Luke Una’s digger instincts are showing no signs of abating with Vol.3 of the E Soul Cultura comp series for Mr Bongo. With this one, he’s just kept running with the ethos that underpins his Dj sets, radio shows, and the more musically ecstatic posts on his essential IG account. Are there any boundaries? Not really. The only limiting factor here really is time. Quality is not an issue. Anyone of these tracks stands alone. And you know for a fact each one was pored over before its inclusion. There’s also a pile of the ‘not quite made its’, or the impossible to licence, that would no doubt make the heart melt. As a whole, the series itself feels like it’s edging ever closer to the hallowed territory inhabited by compilation classics like Stop and Listen or Abstract Funk Theory. This is a goody, and worth the wait.

Music is in the message, someone once said, and Harris & Orr’s ‘Spread Love’ probably sums up pretty well what Luke’s trying to do when he plays. It’s an exquisite piece of spiritual space funk and a great opener. Music that could be loosely defined as disco pops up with a satisfying regularity, Terry and Deep South keep the strings dramatic and the keys soaring, as is required. Likewise jazz is an ever present, if not necessarily in strict genre definition, then certainly in feel. There’s the funk side, with Toshiyuki Honda, doing ‘Burnin’ Waves’. Or maybe you prefer it more soulful? Janette Renee’s ‘What’s On Your Mind (Super Club Mix)’ should sort things right out. Meanwhile, Admin swings things in a more dancefloor direction with the more club-centric sounds of ‘Step Into Light’.

Geography is also not a limiting factor: check Grupo Serenata (Cape Veerde), Alphonsus Idigo (Nigeria), Gaucho (Italy) and Vital Disorders (er, Norwich). Anyway the point is, there aren’t really any limiting factors here, it’s just great music that sounds even better loud, and especially good when surrounded by a community of like minded souls. More straight up dance music is taken care of with the likes of ‘Day Come Through’ by Naveed, or 49th Floor doing ‘Night Passage (Bongo Mix). There’s also more contemporary stuff like Orion Agassi whose ‘Desacato’ is pure visceral, in fact borderline feral, late night dancing tackle if there ever was. Saying that, every well paced night needs some downtime moments, and these are well catered for with the lovely Fatdog and ‘Remember’ with the liquid vocals of CJ Raine and of course the mega and still vital sounding 8 minutes of Dj Food’s ‘Peace’ as remixed by Harvey.

As has been said many times, great compilations are more than just a sum of their parts. They tell a story about the compiler or style or place they represent. This is one of those.

Luke Una Presents É Soul Cultura Vol.3 is available on 20 June via Mr Bongo.