Nude Photo

Being the founder of a genre has to be an incredible feeling. Instead of copying Chicago House, or New York Garage jams, Derrick May, along with Kevin Saunderson, and Juan Atkins created a fresh electronic music sound in Detroit. The sounds of early techno are incredibly interesting even to this day. Techno is an exploration of sound and form. It meanders around and displays different patterns and variations of timbre instead of opting for the standard song structure found in house music. As we all know, the British (thanks Black Shag) turned techno into a 160bpm shit sandwich in the 90's. The Germans and a few Americans have rescued and modernized it in the recent decade.

This cut came out on Derrick May's Transmat Records in 1987. It was his first production and my favorite. It was edited by Juan Atkins.

Rythim Is Rythim - Nude Photo "Rythim Mix"

Let Me Groove It To Your Heartbeat

Along with my new east coast digging partner Frantz, we found multiple sealed copies of the lone Glass 12" on West End stacked up next to a few promo copies of Groove It To Your Body by Michael Wilson on a busy Brooklyn street corner. The seller owned a record store during the boogie era and was clearing out the overstock that was still chilling in his basement. Fortunately for our sakes he didn't know the value of what he was sitting on and we paid next to nothing for a bunch of gems.

Both of these tracks were written by Michael Wilson. The more superior (but less rare) Glass 12" is one of my all time favorite Larry Levan productions, just a perfect track through and through.

Glass - Let Me Feel Your Heartbeat
Glass - Let Me Feel Your Heartbeat (Instrumental)
Michael Wilson - Groove It To Your Body (Instrumental)

Time to Party

I am playing in Oakland tomorrow night For Tha Funk Of It, come out if you are in the area. Maybe we can do a sideshow in my Jetta afterward.

Here are a couple of mid-week dance floor bangers for you. The first track by Gary L. was featureed in Black Shag's epic Chicago House post that has been taken down because at least 40 music blogs had to move to a middle eastern contemporary jazz folk format out of fear of getting clowned again. Gary L. aka Gary Little, put out a few records in the late 80's to mid 90's. This one came outon Sensations Records out of Newark NJ in around 1987. This mix was done by the kings of Garage house: Timmy Regisford and Boyd Jarvis.

This next one is a funky house bootleg based on a 1979 track, I Zimbra by the Talking Heads. This cut came out on came out on Di Sisco Recordings sometime between then and now.

Gary L. - Time (Time To Party) (Timmy Regisford and Boyd Jarvis Mix)
Unknown Artist - Zimbra

Should Have Known Better

The best thing about NYC is the many record stores, flea markets and (apparently) street corners packed with heat. Thanks to my east coast journey I am flush with new BE material for some time to come. I am still waiting for UPS to show up with the bulk of what I found but I managed to sneak a few records in my bag. You Should Have Known Better by T.C. Curtis aka William Alexander Smith is one of them.

I posted T.C.'s first record Body Shake a few months back in my Quality/RFC post. he went on to record and produce a number of 12"s on his own Hot Melt imprint, You Should Have Known Better being my personal favorite. T.C. got into the house game in the late 80's, before winding the Hot Melt label down in 1990.

T.C. Curtis - You Should Have Known Better
T.C. Curtis - You SHould Have Known Better (Dub Mix)

Set Me Free Tonight

It feels like summer is finally here. In California we had a pretty wet spring and now that it has dried out I am fiending for a matinee disco party in the sun. Beat Electric has a mobile system, lazers, and fog, make it happen!

This slammin' cosmic disco track by Danny Darrow was self produced and came out on Mighty records out of NYC in 1979. That is about all of the info that I have. I enjoy the janky live mix sounding production with all of its lack of compression and even the hot spots; you can really tell that this long version is just a tape edit. Sorry the beginning of this record has a weird sound, my record is a bit of warped.

Danny Darrow - Telephones

People Hold On

I feel bad about this one, as all my investigations into Earl Flint came up with nothing, dead ends, just a facebook profile for an gentleman around the right age, with the same name, living in the US somewhere, with a very aging soul brother look about him. Maybe its him, but he didn't respond to my friend request, so who knows. Either way, I know nothing about Earl Flint, and in typical BeatElectric journalistic fashion I was just going to make something up, but a Sunday spent drinking in the sunshine has sapped the imagination out of me and I can't think up a suitable web of lies to fabricate regarding the record's background, nothing good anyway..eh.. Earl Flint is from space, he landed in my yard and gifted this, the only known minty copy of People Hold On, upon me. Everyone else who claims to have a copy is a liar. No?

The production on this one is class through and through, dating from 1984 on CBS records, it has a short rap refrain on the vocal, as was standard it seems that year, but the electro funk mid temp instrumental is tastefully done:

Earl Flint - People Hold On

Earl Flint - People Hold On (Instrumental)

Move And Shake Your Body

So I am in New York City for the week. Black Shag and I DJ'd in Montreal last weekend to a very enthusiastic crowd and our biggest observation about Canadians was their overall laid back attitudes and lack of pretension. In general American scenesters just seem to be a bit too jaded. That said, from what I am told New Yorkers are the most unpretentious, accepting group of people on the planet and I look forward to seeing them prove it. Tonite I DJ in Brooklyn for the east coast debut of SF's Donuts party and in honor of the occasion I am posting one of my deepest boogie cuts from Castro Valley, California, just south of Oakland.

Squirmin Herman put out two 12 inch singles on their own To The Top Productions label. I have them both but the second and more rare Move and Shake your Body is the superior release. Move and Shake is from 1988, a late period boogie number with some modern elements but I imagine it might have sounded a bit dated upon its release. Either way, its a heavy record. This is one of my secret weapons and I am sharing it with you because that's how we roll in a post modern un-jaded America.

Squirmin Herman - Move And Shake Your Body (Club Version)
Squirmin Herman - Move And Shake Your Body (Instrumental)

More Preludes...

My recording rig, nice turntable, phono pre and other toys, are all distributed across the floor whilst I re-decorate the lab, and as such I can't rip any vinyl. But then vinyl isn't the only rippable substance on the face the planet, you can also rip CD's...wait.. hey .. don't judge me, there are such things as rare, super deep CD's you know. The prices of CD's can exceed their vinyl counterparts and the markets are subject to the same rules and forces, especially now they are gradually going out of print. Anyway, I don't have to justify myself, I'm putting up a rip from a CD.

In the late eighties and early nineties, between 1989 and 1994 I think, Prelude gradually had it's back catalogue re-released on vinyl reissue, at the same time the 12" singles were remastered and put on CD compilations direct from the original master tapes. These are now a little pricey and hard to find, but there is a store in SF that had a bunch of these deadstock that I picked up still in shrink wrap. They sound great, although are not fully normalized so there is a couple of db headroom on these (such were the civilized standards of the time). Some hard to find numbers here, including the much haggled for Groove It To Your Body by Michael Wilson:

Michael Wilson - Groove It To Your Body

Warp 9 - Light Years Away
One Two Three - Another Knife In My Back
Conquest - Give It To Me (If You Don't Mind)
France Joli - Gonna Get Over You
D-Train - Music
Center Stage - Never
Wardell Piper - Nobody (Can Take You From Me)
Visual - The Music Got Me
Unlimited Touch - Yes I'm Ready (Edited)

Micro in the House

This is an interesting self produced house record from 1989 on Diamond records. It was cut in the times of acid and jack house but sounds more like gentleman's techno. Three of the four tracks on this EP have a similar sound with one acid track to close. Lil Louis owned a club in Chicago club in the late 70's and was famous for his tape edits. He collaborated with Marshall Jefferson through the 80's. He even cut two records for Epic.

Lil Louis - French Kiss

Fast Money

The one and only Roy Ayers obviously needs little introduction, but his indie Uno Melodic label still holds a bit of mystique as it was formed in the early 80's as a juxtaposition with his more pop oriented releases on Polydor and Columbia. Released in 1982, Fast Money was Ayers vibraphone laced stab at the boogie-funk sound and a successful one at that. All told the Uno Melodic label put out a handful of recordings, many of them essential. Most certainly we will cover a few more releases down the line.

So anyways Black Shag and I are pulling an all-niter before we catch a very early flight to Montreal to spin some records for the Luxe party at Velvet. Montreal friends, we hope to see you tonite in a haze of sleazy funk and sleep deprivation.

Roy Ayers - Fast Money