Gone: The Promises Of Yesterday

Housed in a cardboard sleeve. Sticker on cellophane: Rediscovered in the early 90s by Britain's rare groove scene, Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth has since been known as 24-Carat Black's first and final chapter, barely a footnote in the well documented history of Stax. Dale Warren's brainchild band simply pushed past their concept's conclusion, piling up dozens of reels for an intimate follow-up album that no one in the world wanted to hear. With their ambitious LP downgraded to cutout status when Stax finally shuttered in 1975, 24-Carat Black found themselves watching their moment recede in the rearview. Of more than 20 songs he considered for the 24-Carat Black follow-up, we've refurbished the six that hadn't flaked off their reels: dusky, sensuous reworkings of love songs Warren had written as far back as 1965. Wildly divergent in tone, scope and mission, the second 24-Carat Black album is tethered to the first by a single, crucial element: its creator.