Zorba le Break

The David Whitaker Songbook (Tricatel - 2002)

2012-01-28T02:45:00.000-08:00

David Whitaker (1931 - 2012). R.I.P.

Download => The David Whitaker Songbook

Jean-Claude Vannier - Electro Rapide (Finders Keepers - 2011)

2012-01-23T13:15:00.000-08:00

You lucky people: I just have decided to post another Jean-Claude Vannier hidden gem. Finders Keepers connoisseurs gathered 14 nuggets made for library records, French TV (kids programs mainly) or even previously unreleased in the 60's and 70's. Beyond pop, classical music or jazz, Vannier finds here often his inspiration in traditional Northern Africa music as well. Brilliant work from the beginning to the end and I really regret it's only 25 minutes long, with the majority of the tracks lasting less than 2 minutes. This record is not that much avalaible on the internet so nuff' said, just listen to it and if you like it, buy it, Finders Keepers, a label going through hard times since the loss of its stock since last summer PIAS warehouse fire, largely deserves it.

Download => Jean-Claude Vannier - Electro Rapide

Jean-Claude Vannier - L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches (Suzelle - 1972)

2012-01-21T02:28:00.000-08:00

In an april 1972 morning, Jean-Claude Vannier was listening with his friend Serge Gainsbourg the instrumental album he had just written and that still had no name. He had already used a track for a Yves Saint Laurent fashion show in 1971 but didn't really know what to do with the rest. He let the tapes to Gainsbourg for the night and in the morning Serge had imagined a fantastic story upon his music: L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches, which can be translated as the flies murderer child. The project didn't go any further and, despite an LP was released in 1972, Jean-Claude Vannier fans had to wait 20 years to see those tracks at least get a proper release. It was really worth the wait: Jean-Claude Vannier composed 11 little trippy psychedelic masterpieces that easily stands next to his best collaborations with Serge gainsbourg (L'Histoire De Melody Nelson).

Download => Jean-Claude Vannier - L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches

Buster Williams - Crystal Reflections (Muse - 1976)

2012-01-16T14:03:00.000-08:00

Buckwild used twice the Vibrations sample: on Artifact's What Goes On ? and on Big L Put It On. Even if is featured on Buster Williams album, Crystal Reflections, Vibrations has Roy Ayers written all over it. Roy Ayers actually composed it and played vibes and arp string ensemble on it. Roy Ayers holds the vibes as well on the album first track, Prism. Those two songs are the highlights of this album, otherwise rather minimalist. All the other tracks are duo between bassist Buster Williams and Roy Ayers, Kenny Barron or Jimmy Rowles on vibes or piano. The ugly cover is not the album original cover but the one used for the 32 Jazz 1998 CD reissue.

Download => Buster Williams - Crystal Reflections

The Jungle Band - Jungle Groove (Charly Records - 1988)

2012-01-07T03:40:00.000-08:00

I wonder why the cover of this CD reissue is so ugly. Jungle Groove dates back to 1988 when a bunch of James Brown tour musicians hooked up with local talent in Augusta, Georgia, get locked up in a studio, The Hut, for furious nights of jam session and decided to produce a real old school funk album in a time when American R&B was a field of ruins. Even if a few keyboards lines or drum beats here and there sounds a bit cheesy and dated, the overall result is a piece of furious deep and p funk with fabulous breaks. The Jungle Band released only one album and then its members went back to their separate ways. It took almost 20 years and the actual old school soul revival to take funk where The Jungle Band let it. This 1994 reissue holds all 1988 original tracks plus 3 bonus tracks.

Download => The Jungle Band - Jungle Groove

Quincy Jones - Walking In Space (CTI - 1969)

2012-01-06T00:20:00.000-08:00

Walking In Space is considered like one of Quincy Jones best albums. When he moved into studio in june the 18th and 19th of 1969, he was surounded by killers: Ray Brown on bass, Eric Gale on guitar, Grady Tate on drums, Bob James on electric piano, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Toots Thielemans on harmonica, Hubert Maws on flute and tenor sax, Jerome Richardson on soprano sax, Roland Kirk on tenor sax and reeds. Hilda Harris, Marilyn Jackson, Valerie Simpson and Maretha Stewart were used for vocals. Rudy Van Gelder served like engineer while Quincy shared the arrangement duties with Bob James. Quincy had already back then completed his solid jazz reputation by a Hollywood stint that made him one of the go to Hollywood musician when it was about making a soundtrack. You mix those jazz masters with soundtracks like melodies, blues and gospel influences and you have Walking In Space.

Download => Quincy Jones - Walking In Space

Ennio Morricone - A L'Aube Du 5ème Jour b/w Le Carnaval Des Truands (RCA - 1974)

2012-01-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

A L'Aube Du 5ème Jour (aka Dio è Con Noi aka Gott Mit Uns) is a spaghetti war film made in 1969 by Giuliano Montaldo. All I can say is that it didn't aged very well. It's not the case of the soundtrack, made by Ennio Morricone. The title theme was largely used by French radio and television at the beginning of the 70's and was consequently edited in France on a 7" with the theme of another movie, the 1967 made Le Carnaval Des Truands (aka Ad Ogni Costo), as a B side. This latest song sounds closer to the work of Burt Baccarcah or Herb Alpert than what you can expect usually from Morricone. Good stuff, cheap and easy to find.

Download => Ennio Morricone - A L'Aube du 5ème Jour b/w Le Carnaval Des Truands

Women In Lounge (Cinedelic - 2002)

2011-12-25T08:07:00.000-08:00

You lucky people: as Christmas gift, I have just decided to post the first volume of Women In Lounge, a compilation that just becomes pretty hard to find these days. You'll find here 20 rare vocal gems, composed by Italian brightest soundtracks composers and made for movies now largely forgotten, except if you're into late 60's/early 70's Italian bis cinema: Alessandroni, Pisano, Piccioni, Morricone, Trovaioli, Orlandi, Ortolani, Bongusto, Nascimbene. A brilliant collection.

Download => Women In Lounge

Raymond Lefèvre - Jo (1971)/Les Grandes Vacances (1967) (Play-Time/FGL - 2011)

2011-12-24T06:09:00.000-08:00

Raymond Lefèvre is probably not the best known of French soundtracks composers but when you consider the work he did for this two comedies, Jo and Les Grandes Vacances, he clearly deserves his place among the greatest composers, the Lai, Goraguer, Jarre, Magne, or de Roubaix. We can clearly thank Play-Time/FGL for this excellent reedition. Jo and Les Grandes Vacances soundtracks never got a proper release even if both movies have often been played on French television channels. Jo is a dark comedy but the music could have easily been made by Lalo Schiffrin for a thriller. Les Grandes Vacances music is largely influenced by British Invasion pop music of the time and each track is a reorchestration of the same melody in various styles, between Burt Bacharach and Henri Mancini. As bonus track, you can find the themes of two other movies made by Raymond Lefèvre for the same director, Jean Girault, La Maison De Campagne and Un Drôle De Colonel.

Download => Raymond Lefèvre - Jo/Les Grandes Vacances

Quincy Jones - In The Heat Of The Night/They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (MGM - 1997)

2011-12-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

This long CD allows you to possess Quincy Jones two best soundtracks both featuring the character of detective Virgil Tibbs played by Sidney Poitier. Composed in respectively 1967 and 1970, In The Heat Of The Night and They Me Mister Tibbs! are heavy on jazz, blues and soul and don't have all the nervous tic of later blaxploitation soundtracks. Purists will certainly disdain this CD, because tracks are melted with dialogue snippets that are not on both original records. But what the hell, purists certainly already have those records on vinyl.

Download =>Quincy Jones - In The Heat Of The Night/They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

François Valéry - Joy (Instrumental) b/w Joy (Vocal) (WEA - 1983)

2011-12-17T05:38:00.000-08:00

When producers saw the money Just Jaeckin racked with Emmanuelle and Histoire d'O, they started to produce erotic movies that could be distributed in theaters without being rated X. Joy is the cinematographic adaptation of the novel of the same name and made the rich hours of French late night TV programs in the 90's. At that time, there was no You Porn and those late night diffusions were the closest thing you could get your eyes on explicit sex scenes. This time, the music was not made by Pierre Bachelet but by François Valéry, who is as well an awfull French singer but succeded to make a nice little erotic soundtrack. The Joy instrumental title theme is a synthetic ballad with heavy drums and strings. The vocal version tries its best to sound erotic. Defintely not a masterpiece but a good try.

Download => François Valéry - Joy (Instrumental) b/w Joy (Vocal)

Michel Bernholc - Les Bronzés (Trinacra - 1978)/Pierre Bachelet - Les Bronzés Font Du Ski (Trinacra - 1979)

2011-12-11T01:33:00.001-08:00

This double CD holds the soundtrack to two of the most popular French comedies of the 70's. Every French people you will meet anywhere in the world knows by heart the text of those two really funny films. Making fun of French people in vacations (in Africa in the first movie and in the Alps in the second ones), spectators found they represented them very well and the characters featured are now part of French popular culture. The music of Les Bronzés was composed by Michel Bernholc and is mixing exotica, folk, disco funk and melancolic electronica. The theme music, Sea, Sex And Sun was allegedly composed in five minutes by French master Serge Gaisnbourg himself. Pierre Bachelet was trying to make a living with erotic soundtracks (Emmanuelle, Histoire D'O) when he was called to make the music of the second adventures of Les Bronzés, Les Bronzés Font Du Ski. You will go for track number 5, a nice little piece of electronic funk clearly inspired by Moroder.

Download => Michel Bernholc - Les Bronzés
Download => Pierre Bachelet - Les Bronzés Font Du Ski

Women In Lounge - Volume 2 (Cinedelic - 2005)

2011-12-10T02:03:00.001-08:00

Don't run away with disgust: this compilation has nothing to do with an awful lounge restaurant compilation. Instead it gathers 20 vocal gems issued from various Italian soundtracks of the 60's and 70's. All the usual suspects are here (Morricone, Bacalov, Cipriani, Nicolai, Umiliani) but other less known composers are also featured. If specialists won't find anything new here, the casual listener will find everything he needs: dreamy, jazzy, catchy and brilliant music. If the movies featured are only half good than their brilliant soundracks then they are definitely must see.

Download => Women In Lounge - Volume 2

Janko Nilovic - Soul Impressions (Editions Montparnasse 2000 - 1975)

2011-12-04T09:25:00.001-08:00

Soul Impressions is a very good library funk record made by library maestro Janko Nilovic who proves that French could funk as well. Janko Nilovic add just his personnal touch, mixing what you can expect from a funk library record (plenty of wah-wah riffs, flutes, nices breaks) with easy-listening or jazz. We can be thankful to Vadim Music for having reeissued this year this hidden gem. It was just impossible to buy it on vinyl without saling an eye or a kidney to Chinese if you were lucky enough to find an original version in good conditions. Soul Impressions has probably been posted already on a lot of blogs but it's just the kind of record difficult to keep for yourself.

Download => Janko Nilovic - Soul Impressions

Viva La Muerte OST - Ekkoleg b/w Siesta (Barclay - 1970)

2011-12-03T02:14:00.001-08:00

Viva La Muerte (Long Live Death in English) is a movie made by Spanish director Fernando Arrabal. Then exiled in France, fleeing dictator Franco’s fascist regime. Arrabal tried to exorcice his demons and its bad memories of the Spanish Civil War, counting the story of a young kid, Fando, that discovers that his missing father has been turned down by his mother to the fascists. Fando then tries to find his father. I never saw this movie but he is quite famous for being disturbing and closed to the surrealist movement with the graphic representation of the dark fantasies of the young boy.

This 7” is apparently the only soundtrack to this film and sums it up very well. Side A, Ekkolag, is an innocuous singalong song made by a child until you realize that the song is in fact (supposedly) in Danish and sang by adult singer, Grethe Agatz. Side B, Siesta, sounds like an insane Henri Mancini song. It was composed by Edouard Ruault (the real name of now deceased French music mogul and stunner Eddie Barclay)and Raymond Le Sénéchal. Curiously neither sides has been apparently sampled but Ekkoleg was featured in a French advertising a few years ago. For you, fanatic digger, this record can be find easily in France for a modic price but the inflation quickly increases when you cross the French border or try buy it on the internet. A good record worth having anyway.

01 Ekkoleg
02 Siesta
Download =>Viva La Muerte OST - Ekkoleg b/w Siesta

Neil Norman - Star Wars b/w Re-Entry (Vogue - 1977)

2011-11-26T01:47:00.001-08:00

Neil Norman and easy listening master Les Baxter produced several records under the name of Greatest Science Fiction Hits at the end of the 70's and the begining of the 80's. Thoses records were melting sci-fi soundtracks covers and original material, all made in a disco synth pop style. Star Wars was released on Greatest Science Fiction Hits Vol. 1 LP and as a 7" in France with on the B side Re-Entry. Re-Entry is the strongest track a little groovy gem. Starting with a traditional sci-fi synth sound, it then explodes in a blaxploitation style track with funky breaks, a massive bassline, a wah wah guitar and then morphs again into jazz rock. Warning: the sound on the version I got and I have posted is not very good.

01 Star Wars

02 Re-Entry

Download => Neil Norman - Star Wars b/w Re-Entry

The Voodou Juju Drug - Part 1 b/w Part 2 (Barclay - 1970)

2011-11-19T07:01:00.001-08:00

I just found this gem in a Easy Cash shop near my place for 50 cents. I didn't have a clue how was this record when I digged it. I just found the title pretty cool: The Voodou Juju Drug. Back home I googled the name and realised that this 7" had already been posted on a very good blog (http://dj-alfonso.blogspot.com/) and was worth around 50 euros !!!! The first side, called The Voodou Juju Drug is a freaky breakbeat number with a nice sitar sound. Side 2, Killersteen's Voodou Juju is nice slice of pop afrobeat. According to DJ Alfonso, this record can be credited to library music composer Janko Nilovic.

Download => The Voodou Juju Drug - Part 1 b/w Part 2

The Small Faces - Me You And Us Too - Best Of The Immediate Years (Repertoire - 2007)

2011-11-12T02:07:00.001-08:00

Created in 1965 and signed to Decca, The Small Faces were at first just another Mods bands among other ones. In 1967, Andrew Loog Oldham, The Rolling Stones manager, created his own label, Immediate, and signed The Small Faces after the band got into several arguments with its label and its management. The band, led by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, found in Immediate a place to express its creativity and signed its best songs, churning out hits after hits. If they were clearly influenced by the psychedelic air of the time, they are the best when they stay closed to what made their strength: raw pop clearly influenced by deep soul. In that sense, the last two instrumentals of this compilation, The War Of The Worlds and Wide Eyed Girl On The Wall are outstanding work.

The Small Faces were not an album band but a 7" band so this best of is the best way to discover and appreciate their music.

Download => The Small Faces - Me You And Us - Best Of The Immediate Years

Booker T. & The M.G.'s - McLemore Avenue (Stax - 1970)

2011-11-05T03:24:00.000-07:00

Booker T liked so much The Beatles Abbey Road album that he decided to cover it entirely in Memphis with his M.G.'s pals (Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Al Jackson), giving to the resulting album the name of the street were Stax studios were, McLemore Avenue. Of course, those guys were so talented that they completely appropriated the Fab Four songs to make them their own, mixing them in a 3 instrumental funky as hell medleys and a single track, Something. Only a tight band like Booker T. & The M.G.'s could mix Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, Here Comes The Sun and Come Together in a single song without sounding strange. The other medleys gathers Because/You Never Give Me Your Money and Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window/I Want You (She's So Heavy) with the same success. It's deep funk going pop with major success. Even the record cover is a cool pastiche of the Abbey Road original cover.

Download => Booker T. & The M.G.'s - McLemore Avenue

Traffic Sound - Yellow Sea Years - Peruvian Psych-Rock-Soul 1968-71 (Vampisoul - 2005)

2011-11-01T02:21:00.000-07:00

When you think about Peru, you don't necessarily associate that country musical scene with psychedelic rock. But there is no reason that can explain that this small country would have not been touched by the 70's psychedelic wave. Traffic Sound was at first a covers band created in 1968 by Manuel Sanguinetti (vocals), Freddy Rizo-Patrón (rhythm guitar), Jean Pierre Magnet (sax), Willy "Wilito" Barclay (lead guitar), Willy Thorne (bass) and Luis "Lucho" Nevares (drums). They recorded their first album, A Bailar Go Go, in 1968. They then recorded three more albums but this time with original material: Virgin in 1969, Traffic Sound in 1971 and Lux in 1971. Traffic Sound music easily suffer comparison with its American or European counterparts of the times. They are not an exotic fade but a strong band with tight songs shaped for worlwide acceptance and success. Even if they used English in their songs, their latin roots can be heard all over their music but in a subtle way especially in the percussion work or the use of the Afro fused saxophone. There isn't any real psychedelic band without their drug hymn. For Traffic Sound, it's the infamous Meskhalina, released in 1969. Making the music of this band available was necessary and we can thank Vampisoul to have selected the best tracks of their albums for this wonderful compilation.

Download => Traffic Sound - Yellow Sea Years

Hedzoleh Soundz - Hedzoleh Soundz (EMI - 1973?)

2011-10-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

Another African gem reissued by Soundway. Hedzoleh Soundz were ailing from Ghana were they became quite famous as the Napoleon nighclub resident band. This were they met Masekela which used four tracks of their first LP, Hedzoleh Soundz, for his own record, Masekela Introducing Hedzoleh Soundz. Hedzoleh Soundz is characterized by its emphasis on traditional hypnotic percussions, catchy flute and guitar parts with a strong bluesy flavour. Truly original and never boring.

Download => Hedzoleh Soundz

The Kusum Beat - Sweet Talks (EMI - 1976)

2011-10-22T07:09:00.001-07:00

Much have been written about The Kusum Beat all over the internet. Sweet Talks has as well been posted many times on different blog. Always for the same reason: this music is damn good. The Kusum Beat is one of the "most famous" Ghanaian band, famous enough to tour regularly in the Western countries in the first half of the 70's. On Sweet Talks, they forget a little bit highlife to incorporate more pieces of traditional African music even if that's not that obvious for secular ears. The overall made me thought to early Fela recordings.

Download => The Kusum Beat - Sweet Talks

All Killer - Finders Keepers Records 1-20 Mixed By The Gaslamp Killer (Finders Keepers - 2009)

2011-10-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

You've got rare groove records reedition labels and you've got Finders Keepers. Finders Keepers is Andy Votel creature and is specialized in the reedition of records so rare that probably nobody except Andy Votel and a handfull other talibans of hardcore crate digging have ever heard of. From Pakistanese movies soundtracks to turkish psychedelia, from Thai beats to primitive French electronica, the best of the rarest records ever produced on the surface on earth find a second life. Mixed by Flying Lotus little protégé The Gaslamp Killer, All Killer is a nice mix that gives you a pretty good inlook on Finders Keepers back catalogue. Trippy freaky shit. For you own information, Finders Keepers stock of records burned this summer during London riots.

Download All Killer - Finders Keepers Records 1-20 Mixed By The Gaslamp Killer

Joe Gibbs - 12" Reggae Discomix Showcase Vol. 4 (17th North Parade/VP - 2010)

2011-10-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

Among the 5 volumes VP Records made with Joe Gibbs discomix 12" singles, the fourth volume will probably satisfy the most mainstream ears thanks to its two Michael Jackson covers: Shake Your Body To The Ground by Ruddy Thomas and Welton Irie and Don't Stop Till You Get Enough by Derrick Lara and Trinity. The last one, with its infectiuous bassline, will smash every dancefloor when played, even the less reggae friendly. The rest of the record is more made for true reggae heads and is filled with absolute scorchers and classics made by a producer then (end of the 70's/begining of the 80's) at the peak of his inspiration.

Download => Joe Gibbs - 12" Discomix Showcase Vol. 4

Sylvia Striplin - Give Me Your Love (Uno Melodic Records - 1981)

2011-10-08T03:28:00.000-07:00

There are good records you only listen to once or two times. And there are good records you listen to again and again: in the morning, in the evening, in your car, when you feel good, when you feel bad. In the latter category stands Give Me Your Love, an absolute classic produced by Roy Ayers for his chorist Sylvia Striplin with nice strings arrangement thanks to William Allen. Roy occupied only the producing seat here and doesn't play any vibes but it's probably one of the best records he ever made. There are absolutely no filler and hip hop heads will recognise easily the melody of You Can't Turn Me Away and Give Me Your Love, two songs largely sampled or covered (http://www.whosampled.com/sampled/Sylvia%20Striplin/). A must have nicely repressed by Soul Jazz Records in 2010.

Download => Sylvia Striplin - Give Me Your Love

The Dictators - Go Girl Crazy! (Epic - 1975)

2011-10-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

I recently posted about New York funk (Auguste Darnell), New York punk funk (Liquid Liquid) so let's post this time about New York punk. I don't mean The Ramones or The Dead Boys, not even Blondie or Television, but a band among the originators of punk rock, The Dictators. Born in The Bronx and lead by Richard Blum (aka Handsome Dick Manitoba), members Ross "The Boss" Funicello, Scott "Top ten" Kempner, Adny Shernoff and Stu Boy King had a taste for 60's pop song covers (I Got You Babe, California Sun) and loud hard rock with a I don't give a fuck funny attitude. Those guys knew that all this rock'n'roll CBGB circus was just a joke and behaved accordingly. They never got the recognition they deserved and vanished in obscurity after 3 LP's. Their first one, Go Girl Crazy! is their best and they definitely have a first class seat in New York rock posterity.

Download => The Dictators - Go Girl Crazy!

Dynamic Superiors - Nowhere To Run (Part I) b/w Nowhere To Run (Part II) (Motown - 1977)

2011-10-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

This 7" is a nice surprise and a curiosity for two reasons. The Dynamic Superiors are certainly not the most well known male vocal quintet on Motown roster. But they were rather original, their lead singer Tony Washington being openly gay and dressing in drag on stage. This was what you can call a real punk attitude, especially when you consider that afro american music scene has been always crossed by a clear homophobia. The second curiosity with this Holland/Dozier/Holland penned (for Martha And The Vandellas) disco stomper heavy on percussion is that it was effectively produced by Edward J. Holland. The trio had left Motown in 1968 to create their own imprints, Invictus Records and Hot Wax Records, and they went to court with Berry Gordy over royalties money and breach of contract matters. Curiously, despite the lawsuit, they still produced records for Motown in the 70's.

Download => Dynamic Superiors - Nowhere To Run (Part I) b/w Nowhere To Run (Part II)

Liquid Liquid - Liquid Liquid (GR2 Records - 2008)

2011-10-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

No other band deserves more the title of seminal than Liquid Liquid. Much have been said about those 4 new-yorkers. Without Liquid Liquid there would have been no LCD Soundsystem, Battles, a famous scottish DJ duo and plenty of hip hop producers would still be sampling James Brown records in search of the perfect beat. Scott Hartley, Richard McGuire, Salvatore Principato and Dennis Young released only 3 EP's (Optimo in 1983, Successive Reflexes in 1982 and Liquid Liquid in 1981), a few 7" and that's all. They still come back nowadays from time to time for average live shows but they never recovered their original strength. Because the music of those guys is only rythms and percussions (no melody, a few madman lyrics but a massive bassline with drums, marimba, talking drum, and various percussions) it's not that easy to get into it. But if you get grabbed, it can change your life. Punk funk at its best. This compilation comes with the 3 above mentioned EP's and 4 live tracks recorded in Berkley Square in 1982.

Download => Liquid Liquid - Liquid Liquid

Kid Creole - Going Places - The August Darnell Years 1976-1983 (Strut - 2008)

2011-09-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Growing up in the 70's and 80's, I completely ignored August Darnell existed until I saw him in the news in the mid 80's. He was touring in the south of France with the Coconuts and that deserved him a two minutes story. I found his music sounded cheesy and his stage antics were just not funny at all. 20 years later, thanks largely to DFA and James Murphy, the punk funk revival allowed me to digg into Ze Records discography and I really discovered August Darnell work. That guy is just a genius: mixing up every New York street sounds (disco, punk, funk, jazz, salsa etc.) into a big shaker and making of it something unique, intelligent, funny and really really good. He occupied different positions (artist or just producer) in bands or solo acts like Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, Don Armando's Second Avenue Rhumba Band, Christina, Gichy Dan's but you can recognize his hand at the first seconds on each record. This Strut released compilation is a perfect introduction to his work.

Download => Kid Creole - Going Places - The August Darnell Years 1976-1983

Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock - Get On The Dance Floor b/w Creativity (Profile Records - 1988)

2011-09-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

MC Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock stormed the streets and the charts by surprise in 1988 with It Takes Two and its infectious funky drummer rythm. Get On The Dancefloor was their second single and an excellent hip house try. The baseline and the keyboards lines do perfectly well the work and consequently Get On The Dancefloor packed New York floors upon its release. For this French edition, the record label took Creativity as a b-side and used the It takes Two album cover graphics to illustrate the 7" cover. This complete lack of creativity sums up perfectly well how hip hop was considered back then by European records label heads: a passing fad adressed to illeterates and certainly not a legitimate culture. Creativity is an instrumental breakbeat that shouts out to Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock label, Profile Records. Rob Base & E-Z Rock, despite the success, vanished then into obscurity

Download => Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock - Get On The Dance Floor b/w Creativity

Archie Bell & The Drells - The Soul City Walk b/w King Of The Castle ( TSOP Records - 1975)

2011-09-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

I just bought a handful of nice EPs and 7" at a flea market so my next posts will be probably less albums oriented. So get ready for Zorba le Break vinyls sound. Let's start with that Archie Bell & The Drells' The Soul City Walk b/w King Of The Castle 7", released in 1975 on TSOP Records. TSOP records was run by Philadelphia soul kaisers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Kenneth Gamble were not involved in the recording of The Soul City Walk and King Of The Castle, the production duties being credited to respectively to Bunny Sigler and John Whitehead. The single reached rank 13 in the R&B charts and was the last one to score as well in Archie Bell &The Drells career. They split in 1980. Both tracks are nice pieces of uptempo philly soul that will figure on the album Dance Your Troubles Away.

Download => Archie Bell & The Drells - The Soul City Walk b/w King Of The Castle

Sly & Robbie - Leaving Dub (Going For A Song - 2002)

2011-09-03T01:51:00.000-07:00

I left you in july with a Sly & Robbie post and guess what, I'm back in september with a Sly & Robbie post. Don't be afraid by the ugly cover of this bargain CD, probably one of the shittiest ever produced by the recorded music industry since its creation . It's the cheapest way to acquire Sly & Robbie's Dub Rockers Delight album, released here under another name, Leaving Dub. Dub Rockers Delight is the dub version of Lacksley Castell's Morning Glory LP (thank you Roots Archives http://www.roots-archives.com/release/1655/?highlight=20469). It was recorded in Studio One and Tuff Gong studios in 1982 and produced by Robert Flacko Palmer. In fact, this album is heavy on reggae instrumentation and not that much in dub effects which are very light. It's not exactly at the same level than the masterpiece of the genre but it's difficult for me to be objective when Sly & Robbie are involved and I found the overall album pretty good. There's enough drum and bass here to satisfy any head.

Download=> Sly & Robbie - Leaving Dub (aka Dub Rockers Delight)

Sly & Robbie - Taxi Fare (Heartbeat - 1987)

2011-07-31T01:32:00.000-07:00

Reggae is probably one of the music the most cherished by die-hard fans. It's even the music that has the most fetichists in Western world, the kind of guys that spend monthes and massive amount of money to track down rare 7". Posting about reggae can consequently be a double edge sword: it's curiously the posts that have the most success and drag trafic on this blog but it's pretty hard to find something really interesting and rare that has not been posted elsewhere on hundreds of musical blogs like this one. You'll probably find posts about Taxi Fare at other places but this record is so good it would be a crime to omit it. Jamaican music most famous rythms duo, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Skakespear probably hold the bass and the drums on the best reggae releases of the last 40 years. They released Taxi Fare under their own name with the help of the Channel One All Stars (Bongo Herman, Carlton "Santa" Davis, Eric Lamont, Errol "Flabba" Holt, Gladstone Anderson, Noel "Scully" Simms, Sky Juice, Winston Wright) and Jamaican best vocalists of the time. It's not a proper album but more a compilation of their best production works of the previous years for their own Taxi Records label. It all starts out with the instrumental track Triplet and its slowed down and dubbed out interpolation of Don't Go by Yazoo. Sugar Minott then holds the vocals on Devil Pickney, Struggle on Rock Music, Jimmy Riley on Pure & True, Junior Delgado on Fort Augustus, Dennis Brown on Sitting & Watching, The Tamlins on Baltimore, my favorite track of the record, Jimmy Riley again on Bang Bang and Carlton Livingston on Those Tricks. The bass and the electronic drum are mixed above the vocals and the other instruments and the result just kick you in the chest. In a time when digitalized reggae was starting to dominate Jamaica, Taxi Fare succeeds to be a roots release with a modernized flavor. A must.

Download => Sly & Robbie - Taxi Fare

Attila Zoller/Lee Konitz/Albert Mangelsdorf - Zo-Ko-Ma (MPS - 1968)

2011-07-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

MPS(for Musik Produktion Schwartzwald) can be a tricky label for break hunters like myself. Most of its releases are made for true jazz heads and are sometimes a bit annoying for common ears, especially when it ventures into free jazz territory. A similar experience happened to me when I read an article about Mainstream Records in Waxpoetics and discovered that Mainstream Records was anything but mainstream. But sometimes you find that magical moment on a record, the magical moment you're digging for and that makes you want to write a post about it. I found that magical moment with the 4th tracks of Zo-Ko-Ma, At Twighlite. It begins with a perfect guitar loop and when the alto sax and the trombone come over the guitar, things go sweet and smooth with a pretty cool laidback but arty feeling. The other Zo-Ko-Ma tracks are good as well but it definitely deserves to be possessed for At Twighlite alone.

Download=>Attila Zoller/Lee Konitz/Albert Mangelsdorff - Zo-Ko-Ma

Deniece Williams - Gonna Take A Miracle : The Best Of Deniece Williams (Sony - 2006)

2011-07-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

Deniece Williams has one of the most nice crystal clear soprano voice of black music with Minnie Riperton and has been largely overlooked recently. She started as a backup vocalist for Stevie Wonder but it's Earth Wind & Fire Maurice White that produced her first album, This Is Niecy: a classic. You'll find four tracks of This Is Niecy on this best of: Free, of course, Cause You Love Me, Baby, That's What Friends Are For and If You Don't Believe. Deniece Williams continued working with Maurice White for her second album, Song Bird. Her third try, When Love Comes Calling, saw her working with other producers and releasing the excellent and uptempo I Found Love. She then worked with Thom Bell On My Melody and Niecy for a nice Philly sound. By respect for this brilliant artist, I'll keep silence on the rest of her career since the mid 80's. Gonna Take A Miracle is producer Leo Sacks personnal best of but gives you the opportunity to hear Deniece Williams greatest tracks without any real filler.

Download => Deniece Williams - Gonna Take A Miracle

Conte Candoli - Modern Sounds From The West (Lone Hill Jazz - 2005)

2011-07-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

After a quick search on the internet, I discovered that the then Blue Note released two albums gathered on Modern Sounds From The West, Best From The West Vols 1 & 2, are celebrated like a must-have among jazz heads. I had strictly no clue about it when I found this CD in a dusty sales bin with a cracked box. I have to admit that Conte Candoli made a brilliant work here and you'll certainly like it, whether you are into jazz or not. The cuts are clean, simple and short. You'll find everything you need to know about this cool as fuck record here: http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/01/conte-candoli-best-from-the-west.html

Download => Conte Candoli - Modern Sounds From The West

Ubiquity - Starbooty (Elektra - 1978)

2011-07-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

Produced by Roy Ayers (his name is on the cover), this is the sole album that features Roy Ayers backing band, Ubiquity, without Roy Ayers signing or playing vibes on it. The songs switch between disco and jazz funk and are well executed by seasoned musicians and singers. Starbooty is definitely a good album but a bit too mechanical and certainly not as good as what Roy Ayers did under his own moniker. The best tracks are not necessarily the ones written by Roy Ayers himself. My personnal preference goes to the midtempo Simple And Sweet and its killing head nobbing bassline.

Download => Ubiquity - Starbooty

Eazy-E - Eazy-Duz-It (Ruthless Records - 1988)

2011-06-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I entered a record shop in Paris, decided to catch up with what young people are listening to these days. I listened to Nicki Minaj and Drake but leaved the record store with Eazy-Duz-It under the arm. There are only two explanations to this phenomenon:

- Explanation 1: I'm just too old for this shit (I'm 38).
- Explanation 2: put a Drake record and an Eazy-E record side to side and you'll understand what popular hip hop is probably missing today.

I'm not talking of underground vs mainstream: west coast gangsta rap was made to be sold and make a lot of money. It's just that a while ago, hip hop was that raw shit that made you parents suit the record store that sold you the CD and it should have just staid that way. Eazy-E was a former street hodlum turned rapper. That guy barely could rap, the production was raw and minimalist, his lyrics and his lifestyle were irresponsible but he had that I don't give a fuck attitude that he shared only with the best rockers. That makes all the difference and didn't prevent him from making millions out of it.

Download => Eazy-E - Eazy-Duz-It

ZE Sound Of N.Y.C (Les Inrockuptibles - 2011)

2011-06-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

Sold with a special edition on NY rock scene of the French indie rock bible news magazine Les Inrockuptibles, this compilation is pure honey for the ears. Michel Esteban has chosen probably 14 of the best tracks of his ZE Records catalogue. If ZE Records artists have been numerous times compiled, especially on ZE own Mutant Disco serie, and are largely reedited, listening again those 14 arty no wave and punk funk missiles just makes you immediatly in a party mood. You'll even find three special edits: the Social Disco Club Edit of Gichy Dan's Beachwood #9's Cowboys & Gangsters, the Pilooski Edit of Don Armando's 2nd Ave. Rhumba Band's I'm An Indian Too and The Barking Dogs Edit of Arto Lindsay-Arto/Neto's Pini, Pini.

Download => ZE Sound Of N.Y.C

Arabian Prince - Innovative Life - The Anthology - 1984-1989 (Stones Throw - 2008)

2011-06-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

12 electro funk bombs produced by the west coast pioneer Arabian Prince under his own moniker or for others (N.W.A, Professor X, J.B. Beat). The liner notes teach everything you need to know about the birth of hip hop in California. At first essentially a DJ thing, clearly oriented to dance and party, west coast rap only really existed on the hip hop map when NWA mixed electro beat with gangsta and ghetto tales and made millions of dollars out of it. Gangsta rap was born, rap music became a business like the other ones and its pioneers like Arabian Prince moved to something else (movie special effects for the latter). The instrumental bonus tracks on the CD, Simple Planet and Beatdabeat, are really surprising and are a must-have: Arabian Prince electro beats draw a direct line between Compton and Detroit and could have been released on UR.

Download => Arabian Prince - Innovative Life - The Anthology - 1984-1989

Vinicius de Moraes/Roberto Paiva/Antonio Carlos Jobim - Orfeu Da Conceiçao (Odeon - 1956)

2011-06-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

Orfeu Da Conceiçao is a Brazilian play inspired by the Orpheus legend and written by Vinicius De Moraes. Vinicius made a musical out of it in 1956 with the help of Jobim, Roberto Palva (singer) and Luiz Bonfa (guitar). Orfeu Da Conceiçao is a really ambitious work that goes beyond the realm of bossa nova to touch classical music and jazz. The first track, Ouverture, starts like classical music and then switches into a bossa nova. Eu O Meu Amor mixes big band jazz with samba. Minologo De Orfeu is a poem recited by Moraes himself. You can hear as well for the first time the classic Se Todos Fossem Iguais A Voce. Jobim and Bonfa worked a second time on the Orpheus myth when they wrote the soundtrack of the Orfeu Negro movie, based on the same Moraes play. It's just the kind of record that has seminal and masterpiece written all over it.

Download=> Vinicius de Moraes/Roberto Paiva/Antonio Carlos Jobim - Orfeu Da Conceiçao

Quantic presents Tropical Funk Experience (Nascente - 2010)

2011-05-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

Tru Thoughts producer Quantic makes the perfect addition to the Palenque Palenque compilation I posted a while ago. While Palenque Palenque was restricted to the Columbian scene, Tropical Funk Experience explores both Columbian and Panamean scenes and and doesn't limit itself to the champeta style but features 70's cumbia or salsa artists. The same suspects are of course here on both compilations (Wganda Kenya, Aberlardo Carbono Y Su Conjunto, Pedro Beltran) but fortunately the songs are not the same. Being a producer and DJ work, Tropical Funk Experience is a bit more mainstream than Palenque Palenque and is consequently able to please the less adventurous ears.

Download => Quantic presents Tropical Funk Experience

Ronald Mesquita - Bresil 72 (Barclay - 1972)

2011-05-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

Recorded in France by an all Brazilian casting (Ricardo Do Canto, Rolando Faria, Ricardo Pontes, Gilson Peranzzetta, vocalist Marly Tavares), Bresil 72 is a samba soul gem that acquired its cult following by rare groove fanatics. A long time unavaible or only for an indecent prize, it was recently reedited by Vadim Music, a French label that is the only way to discover Brazilian music recorded in France. Bresil 72 is mainly made of covers of songs written by Jorge Ben (Balança Pema), Jobim (Aguas De Março), Milton Nascimento (Cançâo Do Sal- Tema De Tostâo), Gilberto Gil (Fechado Pra Balanço) or Toqhinho and Vinicius De Moraes (Tarde Em Itapôa). You recognize each song at the first note and it's just the kind of record that make you spend a good day everytime you put it on the record player.

Download => Ronald Mesquita - Bresil 72

The Soul Side Of The Street Vol. 1 - Hot Phoenix Soul Sides From The Vault Of Hadley Murrell - 1964-1972 (Wind Hit/Grounded Music - 2010)

2011-05-14T02:25:00.000-07:00

Like in most of major American cities in the 60's and 70's, a soul and funk scene bursted in Phoenix, mainly under the impulsion of Hadley Murrell. After several stints in local rock and roll radios, Hadley ventured into promotion and then into production and publishing with the creation of his own label, Wind Hit. Behind the control board, he produced every talent that emerged from Phoenix in soul and funk. You'll find here 15 tracks the man produced between 1964 and 1972 for bands going by the name of Freddi-Henchi & The Soulsetters, The Servicemen or Bobby Soul. You won't find any hidden masterpiece but only solid and well executed deep soul and R&B, staid forgotten until now. This compilation easily compete in quality and rarity with Numero Group releases.

Download => The Soul Side Of The Street Vol. 1

Special Ed - Youngest In Charge (Profile Records - 1989)

2011-05-08T05:36:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please: you're about to download a true hip hop masterpiece. Released by a then unkwown sixteen years old Flatbush alumni, Special Ed, Youngest In Charge starts with two absolute classics, so often sampled and quoted you probably know them even if you never heard them: I Got It Made and I'm The Magnificent. Boosted by Howie Tee stallar production, the teenager boasts classic verses of braggadocio with a perfect flow, slowly leaving the old school rhyming style to head in in a more modern direction. On Club Scene, Special Ed ventures into hip-house with an equal success while on Heds and Dreeds, he pays respect to his Jamaican roots. With this record, Special Ed made a very impressive entry in the hip hop game, with an album as good as Eric B & Rakim, EPMD or LL Cool J releases of the time. Unfortunately, Special Ed gave almost everything he had in the guts with Youngest In Charge and never released anything else that much interesting. I have posted the 2009 CD reedition that comes with must-have bonuses: a handfull of very good remixes of I Got It Made, Think About It, I'm The Magnificent and Club Scene and two rare tracks, One In A Million and Ready 2 Attack.

Download => Special Ed - Youngest In Charge

Laura Villa - Bossa Nova (Polydor - 1962)

2011-04-30T02:34:00.000-07:00

Recently rediscovered thanks to rare groove reissue label Vadim Music, this little gem is one of the first bossa nova record ever recorded in Paris. Born in Italy, Laura Villa discovered bossa nova during a stay in Portugal. Back in Paris and signed to Polydor, she recorded this bossa nova album with the help of members of the Brazilian diaspora in Paris. Made of covers of Brazilian, and most notably Jobim, classics (Desafinado, Chega De Saudade, Corcovado, Samba De Uma Nota So) and original songs, nicely and originaly orchestrated, Bossa Nova has absolutely nothing to do with a kitsch easy listening experience. It's rather the kind of music you expect to hear in the club scenes of a Jean-Pierre Melville movie.

Download => Laura Villa - Bossa Nova

Sheila & B.Devotion - Spacer b/w Don't Go (Carrere - 1979)

2011-04-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

Once an average teen 60's French pop singer, Sheila enjoyed a huge success in France until the end of the 70's, churning out middle of the road and unbearable shitty records, completely in the hands of her producer and her record label. Her only good career choice was to capitalize on the disco craze to try a come back and to choose recording with the kings of disco Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, then at the best of their inspiration. It's even a surprise to consider that those two geniuses accepted to work with Sheila. The story goes that they were looking for a European singer to break the European market. Sheila's label, Carrere, heard the story and proposed to the duo to produce an album for the fledging artist. Nile Rodgers and Benard Edwards accepted to the condition to have a complete freedom and the final say on the record. They locked Sheila in a studio and made her work The Chic Organization way. Sheila notoriously didn't like the result of the recording sessions but changed her mind when Spacer stormed the charts and still is her biggest hit to date. If The Chic Organization fans can go for the complete album, King Of The World, the two best cuts, Spacer and Don't Go, are on the 7'. Sheila's career never really recovered from this huge success and she felt back into mediocrity and low sales. Despite several liftings and several tries, she never really came back one more time.

Download => Sheila & B.Devotion - Spacer b/w Don't Go

Eighties Ladies - Ladies Of The 80s (Uno Melodic Records - 1980)

2011-04-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

Eighties Ladies were a quintet lead by soul and disco queen Sylvia Striplin and produced by one of this blog all time favorite artist, king Roy Ayers. Ladies Of the 80s sounds in fact like an excellent Roy Ayers album but without Roy Ayers singing on it: brilliant jazz funk instrumentation, full of vibes, accentuated by pulsating disco and boogie beats, unforgettable breaks, infectious sunny choruses. The Eighties Ladies released only one album before disbanding. Only Sylvia Striplin continued recording for UMR, the classic Give Me Your Love. Ladies Of The 80s is so good and so coherent, like any soul album should be, it's hard to say which song really stands out. Turned On To You and I Knew That Love have a lot of times been pointed out by rare groove lovers. A Tribe Called Quest sampled Turned On To You for Butter, from The Low End Theory album, but it's pretty hard to guess the sample. Anyway, I thank Soul Jazz to have reissued this gem.

Download => Eighties Ladies - Ladies Of The 80s

The Bombing - The Very Best Of Bost & Bim Reggae Remixes (Beats Mob Records - 2009)

2011-04-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

If you like reggae remixes, here are the masters of the game, French Bost & Bim, even better than Taggy Matcher, Mato or Grant Phabao. Their mixtapes serie, Yankees A Yard is already a must have. But The Bombing, their compilation of their best pop ans soul classics reggae remixes, is a pure killer. They took absolute masterpieces (Let's Get It On, Superfreak, I Want You Back, Ain't No Mountain High Enough and so on...) and succeed to remix them without sounding corny. Play any one of those tracks and you'll make any dancefloor going crazy. I just wonder where they found the acapellas to make all their remixes...

Tracklisting:

1- Marvin Star - Let's Get It On
2- Supa James - Superfreak
3- Little Stevie - For Your Love
4- Diana Supreme: My World Is Empty
5- Fabulous Five - I Want You Back
6- Little Stevie - Uptight
7- Marvin & Tammi - Ain't No Mountain High Enough
8- The Thieves - Message In A Bottle
9- John & Paul - Girl
10- Smokey Miracle - Tracks Of My Tears
11- Sista Janis - Mercedes Benz
12- Marvin Star - Sexual Healing
13- Diana Supreme - Baby Love
14- John & Paul feat. Ras Pidow - Because

Download => The Bombing - The Very Best Of Bost & Bim Reggae Remixes

Taggy Matcher - Hip Hop Reggae Series Vol. 3 (Stix - 2010)

2011-03-26T00:53:00.001-07:00

My two Hip Hop Reggae Series posts are my two most successful posts. Nobody left any comment but a lot of people have downloaded the first two volumes of the serie. The master Taggy Matcher is back behind the producer board for the third volume and those ten new scorching reggae remixes of R&B and hip hop classics. By order of appearence you'll find Mary J Blige, Missy Elliott, Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg, Nas, Erikah Badu, The Beastie Boys, Gravediggaz, Method Man & Redman, Public Enemy and an instrumental bonus (Nautilus). Enjoy.

Download => Taggy Matcher - Hip Hop Reggae Series Vol. 3

The Mighty Clouds Of Joy - Mighty Cloud Of Joy b/w Everything Is Going Up (ABC Records - 1974)

2011-03-22T01:07:00.000-07:00

Once a gospel quartet formed in 1960, The Mighty Clouds Of Joy were clearly influenced by the secular sound of the time mixing religious and uplifting texts with soul and funk. Produced and penned by Dave Crawford, Mighty Cloud Of Joy and Everything Is Going Up are two perfect examples. While Mighty Cloud Of Joy is a pre disco bluesy stomper with blasting Memphis style or Muscle Shoals style horns, Everything Is Going Up is clearly going the deep soul way. I found this record in a pile of crap 7", paid 50 cents for it and absolutely never regretted them !!!

Download => The Mighty Clouds Of Joy - Mighty Cloud Of Joy b/w Everything Is Going Up

Dayton - Hot Fun (Liberty Records - 1982)

2011-03-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

Recorded in 1982, Hot Fun is Dayton (Ohio) based band, Dayton, third album in two years of existence. Created by David Shawn Sandridge and Chris Jones, Dayton lasted six years, frequently changing its roster of members and producers and vanishing after five albums in the mid 80's without scoring any real hit. Hot Fun is a really curious album, switching style frequently, mixing 80's boogie songs with a radio friendly Sly Stone cover (Hot Fun In The Summertime), P-Funk oriented tracks (Krackity-Krack featuring Bootsie Collins, Grunch) and a soulful ballad (Never Repay Your Love). Lack of coherence will say some while other will notice that the band is just as good in every style they try. A nice piece of work that,I think, has never been sampled.

Download =>Dayton Hot Fun

Pure Fire! - A Gilles Peterson Impulse! Collection (Impulse! - 2006)

2011-03-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

Making a jazz label compilation is pointless. I don't know much about jazz but I do know that it definitely the ultimate album format. Single tracks, as good as they are, never sound as good as put in their overall album context. Releasing a jazz compilation give consequently headaches to label manager, especially with cult status label like Impulse! Like in journalism, you must always find an angle to be reliable and keep it real. Paying a DJ to make the compilation is an easy way to find your angle: his or her name gives credibility to the project, you can always say that he has chosen the tracks that insipired his work and that he's still spinning some of the songs he selected. Chosing Gilles Peterson was a good choice for Impulse! marketing execs: the guy made himself a name by playing jazz records, has acquired a near legendary status and is famous to make incredibly brilliant compilation. Gilles Peterson selected tracks from the Impulse! 60's ad 70's catalogue that go well together and sequenced them all, making the listening experience very coherent. The biggest names are here of course (Milt Jackson, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Archie Shepp, John Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders) but the record has Gilles Peterson written all over it. It's a bit like listening a Worlwide special show dedicated to Impulse! After every track, you just think that you gonna hear Gilles voice. Well done mate!

Download => Pure Fire! - A Gilles Peterson Impulse! Collection

Kid Loco presents French Funk Experience (Nascente - 2010)

2011-03-02T01:31:00.000-08:00

Ex-indie kid and trip hop French producer Kid Loco digged deep in his 70's library music records collection to gather this brilliant volume of the Funk Experience serie. This is an excellent opportunity to discover funky pieces composed for specialized labels like Tele Music, Sonorama or Pema by unknown studio or session musicians called Bernard Estardy, Guy Pedersen or André Ceccarelli. Two tracks on the records cannot to my sense be linked to library music: Course De Ten, by Alain Goraguer, an extract from La Planète Sauvage OST and Africadelic by Manu Dibango. For the rest, you'll find what you can expect: groovy shit clearly inspired by blaxploitation soundtracks with plenty breaks to sample. Don't miss especially Basse Duettino by Raymond Guiot.

Download => Kid Loco presents French Funk Experience

Roy Ayers - Lots Of Love (Uno Melodic Records - 1983)

2011-02-22T01:13:00.000-08:00

Reedited recently on Soul Jazz, Lots Of Love is a really strange album, Roy Ayers switching style on each song. It starts with an afrobeat number, Black Family, clearly inspired by Fela Kuti with whom Roy Ayers signed the album Music Of many Colours 3 years before. But the track, after a vibraphones solo, ventures into hip hop territory with the introduction of an MC. The second track, Fast Money, is clearly inspired by electro funk with its drumbox beat and its robotic voice on the chorus. The tracks Lots Of Love and And Then We Were One are a bit cheesy, mixing post disco boogie beats with jazzy elevator melodies. On D.C. City, Roy Ayers produces what he does the best: sultry vocals with uplifting soul music. The strongest cut on the album is probably the last one, Chicago, a seminal hypnotic track that clearly inspired Chicago and Detroit house music masters a few years later (Moodyman, Theo Parrish and co).

Download => Roy Ayers - Lots Of Love

Rhyze - To The Top (20th Century Fox Records - 1981)

2011-02-06T09:46:00.001-08:00

This 1981 forgotten album truly deserved to be rediscovered. Rhyze started to play together in New Jersey in 1970 under The Nu Sound Express moniker. They released a couple of songs and then switched their name to Rhyze. To The Top was their third album, is produced by their childhood friend, Paul Kyzer and deserves clearly its disco funk classic status. After a decade of turning the funk circuit, this unknwon band reached an incredible level of inspiration and musicianship, near the heights of the best bands of the same time. Horns blasts like in Earth, Wind & Fire while the guitar and bass lines matches easily Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers productions. Try it at home: play this record and you won't prevent your feet and your neck from moving while feeling this melancolic little twist. Killing subtle shit, plain and simple.

Download => Rhyze - To The Top

Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Red Black & Green (Polydor - 1973)

2011-01-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

Roy Ayers discography is slowly being reissued those last few years, even if at least the half of his discography stays unavailable for the common people. This is a real shame, the guy being one of my most favorite artist ever and having blessed the surfaced of earth with his talent since 1963 without any real mistake or failure. Consequently, let's enjoy this hip-oselect new edition of Red, Black & Green, a classic collection of covers (Ain't No Sunshine, Day Dreaming, Papa Was A Rolling Stone) getting the Roy Ayers vibraphonic treatment and a true masterpiece, the title song Red Black & Green. For the record, Red, Black & Green has been sampled a few times, from the X-Clan (Raise The Flag) to former Stetsasonic Daddy-O (Flowin' In File) but not that much.

Download => Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Red Black & Green

Lloyd Miller - A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz (Jazzman - 2009)

2011-01-22T09:10:00.001-08:00

A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz is probably the sole anthology of Lloyd Miller. Lloyd Miller was fascinated by what we called today "world music" and learned to play about hundred different and exotic instruments like santur, oud, balafon, zarb or tabla. He then mixed traditionnal Middle-Eastern, African or Asian instrumentations with jazz for a truly original and hypnotic result pressed on a handfull of vinyls that Jazzman digged and publishes today. This is definitely not easy listening but is really good and fascinating for discerning ears.

Download => Lloyd Miller - A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz

Nino Rota - Accade Al Penitenziario/Un Eroe Dei Nostri Tempi (CAM - 1992)

2011-01-15T09:04:00.001-08:00

This CD gathers two rare Nino Rota soundtracks, composed by the Italian composers in 1955, just 5 years after he started collaborating with Fellini. Accade Al Penitenziario is a sketches comedy realised by Giorgio Bianchi completely unknown and forgotten outside Italy. Nino Rotta score is very symphonic and made me think to a Tex Avery cartoon soundtrack. With Un Eroe Dei Nostri Tempi, a film realised by Mario Monicelli, we are still in comedy territories but this time Nino Rota switched style and his score mixes ragtime jazz with circus music.

Download => Nino Rota - Accadde Al Penitenziario/Un Eroe Dei Nostri Tempi

Fela Anikulapo Kuti And Roy Ayers - Music Of Many Colours (Phonodisk/Celluloid - 1980)

2011-01-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

Fela and Roy Ayers together: white rockers were not the only ones to create supergroups. Roy Ayers and Fela collaborated only for one album, Music Of Many Colours but what an album. There are two songs of it but both are near 20 minutes long and by the two geniuses at the top of their inspiration. Africa 70 incandescent afrobeat is smoothed out by Roy Ayers vibes and disco fused soul, making of the first track, 2,000 Black Go To Be Free, a sure dicerning dancefloor filler. Africa - Centre Of The World is more into Fela traditionnal mold: 3 drummers on fire, blasting horns and Roy Ayers riding the funk with his vibraphone solos. I found on You Tube a rare Louie Vega remix of 2,000 Blacks Got To Be Free I didn't know. But sorry I don't have any link to download it for free so I'm afraid that if you really want it, you'll have to buy it.

Download => Fela Kuti & Roy Ayers - Music Of Many Colours

Palenque Palenque: Champeta Criolla & Afro Roots In Colombia (1975-91) (Soundway - 2010)

2011-01-06T01:10:00.000-08:00

Colombia inherited from slavery a strong black community that profoundly influenced Colombian music with afro roots. It is consequently not a surprise, as state the liner notes, that "Colombia was the first country outside Africa where, since the middle of the 1970s, afrobeat and highlife were recorded, and where this music was reborn under new horizons. Many of the champeta songs recorded in Colombia are not an orthodox style of afrobeat, soukous or highlife (...). They have their own identity, and the use of their own instruments and styles makes them very original. Champeta is a re-invention of afro music in Colombia, ixed with Caribbean psychedelia, afro roots and elements of cumbia and other style native to the Caribbean cost." If Soundway Records wouldn't have existed, I would have never kwnown anything about Colombian afro beat. A very good listening experience and plenty stuff to sample.

Download => Palenque Palenque

Bost & Bim - Yankees A Yard 3 (Musicast - 2010)

2011-01-02T06:25:00.000-08:00

French reggae producers Bost & Bim give 2010 main hip hop and R&B their reggae touch, cuting and copying extracts on original riddims. It's really well made, at least as well as the fist two volumes of the Yankees A Yard serie. The curiosity is when they give Girl by The Beatles the same treatment.

Download => Bost & Bim - Yankees A Yard 3

The Leopard Lounge At The Movies (Warner Classics & Jazz - 2007)

2010-12-26T05:18:00.000-08:00

Despite its ugly cover, this Leopard Lounge serie volume is devoted to nice rare exotica and easy listening covers of famous movie tunes. If it is not a surprise to find the usual lounge compilation suspects, Burt Bacharach (Alfie) or Henry Mancini tunes (Moon River Cha Cha, Daktari, Latin Golightly), some covers are a bit more suprising. Quartette Très Bien take on Exodus or Les Baxter interpolation of the Theme From Lawrence Of Arabia give a radical lifting to rather melodramatic and symphonic originals. Some of the artists featured are not all boxing in the second division of pop music as you find herbie Mann, Esther Philips, Jimmy Smith or even Young-Holt Unlimited. Enjoyable work.

Download => The Leopard Lounge At The Movies

Siesta Party ! #1 (Nova Records - 1999)

2010-12-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

After decades of ostracism, 90's dee-jays suddendly discovered that easy-listening records of their grand-parents were hiding fabulous pop and electronic gems. They even invented its 90's equivalent, trip hop. Trip hop was the kind of music made to buy ridculously expensive drinks and meals in posch bars. All this ended with awful lounge compilation and people finally threw the baby, the water and the bath far away. Easy-listening went back into relative obscurity and now that CD's don't sell anymore, nobody dares to release compilation like this one. Due to French infamous DJ's Jean Croc and Johnny Begoude and released by Nova Radio own label, Siesta Party ! gathers 17 excellent gems with no fillers. Cannonball Adderley, Sergio Mendes, Lalo Schifrin, Astrud Gilberto, Stanley Turrentine, Percy Faith, Jean-Jacques Perrey: the greatest names of the genre give their best to make your life sounds better. Sometimes elevator music can be liked for itself and not for kitsch post modern reasons.

Download => Siesta Party ! #1

Kool Moe Dee - Greatest Hits (Jive - 1993)

2010-12-18T05:34:00.000-08:00

Largely forgotten now, Kool Moe Dee had his share of success in the 80's as member of The Treacherous Three. When they disbanded, Kool went for solo and was one of the first rapper to use a long term feud with a fellow rapper, LL Cool J, to gain publicity. The 15 tracks compiled here are from his four albums released on Jive in the second half of the 80's: Kool Moe Dee, How You Like Me Now, Knowledge Is King and Funke, Funke Wisdom. The production swings from average to really good, especially when Teddy Riley is involved but the overall flavour is definitely old school. Kool greatest assets were his lyrics and his charisma on the mic and both still resonate today. An underated old school master.

Download => Kool Moe Dee - Greatest Hits

Mulatu Astatke - New York-Addis-London - The Story Of Ethno Jazz 1965-1975 (Strut - 2009)

2010-12-09T00:19:00.000-08:00

Mulatu Astatke - New York Addis London The Story Of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975

Its music scene is not what comes to mind first when you think about Ethiopia. It brings more back dramatic memories of colonial wars, Emperor Haile Selassie or 80's starvings and Band Aid concerts. But Ethiopia gave as well birth in the 60's to one of the most prolific musical scene of Africa with a bunch of talented young musicians mixing African music music with Western influences. If you are intererested in this scene, the famous Ethiopiques albums serie is just for you. Educated in England and the US, Mulatu Astatke created his own quartet and ethio jazz, an hypnotic combination of traditionnal Ethiopian melodies with Western instrumentation. His records are still pretty hard to find and this compilation is blessing to get a hand on his best tracks. Mulatu Astatke recently acquired a new fame when Damian Marley sampled Yegelle Tezeta for his project with Nas, As We Enter. Oh No used that song as well on Great Oracle, a track released on his instrumental Ethiopian music influenced projet, Ethiopium. Backpackers Oddisee use the song on Khartoum. Mulatu Astatke traces (Kasalefkut Hulu) can be found on 8Ball's Pure Uncut and K'Naan's ABC. Other Mulatu songs have been used as well but you won't find them on this compilation.

Pharoah Sanders - Karma (Impulse! - 1969)

2010-12-04T05:19:00.000-08:00

Pharoah Sanders - Karma

Difficult to comment a record that has been already described numerous times by jazz specialist and for very good reasons like a masterpiece even for a soul and funk head like me. Karma is made of only two songs: a 32'42" psychedelic ride called The Creator Has A Master Plan and the only 5'37 long Colors. With the help of Leon Thomas on vocals and percusion and Lonnie Liston Smith on Piano, The Creator Has A Master Plan starts like a sultry repetition of the soulful main theme built around Pharoah Sanders saxophone. Then the voice of Leon Thomas comes in before the song falls into noisy bruitist and abstract chaos for several long minutes to finally come back to the main theme. This shit just grabs your mind, even if you're not high and definitely propels you into another world.

The Zapp & Roger Anthology - We Can Make You Dance (Warner Bros./Rhino - 2002)

2010-11-27T02:34:00.000-08:00

The Zapp & Roger Anthology CD 1

The Zapp & Roger Anthology CD 2

If the Troutman brothers wouldn't have existed, nor P-Funk nor West Coast gansta rap would have been the same. Discovered by, guess who, Georges Clinton himself, the band led by Roger Troutman, rapidly acquired a major status amongst funk players. Zapp live shows, for those lucky to watch them, were unique moments of funky madness while their infectious singles, even if not that successful outside the R&B charts, set the definition of black music for the next decades: a strong emphsis on the drum and bass lines, the use of talkbox, easy texts and infectious chorus. Sounds kind like the definition of R&B today right? Zapp and Roger have been so much sampled, especially More Bounce To The Ounce, that using their songs is now the ultimate music production cliché. Dre gave to Cesar what belongs to Cesar revitalizing Roger career by offering him the chance to sing the hook of 2Pac's hit California Love in 1996. The saddest thing in Zapp glorious story is the end with the violent and mysterious death of Roger and Larry Troutman in 1999 by gunshots. This anthology selects the 29 best tracks from Roger Troutman's various incarnations: The Human Body, Zapp, Roger and H-Town. This is a must.

In The Pocket With Eddie Bo - New Orleans Rock&Roll, R&B, Soul & Funk Goodies 1955-2007 (Vampisoul - 2008)

2010-11-21T05:42:00.000-08:00

In The Pocket With Eddie Bo

Getting a hand on Eddie Bo recordings for a decent price a rare experience. During 50 years, Eddie Bo was a funky hurricane, one of the go to guy from New Orleans funk and soul scene. He wrote, recorded, produced or arranged hundreds of records for a good dozen of different labels, mostly 45s, and staid a lot of times uncredited. It was really time to rehabilite this guy and its storming recipe: raw drums, tick bass lines and a catchy hook, enhanced from time to time by horns or strings. The 28 songs on In The Pocket With Eddie Bo features Eddie Bo under his own moniker or the numerous bands and artists he worked for: Barbara George, The Barons, Eddie Lang or Chuck Garbo & The Soul Finders. Raw swampy sweaty shit but it's just to bad this records lacks what is probably Eddie Bo's most sampled song and used breakbeat, Hook And Sling.

Slave - Slave (Cotillion - 1977)

2010-11-14T06:10:00.000-08:00

Slave - Slave

After years of hiatus, Slave lead singer, Steve Arrington, is back in business, collaborating with new school funk master Dam-Funk and Stones Throw Records. I had the chance to hear one title released with a French newspaper and the result is quite good even if far away from Slave best days. Probably one of the greatest funk band to come from Ohio, Slave signed the stellar single Slide, which stormed the charts even before any album was even recorded. This single alone allowed Slave to tour intensively and they only had a few days to record their first album, Slave. It explains probably the raw energy and the live feeling of every track, the emphasis being on the bass and drum lines and less on the melody or the arrangements. For the record, Public Enemy A Tribe Called Quest, Success-N-Effect and Professor Griff used Slide for respectively Can't Truss It, Go Ahead In The Rain, Feeze and Pawns In The Game.

The Soul Searchers - Blow Your Whistle - Original Old School Breaks & Classic Funk Bombs (Vampisoul - 2007)

2010-11-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

The Soul Searchers - Blow Your Whistle

Everything is said in the title about the content of this record. Blow Your Whistle gathers tracks from the two LPs Go-Go music king Chuck Brown's Soul Searchers cut for Sussex in 1972 (We The People) and in 1974 (Salt Of The Earth). This nice Vampisoul release is the cheapest and easiest way to get inalterable heavy funk break classics like Salt Of The Earth or Ashley's Roachclip, largely sampled and used by the hip hop godfathers of the late 80's (Eric B & Rakim, LL Cool J, Run DMC, Public Enemy and co).

Jorge Benjor - The Definitive Collection (Wrasse Records - 2002)

2010-11-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

Jorge Benjor - The Definitive Collection

Mainly specialized in African music, British label Wrasse Records released excellent anthologies of Brazilian music. After Gilberto Gil, Elis Regina, Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa, it is the turn of pop genius Jorge Benjor (aka Jorge Ben). The record concentrates on his 60's and 70's career with 19 excellent tunes. All his absolute classics are here, from bossa classic Mas, Que Nada to his samba disco stormer, Taj Mahal, a song so infectious that once you listen to it, the melody of the chorus is still printed in your head one month later. For the story, Taj Mahal was plagiarized by Rod Stewart for his biggest hit to date, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?. The Scottich singer was sued, condemned and consequently didn't make any money out of it. Jorge Benjor made another version of the song, even better, for his Acustico MTV album released in 2002.

Blue Brazil - Blue Note In A Latin Groove (Blue Note - 2004)

2010-10-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Blue Brazil - Blue Note In A Latin Groove

Blue Brazil gathers seventeen rare Brazilian songs released in the 60's and 70's on EMI-Odeon Brazil. All the songs are in a jazzy/samba/bossa note but some of them are very danceable. This is particularly the case of Homenagem A Mongo, a Cesar Mariano written tribute to Latin percussionist Mongo Santanisuis performed by Som Tres and which starts with a storming breakbeat. This is the only track on this compilation that makes it deserve its title Blue Note In A Latin Groove. Marketing guys at Blue Note probably found it clever to call it that way to appeal to both Brazilian music and Latin music lovers. The last ones will be dispointed but the first ones will get definitely a run for their money. This is always an exquisite pleasure to find Joyce's best song ever, Aldeia De Ogum, among other gems.

Letta Mbulu - Naturally (Fantasy - 1973)

2010-10-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Letta Mbulu - Naturally

Naturally is the kind of album that can change your life forever and goes directly to your desert island playlist. Benefiting from the help of Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Letta Mbulu mixes perfectly well deep soul with her south african jazzy roots. This is just amazing that this album didn't enjoy any success when it was released and staid ignored for so long. I consequently give all the respect due to BGP for bringing back this pure moment of magic from the vaults.

Sunnyview - Fresh Beats (Hi & Fly Records - 2007)

2010-10-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sunnyview - Fresh Beats

Sunnyview is born on the ashes of Miami TK Records at the begining of the 80's. TK founder Henry Stone associated with Moris Levy to reissue TK catalogue and explore the possibilities of a new musical trend of synthetic music, electro funk. Exploring all the possibilities of keyboards and drum machines, electro funk can be divided in numerous schools, all represented on this compilation. From hip hop to freestyle, from funk to minimalist instrumentals, from Pretty Tony to Newcleus, all the subgenres and its underground heroes are here represented. Hi & Fly is a reissue label with pretty bad reputation. If all its compilations are excellent, there no editorial work to create liner notes, tracklisting is erratic and I'm not sure if they paid artists their due share of royalties. Anyway, with Fresh Beats it's breakdancing time again and it will make you start crazy move like the windmill, the back-spin, a couple of freezes and the thomas.

Skyy - Inner City (Salsoul - 1984)

2010-10-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

Skyy - Inner City

Inner City is Skyy last Salsoul album and the last album ever released on Salsoul. Created in 1974 by The Cayre brothers in 1974, Salsoul was one of disco era most celebrated label. When disco age faded away and soul music entered in a tunnel that ended only at the end of the 90's, Salsoul stopped all operations. The mid 80's were a pretty bad time for African American music lovers. Black music seemed to have lost its mojo. After 20 years of charts domination and trendsetting, R&B charts were devitalized by two vampires that attracted all the light: Prince and Michael Jackson. Things in fact were still bubling in the underground: hip hop was a couple of years away from the begining of its golden age, freestyle was preparing what will be R&B 90's sonic revolution and house and garage were getting ready to take over European dancefloors. But for mainstream ears, radio was boring like hell. Skyy was created in 1970 and was Randy Muller's creature. Randy charted hits all over the 70's and 80's with Skyy or his other dancing machines like BT Express, Brass Construction, Funk Deluxed or Rapheal Cameron. Kenny Dope released a pretty good compilation of his best tracks on Plaza records in 2005. Inner City is probably one of Skyy most overlooked album and is clearly inspired by the freestyle sound of the time. It is one of the album of that era that aged the best. Dancin' To be Dancin', close to what Jellybean Martinez did for Madonna, is still able to full up a dance floor everytime it is played.

Manzel - Midnight Theme (Dopebrother - 2004)

2010-10-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

Manzel - Midnight Theme

Midnight Theme is a compilation gathering instrumental tracks composed between 1973 and 1978 by a US army lieutnant, Manzel Bush, and some of his friends in small Kentucky studios. Manzel Bush never got signed by a major label despite his producer, a guy named Shad O'Shea, efforts and only three of his songs, Midnight Theme, Space Funk and Jump Street were indepentely released as 45 rpm. 30 years later, Midnight Theme is one the most sampled breakbeat of hip hop, being used by the likes of Golden Age legends Eric B & Rakim, Cypress Hill, De La Soul or Grand Puba. Manzel sounds a bit like what the Mizell brothers did for Blue Note in the 70's or Roy Ayers albums of the same period: a very cool spacey jazz funk. This 2004 reedition was supervised, mixed and remixed by Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez himself for a top notch result.

David Axelrod - Heavy Axe (Fantasy - 1974)

2010-10-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

David Axelrod - Heavy Axe

I know, I know, another David Axelrod post for the third time in less than a month. Even if Heavy Axe is not as good as Songs Of Experience or Song Of Innocence, it's still a very good effort from David Axelrod, with one certified masterpiece, the last track, Everything Counts. Everything Counts is the closest song on the album to what you can expect from an Axelrod track: killing breakbeat, a heavy bass, a scorching production with a melancolic twist and tearjerking strings. The rest of the album is more in an easy listening/jazz/soft R&B mode, with the help of Cannonball Aderley on the saxophone. Curiously the later is featured on the worst tracks, especially a cheesy cover of Stevie Wonder, Don't You Worry About A Thing.

Donna Hightower - This World Today Is A Mess b/w Dreams Like Mine (Decca - 1972)

2010-09-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Finding informations about Donna Hightower on the internet is not that easy. Maybe because This World Today Is A Mess is her only real commercial success. It's a nice piece of uptempo, singalong, feel good, easy listening soul song, despite lyrics that are not that optimistic. The B side, Dreams Like Mine, is a gorgeous soul downtempo number.

Donna Hightower - This World Today Is A Mess b/w Dreams Like Mine

David Axelrod - Songs Of Exprience (Capitol - 1969)

2010-09-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

David Axelrod - Songs Of Experience

Songs Of Experience is the second part of David's Axelrod homage to William Blake after Song Of Innocence, record I posted last week. Songs Of Experience is a little less dark and slightly more cinematographic, heavy on a rich psyche and sexy instrumentation and a bit less on breaks. It reminds me a lot of soundtracks Ennio Morricone made at the same time. This album stays as well as one of hip hop producers favorite samples mine, especially DJ Shadow who largely used parts of The Human Abstract to make his masterpiece, Midnight In A Perfect World.

David Axelrod - Song Of Innocence (Capitol - 1968)

2010-09-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

David Axelrod - Song Of Innocence

What to say about this record? This is the kind of album that made me want to start this blog. Just to make it discover to someone that never heard of it. It is so good that it's hard to say which song is the better. Song Of Innocence is a pure breakbeat paradise. Each single track has been sampled a gazillion of times, especially Holy Thursday. Song Of Innocence was thought as an hommage to William Blake, the 18th century poet. But you will find no classical music here. It's an instrumental psychedelic funky jazzy trip. Strings and horns are used in a very cinematographic way, aswering to funky drums and a jazzy bassline with from time to time an electric guitar. Play it and you'll be hooked to the last single note.

Herman's Hermits - Both Sides Of Herman's Hermits (Columbia - 1965)

2010-09-11T03:29:00.000-07:00

Herman's Hermits - Both Sides Of Herman's Hermits

Herman's Hermits have a shitty reputation. They haven't any psyche freakbeat, garage or proto punk scorcher to their palmares. Instead, despite their working class scousie origins, they drag a reputation of a commercial family friendly pop band, singing first degree love songs that wouln't scare or even offend Midwest and Bible Belt TV watchers. This is pretty unfair: those guys were maybe not the definition of rock'n'roll but they were in fact just doing the job the best they could. They had no personnality, no artistic vision, but clearly just wanted a decent living from their music. They didn't break any barrier but let behind them a handful of good songs. For Love is one my personnal favorite and you can find it on this album, Both Sides Of Herman's Hermits with a few B sides and cuts from their 1967 Columbia release, Herman's Hermits X 15.

Syndicate Of Sound - Little Girl (Bell - 1966)

2010-09-04T00:41:00.000-07:00

Syndicate Of Sound - Little Girl

Syndicate Of Sound was created, according to bassist Bob Gonzales in the liner notes of this Sundazed CD edition, "to make money, have fun and meet girls", which is basically the aim of 99,9% of teenage bands in the world. Hailing from San Jose, California, Syndicate Of Sound vanished carbonized after only one album and one Top 10 hit single, Little Girl. If British Invasion influences can obviously be heard throughout the entire album, they are mixed with that raw energy and that minimalism only particular to US garage bands of the time. Definitely more than a curiosity.

Chocolate Milk - Action Speaks Louder Than Words (RCA - 1975)

2010-08-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Milk - Action Speaks Louder Than Words

Session band from Allen Toussaint, Chocolate Milk (strange name isn't it, not that far away from Strawberry Pancake when you think about it), is a jam band, at their best live on stage and not necessary in the studio. Not that Action Speaks Louder Than Words is a bad jazz funk album, but you feel that the energy of the band transcends the lack of real songwriting skills and allows this album to be an afrocentric breakbeat paradise. The title song has been sampled numerous times by Eric B & Rakim (Move The Crowd), Stetsasonic (Don't let your...) or the Geto Boys (Action Speaks Louder Than Words). The demonstration of what I write lies here bellow with two versions (album and live) of Action Speaks Louder Than Words.

Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sound In 1970s Nigeria (Soundway - 2010)

2010-08-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Nigeria Afrobeat Special: The New Explosive Sound In 1970s Nigeria

Everybody is so much about afrobeat these days... Each week, a new white boys band from Brooklyn releases an album claiming their deep love for afro rhythms. Blog house bangers even all have (maybe had, I haven’t checked since a few monthes, which is equal to centuries in blog house time scale) even the same neo tribal beat directly inspired by afrobeat magic drummers. Original afrobeat records, all acquired directly in dusty warehouses in Nigeria or Ghana by greedy crate diggers, can now be found for the price of a kidney in London or New-York vinyls spots. I have nothing against artists getting at least the recognition they always deserved. But I have the sensation that those same artists only received a tiny percentage (if they receive any money at all) of the loot that is made out of their work. Western world loots not only Africa natural ressources but also its cultural ressources. I know that writing this is a bit hypocrital, especially in the post of a blog that offer free illegal copies of albums. But don’t tell me that the guy that sells afrobeat vinyls 200$ a piece, only do so to promote Nigerian music. Fortunately, the guys at Soundway seem honest. Their catalogue is pretty good and Nigeria Afrobeat Special make no exceptions. The tracks are really excellent, the liner notes well documented, the sound restoration work nearly perfect. I just can’t avoid to feel a bit annoyed, especially when you consider that the tracklistings are not the same between the vinyl and on the CD versions of this record. You’ll find here the link for the CD version. This was my blogger goes political day.

Ronn Matlock - Love City (Cotilion - 1979)

2010-08-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Ronn Matlock - Love City

The guys at Rhino made a really nice work for this 2007 CD reedition. The liner notes, signed by Charles Waring from MOJO, are really complete and make you learn anything about the genese of Love City. Ronn Matlock was already a seasoned Detroit songwriter for the Motown or Invictus imprints when he got signed on Atlantic subsidiary, Cotilion via his long time songwriting partner Michael Stokes’ production company, Skytower Music. The recording process of Love City was not really long. Ronn Matlock started writing songs in 1978, hired his top notch studio musicians pals (Funk Brother Eddie Willis on guitar, Johnny Allen on strings arrangements, Michael Stokes on piano) and Love City was ready to rumble in 1979. It unfortunately flopped on the charts, Ronn Matlock regreting a lack of label support and a bad single choice, the average disco stomper Let Me Dance. The strongest points of Love City, what make of this album a rare groove connoisseurs all time favorite, are indeed the mid tempo tracks, especially I Can’t Forget You. I Can’t Forget About You sounds, with Ronn Matlock baritone voice, like a very good Barry White song not sung by Barry White and is absolutely outstanding with other cuts like Take Me To The Top (Of Your Mountain) and You Got The Best Of Me . Uplifting and inspiring, Love City deserves plainly its classic status.

Kay-Dee Records - Volume 2 (Kay-Dee Records - 2008)

2010-08-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

Kay-Dee Records - Volume 2

When Kenny Dope and Keb Darge associates to create a rare groove label you obtain one hell of a label, Kay-Dee. Kay-Dee is mostly specialized in vinyl reedition of Kenny and Keb soul and deep-funk obscure favorites but it also released two excellent compilations of their gems for the (relatively) not initiated, Kay-Dee Records Volume 1 & 2. On Volume 2, all the songs have been mixed, edited or remixed from the original master tapes by master Kenny himself and except a Kashmere Stage Band song already resurrected by Now Again, are rather rare and sure killers. The master at work mixed the compilation as well.

Gwen Guthrie - Padlock (Garage Records - 1983)

2010-08-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

Gwen Guthrie - Padlock

I’m back from well deserved summer vacations with the satisfaction to see that more and more good music lovers are visiting this blog. This is a personal satisfaction and gives me the energy necessary to continue posting. So today I exhumed this wonderful Gwen Guthrie 12”EP, Padlock, recently reedited in CD. I made a post a few month ago about the fantastic Strut compilation, Funky Nassau, that shedded light on the music produced at the end of the 70’s and the beginning of the 80’s at Compass Point studios in the Bahamas. Padlock was recorded over there combining the magic touch of reggae moguls Sly & Robbie with the voice of soul diva Gwen Guthrie, all of them feeling in a disco mood. It was then released on the Paradise Garage own label, Garage Records, and mixed by Larry Levan himself, anouncing the house and garage revolution to come. Surprisingly, the album that was supposed to follow the release of the EP, called Portrait, never enjoyed much success.

The Orchestra And Chorus Of Henry Mancini - Dear Heart And Other Songs About Love (RCA - 1964)

2010-07-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

The Orchestra And Chorus Of Henry Mancini - Dear Heart And Other Songs About Love

If you don't like choirs and easy-listening, pass this one. Dear Heart And Other Songs About Love is devoted to choral arrangements conducted by the master Henry Mancini. You'll find of course soundtracks cuts (Dear Heart, Soldier In The Rain, Man's Favorite Sport), a show theme (How Soon), a vocal version of Mr Lucky and a couple of covers (The Girl From Ipanema, Can't Buy Me Love). Designed for early 60's suburban interiors, you'll hardly find any break or anything psyche in it but it will nonetheless make your newborn sleep in no time.

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Greatest Hits (Columbia - 1967)

2010-07-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

Paul Revere & The Raiders - Greatest Hits

Paul Revere & The Raiders were The Black Lips of the 60's: a band of clowns playing a perfect garage rock'n'roll that took no prisonners. The band, headed by Paul Revere (which was his real name and became later the name of a Beastie Boys song) and Mark Lindsay, liked its shit raw even if they were TV Shows regulars. Mark Lindsay voice sounded definitely punk while the band played well crafted songs with an unmatched and inflammatory spontaneity. This Greatest Hits album serves them very well: 11 songs, 4 bonus tracks and 40 minutes of unmatched rock'n'roll that never slows down.

Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons - My Eyes Adored You & Other Hits (Flashback - 2001)

2010-07-17T04:04:00.000-07:00

Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons - My Eyes Adored You & Other Hits

If you read Frankie Valli bio, you might get scared at first. Born Francis Stephen Castelluccio in New Jersey, Frankie Valli was the frontman of the 4 Seasons, a pop band he created with three other Jersey italo-americans, Tommy De Vito, Nick Massi and Bob Gaudio. But believe me or not, those guys and especially Frankie Valli are not mob affiliated wannabe Frank Sinatra for your grandma for three reasons. Frankie Valli & The 4 Seasons benefited at first of Bob Gaudio and producer Bob Crewe brilliant songwriting habilities. The pair knew well how to craft a blue eyed soul song and use big ass production techniques. Secondly, those guys could sing anything and didn't sound corny, form tear jerking ballads (My Eyes Adored You) to disco (Decembre, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) covered and burned out by cheesy French disco singer Claude François). At least, Frankie Valli acting career lead him to play Rusty Millio in, what else, The Sopranos. And that itself deserves the uppermost respect.

Rolf Kühn - More, More, More & More - The Artist's Selection (MPS/Universal - 2008)

2010-07-14T06:41:00.000-07:00

Rolf Kühn - More, More, More & More - The Artist's Selection

German clarinestist, Rolf Kühn was a big band musician before rolling solo. He supervised himself More, More, More & More, a selection of what he considers his best extracts from the 6 albums he realeased for MPS in the 70's. If his music sometimes goes into an abrupt free jazz dimension, especially his early 70's pieces, it then incorporated soundtracks and funky influences. This is especially the case on 1979 Symphonic Swampfire and 1980 Cucu Ear. The best track is La Canal, which sounds like a mix up of Isaac Hayes and François de Roubaix.

Bohannon - Disco Stomp b/w East Coast Groove (Brunswick - 1975)

2010-07-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Bohannon - Disco Stomp b/w East Coast Groove

Session player for Motown, Hamilton Bohannon didn'it follow the label to Detroit, signed to Brunswick but enjoyed only limited solo success. I never understood why. East Coast Groove and Disco Stomp are two hypnotic scorchers based mainly on the bassline, a big disco beat and a funky guitar riff. No lame lyrics or cheesy orchestration on that 7" but only raw funky rythm.

Psychedelia At Abbey Road - 1965-1969 (EMI - 1998)

2010-07-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Psychedelia At Abbey Road - 1965-1969

This excellent compilation gathers 22 rare psyche gems all recorded at Abbey Road studios between 1965 and 1969. If you can find some usual suspects (Donovan, Pretty Things, Syd Barrett), I must admit I didn't know the majority of the bands featured, from The N'Betweens to The Koobas passing by The Mandrake Paddle Steamer. For a compilation released by a major, this one is really well documented, complete and very good. Break diggers will even find interesting things to sample, especially the soul infused 10.000 Years Behind My Mind by Focus 3, 10.000 Words In A Cardboard Box by Aquarian Age or the brilliant horns that take Mr Armegeddon of Locomotive into an unexpected stratospheric direction.

Barry 7's Connectors 2 - 17 Rare Italian Library Tracks (Lo Recordings - 2002)

2010-07-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

Barry 7's Connectors 2

ADD N To (X) was a bad ass electro band created by Ann Shenton et Barry Smith aka Barry 7. Barry found time to release 2 compilations of library music. Here is the volume 2. Don't believe that because it is library music, you'll find second hand material. We are here talking of songs composed by the like of Giuseppe De Luca or Ennio Morricone. Eerie choruses, melodies and instrumentation inspired by classical music, electronical experimentations, funky psyche breaks: all your favorite Italian soundtracks ingredients are gathered for the best.

Mato - Hip Hop Reggae Series Vol 2 (Stix - 2010)

2010-06-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

Mato - Hip Hop Reggae Series Vol 2

The second instalment in the mixtape serie Hip Hop Reggae is due to producer Mato. The principles are the same, blending hip hop acapella classics on fresh reggae riddims, often interpolating the original theme. Not as good as the first volume of the serie, the reggae treatment of originals by The Fugees, The Beastie Boys The Pharcyde, Warren G or Michael Jackson is still very enjoyable. Even if you don't like mash-ups, you'll love those ones.

Heatwave - Too Hot To Handle (Epic - 1976)

2010-06-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

Heatwave - Too Hot To Handle

What's the difference between British disco funk and American disco funk? If you listen to Heatwave, they ain't any. Maybe because Heatwave was a multicultural combo (4 American guys, one Brit, one Czech, one Spanish) and they all spoke fluently the funk language.Too Hot To Handle, their first album, grooves from the begining to the end and never sounds corny or near anything cheesy. The harp intro, the strings and chorus on Boogie Nights are by example closer to jazz than to a suburbian hotel nightclub. It is just the perfect kind of album you can listen to very loud while driving your car all glasses opened and still don't look like a perfect idiot.

New Order - Movement (Factory - 1981)

2010-06-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

New Order - Movement

I just watched French filmmaker Olivier Assayas fantastic film about 70's left wing terrorist Carlos and it made realised that New Order signed with Dreams Never End, largely used in the film, one of the best guitar and bass lines played crescendo as introduction to rock'n'roll song. I write that being not that much a big New Order fan. I definitely respect their legacy, the way they reinvented themselves and pop music after Joy Division, their open minded ears, what they brought to clubland with the Haçienda, all what made their legend. But I don't particularly find their albums that good from the start to the end. Movement is no exception. In fact the music and Martin Hannett production are innovative and annouce the best of the 10 years to come. But I find Peter Hook voice is a bit embarrasing. OK, it is a cold wave album, it's not that important but the guy actually can't sing!!!

Rose Royce - Car Wash b/w Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (MCA - 1976)

2010-06-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

A/ Car Wash

B/ Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

I just found this original 7" at a yard sale and I couldn't resist to post it, even if the vinyl cracks a little bit. Produced by Norman Whitfield, Car Wash and Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is are both classics for one damn good reason: they have that raw funky groove. that make you smile anyway, anytime. I never saw the movie Car Wash and I don't know if the trailer really makes me want to try the adventure.

Black Man's Cry - The Inspiration Of Fela Kuti (Now Again - 2009)

2010-06-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

Black Man's Cry - The Inspiration Of Fela Kuti

The best record label around, Now Again + a compilation realised by Egon about Fela's influence over other musicians all around the globe + scorching funky afrobeat obscurities from Colombia to Trinidad, from Germany to Ghana = a must have.