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All is not well in clubland. Attendances at the corporate venues are apparently falling and the cult of the DJ seems to have peaked. A big hooray on both counts, I think. More disturbingly, some highly publicised shootings and resultant deaths are sending tremors through both the UK Garage and the RnB scene. Calls for calm and "Leave the attitude at the door" pleas are now standard additions to club promotional material. Media panics notwithstanding, there is reason to be worried.

UK Garage*, which is having something of a musical identity crisis anyway, is taking most of the journalistic stick. The appalling So Solid Crew, who are currently hugely popular, have not helped with their Guns and Gangsta boasting, but the causes of the violence, of course, run deeper than simply the music. Nevertheless, the shooting at Trevor Nelson's very mainstream RnB night at Bournemouth (of all places) is a truly unwelcome development and may have greater implications for black music nights nationally.

The small Modern Soul scene is thankfully free of even the most minor incidents and might even have benefited from "attitude" problems elsewhere. Even if that is not the case, the fact remains that there are more nights being put on and they are better attended than for some years. New sessions are springing up weekly and there are even a couple of new additions to the Weekender calendar (more on that next time).

So are we Soulsters smiling smugly, congratulating ourselves while the bigger fish swim into ever more dangerous and troubled waters? Of course not. We are engaged in the age old pastime of underground movements: squabbling furiously among ourselves as to the musical direction of the scene. Why? Uptempo versus midtempo dance music. Or in our terminology: Soulful Garage versus Modern Soul.

Soulful Garage (the British term for the East Coast post-Disco, House influenced rhythms of New Jersey, Baltimore and New York -- pioneered by the likes of Tony Humphries and Blaze in clubs like the Zanzibar and Shelter) has been around for about fifteen years but is making serious inroads into the mellow, two-step Modern rooms. Some wish to replace the midtempo with this faster style altogether, some want nothing to do with the form -- seeing it as lowest common denominator, stomp-stomp music best kept in the House clubs. Some want to mix it with the more downbeat sounds, claiming that with its big, gospel based vocals and dancefloor orientation it represents merely a continuation of the type of Black American music the British soul posses have always most loved (Tamla/Philly/Salsoul etc). Being the close-knit community that we are, the row is reaching the status of a family feud and is as intense as it is perplexing and irritating.

The conversion of some legendary figures on the UK scene to the cause and a realisation among others that this music, whatever the differences, has much more in common with Soul than it has with Trance, Hard House or anything the major Dance scene has to offer, has added fuel to the incursion of Garage. The "Dadhouse" phenomenon and a spate of more than usually soulful dancers toward the end of last year (Colonel Abrahams/Viola) has brought the issue to the boil.

The release of a greatest hits album by long-standing House hero Arnold Jarvis provides as good a means as any of gauging the strengths and weaknesses of the genre. Jarvis has been around since the early days and his New York sound has been part of the "blacker" end of the dance market longer than he probably cares to remember. A simple name check of credits reveals a list most Househeads would slit throats for: Tommy Musto, Benji Candelario, Louie Vega, Dawn Tallman, Eric Kupper, Kerri Chandler, Frankie Knuckles, Swing 52, Fonda Rae and Robert Owens were both the pioneers and the supreme exponents of '90s club music. They are the premier league, and so is Arnold.

What is on offer? Ten classics and three new tracks. All uptempo, nearly all with some sort of positive message. All, to some ears, sounding exactly the same. What nobody could deny is that Jarvis is an impassioned full-voiced singer, two ingredients often associated with the classic soulful vocalist. The arrangements are classic in a more contentious way -- 4/4 New York House. The songs themselves are more conventionally "songs" than you might expect, and while they are not exactly subtle lyrically, they generally have something to say.

A common accusation leveled at Garage is that it has no depth of feeling. This cannot be aimed at Jarvis who imbues each lyric with an almost desperate, pleading quality. A strong religious feel, common to much East Coast fare, pervades tunes such as "Inspiration" and "Rising Into Joy" but the spirit and sound of the black church is never far away. There is little basic change over time in the structure of the tunes, despite the 15 years covered by the album. What is interesting is that the more recent the number, the more live and recognisably soul- or disco-based the arrangements are. Mainstream Dance may have journeyed far from its American roots but Jarvis (in common with Ron Trent, Moodymann, MAW and other big guns) seems keener than ever to place his music in the tradition.

Repetitive and one-dimensional? Only if you don't like the form in the first place. All blues, all reggae sounds "the same" if you don't like that genre or its rules. The Garage form is, in essence, no more restrictive than those. The relatively unshifting tempos pose more of a problem, but this is club music; if you want ballads look elsewhere. It would indeed be appealing to hear Jarvis tackle a few slowies but while Garage remains a 12-inch, floor-focused activity, such a treat is unlikely.

There are several tunes here which hold a special place in dance history. "Color of my Skin", "Take Some Time Out", "Learn to Give" and "The Joy You Bring" all feature in many all time top tens and rightly so. They have a direct emotional charge and a smile-spreading infectiousness that only the best of Philly shufflers or '60s Stax belters can match. There are some effective instrumental touches too. The starkness of the sound should not be taken for mechanical harshness and anyway the minimalism of the early cuts has largely been replaced with a fuller, more organic feel.

To deny that this a continuation of Soul music involves a definition of Soul with which I am unfamiliar. It does not sound much like Maze or Maxwell. They don't sound much like Garnett Mimms or James Carr. Soul is a feeling rather than a form. But if the mixture of the sacred and the secular is, as it generally has been, one of Soul's formal definitions then Jarvis is closer to fitting the bill than many apparently unproblematic figures. In time-honoured fashion, his powerful baritone was first heard in Baltimore churches and that grounding still forms the central platform of his singing.

In the end, though, it is not the voice but that insistent, rapid beat that divides. Yet if we allow the bouncing rhythms of Motown, Salsoul and West End into the game, we must also grant these productions admission. Indeed they are the logical successors to those styles. Whether such beats sit comfortably alongside the sensuous two-step grooves or the heavy, loping bass-lines of RnB/Soul is a thornier question. Personally, I can see problems for the future acceptance of slower material if the 4/4 thump comes to dominate. This is how Northern Soul began and the loss of variety that entailed is not something I would wish on any Modern room.

Yet I do not think that soulful Garage can or should be dislodged from its place at the Modern table. It might even allow a further widening of the picture to include elements of soulful jazz and jazz-house too. That the simply fast will drive out the (no matter how good) slower tunes is the real peril. I am optimistic though. Different venues and crowds suit different styles and will doubtless produce different solutions.

Not all US dance tracks make the soulful case as strongly as Jarvis does. But that is surely the point of the whole Modern enterprise -- to find the soulful, the ignored and the undervalued -- whether it lurks in House, RnB, Jazz or even HipHop, and give it club space. Jarvis cannot claim to be ignored, although the appearance of this collection on a small independent label is significant. He has, I think, been undervalued vocally by the House crowd and I know of few to match him, for one brand at least, of Soulfulness.

I have dwelt at length on this very internal rift in a small musical sub-group because, historically, rifts such as this have had quite far reaching consequences from the Mods onwards. Actually, I am rather hoping this one doesn't. Either way, I'll keep you informed.

Arnold Jarvis The Collection is available from CD Baby

*Confusingly UK Garage has very little to do with Soulful Garage, being a mixture of R&B, Reggae, Todd Edwards' cut-up House beats and Jungle.

From this month I will be posting playlists from various DJs on the modern front-line. Paul Sutton is the man who has the onerous task of trying to make Brighton club music associated with someone other than Fatboy Slim. He also brings a determined party attitude to what can be an overly serious scene. As you can see, his January selection puts him at the Garage end of the scale, but he can pull a devastating soul set out at the drop of a fiver. Dennis Probert is a rising DJ talent, an astute commentator on musical issues and a collector with a sharp eye for the new tune. He mixes tempos and styles with little concern for anything but quality. I have added a selection of CDs which are working for me just now.

Paul Sutton (Soul Citizens/Soulshine/Brighton and the South of England)
Kimeisha Holmes, "Ups and Downs" Yellorange White Label 12
Syleena Johnson, "I am your Woman"(Soul Society mix) Jive 12
Testament, "It Is Well" Afterhours 12
MJ Cole, "Tired Games"(MAW mix) WhiteLabel 12
Marty Thomas, "Resurrect Me"(Shelter mix) West End 12
Bah Samba, "It's Beautiful" CDR
Menage, "Givin' up my Love" Si 12
Butch Quick, "Under Pressure" Strictly Rhythm 12
Donnie, "Cloud 9" Giant Step 12
Serenity Project, "Got to be Free" Melodious Funk 12

Dennis Probert (Intersection/Edinburgh)
DJ Pope/Sheila Ford, "Moody State of Mind"(Black Beatniks mix) White 12
Serenity Project, "Free Yourself" Melodious Funk 12
Dana Byrd, "Higher" Groove'n'stuff 12
Big Moses/Ambrosia, "Believe in Me" Shelter 12
Nichelle, "Sentimental Brush" Cafe de Soul EP
Syleena Johnson, "I am your Woman" (Summertime radio edit) Jive 12
David Josias, "Woo" IMI CD
Remy, "Rocksteady" Motown Sampler CD
Montell Jordan, "You're the Right One" Advance CD
Robbie Danzie, "Can't Forget" (FK Club Mix) Unity 12

Maurice's CD Picks
David Josias, Ghetto Love IMI
Arnold Jarvis, The Collection Musicforalifetime
Blue Six, Beautiful Tomorrow Naked
Various Artists, Stereo Sushi Sushi/Hed Kandi
Jamie Sparks, Unforgettable Smash Tracks
Batidos, Olajope Six Degrees
Jaguar Wright, Denials, Delusions... MCA
Various Artists, Sounds of Om vol.3 Om
C-Nario, Turn Around Chi City Music
Betty Wright, Fit for a King Ms. B