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)

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

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

My original intent for this post was to be the third part of my Mastermix series, this time featuring the Prelude Vol. II Tony Humphries mixes. Well my thrift store copy is fucked and beaten to death, I was only able to salvage the two least essential tracks off the comp. Not to worry, I will track down a new copy and post them up sometime down the road. In an attempt to make up for the lack of killer content here I am throwing in a pretty smooth track from the second Wynd Chymes LP entitled Festival. For more on Wynd Chymes, read the comments by the bands former lead singer on our post from a couple of years back.

Wynd Chymes - Festival
Sharon Redd - Beat The Street (Tony Humphries Mastermix)
D Train - Music (Tony Humphries Mastermix)

Please send more electro nu rave banger fidget remixes, we love them, and when I open the mail box and see thirty odd emails from teenagers trying to make it big with nothing more than a dream and a stolen ableton live serial number it brings a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. Then I delete them without listening to a single one and continue digging through to see if someone sent us something related to some deep disco joint they found, but alas, more electro promo. Not to criticise a genre, I'm not Beethoven or anything, what do I know, but still..

Anyhow, Prelude is good, what a great label:

Sharon Redd - Never Give You Up
Rochelle Fleming - Love Itch
D Train - Tryin' to Get Over
Vicki Sue Robinson - Hot Summer Night
Weeks & Co - Go With the Flow [Edit]
Sharon Redd - Love How You Feel
Bobby Thurston - Check Out the Groove [Edit]
Gayle Adams - Your Love Is a Lifesaver
Unique - What I Got Is What You Need
Visual - Somehow, Someway
D Train - "D" Train [Dub]


Speaking of nu rave, I'm a hypocrite as here is a heavy edit I did of some new wave dollar bin jam that doesn't sound far off. Loop it for five minutes, stick your name on it, don't give anyone credit and get internet famous kid. Prepare for my promo email in your inbox very shortly:

Black Shag - Factory

Admittedly, I have a very soft spot for mid 70's jazz/funk. Places and Spaces by Donald Byrd with the Mizell Brothers production team has been in my top five favorite LP's for a good ten years now. When I first heard this record several weeks ago, I was instantly brought back to the period of my life when I salivated over this kind of crap.

In his time, Patrick Adams produced many, many records of varying styles under a myriad of aliases. Sine was Adam's first of several collaborations with a very young label known as Prelude Records in 1977. Prelude was still trying to find its footing at this juncture basically hiring Adams to produce a jazzy cosmic record released under the guise of disco. Don't get me wrong, this album completely blows me away but only in the loosest terms would I categorize it as disco.

Armed with his signature 70's (see Cloud One) Arp 2600 synth sound, it feels as if Adams and co. wrote the entire record in the studio and jammed it out in a few sessions. The end result is a very raw yet cohesive LP.

This album cover absolutely kills me. Need a time machine now, damnit.

Sine - Chimi
Sine - Keep It Coming
Sine - Just Let Me Do My Thing

Here is a mix of some of my favorite jams. They are plenty good for shaking down the house, but just as good for making the commute a little easier. It seems that I live in my car these days and I can only handle so much NPR.

Tracklist:

David Joseph - You Can't Hide (12" Version)
Thelma Houston - You Used To Hold Me So Tight (12" Version)
Unlimited Touch - Searching To Find The One
Lenny White - My Turn To Love You (Special Mix)
Sharon Redd - Beat The Street (Special 12" Instrumental)
Kano - She's A Star (LP Version)
Chocolate (Chocolette) - It's That East Street Beat (Club Mix)
Touch - Love Fixation (Dub)
Patrick Cowley - Thank God For Music (Disconet Extended Remix)
Connie Case - Get Down

Download Mix Here

These days there are so many damn Kiss FM's floating around the dial that it is almost hard to fathom the brilliance that once was NYC's one and only Kiss 98.7 FM. Still at this pathetic stage in the game, Kiss is the best franchise on the market second to NPR. I so long for times past when radio programming was super diverse, the stations had legit DJ's, and the markets were regulated to keep corporate monopolies out of the system. Damn you telecommunications act of 1996!

Shep Pettibone made his name with the original Kiss 98.7 FM Mastermixes.

Armed with innovative tape delay and splicing techniques all his own, Shep launched his highly influential career producing a series of exclusive Mastermixes for the station from 1981 - 1983. This culminated with the release of the now obscure Prelude Mastermixes Volume 1 double LP in 1982. Shep's career in the world of dance music was quickly cemented as the mastermixes proved to be not only brilliant but a popular radio staple as well. Pettibone soon became the house mixer at Salsoul Records and went on to produce material for mainstream heavy hitters Madonna, The Pet Shop Boys and New Order amongst a plethora of others. Special thanks to Michael, check out his blog.

Nick Straker Band - A Little Bit of Jazz (Shep Pettibone Mastermix)

Secret Weapon - Must Be The Music (Shep Pettibone Mastermix)

D Train - You're The One For Me (Shep Pettibone Mastermix)

France Joli - Gonna Get Over You (Shep Pettibone Mastermix)

A one off project on the NYC Prelude label, "All I Need is You" is a very soulful, spaced out boogie track. Sad that this was the only release by Starshine as it is such a deep and timeless record. A shout out to P. Skillz and his fine blog, Give The DJ a Break as he posted the vocal version back in April. Featured here is the instrumental which I think I dig just a little bit more as it has a sparser lead vocal as well as a fine female backing vocal that is missing entirely from the mix on the A side. As with so many Prelude releases, the mighty Francois Kevorkian gives his final touch on the mixing boards. This is one of the labels rarer 12"s, so unfortunately you have to listen to a rip off of a very worn copy, but I think the scratches give it a little extra depth.

Starshine - All I Need Is You (Instrumental)