Like so much of the strongest soul music, all the songs on ‘Skyway Soul: Gary, Indiana’ were borne of strife, and turned that grief to gold hailed by worldwide citizens of similar, working class, post-industrial, socio-economic backgrounds. After the steel industry of Gary, Indiana, on the southernmost shore of Lake Michigan, began to pale in significance to imports, it prompted a wave of musicians to make cracking tunes.

The exemplary cuts here span ‘70s soul, proper, such as The Newdays’ sugary ace ‘Wait a Minute Girl’, or string-heavy Motown vibes of ‘I Want to Be Together With You’ by El Anthony, to its descendants in disco-soul and synthy boogie, as with the weekend optimism of ‘I Need Your Love’ by Billy Foster & Audio, or rude bassline swang of Into New Dimensions. The whole comp toggles these modes to blur their distinctions and cast a butterfly net over its Gary, Indiana soul as a whole, hustling the Stevie Wonder-esque ‘Magic (Long Version)’ pearl by General Lee, upfront electro-soul by Junei’, the vintage croon of Nate Evans & Mean Green, and a few dusty cockle-warmers from Wilton Crump.