Emotional Rescue belatedly completes the series of reissues working with LA’s finest digger, Patrick Billard aka DJ Duckcomb. Some two years since the release of Haile Maskel’s 101 Band and Red Cloud’s Double Talk, this Discomix series finishes with Barry Biggs’ remake of Imagination’s classic disco-funk hit, Just An Illusion.

Mainly known after being lead vocalist for Byron Lee’s Dragonaires, for a solo career doing cover versions, including famously his versions of Blue Magic’s Sideshow, The Temptation’s Just My Imagination and Evelyn King’s Love Come Down, Biggs’ wonderful 1983 Lovers Rock version, released on his own Bullet label, rightly shortened the title to better fit a laid-back, slow slung groove.

Bigg’s rendition, highlighting his uplifting falsetto style is backed by a mood and horn instrumentation that, if light on the dub mixing desk stylings, just lets the bass and rhythm work as solid accompaniment before a sax laden solo provides a buoyant break.

Completing his digging and mixing skills for the label, Duckcomb once again provides an inventive edit that pushes all the right buttons, looping and extending the vocal and version mixes together for a superior club mix, gently teasing the echo and fx, before letting it all loose for a long dub finale.