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

I moved into a new apartment this week, so all my crappy records are still in boxes, unmarked boxes with mixed and bizarre content, 7"s getting destroyed by free moving kitchen equipment and cookware. I messed up and didn't pack until the morning the movers were set to arrive. This made it hard finding something to post today, and to compound the problem I also have a gig tonight at the Mezz and so far have only managed to unpack a few boxes of classical music and weirdy jazz.

Fortunately though I did come across Passion's 'Don't Stop My Love' retrospective LP whilst looking for my toothbrush (true), as well as the 12" instrumental version of the title track.

Recorded in Miami by Ray Martinez, Passion had the pleasure of including amongst it's members fruit loop cult leader, and Beat Electric favorite, Dr. York! as always, go check out his wikipedia entry.

Passion - Don't Stop The Love (Instrumental)
Passion - You Can't Hide It

Fela Kuti was a very accomplished Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and recording artist who was the founder of afrobeat and funk. His 1975 record Expensive Shit was ground breaking with its long and funky tracks. Here is one of my favorite jamz.

Fela Kuti - It's Not Possible

In keeping with the spirit of Black Shag's Africa post and Beat Electric's permanent ban on any Christmas related music, today we celebrate the African-American holiday Kwanzaa with this Hugh Masekela joint on the Jive Afrika imprint. Jive Afrika was created as a catalyst for Masekela's early 80's output which shifted towards electronic and boogie oriented sounds. The sub label never grew much beyond Masekela and a couple of other artists, but I like the idea behind it. I just wish they could have dug up more African boogie gems such as this one.

Hugh Masekela - Don't Go Lose It Baby (Stretch Mix)
Hugh Masekela - Don't Go Lose It Baby (Dub Mix)
Hugh Masekela - Don't Go Lose It Baby (BT Magnum Edit)