My state of mind...

Tonight I'll be boarding a red-eye flight heading to New York City once again.  I've been going quite often and I like its presence in my life.  It's more than a CompuRhythm-78, a sampler, synth and a delay can encapsulate...but Deekay Jones' use of those tools does conjure up some suitable statement about the city, especially what it might have been like in 1983.  Pulse of New York was an incredibly well rounded comp that showed the few people that got this disc what New York new music was all about.  There's also a track from Xex and some foreshadowing of early Jamie Lidell by a band called Bronx Irish Catholics...maybe I'll post more from this later.  Right now, I've got to start packing for my weekend.  Wish me a good weekend and if you long for where I am just think of this track.

Deekay Jones - New York New York

ps- After some research I think the "New York" sample was from the first Last Poets album from a track of the same name.   The 1970 release precedes the crappy Billy Joel song New York State of Mind which came to mind for me.  The entire sample has way more depth and weight than I had allowed it to have before: "New York is a state of mind that doesn't mind fucking with a brother..."  So maybe this track can also be for the anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream speech", noting we have made some progress.

Party Disco

I love tracks that have a party going on in them. I love to try to listen really closely to hear what is going on. This funky soulful disco jam was produced by Jerry Weaver for Parachute Records in 1978. Parachute was a subsidiary of Casablanca. Weaver went on to produce some tracks for Janet Jackson. The Most Requested Rhythm Band centered around pianist Nat Dove. They produced the 12" featured here in 1977. The flip has Marvin Gaye's Got To Give It Up in much the same style. We Got The Funk is a masterpiece of a party anthem.

7th Wonder - My Love Ain't Never Been This Strong
The Most Requested Rhythm Band - Brick House
Positive Force - We Got The Funk
Central Line - Walking Into Sunshine

BEAT ELECTRIC / DECO LOUNGE SF

Ahh, the self righteous blokes over at Beat Electric, always up on their collective high horse. They provide you with some decent music, free dance parties, etc... blah, blah, blah. In a world where everybody wants something for nothing, we bring you just that. Course there is always a hitch. We ask for one little thing, you drag your ass out of the house and get down with us tonite.

Deco Lounge/ 510 Larkin Street/ SF/ 10pm - 4am/ Free/ FREE !!

In order to not let this post look entirely like shameless self promotional spam (which it basically is), Here is a Patrick Adam's produced electro track from the vaults of Prelude Records to tide you over until you hear the real shit tonite. 

The Tribe - Jungle Rock

Do You Like The Way That It Feels? (12" version)

A well known and highly sought after 12" promo single, this partnership of Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore produced what I think is the biggest dancefloor smasher from either great man.

Much loved by the old school Chicago fraternity, 'Do You Like The Way That It feels' rises above the rest of the efforts of the Tempest Trio project, trading camp for hard edged sass. Powerful and sparse four to the floor drum production combined with abstract yet hooky synth lines, soulful vocal and strong arrangement make this near perfect.

Enjoy in it's full 7:42 extended glory

Tempest Trio - Do You Like The Way That It Feels (12" version)

Mainline To My Love

Some tracks are so good that you have to have more than just one copy. Black Ivory were actually around for a while. They formed as the Mellow Souls in 1969 and were managed by Patrick Adams. They soon picked up Leroy Burgess and changed their name to the ominous sounding Black Ivory. The put out the hit LP Don't Turn Around out on Perception Records in 1971. They put out a couple more LP's in the mid '70 before Leroy Burgess left to work on a myriad of other projects. Burgess came back to pen and arrange the incredible track Mainline with the help of Patrick Adams. Mainline has such a stomp and is so nicely produced it belongs on every dance floor. It is a very funky and soulful track for 1979.

mp3: Black Ivory - Mainline
mp3: Black Ivory - Dance

Tick/Tock

From 1981 comes the fresh debut "Time" from 6 piece, Stone. With its ultra heavy bassline, funky synth stabs and clavinet hits, these guys fit in rather well with the sound contemporaries like The Strikers were helping to pave in the New York City black club scene. Featured here is the instrumental B side of a 12" promo copy on the mighty West End label. Providing the final touch is legendary Better Days club DJ and mix master Tee Scott.

Stone - Time (Instrumental)

Eat a Cold Wind-Madness, Soulja Boy!

A couple days ago Soulja Boy (along with his two cronies as a backdrop) stated on his YouTube feed he is making money with every view videos on his page get as well as each comment posted to them. It's a strange change in the music industry when you include viral video counts, particularly when it's hip hop stars airing their beef, into music revenue (and then including YouTube and Google in there too is worth pondering, especially when this very blog is hosted through Google).

All this is enough to make musicians who have been playing the game for awhile a bit bitter. When I view Soulja Boy's retorts to Ice-T's recent claim that Soulja Boy has killed hip hop I have more empathy with Ice-T, but some of Ice-T's rant is a bit excessive too (even more immoderate when I consider his buxom wife CoCo...sorry for my TMZ-ness).

In any case, Ice-T still has more cred and I respect that he spoke out against the ultra- commercialization of Soulja Boy's Superman, a song which sold more ringtones than real copies. Ice-T speaks truth that there are dangers in hip hop but it's nothing that new.

Even though the rap on this track is as vapid as some of the aforementioned YouTube videos it is real old school hip hop which embodied the term "fresh" more than ever. We sussed that the drums are a Simmons Kit and not programmed which is kind of neat. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, from my homestate of Minnesota, produced this jam. First on Saturn Records in 1983, I have the release that came bout three years later on JDC/Housejam featuring the same picture of Ice T that's on my Body Rock 12" on a different label, him rocking some crazy bondage gear.

Ice T - Cold Wind-Madness
Ice T - The Coldest Rap

Got Juice?

The identical twins Taharqa and Tunde Ra Aleem started putting out records as Aleem in 1979. They were in rock groups in the early 70's, including The Ghetto Fighters. The Aleem twins shared an apartment with Jimi Hendrix and played in his band The Cry of Love. In the Aleem period hey worked with Leroy Burgess on most of their tracks. This 1984 early house track is some of their best work. This track features Leroy Burgess on the vocal and is very similar to their hit electro track Release Yourself.

mp3: Aleem - Get Loose (Dub)

Carrots and Beets

I have always enjoyed both carrots and beets, especially when they are pureed together into a tasty beverage. It makes for a fine elixir the morning after a long evening out on the town drinking and drugging oneself. Blended into this excellent track by one-off studio project Electra, somehow it all seems to make a fine lyrical cohesion. Tara Butler's sultry vocals elicit one to not only eat their fruits and vegetables, she also manages to encourage you to jog, bend, stretch and do a few push ups. "Feels Good" in my opinion is the italo-boogie workout anthem of 1982. If Richard Simmons were a touch more savvy, he most certainly would have had this cut be the theme song to a "Sweating To The Oldies" workout tape. Silly lyrics written by nerdy Italian producers aside, this sought after gem was a groundbreaking track much in the vein of Chemise's "She Can't Love You".

Electra (Featuring Tara Butler) - Feels Good (Carrots and Beets)

ElectricJuice - Live Set

As promised, my 3 hour and 15 minute set after a long stint away from BeatElectric.
This aired live on 90hz.org on July 7th as part of DJ Jeno's exceptional weekly broadcast Noise From The Void.
You can access a wealth of amazing archives here, Noise From The Void: Archives.
Tune in every Tuesday night for the best music from one of the legends of the dance music scene.
I hope you all enjoy this and go find the many, many more gems on the archive page.
For the playlist, head to the comments section. It's the first one posted.

ElectricJuice - Kelley B - Live on Noise From The Void

Robotism

Robotism is taken from German group Empire's ironically titled album 'First Album', ironic of course because it could also of legitimately been called 'Last Album'. Akin to a DoDo egg omelet or perhaps even rocking horse shit this one really does not turn up much, although someone recently tried to deflate my enamour for the album by stating there is somewhere in this universe a CD re release from a decade or so ago. Whatever, I haven't seen that around either. Its a great example of German disco rock, but with a more cosmic edge than it's peers at the time in 1980. Robotism stands apart from the other album tracks in that it is both instrumental and distinctly early italo in it's influence.

Empire - Robotism