La Onda Vampi (Vampisoul - 2011)

With La Onda Vampi, Spanish reedition label Vampisoul offers a quick look on its recent releases. The menu is written on the cover: 60s R&B, Spanish ye-yé, highlife, latin soul, tropicalia, psych intrumentals, boogaloo, afrobeat, flamenco rumba, iranian rare groove. My personnal favorites are the Czech psyche beat of Marta Kubisova's Ja Tu S Tvari Nemennou, the dubbed cumbia of Frente Cumbiero and Mad Professor's La Bocachico and of course Joe Bataan's Latin Soul Square Dance. This compilation can be acquired for a bargain price and is a perfect sonic antidote to the every economic crisis in the old world.

Download => La Onda Vampi

Memphis 70 - The City's Funk And Soul In The Decade After Otis 1968 - 1978 (BGP/Ace - 2008)

This excellent compilation explores the underground Memphis soul and funk scene that exploded in the wake of Hi and Stax success. Beyond those two labels greatest artists, dozen of bands and singers were fighting to get their share of wealth. Only a handful succeeded but all let magical testimonies on wax. Memphis 70 features artists from the Enterprise, Sounds Of Memphis, Bar 102, Select-O-Hits, XL, Fretone, or Philiwood rosters with a few Staw unissued songs. Hightlights are Smithstonian's hard gospel, Mississipi Mud, Blackrock's Blackrock Yeah Yeah psychedelic soul, break diggers favorite Mel & Tim's Keep The Faith, already used by Madlib and DJ Premier, and Lillian Hale's deep funk, Don't Boom Boom. All the other tracks are scorchers in fact so this record is worth having and you can built an entire hip hop career by sampling them.

Download => Memphis 70

Francis Lai - Le Voyou (United Artists - 1970)

Francis Lai never made among break diggers favorite French soundtracks composers. He's more a specialist of lush orchestratal music, with a sometimes tendency for cheesy melodies (ie Love Story). Anyway, among his huge discography, some nuggets can be found, like this 7" that serves as soundtrack to Claude Lelouch 1970 thriller, Le Voyou. The first track, Ballet du Voyou starts with a flamenco like guitar and then morphs into an orchestral pop number with a strong bassline and nice breaks. La Peur Du Voyou is a march that easily stands among the best Italian OST of the time. On side two, you've got the weel kown instrumental song, called Le Voyou,  and then Le Voyou En Action, the kind of track you expect to find on a 70's French soundtrack. Essential work.

Download => Francis Lai - Le Voyou

The Rap Sound Of Chicago - Rap Trax #1 Compilation (Trax/Watch Out!)

After the songwriting subtlety of Jean-Claude Vannier or David Whitaker of my last posts, let's go back to some raw ghetto shit hailing from Chicago. Released in 1989 in France under the name of The Rap Sound Of Chicago, this compilation can be found as Rap Trax - Volume One in the U.S. and This Is War ! in the U.K. the same year. The tracklistings are in all cases the same: hip house or plain hip hop released on the seminal house label from Chicago, Trax, at the end of the 80's. None of the artists presented enjoyed a real and proper career, Kool Rock Steady excepted. Trax was well known for ripping off its roster of artists and probably none of them never saw any royalty check from this international exposure. All those tracks were made with a very limited budget probably in shitty little studios but their intensity, their authenticity and their freshness make them still  sound pretty relevant  today.

Download => The Rap Sound Of Chicago