Sunday, April 29, 2012

Waiting On My Angel (ZYX)  


  I think I first started taking an interest in Chicago house after hearing Jamie Principle's Waiting On My Angel on a weird rare groove mixtape in the late nineties, I don't think I had paid house in general much attention until then, I was too busy falling into the deep funk 45 black hole, or latin, or bossa nova, whatever the vogue was. I went looking for the record, couldn't find it, and so bought the original pressing on Persona via mail order, the first classic house record I ever bought. Only problem was the mix on the record sounded nothing like the version on the cassette tape I had, it didn't even compare, the sound was muddy, the arrangement didn't work, and the mix was convoluted and super busy compared to slicker, synth heavy production on the mixtape. It was a drag, as I was in college with no money and I could have spent that chunk of my student loan on a blacksploitation soudtrack lp.

 A few years later I heard that same version from the mixtape again, and found out that it was a German 1985 pressing on the ever inconsistent ZYX, remixed by their in house wizard Bob Heckmann. Anyhow, long super boring story short, I then went out and found the ZYX mix, another decade went by, and I posted it on my blog..

 

Posted by Black Shag | 3 comments

Monday, April 23, 2012

More Patrick Adams  

Time to keep chipping away at the Patrick Adams discography with this 1977 gem. This track features his classic Arp 2600 patch and some dubbed out production. For the sound quality nerds, this is recorded from an original 1977 copy not one of the similar looking recent represses. There is a bit of tape noise particularly during the breakdown probably due to the open extended remixing. This track was also sampled/replayed by the Sunburst Band with their song "Everyday".

Marta Acuna - Dance, Dance, Dance (Disco Version)

Posted by Dogtones | 5 comments

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sweepin' Off  


My brain was heavily serotonin deficient from desert parties and what not but I finally mustered the energy to share some tracks. First off is an Italo boogie track from 1983 by High Resolution! As usual the vocals leave more to be desired but the bass line is fresh! This was composed by Paolo del Prete and Marco Fatali and was released on SPQR.

High Resolution-Sweepin' Off
Next up are my two favorite tracks from Glenn Jones' 1984 LP called "Finesse" which came out on RCA Records. Both tracks have pretty dreamy synthesizers and Glenn's voice is spot on. Let me know how the tracks sound, I just got my vinyl ripping R2D2 working.

Glenn Jones-It Hurts Too Much
Glenn Jones-Finesse

Posted by Cosmic Champagne | 6 comments

Labels: , , , ,

Sunday, April 15, 2012

100%  


I always thought we must have posted this years ago, but doing a search it looks like we never have, so in an effort to right this minor injustice I'm going to put up both sides of Caprice's overlooked dollar bin classic, 100%.

There isn't much to say about this one, if you look at the credits its an all star cast, Leroy Burgess, the Aleems, Leroy's cousin Sonny Davenport. The only real question that remains is who is the vocalist? If she got a credit I can't see it on the label, I know the same vocalist sang as Caprice on a couple of other indie Chicago area releases, also produced by Leroy and the Aleems, but her identity is still shrouded in mystery.

Caprice - 100% (Vocal)
Caprice - 100% (Instrumental)

Posted by Black Shag | 2 comments

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Pretty Face  


The Beat Electric crew has been deep in the world of Carmen as of late. After a series of record release parties in SF, LA and Costa Mesa in March, it feels like it's about time to wind things down a bit and start thinking about what our next 12" reissue will be.

In the meantime here's one more track produced by Kevin McCord. This smooth jam from 1987 is probably his rarest release alongside the killer Snooky cut that folks are paying ridiculous amounts of money for these days.

Also check out Carmen's full length debut album right here.

Stinger J. - Pretty Face (45 Version)
Stinger J. - Pretty Face (12" Version)
Stinger J. - Pretty Face (Instrumental)

Posted by Magnum | 3 comments

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Hypnotic Samba  


Ralph Hennings was a German synth pop producer, heavily involved in the ZYX label from around 1983 to 1987, having a hand in a lot of their output. His 1984 solo project, Hypnotic Samba may be a little on the hard 4/4 side for many, but I don't post much Italo and this one disappeared off of the internet a while ago due to people's media share site links expiring or being taken down, old italo blogs disappearing etc, so by request I found my copy and here it is yet again:

Hypnotic Samba - Hypnotic Samba

Posted by Black Shag | 3 comments