Probably one of the few bands named after a building in Chicago, Eramus Hall are, despite the obscure origin of their name, a smooth funk/soul outfit with this sought after 1980 outing cut at the tail end of the original Westbound label's discography
When Motown left Detroit in the 70s, a city in part dependent on its local record industry, it left behind a hole that immediately impacted the inner city economy and contributed to the depression. Two companies soldiered on to keep Detroit in the charts. The first was the Invictus label, joined, and in many ways surpassed, by the Westbound and Eastbound labels. The latter was kept alive by hits from the Detroit Emeralds, Denise La Salle, the Ohio Players and Funkadelic.
However, despite the string of disco hits, Westbound and Eastbound found it increasingly difficult to operate competitively in an arena dominated by the majors, and by the end of the 70s ceased to release new product.
Not much is known about this release and Eramus Hall, apart from this 1978 recording. It was held back for a year before getting a 1980 release, perhaps because of the disco lashback in the late-70s. It received a very limited local release-.-finding original vinyl is almost impossible. Our vinyl reissue of a couple of years back saw the album rightfully treated as a lost classic. It's a sweet soul-funk crossover that falls somewhere between the sort of records that Donald Byrd was making with the Mizell Brothers and the vocal soul of Breakwater. Whatever the history, here we make available this lost album in full CD technology.
By Julia Honeywell
