BEAT ELECTRIC

The Dark Side

2012-01-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of cool cuts from 1984. 1984 was an interesting year for music. The boogie greatness of 1982 was fizzling out, electro was king, and house was just getting started. These tracks highlight where genres converged and coalesced into some strange hybrids.

This first track by Zero Hour shows a lot of electro influence and can easily pass as a theme song for the oft overlooked comedy masterpiece Fletch Lives. Seems like it could have been produced by Herbie Hancock or Jan Hammer with a little help from Egyptian Lover.

The next track by Leon Love is an odd bird produced by proto house legend Patrick Adams with Ron Mindseed. It sounds a bit like electro coming dangerously close to Hi-NRG territory. Almost too close; but us in the Bay Area have a very low threshold for it.

Zero Hour - The Dark Side (Dub)
Leon Love - Once Is Enough (Dub)

Firefly

2012-01-29T13:56:00.000-08:00

We've covered Maurizio Sangineto's productions before on this site. Firefly was a dance music group composed of fellow Italians and released four LPs during their career. This track was a big tune at the Garage. The uplifting vocals get me every time. I also really like the brave use of some dynamic range in this 12" mix. It is rare to hear jams like this with such an impact when the beat comes in after the breakdown.

Firefly - Love (Is Gonna Be On Your Side)

Handsome Man

2012-01-26T23:37:00.000-08:00

Carol Shinnette put records out on Oakland's 'Optune' label. Don't ever call the 415 number printed on the front of her 7" sleeves, as the gentleman on the other end of the line will threaten to kill you. This B.E have learned the hard way.

Although the record is claiming our hometown, it turns out it was actually produced in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where Carol still resides to this day.

Carol Shinnette - Handsome Man

She's A Party Girl

2012-01-16T18:29:00.000-08:00

A younger and hipper DJ friend whose taste I admire bought a bunch of records and played me a couple from his haul that he thought I would like. One was a weird, left field, boogie proto rap type edit by a producer that he was into. I recognized it, and took smug, nauseating, sad dickhead like pleasure in telling him that I owned a copy of the original record that the edit was sourced from, but for the life of me couldn't remember what it was called, so I asked him to tell me the name and artist of the track but he couldn't, because whomever had done the edit had stuck his own name all over it and obscured that of the original artist. We then had an animated discussion as to the ethics of this sort of thing. I own plenty of bootlegs, and sometimes you simply can't find the original artists behind some of these more obscure records but none the less they deserve a repress for more people to play out and enjoy, there isn't much money in these short vinyl runs anyway, but can you really take the original artist's name off the track (I think it was obscured down to a two letter initial in this case) and stick yours on simply because you extended the drum intro? Perhaps the guy didn't want anyone to know the OG cut's name but why the secrecy? I see it a lot, it just seems like an exploitative way to prop up your own brand. I mean, you don't have to pay the guy who made the song that you looped up, but at least leave his name on there alongside yours.

Anyway, I went through my shelves and found it. Terrance Tee seems to have produced a couple of known early rap and boogie 45's that I have seen in auction lots etc, but this 12" doesn't seem to be listed anywhere. It came out on 'New York Town Records' and was written by Terrance Moore (no doubt Terrance Tee himself) and produced by T. Marcini. I cannot find anything on either of these people.

My copy is signed in scribbled pen "To Terri, From the M.C, Terrance Tee" . Terri, wherever you are, thank you for getting rid of this weird, weird record.

Terrance Tee - She's A Party Girl (Vocal)
Terrance Tee - She's A Party Girl (Instrumental)

I Wanna Feel Your Love

2012-01-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a great disco boogie jam produced in part by drummer Howard King. He was a member of Mtume's band and also contributed to some great LPs from Gary Bartz, D-Train, Eddie Henderson, and Stephanie Mills. This tune has pretty amazing breakdown and is just great soulful dance music start to finish. Definitely a sleeper and a kinda tough pull from the RCA disco 12" catalog.

Candy Bowman - I Wanna Feel Your Love

The Prep

2012-01-03T23:28:00.001-08:00

Here is a late Christmas present. If my theory is true, and this is the only Minnesota disco rap ever recorded, then it also holds true that it is also the best one. To my ear its one of my top 5 disco raps of all time, the 1980 style party delivery with the 1985 era instrumentation make it unique. Sir Nature Alexander was a transplant to Minneapolis from Atlanta and became a well known fixture of the local music entertainment scene, most notably as the city's best breakdance instructor, going on to host his own show on local TV, and also working as a singer and producer on the Minneapolis funk circuit.

Sir Nature has a rare 1986 solo album with more of a contemporary for the time Minneapolis scene sound, but I don't own it sadly. He has been producing records constantly up and to this day, now more in the vein of Southern soul styled r'n'b, you can find Sir Nature Alexander current work here:

http://www.myspace.com/newjackblues

And you can find the first ever(?) rip of his electro masterpiece here:

Nature - The Prep

Candela

2012-01-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

The Bell family from Youngston, Ohio produced three brothers who made immense contributions to the jazz/disco/funk scene in the 70s and 80s. Robert and Ronald Bell formed a group The Jazziacs that eventually became Kool & The Gang. Kevin Bell, also known by his Arabic name Amir Bayyan, formed Kool protege group The Kay Gees. Kevin was a prolific musician and producer, also playing in the group Forecast and producing jams for Armenta, LaToya Jackson, Tomorrow's Edition, and Jimmy Cliff. Here is one of his tight one-off tracks under the name Candela released in 1982 and mastered by Herb Powers Jr.

Candela - Love You Madly (extended version)

Mirage

2011-12-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

So yeah this italo track from 1984 is probably one of the most lyrically confusing songs of all time. The vocalist implores you to "get down" all while scorning the concept of cheating and engaging in threesomes. Seems to be a bit counter intuitive to the whole 80's disco vibe in general, but that aside Get Down is a hot track.

Mirage - Get Down

P-5

2011-12-21T23:39:00.000-08:00

Just as Patrick Adams late 70's disco sound became defined by his Arp 2600 noodlings, pretty much every funk track Leroy Burgess cut in the boogie era had a Prophet 5 solo on it. Sequential Circuits factory patch # 32 to be exact for all you synth nerds out there. And if he really wanted to switch it up maybe he would go for patch # 17 instead. So in effect thanks to Leroy and company the Prophet 5 became the quintessential funk synth machine of the early 80's.

This is the Fantastic Aleems high water mark and it most certainly delivers. I must say I was a little bit surprised when I realized today that after nearly 5 years of doing Beat Electric none of us had ever posted this track until now. Either we have failed you all or it's a sign that we are far from done mining this territory.

The Fantastic Aleems featuring Leroy Burgess - Get Down Friday Nite

The Fantastic Aleems featuring Leroy Burgess - Get Down Friday Nite (Instrumental)

Breakin' In Space

2011-12-17T17:38:00.001-08:00

Could Radar Records do no wrong? Key-Matic's Breakin' In Space was by far the labels biggest 'hit', and the record holds a place in the pantheon of early electro master pieces. It has all the right ingredients, tastefully done vocoder (I'm by no means a vocoder collector/fan/nerd), non lame old school raps about space, dubbed out synths and cosmic overtones.

There are even a few young, future celebrities on this cut. The saxophone was done by Najee, who went on to rival Kenny G for a while as smooth jazz radio sax top dog, and we also have some scratches from Wizard K-Jee, a.k.a Keith Shocklee, future Bomb Squad member and the discoverer of Chuck D.

Here are all the cuts from the record.

Key-Matic – Breakin' In Space (Vocal)
Key-Matic – Breakin' In Space (Instrumental)
Key-Matic – Breakin' In Space (Lunar Beats i)
Key-Matic – Breakin' In Space (Lunar Beats ii)

Rysque' Records

2011-12-12T10:10:00.001-08:00

Like many record collectors it has always been a dream of mine to press something on wax. I have always wanted to contribute to the world of the black crack by putting something in print for anyone to enjoy rather than just repping older hard to find records.
A couple years ago I became good friends with a local collector Tim who during an extended car ride to a record lead told me about his activity playing in several bands growing up in Oakland in the 1980s. After some pestering on my part Tim reluctantly dug up boxes of cassette recordings from this era. I think he was content leaving them as skeletons in the closet but I managed to convince him people still enjoy drum machine soul. Tim got on craigslist and tracked down the same model Tascam Porta-one four track machine we needed to play back the tapes.

Tim played regularly with a band known as Davinity during this time and recorded hours of material from bedroom demos to proper studio tracks. Recording quality is dodgy at times but fortunately they insisted on using only hi bias tapes and generally hit them with a good level. After sharing some of our finds with Sean from Sweater Funk and Andrew at PPU we decided to take the plunge and let some of this see the light of day 20+ years after it was recorded.

So far we have two 45s available featuring our favorite tracks from the Davinity cassette archives. A huge thank you goes to Andrew from PPU who was the inspiration for this project and provided a great deal of help in the process. Peoples Potential is also distributing the records worldwide.

We are very excited to start releasing music for y'all, look for more in the future including a debut from Beat Electric Records in 2012.

download lo-rez samples here
RYSQUE 001 Pierre - Cherri Snow b/w Veronica - So In Love
RYSQUE 003 Tim Tucker - C'Kret b/w Davinity - Fishnets

records available for purchase from EARCAVE (Washington DC), Rush Hour (Europe), and many other fine vendors. or you can email me directly at rysquerecs AT gmail.

Hypnotize with the Dance

2011-12-06T21:50:00.000-08:00

We haven't put up any straight up hardcore disco in a long time so here you go. It is impossible to put these joints on and not want to invite all the foos in the neighborhood over for a dance party; unless you live where I live, then again, OK it's a bad idea altogether. Just convince BT to throw a matinee party at his house in LA and go hang out in his heated pool.

This Mandrill Jam reminds me or a mix between Tempest Trio's Do You Like The Way That It Feels and a song by Imagination. Sorry for the parts where it is clipping near the end, I am trying to dial in my new rig.

This early Tee Scott remix shows his knack for turning a straight forward disco hit into a dance floor classic with long drawn-out breaks with empty quiet backgrounds contrasting the disco anthem choruses.

Mandrill - Dance Of Love
First Choice - Love Thang (Tee Scott Remix)

94114

2011-12-03T16:13:00.001-08:00

Beatelectic is starting to look a little dated, we gave it a revamp a couple of years back, but the fact is it's a blogspot page, and in this day and age thats the equivalent of having your website up on geocities, with animated gifs of grim reaper skulls puking fire and popup ad's for cheap hotel rooms. All the new blogs I go to with the decent new electronic music on look like they were made by a team of trendy engineers with degrees in graphic design, then I come back to beatelectric and we look like shit. In reality I suppose to have had a blog this long hosted by google with direct mp3 links to unlicensed music is somewhat of a miracle, most got taken down due to copyright infringement complaints long ago, but I think its really a testament to the unpopularity of the under the radar dusty commercial failures that we post. And with that in mind, I'm about to post some private press Hi Nrg...

My apartment is on the corner of Castro and Market St in San Francisco, which has been the heart of the gay community here for decades, and as such when I go digging around my local thrift stores and yard sales I come up with endless San Francisco scene high energy and uptempo, euro disco. Not my genres of choice or expertise, but each to their own. A block either side of where I live were the homes of Megatone records, Moby Dick records, Hot Tracks records, some other labels and plenty of record stores specializing in dance music popular in the gay clubs at the time. Now and again, when searching around the 'hood something locally made that's a little outside of the norm shows up.

Sonny Padilla Jr.'s self released 1985 single is marked as coming out on Uno Records, the address of which is a few doors down the street from me, an old apartment complex, and probably the address of Sonny's living room office. It turns out that this record is actually well known and quite sort after on the digging circuit, fetching a couple of hundred bucks in mint condition, due to it's heavy utilization of the vocoder on the A side's It's Your Body, and as a rarity it makes it on to a lot of vocoder nerd's wants list. I actually prefer the instrumental of the B side, 'Talk To Me!', which doesn't appear to be on the internet anywhere.

In the sleeve notes Sonny states that the record was made at The Automatt, a well known studio which is now a parking lot on Fulsom St, the photo in this post was taken from the main room's mixing console. Sonny lived in San Francisco and worked in the music industry throughout his life before passing away in 2007, an obituary to him can be found here:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-11-30/news/17270905_1_memorial-tribute-naras-tv

Sonny Padilla Jr. - It's Your Body!
Sonny Padilla Jr. - It's Your Body! (Instrumental)
Sonny Padilla Jr. - Talk To Me!
Sonny Padilla Jr. - Talk To Me! (Instrumental)

Adult R&B

2011-11-28T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some slow jamz to cure your case of the mondays. This is the type of serious adults only R&B I like to vibe out to. "So Nice" is an album cut from Leroy Hutson's 1979 Unforgettable, unfortunately the rest of the record doesn't live up to the title. Don Blackman's "Heart's Desire" is a rare groove classic and needs no introduction. Bay Area funk artist Marvin Holmes shows us how it is done with a scorching late-period track from 1986. Don't be afraid of the lost years ('86-'89).

Leroy Hutson - So Nice

Don Blackman - Heart's Desire

Marvin Holmes - Feel So Good (instrumental)

Sypher

2011-11-20T00:55:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting my duties for some time now and for that I am remorseful. Fortunately, Joel Brüt has picked up the slack sharing his deep Kenny G cuts with the boogie world. But please don't blame him for posting those questionable white guy jazz noodlings, it's simply not his fault. He is a wine maker in Napa Valley, and that's how they roll up there in wine country.

This Sypher track has some 80's saxophone as well but it doesn't blow me out too hard. The lead synth hook is so fucking legit that this could be a Vertical Horizon track and it would still work for me. Fonda Rae's commanding lead vocals don't hurt either.

Sypher - It's Got To Be Right
Sypher - It's Got To Be Right (Dub Version)

Love Fever

2011-11-17T19:04:00.001-08:00

I have never heard of a female audiophile. I have never met a girl that lusted after shiny knobs and had to have that preamp with a flowchart emblazoned onto the front to it. Knobs, switches, VU meters, equalizers, quadraphonic, and reverse stereo. I often wonder what a stereo would look that was designed by women. Probably much like my current stereo sadly, I am whipped!

Here is a slammin track that was released on Prelude records in 1981.

Gayle Adams - Love Fever (Instrumental)

Kwick

2011-11-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

Kwick was a Memphis based group who released three LPs in the early eighties. The group has a great sound with perfect claps and catchy synth hooks. Their first LP is the easiest to find and has a slightly more disco tinged sound. Their second album To The Point features the killer track "You're The Kind Of Girl I Like" in more of a boogie mode. I finally found a nice (sealed) copy of the record and took the opportunity to rip the two best jams during the squeaky clean first play.

Kwick - You're The Kind Of Girl I Like

Kwick - Nightlife

Caught Your Fever

2011-11-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

I was speaking with some head recently and they brought up the locally sought after bay area 45 Disco Train by Brafa in conversation, which reminded me that there was an even harder to find Brafa 12" out there that someone (thank you whoever you were) a long time ago had ripped for me during my failed efforts to track down James 'Brafa' Bradford. Its called 'Caught Your Fever' and was put out on the same Lovebone Records label as the 45 single. It has a more straight ahead disco funk feel, but is equally indie and dusted. I hadn't seen this around anywhere else, so here it is:

Brafa - Caught Your Fever

Funky And Haunted

2011-10-31T21:55:00.001-07:00

In a couple more years I'm going to have run out of Halloween themed funk records, why did they never release the soundtrack to Bride Of Blackenstein? I would have been good to 2014.

Whodini - The Haunted House Of Rock
Whodini - The Haunted House Of Rock (vocoder version)

Master Funk

2011-10-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

Master Funk Records was an '80s UK dance label founded by electro producer Tony Williams (not to be confused with the American jazz drummer who worked with Miles Davis). This 12" was one of the label's later releases from 1984. Both sides are great, I might actually prefer the B-side which sounds starts off sounding like a Sade instrumental until the deep bass line comes in. For more on Tony Williams check out this interview by Greg Wilson on the excellent Electro Funk Roots website.

Scratch - Keep On Searching For Love
Scratch - Eastern Lady

Runaway

2011-10-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a surprisingly good track from Bobby Orlando that came out on Prelude Records in 1983. It is a good version of that italo sound that he had for a couple of years before going full on HiNRG. Bobby O has an interesting story and I think we have covered him here a couple of times before. Basically, he was an ultra religious homophobe and in the mid to late 80's, he made the gayest music ever and it was pretty-much only listened to by gay men.

One -Two-Three - Runaway

Secret Weapon

2011-10-22T22:56:00.001-07:00

This came out of a dollar bin in Chicago last weekend. I had always heard the weirdly mixed vocal version of Secret Weapon's 'Must Be The Music' of their self titled and only (I think) album, but picked up a 12" with an instrumental mix on the flip when I saw it as the vocal is what always slightly turned me off the original. Result, they replaced the male sung passages with maybe the greatest guitar solo in funk history:

Secret Weapon - Must Be The Music (Instrumental)

Circuit Breaker

2011-10-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Zig Zag appears to be another moniker for then Miami producer and KC & The Sunshine Band member Richard Finch, who producer a few small run electro releases with still active Colorado based r'n'b keyboardist Drusel White way back when. Drusel still plays the Colorado circuit and Rick Finch is fighting a legal rap in Ohio, where he and his wall of platinum records currently reside.

Zig Zag - Circuit Break (Vocal)

Zig Zag - Circuit Breaker (Instrumental)

Gloria Ann Taylor

2011-10-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

I hope you don't mind if I change it up and post something a bit different (less electric) than most of the material here. I think this record should appeal to many of our readers as fans of soul and left field disco.

The release date of the elusive Deep Inside You EP on Selector Sound is unknown, but I think tracks were probably remixes of material recorded much earlier, updated for the disco era. "Love Is A Hurting Thing" was also released on a 7" with the instrumental on the flip (listed as "How Can You Say It"), though this shorter version lacks the disco back beat and loose dub mixing style heard on the 12". It was probably the best pull of my record digging career when I found this last weekend at what Black Shag would call a car boot, and I am glad to share it with you all.

Gloria Ann Taylor - Love Is A Hurting Thing

French Boogie

2011-10-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few french white guy attempts at making boogie cuts circa '82-'85. Thanks to our friend Didier from Paris for the source material.

Flash System - La Fille De La FM
Micky Milan - Quand Tu Danses
Style - Playboy En Detresse
Elegance - Vacances J'oublie Tout
Francois Feldman - Wally Bouile Noire

Philly World Records

2011-09-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

Someone managed to plunder the master tape's of Philadelphia's Philly World Record's Alpha Studios and help themselves to all the choice instrumentals of their uptempo boogie numbers. Much respect, and thank you. You needn't book me for a DJ gig ever again, just play these off your laptop, sway in a gentle yet off balance motion out of time with the music, don't dress well and frown a lot, the experience will be the same as a BlackShag DJ set if not better, as your laptop won't trainwreck and blame it on the way the last DJ balanced the needles..

Kim Covington - All Of My Love (Instrumental)
Hipnotic - Are You Lonely? (Instrumental)
Colorina - Calle Ocho (Meet Me On 8th Street) (Club Mix)
Gypsy Lane - Cold Fire (Instrumental)
Reall Juice - Complicated Situation (Dub)
Brutus - Excitation (Instrumental)
Company B. - Fascinated (Instrumental)
Suzann Riches - Hungry For Your Love (Instrumental)
Russell Dabney - In The Middle Of The Night (Instrumental)
Sir Scott Rock With The Jammal - Learn To Jamm-A-Lott (Instrumental)
Erotic Drum Band - Love Disco Style (Instrumental)
Venus Starr - Ms. Sassy, Frassy, Classy (Instrumental)
Deborah Washington - Nothing But Drums
Lustt - Pillow Talk (Instrumental)
New Experience - Prove It To Me (Instrumental)
Sophie St. Laurent - Sex Appeal (Instrumental)
Joe Freeman - Sneakin' (No Respect) (Instrumental)
The Chestnut Brothers - Sweet Little Rita (Instrumental)
FM Funk - Take Off Your Make-Up (Let Your Hair Down) (Instrumental)
Akasha - Thunder In Your Love (Instrumental)
Allan Harris - You Bring Out The Best In Me (Instrumental)

garage house

2011-09-20T17:22:00.001-07:00

Here is a 1984 house classic in its 1985 special longer remix form. "You Don't Know" was produced by Paul Simpson and still sounds excellent today. As a bonus I'll throw in this garage flavored extended Shep Pettibone mix from Instant Funk.

If you are in the Sacramento area tonight I'll be playing records at The Press Club for a new weekly party, "FFFreak". Come hang out and dance to '80s music!

Serious Intention - You Don't Know (special remix)
Instant Funk - (Just Because) You'll Be Mine (Extended Club Mix)

Masterpiece

2011-09-17T18:01:00.001-07:00

I don't put up much italo, but this came up in a box of US r'n'b and disco recently and despite the rarity of any european pressed italo of note appearing in a dollar bin out in California (doesn't really happen that often), I thought the instrumental of Gazebo's 'Masterpiece' had a dark electro rhythm and a melancholy, wistful sort of feel to it that appeals to me, so I'll throw it on the BE.

Now, for all this instrumental's great qualities, the parts of the arrangement I like are spread sparsely amongst some sort of epic piano and atypical italo cheeseball bits, it comes with the territory. Its well worth listening through all 13 minutes, it gets deep and electro percussion heavy in the last couple but to many a modern DJ's tastes it could perhaps benefit from an edit, I don't have time for that, the producer wrote it this way for a reason and there are only so many hours in the day, so one of you should edit this up, stick it up on your soundcloud with your name all over it and be a hero.

Gazebo - Masterpiece (Instrumental)

We wanna play for all you fooz

2011-09-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a tight disco boogie jam especially for you. Have a great Labor Day weekend if you are one of the few that is employed; otherwise, enjoy vacation and the free tune.

Brief Encounter - We Want To Play

Last Funk

2011-08-28T13:46:00.001-07:00

Bevin Fagan was most well known as the lead singer and producer of one of the UK's biggest reggae acts, Matumbi. Yet in his time he was involved with and influenced by all sorts of music that was going on in South London during the seventies and early eighties, even being part of a prog rock band named 'Stonehenge' even at one point in his youth.

Guardian Angel was a roots reggae project with his wife (or maybe sister) Sylvia Fagan on vocals. They put out a few lovers rock type singles, but if you flip the accompanying album over, the B side is mostly (and oddly) unique sounding funk and disco tracks, of which 'Last Funk' is the most left of center and hard hitting of all.

Through some miracle over the years I have managed to come across two copies of this LP from British reggae collectors who don't rate it as Fagan's best work and are turned off by the funk on the flip. One man's trash as they say. If you want my double hit me up.

Guardian Angel - Last Funk

do you feel like a party

2011-08-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Lee Moore was a disco producer who unfortunately only released a few tunes during his short career. His first and most common track came out on Source Records in 1979. It appears that after his brief relationship with a large label he took matters into his own hands and cut a track on his own LM imprint. This track has a raw feel that is apparent when the guitar comes in too early after a few bars of the loose drum and bass groove. The white noise synth sound used to accent the snare also gives the beat a lot of character.

Lee Moore - Do You Feel Like A Party

will you be the one

2011-08-15T13:43:00.001-07:00

Here is a later era downtempo lazer soul track released by the short lived New York Music Company in 1985. Vocalist Bernice Frazier delivers an outstanding performance here with her first recording. This tune was produced by Mitch Ervin AKA Mitch Race who also had tracks on the legendary 25 West Records. I love the minimal production with 808 drums, Juno 106 bass, and DX-7. Mitch discusses the details of his productions on his youtube page, check it out and drop him a comment if you appreciate his work.

Bernice Frazier - Will You Be The One

Wrap It Up

2011-08-07T20:13:00.001-07:00

Touche was one of the many projects of the Bronx's own Dennis Bell, then a much respected producer and keyboard session musician and now a significant figure in music education on the east coast, especially in the field of jazz piano. He was the studio wizard on a few early hip hop records, working with Doug E Fresh etc, but Wrap It Up and Just Like A Doorknob are probably his biggest solo dancefloor hits.

Wrap It Up has been posted far and wide before, and the vocoded vocals are excellent, but I never saw the instrumental floating around anywhere..so..here it is..

Touche - Wrap It Up (Vocal)

Touche - Wrap It Up (Instrumental)

Cookie

2011-08-02T16:57:00.001-07:00

Here is a great one-off jam from Cookie, who as far as I know only came together to make one 12" on Le Jazz records in 1982. Danny Weiss co-produced the track and also produced for The Players Association. This jam departs from disco and finds him in heavy boogie funk mode.

Cookie - Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover
Cookie - Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover (instrumental)

House Nation

2011-07-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

I spent the day wandering around the Soho district of London and found my way into a couple of record stores including the Soul Jazz Records hub, Sounds of The Universe. They had a deep collection of classic and new vinyl, but alas for obvious reasons I am going wax free on this particular journey overseas. I later walked into another shop and heard a solid classic house compilation from the early 90's playing on the PA and snatched it up. The House Nation comp is probably my first cd purchase in over ten years and in the spirit of my moment of devolution I am posting a few highlights from the disc.

Also check the sidebar for my Paris DJ sets next week. Je veux voir tous vos beaux visages.

Phase II - Reachin'
Rhythim is Rhythim - Strings of Life
The Todd Terry Project - Weekend

Be Mine Tonight

2011-07-16T20:38:00.001-07:00

I don't know why we never posted this before (maybe we did), but here is the classic cut off of The Jammer's first self titled 1982 Salsoul released album. One of the few standout albums of the genre that hits hard from start to finish, you pick just about any track off of that and throw it up on the internet, but Be Mine Tonight has the most recognizable hook of the bunch. Richie Weeks and a prime Shep Pettibone both had a hand in this, with pretty much an all star instrumental lineup provided by Salsoul.

The Jammers - Be Mine Tonight

serge

2011-07-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

Serge Ponsar was a French-born musician who released one LP in 1983 called Back to the Light. His lone full-length belongs on a short list of '80s funk LPs that are solid start to finish. No need to get off the couch after one song to yank the needle off a sleepy slow jam. "Out in the Night" is one of the best tracks on his album and fortunately saw a 12" release cut nice and loud at 45rpm. This tune has a tough bass line and a certain French smoothness that work really well together.

Serge Ponsar - Out in the Night (12")

Punch Your Ticket

2011-07-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you mix a funk band, a freestyle producer, and Miami together. Pretty Tony produced this record in 1983. It has a an proto Miami bass beat mixed with a smorgasbord of sounds and effects; and somehow it works.

Freestyle Express - Freestyle

Split Personality

2011-07-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

Maybe Florida's most prolific R'n'B writer and producer, Eugene Wilde came from a musical family, including still performing favorite Dee Dee Wilde, and had some solo success including an r'n'b chart #1 on Philly World Records in the early 80's. After moving from the limelight for a while and behind the mixing boards, he found himself writing smashes for the Backstreet Boys, Brittany Spears and Victoria Beckham in the early 2000's. Now he is back releasing independent modern soul singles out of Scandanavia.

'Personality' was Eugene's second or third single, coming out in 1984. This is the cleverly titled 'Split' mix, a proto house garagey dub version that came out on the 4th & Broadway issued UK release. A pleasant backdrop for this hot weather.

Eugene Wilde - Personality (Split)

Pretty Boys

2011-06-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here is a raw track from the Bronner Brothers out of Atlanta. These Thriller-posing guys recorded two slick funk LPs then switched to gospel mode before dropping out of the music scene in '87. "Pretty Boys" is from their first 7" released on Neighbor Records in 1983. The track is minimal with no vocal harmony or overdubs, giving it a one-take feel. I dig the hesitant-sounding keyboard player paired with relentless, precarious slap bass riffs. This is an unintentionally perfect groove.

Bronner Brothers - Pretty Boys

Little Mazarati

2011-06-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

Mazarati are known for being an early Minneapolis based Prince produced side project, starring Prince And The Revolution bassist Mark Brown (also known by the bizarre stage name BrownMark). They put out two albums, Mazarati I & II, but are better known for the songs that Prince wrote for them, then took back after hearing the bands demos when he realized the songs had real potential to make some loot.

Amongst the weird and wonderful world of the Prince bootleg collector community, cassette tapes of early Mazarati studio sessions and unreleased material have long been prized. 'Little Mazarati', a mock up of a sort of title track for the band, was never released, and comes from such a traded stolen studio session tape, which then eventually made it onto a Prince Bootleg CD-r compilation in the late 1990's (hence its 128kps, which was standard back then in the olden days of dial up modems and ambient drum'n'bass).

This is some low-fi indie, stripped down boogie funk rock by one of the all time grand masters.

Mazarati - Little Mazarati

Sunday Funk

2011-06-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

The saxophone is very much maligned instrument for good reason. In most instances, it can spread so much smooth cheese that it is difficult to taste the funk. Here are some sax heavy cuts that are pretty palatable for a Sunday afternoon pool party.

Marcus Miller was a session bass player and this cut is off his first record, 1983's Suddenly. There are good funky basslines all over this LP. The cheezy saxophone solo in this track adds a campy element against a backdrop of serious funk. Think of it as a workin' man's hand in a velvet glove.

Kenny G needs no introduction. The university trained accountant and full-time cheezmeister learned his chops by playing along with his Grover Washington Jr. records. His curly head adorned the cover of The Jeff Lorber Fusion's Wizard Island album in 1980 before he got his own record deal at Arista. This track is from Kenny's first record, which was produced by Lorber in 1982. 1982 was a banner year for soul and not even Kenny G could disappoint. This cut has some great sax work tightly intertwined some funky jangly guitar. Lorber lets loose with a janky synth solo to round out the whole package.

Markus Miller - Suddenly
Kenny G - Stop And Go

Tonight

2011-06-20T01:16:00.000-07:00

There are two Steve Harvey's and both have links to funk and R'n'B, there is the American born actor Steve Harvey who used to play a retired funk musician who teaches highschool in downtown Chicago in a short running sitcom back in 1999, and then there is Scottish born musician Steve Harvey who also lives in the US that produced two of the most perfect synth led proto house funk tunes of the early eighties. They make it hard to google one another.

Tonight and Something Special both have a contemporary quality to them, like they could have been produced in Paris yesterday by some up and coming producer on the current house or 'nu-funk' scene. Tonight gets slightly less shine, but I think the dub version of that particular track has one of the most transcendent basslines to come out of the eighties. Steve did a couple of garage house records in the early nineties too, although as for what he has been up to recently I don't know, he is still working in LA somewhere I would imagine.

Steve Harvey - Tonight (dub)

Under My Spell

2011-06-14T02:03:00.000-07:00

Spellbound were an obscure group from Ohio. This track is the b-side to the band's first single released on their own private label Great Records in 1983. Spellbound went on to record a sought after and (as evidenced above) killer looking full length LP on Heat Records in 1985. This is the perfect poolside slow jam for the summer that just won't seem to get hot enough (at least in LA) to kick off proper.

Spellbound - Under My Spell

Welcome to Cosmic YOUniversity

2011-06-05T03:05:00.000-07:00

Spoken word and funk artist Gary Byrd, the 'Professor Of The Rap', wrote the Stevie Wonder produced The Crown in 1982 for Stevie's short lived Wondirection label. The single didn't do much in the US, but reached #6 in the UK charts in 1983, and broke some sort of record for being up until then the longest ever top ten single weighing in at 10 plus minutes long.

Gary's early example of socially conscious rap isn't included on this instrumental side, but you do get some of Stevie Wonder's accompanying verse about 6 minutes in, which will catch the crowd pleasantly by surprise, as the disco funk groove sort of just loops up until then, never seeming to get old.

New Yorkers may know Gary Byrd better today as Imhotep Byrd, the radio talk show host WBLS 107.5

Gary Byrd And The G.B Experience - The Crown (Instrumental)

The Finest Thing I've Ever Seen

2011-06-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

I finally got my recording rig sorted; hopefully these are loud enough for you. Now, if I could just keep my computer from crashing! Here are some early 80's gems. This 1982 D Train cut is a no brainer. No group can put me in a good mood like them. They are so filled with positive energy and they make me want to get up and dance. This dub version is on the flip of the Walk On By 12". This 1983 track by Bobby Nunn is a jam, a warm up or a cool down for sure. Has a lot of garage flavor in a modern soul dish.

D Train - Tryin' To Get Over (Dub)
Bobby Nunn - Do You Look That Good In The Morning?

Let's Have a Break Dance Party

2011-05-28T00:25:00.000-07:00

After laying low for several years following the death of disco, producer Jacques Morali returned in 1984 with Break Dance Party by Break Machine. Like many of his projects (ie. The Village People), they were visually represented by people that didn't actually sing or perform on the recordings. Looking at the dudes above, I can definitively say they had nothing to do with the recording of Break Dance Party. But, I do seriously dig their matching yellow headbands. You might think these guys would do something a bit harder than the almost cheesy italo stylings of this track. That said, I quite like this song and it's a worthy entry to the Beat Electric universe. Jacques Morali died of Aids in 1991 and left behind a huge body of work. He may truly have been ahead of his era by placing the emphasis on image and flash ahead of the productions, but not by much.

Break Machine - Break Dance Party
Break Machine - Break Dance Party (Dub)

Doomsday

2011-05-24T20:46:00.001-07:00

No need to mention why a friend posted up a youtube link to tenured lounge singer Danny Darrow's Doomsday on his facebook wall over this past weekend. Even if yet another apocalypse was anticlimactic as ever, at least it inspired me to dig up this sought after cosmic disco rock single, as well as a couple of the other percussion heavy numbers Danny put out before he went back to singing Sinatra covers and Christmas albums (which are good btw):

Danny Darrow - Doomsday (Extended)
Danny Darrow - Baby Let Your Love Run Free
Danny Darrow - Telephones (Extended)

Acid Trax III

2011-05-23T00:13:00.000-07:00

Trax Records was run by a gangster, the dude was known to have other local label mogul's kneecaps broken, apparently he even rubbed a couple of guys out in his time. Gotta love Chicago. I put in my time there and it's definitely a rough town indeed. Sad as they pressed so many amazing Trax records on shitty recycled vinyl and just about every pressing was pure garbage. Here are two highlights from the Acid Trax Volume 3 compilation released in 1989.

L A - L A's Music
Spanky - Acid Bass

In The Pocket

2011-05-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

I like Washington DC, its my favorite place to be on the east coast, but that being said Go Go is a funny genre isn't it?

This is my favorite track by GoGo's godfather, Chuck Brown, and I think its my favorite because its his least GoGo sounding. Off of 1980's Funk Express lp, In The Pocket is the standout straight hard hitting funk dancefloor smasher that somehow never saw a 12" release.

Chuck Brown still performs and releases records to this day, and recently even had a street named after him, Chuck Brown Way, in his native DC. GoGo is still weird though.

Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers - In The Pocket

In The Heat of The Night

2011-05-10T23:08:00.000-07:00

I have always liked 80's club tracks that resonate around the theme of getting dirty after dark in an alley somewhere on the wrong side of town. This obscure dollar bin jam by Pretty Poison lyrically hits the theme well enough. The vocals are a little white chick vibe for my tastes but that much aside the track slams really hard.

Pretty Poison - In The Heat of The Night (Nightime Dub)

Programmed For Love

2011-04-27T21:15:00.001-07:00

The Beat Electricians aren't posting much these days because we are too busy planning for the rapture that is coming in three weeks. In that time, the only thing that will survive other than a few pious Americans are their Hummers and my Threshold SA 3.9e; which was made specifically to withstand such an ordeal. In all honesty, I need a new soundcard and just came up with a janky solution to rip a couple of jamz for you foos. So here we have a favorite jam of mine off of Cymande's second record that came out on Janus in 1972. I have also included a selection for the ladies. Here Roy Ayers is apparently seducing his robot lover.

Cymande - Anthracyte
Roy Ayers - Programmed for Love

Somewhere Beyond

2011-04-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

Began Cekic made his money in the Brooklyn construction trade, and during the disco boom decided to capitalize by setting up a label and producing what were perhaps some of the early examples of dance tracks made up of looped and re-worked riffs and hooks from earlier well known hits. You can find his hits produced for Brooklyn Express all over the internet, as well as many others, but I can't find a clean version of Hi Voltage's Somewhere Beyond/Let's Get Horny anywhere, and I think its his best, so I'm putting it up. That being said maybe I just didn't look hard after I randomly picked it out off the shelf this morning.

Began was a shadowy, uncelebrated figure in the New York disco scene, Tee Scott who mixed this record gave an interesting and colorful account of him in an interview he did with Daniel Wang back in the nineties, but a decade later Began Cekic turns up in the history books again, this time in a new york times article about the Montenegro separatist movement. Turns out he went from disco revolutionary, to, well, revolutionary..

'"I think we made a difference," said Began Cekic, a demolition expert from Brooklyn who returned to his parent's home in Gusinje in the north of the republic. His friends and neighbors, a mixture of Montenegrins, Albanians and Muslim Slavs, celebrated late into the night, waving Montenegrin, Albanian and Bosnian flags.'

Hi Voltage - Somewhere Beyond
Hi Voltage - Lets Get Horny

Make Me Hot

2011-04-17T21:10:00.001-07:00

Due to fair weather funk collectors, who shall remain unnamed, neglecting their duties to BeatElectric in order to concentrate their time on their newly formed Witch House band ('Witch House', look it up, I shit you not), I will be renaming beatelectric to BlackShag.com . It will comprise mostly of rips of soon to be not as sought after as they were last year before Witch House came along electro boogie records, and discussions about fantasy wargaming.

Owning the biggest boogie 12" collection in North Norfolk county comes with a burden of heavy responsibility, and as such it was high time I posted Goody Goody's Make Me Hot, maybe one of the most perfect uptempo electro funk compositions put to wax. I say perfect because it has all the bits I like very much, a squelchy woofer shaking bass line, synthy space effects and on point vocals. This is maybe the last great single that came off of Philly Sound Works and is still to this day more coveted than the first Salem demo cd-r that I caught BT Magnum and Joel having a bidding war over on ebay (no need to look Salem up)..

Goody Goody - Make Me Hot

Freakin Time

2011-04-10T19:17:00.001-07:00

Asphalt Jungle was a project of session drummer and Salsoul Orchestra rhythm section ace Keith Benson. The above is not a picture of Keith, as I can't find one, its just a picture I like of a drummer, so its in context.

If you look at the man's discography he is credited with playing on hundreds of New York sessions all the way up until the nineties, but he is only credited as producing and writing a rare handful. He either re-recorded or re-edited Asphalt Jungle's Freakin Time without the vocal and with more dubby bits, a bit similar to the B side pt. 2 version of this release, a few years later in the early eighties as The Funk Fusion Band, which is no easier to find than this his original version.

Asphalt Jungle - Freakin' Time Pt. 1

Asphalt Jungle - Freakin' Time Pt. 2

Dear Soulie

2011-04-06T01:28:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to our most crotchety and annoying, yet inspirational fan. Hats off to you, Soulie. Here is some jazzy, disco-funk y'all.

Johnny Copeland (Cloud One) Orchestra - Atmosphere Strutt (Parts 1 and 2)

Fehlfarben

2011-04-03T18:44:00.001-07:00

I played this for a well known New York radio DJ whilst he was sat on my couch, having his first mushroom experience a month or so ago, dribbling and talking shit about records. He claimed that he recognized it as it was going to be on a big deal upcoming mixtape by some label boss whose name I was not cool enough to recognize or remember. So I decided to post it.

Of course if you grew up in Germany in the late seventies and early eighties you would probably recognize this from the radio, as it was the one hit by Düsseldorf post punk band Fehlfarben.

Looking back in retrospect apparently they have always been irritated that this single was their only crossover success, as the funk styling with that distinctive disco 'booooo' sound was supposed to be a funny, ironic gimick..seeing as they are punk as fuck etc. Just goes to show.

Fehlfarben - Ein Jahr (Es Geht Voran)

Living

2011-03-20T20:05:00.001-07:00

Italian bassist and songwriter Davide Romani played and produced tracks for such greats as Change, High Fashion, BB&Q Band, Peter Jacques Band. Traveling between New York and Milan throughout the early mid eighties to use American session musician's in Goody Music's Italo styled productions.

Island And Holiday's 'Living' appeared as a Davide Romani solo produced B side to the forgettable 'In The Summer Time', a soft synth disco remake of We Are All Going On A Summer Holiday. It borrows some of the themes from the A side, but cuts out all the whack parts and turns it into a rolling Italo Funk instrumental.

Island And Holiday - Living

Hey Foo!

2011-03-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

It was just this last weekend that your Beat Electricians got together to pay tribute to none other than the original corvette driving, San Francisco, white bread, master of the turntables and slayer of the ladies, Cameron Paul. Tim Sweeny was even hallucinating from the experience. Dogtones from Laserfunk and I were playing a gig a couple of weeks ago and met a guy named Raul who built a special antenna so that he could receive Cameron Paul broadcasts from San Francisco all the way in Sacramento. Dogtones hooked us up with these mixes. We have hosted some of his janky jamz and even a janky megamix (mixed by yours truly), so click here for more. Also, here is another mix on the KMEL site.

Cameron Paul - Late Great 88
Cameron Paul - Mixx It Power Mix '87 Side A
Cameron Paul - KMEL Megamix

FLOS

2011-03-01T23:47:00.000-08:00

Here is a semi-rare B-side from FLOS (Former Ladies of Supremes) released on Hollywood, California based Superstar International Records. I came across this one thrifting and it struck me because not only was it the trio of Scherrie Payne, Joyce Vincent and Lynda Laurence doing their best to make a comeback 10 years after Diana Ross split up The Supremes but it was also a fairly tight cut especially for the advanced year of 1987. Of course I had to do a little editing on this one, there was no way the producers were not gonna throw in a really wack 80's sax solo. Here ya go:

FLOS - Get-Away (Magnum Edit)

Put Our Heads Together

2011-02-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

Bass session wizard and unsung synth funk producer Kenni Burke produced this instrumental as a backing for The O'Jays uptempo philly style harmonies. The O'Jays scored a minor radio hit with the vocal version of this track, but it's Kenni's synth work that makes this stand out. Seek out any of Kenni Burke's self produced albums, and also keep an eye out for a couple of much rarer singles produced by his brother, Cubi Burke, who is probably deserving of his own post if I can ever find the wax.

O'Jays, The - Put Our Heads Together (Instrumental)

Black Soul

2011-02-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

Black Soul was a disco group from Dakar Senegal on the West Coast of Africa. This cut comes from a 1977 record on Beam Junction Records out of New York. I love the whole LP. It is an early Tom Moulton mix which explains its fat disco stomp. Speaking of, my new phono stage doesn't have a lot of gain, so a lot of the tracks I have been posting are a bit quiet. How do I get more input gain than the slider gives me in Logic?

Black Soul - Africa Africa

Doggie Boogie

2011-02-21T18:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a funky jam off a 1983 Strut Records 12" by Charles Earland. The drum programming reminds me of proto garage tunes from the same era. The vocal versions on this 12" are pretty weak, but I like this one up until the guitar and sax solos make it whack.

Also, I have a funky modern soul number from 1982 by Fredi Grace and Rhinestone I picked up in Sacramento a couple of weeks ago.

Charles Earland - (It's A) Doggie Boogie Baby (Instrumental)
Fredi Grace and Rhinestone - Help

The Beat Electric Janky Record Cleaning Contraption

2011-02-12T14:23:00.001-08:00

The most difficult part about getting a good rip is having a clean record. Using a $500 cartridge to clear out the grooves is endlessly frustrating. I have had most of the parts to assemble this record cleaning machine for over a year. I had procrastinated building a vacuum attachment like this; but found the perfect solution at the hardware store when I was looking for something else.

Here is what you need:

Shop Vac (this one is 3HP)
Shop Vac detail brush kit
Turntable
Dry Brush
Nitty Gritty Wet Brush
Record Clamp (optional)
Record washing fluid (make your own like I do or buy it)

There is a record washing fluid recipe in the link. I have access to a lab, so I am able to buy reagent grade water and isoproponol. I bought the surfactant from a photo supply place online.

Here is a cool rare lazer soul record I picked up in Denver. It is from Detroit and was released in 1988. It sounds more like 1984. I love the synth work and the production. Almost ever track is good on this LP and there is even a slow jam that makes me a little frisky.

Dennis Paul & Apossa' - Who's Lovin' You?
Dennis Paul & Apossa' - Can't Get Enough

The Buddy System

2011-02-07T23:09:00.001-08:00

*Beneath all this text is a mix of some of the rarest black music you have ever heard. Some of it digitized for the first time. But please, keep reading.*

Funk, boogie and soul record collecting elite are rallying to help Aaron 'Breakself' Anderson, renowned Detroit digger, and founder of one of the USA's most famous nights, the Ann Arbor Social Club, in his fight against brain cancer.

I had the chance to meet Aaron a couple of summers ago during one of his visits to San Francisco, through his collaborator and friend, the bay area's own Deejay Om. I collect a few dance 12's here and there, but Aaron and Om play in a tier above, having over the years unearthed Michigan scene 45's that go on to trade for more than collective worth of my crates, be it to northern soul obsessive middle aged businessmen in Scotland, or a funk collecting oil industry millionaire in downtown Manhattan (no joke). And its some of these records, from Breakself's own shelves, that Om has used to create this exclusive mix, in the hopes of raising some money and awareness to help his best friend Aaron out.

I'll let Om explain in his own words:

Sometimes bad things happen to good people, this is all so true with my best friend Aaron Anderson who is currently dealing with brain cancer. A crushing blow to all those who know and love Aaron, and there are many, because upon meeting him you instantly feel as though you’ve known him, or want to, and that he truly cares about anyone and everyone he meets. I’ve not met anyone like him and doubt that I will for a very long time, this seems to be true of others too. A man of his word, someone who that if he has a penny in his pocket he would gladly offer to someone less fortunate, a person who cares about others and truly takes time to listen; and now it’s our turn to listen and our turn to give him that penny that he needs.

I met Aaron about 12 years ago, and instantly felt as though I’d met my best friend, our personalities, albeit quite different, seemed to mesh, and we both had a deep passion for music, meditation, buddhism and records. Aaron cites me as his mentor when it comes to Soul/Funk music, a title I humbly accept. He was like a sponge that seemed to be nowhere near capacity, and his thirst for knowledge was unparalleled. He was living in Ann Arbor and I in San Francisco, we’d sit for hours on the phone talking about life and records, and I would constantly play him things I had recently gotten or already had. At a time when others ridiculed me for liking Boogie, Disco, and Modern Soul Aaron was one of the few people who actually listened and grew to enjoy and understand where I was coming from...but, that’s Aaron for you, always with an open mind and heart.

We began this project quite some time ago, Aaron (aka Breakself) had been diagnosed with brain cancer while in school at Stanford and he began to bring records over to my house to record...it seemed endless the amount of ridiculously dope, and rare records he had; the “student” truly has become my teacher, and for that I am grateful...I have learned so much from him, and continue to learn more every time I speak with him. I (Deejay OM), did all the mixing and only supplied a couple of the records, my intent was to show our relationship through music, and I hope that you too can appreciate and enjoy the aptly titled “The Buddy System”.

Although I think of Aaron more as a little brother than just my best friend, had we been in kindergarden together I have no doubt he would have been the one whom I turned to when the teacher told us to “pick a buddy” for field-trips, projects, or anything that needed a dynamic duo. It pains me to see him dealing with brain cancer, and I’m constantly impressed with and admire his ability to stay positive and to look forward, not back. He’s not just my friend, but a shining beacon to the world, and I’m sure that if you met him in person you’d be happy that you gave your donation to such a great person. Cancer medicine is ridiculously expensive ($1000 per chemo pill, and “Avastan” treatments which cost $45,000 per month), and I can only hope that this mix inspires you to help out...donations of $10 or more will receive a high quality version of the mix, and receive another mix I’m working on....this mix is free, but I hope you find it in your heart to help Aaron.

Download: DeejayOm & Breakself - The Buddy System

Deejay OM: www.facebook.com/deejayommusic
Artwork by ElekTro4 for Resource Room Production: www.rrp-nyc.com

more mixes from OM:

http://beatelectric.blogspot.com/2008/11/blood-from-my-soul.html
http://beatelectric.blogspot.com/2009/03/psychadelia.html

Can You Guess What Groove This Is?

2011-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

Here is an early one from future New Order producer Arthur Baker. He would have produced this roller boogie mover sometime in his early twenties, and it features his wife on vocals Tina Klein Baker, later to become freestyle star Tina B.

This one came out on the always upbeat and choice Posse Records, I'm sure he also produced the Ritz 12" whose name I cannot remember on Posse a year or so later that everyone sweats. After this point in his career me and Arthur Baker's tastes diverge a little, but these early outings behind the boards at such a young age hint at what a power house behind the boards he was set to become.

Glory - Can You Guess What Groove This Is?

A plea to the people

2011-01-31T20:07:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I have some bad news. BT Magnum is in Europe bringing sweet boogie flavor to dance parties all over and just got all of his records jacked while on a train to Amsterdam. If you are over in that neck of the woods and you see someone pedaling raw, sick ass heat, please bring it to the attention to the authorities! These records took years, lots of cheddar, and countless hours avoiding work; help him out if you can!

Here is a loft jam in mourning.

Jo Bisso - Your Love

Your parents are your friends!..

2011-01-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

Here is a proto house instrumental produced by saxophone great Patrick Henderson, used as backing for Mr T's preachy 'Mr T's Commandments'. This one came up whilst looking through the cheap section at a record store last weekend, on a lovely sunny day in Eagle Rock.

I don't really have to write much about Mr T's cash in tween market focused rap career, I think the sleeve cover for this single really does all the talking for me. Unfortunately his gruff early eighties style staccato flow about such important topics as not talking to strangers, and telling your parents about your problems, has overshadowed what is an lovely piece of progressive electro funk on the flip of this dollar bin single..

Mr T - Mr T's Commandments (Instrumental)

Going down to Frisco', Lookin' for some disco.

2011-01-15T18:28:00.000-08:00

Prolific dub producer Sly Dunbar touched upon many projects during the 1980's, fusing Jamaican electronic music with rock and new wave for the American and European major labels, and occasionally putting out solo albums in Jamaica containing dubbed out cover versions of US soul and funk hits. I was in Dallas this past week, and was reminded of this slowed down, tripped out version of Dallas's premier funk act, Yarbrough and Peoples finest hit, 'Don't Stop The Music'. Which I always liked because Sly drops a reference to the disco scene in our hometown, San Francisco, in the first verse.. then I think he talks about people in SF having weird haircuts or something, which is valid commentary really I suppose.

Hold out for the monster slow jam end of night chorus on this one..

Sly Dunbar - Don't Stop The Music

Space

2011-01-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

Space was a space disco group from Marseilles, France. This one comes off the 1977 Metropolis release. It is still the most epic space disco track ever. The pic above was from my trip to Malibu over the holiday where I was visiting and partying with some good friends who live next to Babs, Mccaughney, and Hans Zimmer . A washed up (so to speak) drunken sailor beached his 37' recording studio in this precious paradise while in-route to LA from Santa Barbara. He and his two cats survived. I threw my back out removing a strange piece of gear that would have been better served as a boat anchor.

If you are near Davis on Friday, come to the Delta of Venus where Dog Tones and I will be spinning funk, soul, and rare disco.

Space - Magic Fly

SAM pt. 2

2010-12-31T00:37:00.000-08:00

I came across another collection from Sam Weiss's SAM records, a CD reissue of 12" mixes his son Michael Weiss put out on his Nervous Records imprint in the early nineties, I know a bunch of tracks that have already appeared on the blog are included, but you know, whats the harm in putting them up again, maybe you will like these direct from master tape digital versions better. Sadly though I noticed my favorite SAM release was missing from the compilation, so I recorded Lucy Hawkin's John Davis produced disco slammer Gotta Get Out Of Here and gave it top billing.

Lucy Hawkins - Gotta Get Out Of Here

John Davis And The Monster Orchestra - Ain't That Enough For You
Mike And Brenda Sutton - Don't Let Go Of Me
John Davis And The Monster Orchestra - I Can't Stop
Rhyze - Just How Sweet Is Your Love
Gary's Gang - Keep On Dancing
Gary's Gang - Let's Lovedance Tonight
Convertion - Let's Do It
John Davis And The Monster Orchestra - Love Magic
Vicky "D" - This Beat Is Mine
KID - You Don't Like My Music

The Ghetto Bird

2010-12-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

As most of you 80's nerds know the picture above is of TC's helicopter from one of my favorite childhood Television programs, Magnum PI. Initially I was going to use a shot from the film Blue Thunder as the helicopter in the movie was actually a souped-up LAPD ghetto bird, but I love the paint job on this one. Of course TC's helicopter was an island tour hopper that would get entangled in the occasional skirmish while assisting his pal Thomas Magnum. Come to think of it TC's character in the show fills a parallel role as Black Shag being BT Magnum's sidekick in the Beat Electric universe.

This is the 1983 instrumental B-Side of The Ghetto Bird, an LA private press boogie-rap homage to the those infernal police choppers that constantly light up the LA skyline. Ironically, as I was recording this song one of those pesky buggers flew over my house as a constant reminder of the awesome police state we live in here in the good old US of A. If only it was still 1980 and Shag, LeBaron (Rick) and myself spent our days cruising around the Hawaiian skies in our own ghetto bird. That would be the life.

The Plainwrap Band - The Ghetto Bird (Instrumental)

On and On

2010-12-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

Harvey Mason was a jazz funk drummer extraordinaire and and continues to work in the contemporary jazz group Fourplay. He was featured on most of the Mizell produced jazz funk works of the 70's and 80's and he kept the beat on the seminal Herbie Hancock album Headhunters.

This track comes off the 1981 record M.V.P. Albums made by jazz drummers usually feature way too many drum solos and awkward fills all over the place. The drum work on this record is in good taste and super tight albeit a bit too loud in the mix. The whole record has a groovy boogie sound and is great, minus the obligatory smooth jamz. The album artwork features Harvey doing just about every sport you can imagine, from SCUBA to horse stadium jumping; a renaissance man indeed.

Harvey Mason - On And On

Slow Jam Sunday

2010-12-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

Advance - Take Me to The Top
Unique - You Make Me Feel So Good (Instrumental)
Arlana - You Can't Keep Breaking My Heat

Hot Tasty Love

2010-12-06T23:57:00.001-08:00

Here is some top shelf electro funk, although for a few years this one never left my bag, and so the drop beat at the beginning of the vocal side is a little fuzzy from me rocking back and forth on it with overweighted club needles. A shame, but then this music was meant to be played and danced to, not reside forever in some sad beardo's vault, and this was always the electro jam for ladies that managed to keep that infectious edge and as such needed rinsing out.

Zest's Hot Tasty Love was a very early 1983 project but the then young duo of keyboardist Fred McFarlane and producer Allen George, both of whom wrote and produced independently and together as a duo well in to the nineties house era, when they were particularly prolific in the new york garage scene. This effort was indicative of the quality that was found on pretty much every record I have come across since with either guy's name on, I only wish I knew who the singer was.

Zest - Hot Tasty Love (Vocal)

Zest - Hot Tasty Love (Instrumental)

Come Back For Seconds

2010-12-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

I grabbed this record whilst digging in Sacramento with my buddy from lazerfunk over the weekend. This record, still sealed was in a pile of MC Hammer 12"s and $10 Switched On Bach LPs on a lower shelf. I also got a couple of mint Aurra 12"s, some good jazz funk, and some Chi house heat. While I was down there I was crop dusted by some middle aged weirdo who was looking for a soundtrack to a movie that he couldn't remember. It was a nice and productive four day weekend that refused to be marred by all the wine and beer that went down my gullet. Not only did I get a grip of records for Beat Electric, I finally finished restoring my 1976 Bozak and it is sounding so smooth and punchy. I am going to have to put a booth together and record a mix!

This record seems to be pretty a rare 1984 release on Beverly Glen. This track mates this famous old gospel crooner's voice to disco strings and a sweet boogie bassline.

Johnnie Taylor - Seconds Of Your Love

TV Sounds Orchestra

2010-11-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

TV Sounds Orchestra was the blanket name used for all of super producer Tony Valor's inhouse backing band and instrumental efforts. On the flip of many of Tony's hits throughout the seventies and early eighties you will find a dub credited to the TV Sounds Orchestra and this one comes off of the B side of Fantasy's 12" electro funk single 'Live The Life I love'.

Tony Valor came up through the 60's Brooklyn music scene, first as a soul singer, then moving into engineering, production at the birth of the disco scene then eventually talent manager and label owner with TVI records and alongside Tom Moulton as one half of T'n'T records. I read somewhere he was a New York beat cop and music industry lawyer for a while too. He is a savvy business leader and still produces and manages creative assets to this day. Here is a quote I liked from a 2003 Pedro Lopez interview with him I read on discomusic.com, giving his typical crotchety old seventies record executive take on the ever villainized modern evil..'sampling' (boo hiss, *shakes fist*)...

'This was a good opportunity to ask Tony Valor how he felt about sampling and he responded, "I’d rather people sample and pay the fee. There’s a singer in the U. K. named Rhianna with a song called "Oh Baby" which is fabulous. They did a whole thing from one of my 1958 records called "I Forgot About That / Latin Nights In Manhattan." They paid very nice and her record has done very well. I’d rather them do that than just copy. It gives you money and credit. Sampling to me is fine, the creativity of years ago-you can’t beat it. There are very few good musicians. With MIDI there is no need to be a good musician.'

TV Sounds Orchestra - Live The Life I Love (Instrumental)

ACID TRAX

2010-11-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

I can only wish these were the tracks I was listening to when I first dropped acid, but it was the late 90's and I was living in suburban Wisconsin, which although close in proximity was a far cry from 80's Illinois. I am pretty certain I was listening to Animals by Pink Floyd and I am quite ok with that.

Acid Tracks by Phuture is the defining moment when the Acid sound exploded out of Chicago House thanks to some innovative dude named Spanky and a little bass line machine made by Roland called the TB-303.

The rest is history and I will let Discogs fill it all in:

Phuture only released a handful of tracks (plus an album a full decade after their debut), but have remained a legendary act in the development of Chicago house for their stomping 1987 single "Acid Trax", the track that began and defined the acid house sound. The group was formed by DJ Pierre, synthesizer fan Spanky and Herb J in 1985 as a recording entity to produce records for Pierre to mix into his sets at several crucial Chicago clubs. After being turned on to the high-pitched squelch of the Roland TB-303 synthesizer (marketed as a bassline machine for solo guitarists), the trio emerged from the studio with a track they called "In Your Mind". Ron Hardy previewed the track at his legendary club the Music Box - where it became known as "Ron Hardy's Acid Track" - and Phuture re-made the cut with production by Marshall Jefferson. Released on Trax Records in 1987, the single created a dividing point between the Chicago sound before and after it, with hundreds of "Acid Trax" imitations flooding the local market. After it caught on in Britain as well, the single soundtracked the wave of club madness which coalesced in the rave movement by the end of the decade.

Phuture - Acid Tracks

Phuture - Phuture Jacks

Phuture - Your Only Friend

Also have here a brand new exclusive track from the mysteriously talented new artist, Xosar. Xosardonyx is a pretty brilliant cut with a deep 808 beat that reminds me of early house blended with a modern feel. Classic.

Xosar - Xosardonyx

On The Grid

2010-11-20T19:29:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get a little too hung up on whether something has already been posted somewhere else, or whether its a well known track or not etc before I will consider a record for recording and putting up on the site. I have decided to drop those pre-requisites, because whether a track is known or not is really relative to your level of sad record collector beardy'ness, and whether it is posted or not is usually relative to how many medifire or rapidshare links you are willing to click on, plus who cares anyway. I took a quick look around for this one and couldn't see it easily available, so thats good enough for me, especially considering it's, as they say in the jazz world, a standard.

Lime are a well known disco pop duo from Montreal composed of husband and wife Denis and Denyse LePage. Denis was a prolific producer in the Hi NRG scene, and hence a lot of Lime records turn up in San Francisco record bins, SF being a Hi NRG city. On The Grid is in contrast to most of their releases as it is a predominantly instrumental italo jam, with a sparse vocoder vocal line. It turned up on some bootleg compilations a few years ago, but here I offer you both side of the Prism records 12", the dub and the "remix". I have never really been able to tell the difference between the remix and the dub versions, and back in the day would just play either side at random..listening now I think the 'remix' version is better.

Lime - On The Grid (remix)

Lime - On The Grid (dub version)

Funk In Chi Town

2010-11-14T17:22:00.000-08:00

I just got in from Chicago this afternoon and I had a really great time. It is such a clean and beautiful city and I was blessed with mild weather. I tried to see as much of the city as I could but it is huge! It seems like each neighborhood is the size of SF. I was on foot, bus, and subway but didn't get a chance to ride the el. I met a lot of cool hipster foodies; ate and drank well. I also thought I was tanking my life in my hands when I went to this huge sports bar in Lincoln Park to see Congressman Pacquiao beat the crap out of the much bigger Margarito, but Chicagoans are civil people. I was working the most days, but I was able to break away and get a grip of records. I have posted a track that I picked up.

This J. Blackfoot cut came from the cool janky modern soul LP City Slicker, which is loaded with great basslines and synth work. Blackfoot is a bit of a swooner for my taste and has filled all spaces with this voice. This is a bummer because I would like to edit the tracks to make them less vocal heavy. It came out on Sound Town Records in 1983.

Also posted it an edit of one of my favorite party jamz. I have wanted to do this for a while and since my lady wants me to clean the house I finally got it done.

J. Blackfoot - Street Girl
Positive Force - We Got The Funk (LeBaron Edit)

Chicago Chicago

2010-11-11T22:51:00.001-08:00

In honor of LeBaron's trip to Chicago, I'am posting the greatest ode to the midwest's greatest city. Roy Ayers' Chicago first appeared on a 1983 album named (according to my memory) Silver Vibrations, but also appeared re-recorded on 1988's Drive, from which these recordings game from the 1992 Japanese CD release. Everybody and Fast Money I imagine would have sounded a little dated in 1988, but then the 'acid jazz' revival of the sound Roy pioneered was just about to occur so maybe it was no accident.

Roy Ayers - Chicago

Roy Ayers - Everybody

Roy Ayers - Fast Money

Time for a smooth jam?

2010-11-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

If someone told me that this was the new Glass Candy or Chromatics track, I would totally believe them. This, to me is a perfectly executed slow burner. Stacey Q producer Jon St. James put this out on Synthecide Records in 1988. It's much more of a bedroom track than one for the club, for sure. When your girl screeches, "do you ever listen to anything other than disco?"; put this on and you have 5 minutes to do your thing. It puts me in a winter state of mind and is priming me for a trip to the cold ass mid west next week. Give me a shout if you know where I should be in Chicago next weekend.

Bardeux - When We Kiss

Disco Dub Vibes

2010-11-06T00:38:00.001-07:00

I was going to meet my mate Steven from dub.com for a beer, but sadly he has been in California too long, and has turned from a once dependable Dubliner, ever a reliable drinking partner and record beard discussion catalyst, and metamorphosed over the long years into a true San Franciscan, i.e a flake, having been caught up in the Giant's world series riots the previous evening. But even though my meeting with the reggae don fell through, it got my thinking about all the island tinged boogie and so on I could bring up in conversation with him before I eventually got out of my depth and exposed for what I really am, a lame poseur.

There is of course tons and tons of reggae disco, dubbed out B side instrumentals, jamaican boogie, london carribean scene funk and what have you, and by all means put your favorites in the comments section. Reggae and dub hit the north american and european mainstream the same time as disco and punk (right? or no?), so it figures I would guess. Out of my depth already. These two tracks though are from my own collection and I could not find them elsewhere on the greater internet, and are both very different from one another, so I thought would make a good post.

Landscape were a UK New Wave band, that had some artsy electronic 7"s in the seventies and a couple of radio played synth pop tracks in the 80's (one was called 'Einstein' or something, and had a great video with the ghost of Einstein in it haunting a chemistry lab(?)). 'The Fabulous Neutrinos' is a dubby instrumental B side to the harsh on the ears single 'So Pure, So Good, So Kind', unearthed from a dollar bin many moons ago.

Frankie Paul, sometimes called the 'Jamaican Stevie Wonder', because of his poor vision, is a dancehall singer who was associated with the Coxsone soundsystem. 'Funky Reggae Party' is an out of place mid tempo electro funk track that sits weirdly on the B side of the South London produced and recorded dancehall reggae album 'Ripe Mango' on Blacker Dread records in 1983. I forget which part of south london the Blacker Dread record store is in, but its still there. Flipping the record over and finding this was a nice surprise:

Landscape - The Fabulous Neutrinos

Frankie Paul - Funky Reggae Party

Haunted House

2010-10-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

Ahh, Halloween. A perenial favorite holiday for all the pagen atheist devil worshippers out there. Although we do not experience the eerie fall weather in Southern California, people get really into Halloween down here. I found myself at a theme park 2 nights ago being chased around for hours by all sorts of demon nerds and dungeonmasters fresh out of Comicon. Good times.

Our associate Safety Scissors posted The Jacking Zone by Risque Rythum Team a few years back. It's a quintessential "Haunted House" cut flanked by a killer 808 cowbell and a spooky analog synthline. I am re posting The Jacking Zone along with the rest of the incredible Rysque Rythum EP from 1986. Now I am sure I could have dredged up something a little scarier, but my friend Steven coined this term a couple years back after hearing this cut for the first time and I have been itching to share the concept ever since.

BE logo designer and fellow wizard Xosar designed the above image for me as a nice Halloween gesture today. Go to her website and check out the insane design work and her ever evolving musical skillz.

Risque Rythum Team - Risque Rythum
Risque Rythum Team - 122 House
Risque Rythum Team - That's The Beat
Risque Rythum Team - The Jacking Zone

Looking Good

2010-10-25T02:15:00.001-07:00

I usually like to give a bit of background on a record, but sometimes there just isn't much to go on. Looking Good was a release by Benton Baptist on Kalico records, what would become a short lived Soca and reggae label, probably owned by keyboard session player Dexter Daley. Maybe someone who was part of the Brooklyn Caribbean community back in the early eighties would know more. I have never come across another record by Benton Baptist, I suspect he was a member of the reggae scene that crossed over into the New York funk scene now and again like Denroy Morgan or similar. Anyhow, thats just a long winded way of me saying I don't know much about this cut, other than its a synth'y monster on lots of wants lists, and for those who may have heard the vocal version here and there I'm putting up the instrumental as well.

Benton Baptist - Looking Good

Benton Baptist - Looking Good (instrumental)

Special Agent Man

2010-10-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

It is a rare dreary day in LA, time to dust off the cobwebs and give BE some love. I realized today that I rarely post Italo tracks and since I have abandoned boogie for electro nu-rave in my new found Serato DJ status that at the very least Italo might be a little bit closer sonically to what I am "spinning" nowadays. Find me at my new blogspot: www.djfucknuts5000.com

Italian group Gaznevada put out quite a few records from 1979 until their demise in the late 80's. Special Agent Man fits the Italo mold nicely, which basically is cheesy vocals/lyrical concept meets a very solid groove. Anyways the instrumental version is hot and when the vocals do come in they sit pretty nicely in this track.

Gaznevada - Special Agent Man (Instrumental)

Turn It Up

2010-10-10T22:32:00.001-07:00

I apologize for the extended absence. I won't bore you with the details but after a bungled coup attempt by the other scheming BE members backfired I have now seized full control of the electro funk archives, ousted the pretenders and exposed what were once my crate digging comrades here at BeatElectric for the bandwaggon jumping serato DJ's they truly are. Their intentions were to give the site a re-design and relaunch it as an indie rock news hub, thereby increasing traffic from the college radio crowd and enabling them to stick up some banner advertising for American Apparel. I won't spare them another thought; moving on..

Turn It Up was the only single 25 West's famed producers Dave Fields and Matt Noble ever released under the name Beat Freax, and it was Down Town Records sole release also that I know of. Perhaps 25 West Records was a product of this first successful outing by the duo and was spawned out of Down Town. Matt Noble went on to produce some of the deepest records to come out of the early electro scene, he was behind B-Beat Girls, and along with Dave Fields, The Maniacs and many other underground dance acts. Its hard to think of many electro funk cuts from the era that are more upbeat than this, I get the feeling they were going for a pop radio hit. What could have been..

Beat Freax - Turn It Up

Love Me For Real

2010-09-28T16:42:00.001-07:00

The Bay Area is a transient place, DJ's, record collectors and normal decent people come and go from all over the world. Waves of them turn up, fresh faced to replace the bitter burnouts that are on their way out, feeling they have more chance of making it in one of the bigger cultural nexus shangri-la's of the East coast or mainland Europe. They will get more work done there, make their record, write their book, finally finish highschool, despite following up with the bars being open later and it being a much better place to party hard, and also now the even more common remark, that the record shopping is better in said hip catchall destination, because "..the Bay Area has given me arthritis in my fingers and cancer in my ears from all the Hi NRG records I have had to dig through over the years." .

Well, there is some truth in criticisms, especially with regard to the disproportionate amount of Hi NRG 12"s that look and smell like they might be disco until you put the needle on them, but then what do you expect in the town that invented it, and it could be worse, country and bluegrass independent releases from the 70's and 80's also have all the same hallmarks as the funk records of the era for some reason, no picture of a cowboy hat on the label or anything, same print, similar names and titles, imagine living in a state where you have to deal with that disappointment every time you went digging. Puts things in perspective doesn't it.

Anyway, the every day top shelf disco 12"s may be a bit thin on the ground compared to other famous party cities when shopping these days, but the Bay produced plenty of great and storied dance records, and most can be found easily in collections the world over, but there are also some that can't that are rarely seen outside of the area. Small, private pressings that were a product of a dancehall musical heritage that goes back to the blues era, that go for big money in Europe and Japan, but that from time to time, if you are lucky, may turn up in an Oakland thrift store. Stuff that keeps you flipping through all the Sylvester singles. Like this one for example, Rim an Kasa's Oakland produced Too Tough EP.

Rim Kwaku Obeng was a migrant to Oakland from Begoro, Ghana, where at 26 his traditional drumming skills saw him brought over as a session player for (I believe) a recording Fela was doing in the States. He stayed on in the US and produced a now sought after '77 deep afro disco LP named 'Rim Arrives', that has a track on it named something like 'Brushing Is Making Love' that is highly sweated. He did more session work, then produced this second afro boogie EP as a band leader named 'Too Tough', in 1981 using the name Rim and Kasa on Sum Sum records. I have one more locally produced recording by Rim Obeng, under the band name Rim And The Believers named 'International Funk' from 1986, after that I have no record of what happened to him.

Here is the most famous and hard hitting track from the Too Tough EP, that has themes of female empowerment and mutual respect between sexes throughout all it's songs, sort of done in a quirky not too preachy super hard disco afro boogie funk sort of way..

Rim And Kasa - Love Me For Real

Hands Off Don't Touch

2010-09-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

It is sweltering hot in Southern California today, time to sit by the pool and suck down some rum and coconut water. The early 80's island disco sounds of Casual T might just be the perfect soundtrack.

Casual T - Hands Off

I Just Want To Know

2010-09-15T23:31:00.001-07:00

Rarity has no direct correlation with quality, naturally, and Sugarhill was a well distributed label with music videos and radio smashes on it's books, but for some reason the less they printed of something the better it tended to be, to my ears at least, and the 12" version of The Sequence's 'I Just Want to Know' is no exception.

I think this track is probably my favorite 'boogie', or non rapped vocal cut Sugarhill ever put out, and it's found on the B side of a nondescript slow burner named Where Are You Tonight, which I tried to record but it put my record needle to sleep.

The Sequence were sort of an early hip hop culture version of the Supremes, and former member Angie Stone is still big and putting records out, she is doing the whole neo-soul thing.

Shame there was never an instrumental or dub version of this, even though the vocals are the tracks strongest element, but one listen to the synth stabs on this and your hooked.. 'DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DAAAAA!'

The Sequence - I Just Want To Know

Move For Me Baby

2010-09-10T20:23:00.001-07:00

I closed out with this one at the epic BeatElectric Dance Show and someone asked me to ID the tune from some video footage of the night online, so I thought I may as well post it up. I didn't choose a picture of a baby listening to music because the song is titles Move For Me Baby, thats just an unfortunate coincidence, no doubt helping speed along Google's internal proceedings to have us shut down. I wish I could even claim to be the copyright holder of the image, and that this was infact a picture of me at age 3 listening to a young parent's funk collection through a tube driven pair of sick looking cans, but as any of you who have actually met me would immediately notice this obviously isn't me, as I would never emphasize a little pot belly by wearing horizontal stripes.

Output was the vehicle producer David Reeves, aka later to become early hip hop pioneer Davy DMX, would use for the vocals of the talented Jerome Prister, who had just had a moderate hit on Prelude under the Secret Weapon moniker with the excellent 'Must Be The Music' (which for some reason I cannot find my copy of right now, otherwise I would post that too, if we haven't already). Output had another club hit later in the eighties with the catchy 'Say You'll Be', and I think Eddie Ski White's band may be the same band as Output just with Eddie on vocals, I'm not sure, but he appeared onstage with them on a bootleg live recording I heard.

Output - Move For Me Baby
Output - Move For Me Baby (Instrumental)

Shake Your Body 2010

2010-09-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a slow summer for Beat Electric in terms of posting but I assure you we have been making moves on some other levels. Between our East Coast DJ Jaunt, Black Shag's drug overdose, my relocation to LA and staging the Beat Electric Dance Show, it has been a crazy couple of months. This week is our 3rd anniversary and while I am not trying to mark the occasion with too much fanfare (we are just a music blog after all), I have been saving this track for all of the die hard boogie nerds that have been so supportive of Beat Electric these last few years.

This holy grail by Manujothi was South Carolina based producer Johnny Haywood's only release. Recorded and released as a very limited 7" on his own Manujothi imprint in 1980, Shake Your Body is an absolute definitive disco-rap banger. I probably waited 5 years and spent way too much coin to acquire a copy of this epic track but it is all worth it, life is short and sharing the music is quite good fun.

If you are in the LA area this weekend, I am spinning with the one and only Casual Touch in the back room at Trousdale in West Hollywood. Should be a blast, I have hired my own paparazzi to follow me around for the evening.

Manujothi - Shake Your Body
Manujothi - Shake Your Body (Instrumental)

Reach Out

2010-09-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Debra Laws comes from a prominent musical family. Her siblings include jazz-funk proto-smooth jazz pioneers Ronnie Laws and Hubert Laws. This 1981 record, Very Special has some funky synth boogie mated to the smooth flute and sax work of her brothers. I have included two of the funkiest and most upbeat jams on the record. They were also released on a UK only 12".

Debra Laws - On My Own
Debra Laws - Long As We're Together

You're My Chance

2010-08-30T12:30:00.001-07:00

Here is a strong disco tinged boogie number from the much beloved by me NelWin Records / Silver Cloud records stable, with all of the Andrew Langston production hallmarks, great, slightly tribal percussive elements and ahead of their time synth hooks. I'm not too sure what the distinction between these two New York labels were, because they have the same production staff, address, similar labels, the same sound. I think Nelwin's releases are dated a little earlier.

I'd like to thank everyone that came out for the Beat Electric Dance Show this last Friday, it was intense. The film footage is being edited up now and will get posted up soon. I get the feeling that we will be taking this one on the road:

Brenda Watts - You're My Chance

Let's Talk About the Fly Ones

2010-08-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we like to kick it smooth. This is a rare modern soul jam from around 1985 on Money Three Records. It has a bit of a vibe as if Janet Jackson's mom is singing it. Anyway, you are too smart to miss the epic party that Beat Electric is throwing this Friday. It is at Mezzanine and it is free if you RSVP, just follow the instructions and make sure to drink a lot once you are there so we can throw this party again.

Rose Davis - Too Smart For That

Video Freak x 2000

2010-08-21T01:38:00.000-07:00

Some cuts I don't want to post for no other than the artist names and track titles are too long, don't fit in an ID3 v1 tag, are easily misspelled or are a pain to type with one finger. These selfish artists had no appreciation for the fact that I may want to post their work, for free, on the internet one day.

Trigger Finger And The Space Cadets' Defend It U (Video Freak) (The New York City Club Mix) was written by Tony Rose and Charles Alexander of Prince Charles And The City Beat Band fame. Watch out for the other couple of 12s and the handful of 45's that also came out on Solid Platinum Records, I have another somewhere and I swear it also starts with the same wolf howl sound. This isn't just a killer indie electro funk jam, its a poignant social commentary of the emerging impact video games were having on young people in 1982..under the guise of a killer rare indie electro funk jam..

Trigger Finger And The Space Cadets - Defend It U (Video Freak) (The New York City Club Mix)

The Key

2010-08-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

Well let me start off and issue another apology for the lack of posts this summer. I have been a bit buried in the weeds as of late. This weekend I move to Los Angeles leaving all three Beat Electricians scattered across the California landscape. Not to worry, once I get settled in it will be back to business as usual. So if I can get Black Shag to come out of his morphine induced coma, this weekend we will pack up the moving van and head down to the sunny beaches of Southern California to seek out Sean Michael and his band of goth-model boogie warriors.

Anyhow, on to the music:

I believe we have probably posted more joints off of Prelude Records than any other label and that's fine by me. Don't worry I have some deeper shit on the horizon to satisfy the elitists, but I must say The Key by Wuf Ticket aka James Mason is solid gold and particularly the The Francois Kevorkian dub is a favorite from the Prelude catalog. Just avoid the groups first 12", a boogie-rap entitled Ya Mama. Not a good look.

Wuf Ticket - The Key (Instrumental)
Wuf Ticket - The Key

Radar Records

2010-08-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

I was going through a box of sealed bankrupt stock CD's, flipping through post hair metal and euro dance summer anthem comps, when I came across a stack of funk discs. These dated from the deep funk revival of the early/mid nineties, great times, but amongst them was this Best Of Radar Records collection, claiming to be recorded from master tape, released in '95. Score.

Radar records was an early eighties electro funk label that had an limited run from '83 to '85, but in that time had several hits and was home to Tony Lee and Gary's gang for a minute. We have probably already posted up at least a couple of these tracks, Tony Lee's reach up is a standard but whats the harm in putting up a nice digital rip. I had been meaning to post Barbra Fowler's Come And Get My Lovin for a while now and this saves me the trouble, also Key-Matic's Breakin In Space was on my list of things to dust off and record, and that one can be considered done now too. Win all around.

The back of the CD booklet had a good write up of the history of Radar Records and I used some dodgy free online text recognition software to interpret the text from the scan I made of it. It didn't do so well with the commas, full stops, i's and l's, so excuse any spelling mistakes because as with all things in life, you get what you pay for, image recognition software and music blogs included:

The Radar Records story, or the Eric Matthew history lesson begins with Joe Tucci. He and a group ot his friends form a band to play weddings parties & bar mitzvahs in the New York area The band is a success and along with his partner Gary Turner they make a demo. Joe uses Eric Matthew as a showbiz name They catch the eye of SAM Records a small NY lable headed by Sam Weiss and a staple in the lndependent music scene. They get signed, release a couple of srngles and an ip but SAM Records is now drstnbuted by by grant CBS Records The Gary's Gang records are a hugh success Eno now starts to produce an array of artists for the NY ctub scene. He produces Sharon Redd for Prelude Sinnamon to Beckett. They all are hugh hits Joe decides its tame to form his own label thus Radar Records is born.

What better way to start the label than with a new Garys Gang record Knock Me Gut a sweet dance groove with that typical Garys Gang sound sweet harmonies and a great hook. Radar Records and company get lucky wlth the next release Tony Lee's Reach Up which quickly becomes the club anthem in 1982. On this comptlatlon you'll find all of the Radar gems All 3 Gary's Gang records Barbra Fowler (the lead vocalist on Sinnamon's hot ‘Thanks To You ) solo debut as welt as stompers from Status IV and Arnie's Love We also include Radar s venture into rap music ln 1984 break dancing was a hugw fad and Key Mattic's Breakin in Space was a

huge hit on WBLS a New York radio station So enjoy listening or dancing to the best of Radar Records.

Barbra Fowler - Come and Get My Lovin
Arnie's Love - I'm Out Of Your LIfe
Fast Radio - Under My Thumb
Gary's Gang - Knock Me Out
Gary's Gang - Makin Music
Gary's Gang - Runaway
Key-Matic - Breakin In Space
Richie Scotti - Breaker
Status IV - Lovin You
Status IV - You Ain't Really Down
Tony Lee - Reach Up

Ooh Wee Babe

2010-08-08T23:27:00.000-07:00

Ron Richardson is thought of amongst diggers as a Canadian artist, but I think this is simply confusion due to the fact that his best known funk 12" grail, 1983's Ooh Wee Babe, came out on a Canadian imprint whilst he was working up there in the early eighties. A later 1987 vocal house release called Treat Me Better came out on the US based Herbert label. I think he is from the American East coast, or at the very least he lives in New York State somewhere now, from where he bases his touring rock'n'roll oldies revue, making the rounds of casinos, resorts and hotels and so on. Ron spent many years on the Vegas circuit as part of the Drifters, Coasters & Platters, Marvelettes show that ran for 10 years at the Sahara, I think it still probably runs. He can also be found credited on a Luthor Vandross CD from the nineties and some other popular gospel albums from that era. Book Ron for your event in the greater Tri State area today.

I saw an mp3 of Ooh Wee Babe floating around not too long ago, but the rip and quality did not do this rare dancefloor winner justice, so here is my attempt from the one of the best of the minty copies I have lying around being used as beer coasters in my ivory throne room.

Ron Richardson - Ooh Wee Babe

Do You Wanna Dance?

2010-08-02T19:40:00.001-07:00

I long for the dog days of summer. It feels more like early spring in Northern California and San Francisco feel like, well, it feels like it always does. I guess that's why my ideal of a matinee rooftop pool disco party does not exits here. You have to go down to LA and have Blog Haus beaten into your head to enjoy that kind of party; or to Miami for some smooth Condo flavor. Enjoy this heavy Italo Electro tune from 1983 as you lament with me.

Mirage - Woman