Asha Puthli: The Devil Is Loose [MR BONGO]

Why you'll love it

Back on vinyl from Mr Bongo, the 1976 album the New York Times called an instant classic, with "Space Talk" on Side B. That song was a favourite with David Mancuso's crowd at the Loft and has since been sampled by the Notorious B.I.G. and Diddy, and AllMusic's Thom Jurek calls the whole record "a masterpiece of snakey, spaced-out soul and pre-mainstream disco."

This edition

• Mr Bongo reissue
• The original nine-track 1976 running order, with "Space Talk" and "Flying Fish"

About the album

By 1976 Asha Puthli had sung with Ornette Coleman, starred in a Merchant Ivory film and become a bigger name in Europe than at home, and The Devil Is Loose is where all of that came together. It drifts between soul, funk and early disco with a woozy, cosmic feel, her voice gliding over grooves like "Flying Fish" and the title track, and critic Robert Palmer called her singing "extraordinary".

"Space Talk" is the one most people know, even if they don't know they know it, thanks to its second life on hip hop records; "Hello Everyone" and "Our Love Is Making Me Sing" deserve the same attention. Mr Bongo first brought it back in 2021, and here it is again, the devil apparently still at large and in excellent voice.

Tracklist

Listen

Out August 7, 2026 on Mr Bongo (cat# MRBLP222), a reissue of the 1976 album.