Virtual Soul
Various Artists
Soul Sides, Volumes One and Two (Zealous)
For song swappers who insist that digital playlists lack the blood and guts it takes to whittle a stack of vinyl into an old-school mix tape, these two highlight reels from the MP3 audio blog Soul Sides (www.soul-sides.com) are a revelation. Just like those great homemade cassettes you have since packed away with the tear-stained yearbook, music critic and blogger Oliver Wang’s two-CD collection proves that, when it comes to mixology, it’s all about the soul.

The first three songs on Volume One, which flashes through five decades in 14 tracks, set the bar: Charles May’s tightly wound “Keep My Baby Warm,” where piano and electric bass race for the ass-quaking bottom; Clarence Reid’s “Masterpiece,” all tongue-and-cheek braggadocio and full-body funk; and Lee Moses’ decidedly Southern, brass-hued seducer, “Time and Place.”

Unlike the tastemakers brewing up corporate compilations to sell with your morning java, Wang, who writes for the likes of the Village Voice and Vibe, just decided to throw together a few “desert island” favorites. Bottom line be damned, he pairs gentle reminders like Linda Lyndell’s “What a Man” and Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Lovin’ You” with surprises like Donny Hathaway’s closing-time take on John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” and the Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra’s rendition of “Che Che Cole” on Volume Two, which hangs its sweaty headphones on 13 once-forgotten covers. —David Schimke

Tim Fite
Fair Ain’t Fair (Anti-)
With Tim Fite, there’s no tepid response: Either you love his funky, elliptical hip-hop performance art or you hate it. Either way, you’re probably taking him too seriously. After all, the guy looks and behaves like a chubby Pee-wee Herman. The truth is that Fite is a deeply engaging (dare we say it?) experimental rock composer—a minor character in a pantheon that includes artists like Frank Zappa and Patti Smith. His latest disc, which weaves sampled music over a foundation of drums recorded in his former high school, provides ample evidence. There’s plenty of doofy performance-play, some catchy pop hooks, and a playful reinterpretation of hip-hop, all grafted onto a unique, antiestablishment take on American culture. —Joseph Hart

Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band
Season of Changes (Verve)
An unfortunate misconception about jazz is that it’s always best heard at night, in a smoky downtown club, with a martini in hand. Drummer Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band play jazz that conjures not midnight ennui but morning wonder: music to be alive to. Season of Changes has a rustic character that comes in part from its incorporation of gospel, folk, and soul flourishes, but also from its sense of ease and embrace of open space. Blade airs out these compositions as if he’s flinging open the windows on a lakeside cottage, and his bandmates follow his lead with unfettered, joyous playing that doesn’t defy jazz convention so much as exist blissfully unaware of it. —Keith Goetzman