Here is another one-off funk track from a producer who quit while he was ahead and moved on to the greener pastures of the hip hop industry. Michael McCray aka Mike Fresh released one track for New York based Top Flight Records in 1982. This tune is boogie perfection with great synthesizer arrangements and a certain flavor that only seems to come from Florida producers. There are a couple different versions of this 12", apparently the original black/silver version is even noisier than the also lo-fi but improved red label pressing.

To the best of my knowledge Mike Fresh McCray still lives in Miami where he runs Mike Fresh Productions. Based on a photo on his myspace page a more recent claim to fame may be some production credit on the New Jack City soundtrack. He continues to produce for local rappers, if you need some beats get at him!

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

Here is an interesting track by Funktion Freeks on Purple Reign Records, released in 1986. Wet dreams make for bizarre songwriting material, but maybe his bedroom looks like the one pictured above with 1937 Altec /Lansing/RCA horn system powered by a Marantz 8B. Lots of drum machine clatter in there and lots of jankeyness. It is definitely halfway between garage house and freestyle. It catches its stride in the final third.

Funktion Freeks - So Hard Up For Your Love

This is a self produced track by Miami artist Michael Sterling. It was released by Success Records in 1983. This track combines a pop lock'n beat, great modern soul vocals, and a little garage house flavor to create a really unique sound. The cop sirens would become a theme later in his career as he played bass in Inner Circle, who is responsible for the pseudo reggae track Bad Boys (What Cha Gonna Do). Sterling is still making music, but his output seems to be strictly limited to smooth jamz.

I have been interested in the pre-Miami Bass sound from this region for a while, and this track makes me to dive deeper to see what else is out there. Also, a portion of this cut sounds pretty good as a ringtone.

Michael Sterling - Desperate
Ringtone