soul

Which is the better reason to listen to Galactic--the impossibly groovy funk-jazz jams, or the A-list MCs rhyming along to them? The combination is almost unfairly good, but we'll keep quiet. With artists from Juvenile to Mr. Lif on board, it's a utopian redefinition of "instrumental hip-hop."

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Simone worship is common among softcore jazz-soul-poppers, but they tend to gloss over her firebrand side. "Protest Anthology" presents Simone as the edgy and outspoken singer she was, collecting several of her fiercest cuts. Few have ever combined preaching and crooning so deftly.

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Funked-up keyboards, thick horns, and a smattering of dry beats borrowed from regional rage hyphy--that's the sonic blackboard of this Bay Area darling. More significant is what she writes all over it: vocals that flit between pure R&B sugar and breathy rhyming.

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Every year at SXSW, you can hardly walk down Sixth Street without catching wind of some artist or another who's "the one" on the verge of a breakout. This year, though, one of the biggest buzz acts was definitely Duffy, a petite blond Welsh singer who's debut album, Rockferry, is currently No. 1 in the U.K. (it's scheduled to be released stateside in May). Because her first single, the hook-filled "Mercy," had just begun making the rounds, few in Austin had actually heard her music--but a lot had heard about her. Her showcase at Stubb's Saturday night was plenty full.

Duffy got an ear-catching 1960s pop-soul style that channels vintage singers such as Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, and Sammi Smith. Comparisons to Amy Winehouse (who made her U.S. debut at last year's SXSW) ran rampant, though truth is they're only vaguely justified: both artists have obvious love for a vintage '60s R&B sound, but Duffy's is big, wide, and lush--polished, even--while Winehouse keeps things funkier and more raw.… Read more

She shares a hometown (Augusta, Georgia) with no less than the Godfather of Soul, and there's a whole bucket of James Brown-style soul sauce in this Brooklyn songstress's bold numbers. A dynamic backing outfit drops deeply funky horns 'n' bass, and Jones's belting growl takes it all to town.

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The Korean mobile phone maker has just announced a clamshell version of the Soul handset at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany. Named the G400, the handset's most interesting feature lies in its dual 2.2-inch QVGA LCD displays. That's right, it comes with a 2.2-inch internal screen as well as a 2.2-inch external touchscreen panel. The G400 will also offer a customizable interface, much like the Soul.

As with most of Samsung's recent high-end imaging handsets, the HSDPA-enabled G400 comes with a host of strong camera features including a 5-megapixel sensor (with autofocus), face … Read more

Samsung gave us a lot of look at the GSMA World Congress and we've rolled them up here in a Samsung slide show. The company unveiled a long list of handsets, with the star attraction being the new Samsung Soul. As the company's "flagship product" for 2008, the Soul offers a sleek slider design (not that Samsung gives us much else these days) and a unique navigation touchpad with icons that change depending on the feature you're using. We gave it a test run, and it seemed to work pretty well, though a thorough shakedown … Read more

You'd be forgiven if you thought for a moment that the new Samsung Soul was the only cell phone on display at GSMA in Barcelona. Indeed, Samsung Electronics has peppered the city with countless signs promoting its slick new handset. And in its press release, Samsung called the Soul its "flagship product" for 2008.

As my CNET UK colleague Andrew Lim said on Friday, the Soul (aka the SGH-U900) is the newest edition to Samsung's Ultra Edition line. Sporting an all-metal silver casing and measuring just half an inch thick, the Soul has a decidedly sleek … Read more

Today Samsung announced a new addition to the Ultra Edition range called the Samsung Soul. The Soul will be properly shown off at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week and we're definitely looking forward to getting our sticky, cake-stained hands on it.

Packed with HSDPA that can reach speeds of up to 7.2mbps and a 5-megapixel camera, you might forgive the Soul for being a little chunky, but it only measures 13 millimeters thick and comes in a tough metal casing.

More impressively, Samsung has included a new navigation pad with a display that changes its … Read more