evening. So, should you book your tickets to New York to go and see them for yourself? It’s probably a good idea. Just let me know when you’re going….

As the man said.......It was the nuts!