I tried long and hard (about 15 minutes) to find a good disco track for you to listen to while you celebrate 4/20 but I quickly came to the conclusion that the genres of rock, rap, and reggae will probably have you better covered. Listen to Cypress Hill tonight and listen to this track tomorrow. You don't want to see Beat Electricians on the pot, they can't handle it. I don't know much about this cut; I don't even know how to pronounce the artist. I do know that is came out on Partytime records in 1983, it was written and produced by a couple of nobodys and mixed by Jimmy Simpson, who also mixed a couple of GQ 12"s. I did a slight edit to this track. Nhytjar - All In Fun (Instrumental Edit)
It's Los Angeles, the year is 1984 and the city is hosting the olympic games, but outside of the many media spot lights constantly being shone upon LA county, residents and key members of the west coast electro movement, Andre Manuel (The Unknown DJ) and Louis (Three D) King, are forming Technohop records. Launch pad for artists such as Ice T, and a label that would blur the lines between old school west coast hip hop, early techno and house. It all resulted in me having lots of cool tracks and lots of stock photos of people in awesome looking running gear to choose from for the post. Here is a selection from 1987's 'Best Of Technohop' plus some bonuses:
(The technohop copyright holders asked us to take these mp3 links down. They are now selling their re-releases through juno.co.uk)
I am not quite sure why the members of Young & Co. released a couple of 12"s under the Joy alias, but that seemed the fashion for the loose coalition of artists that formed the groups Aurra, Slave, Steve Arrington's Hall of Fame and the aforementioned Company formed in 1979 by the Young brothers. This 1982 release on the bands own Eastern Records is one of my all time favorite boogie joints, period. It certainly didn't hurt that the powerhouse Young & Co. team featured one of the heaviest bass players in the history of soul music, Buddy Hankerson. Now feel free lose your shit to the below video:
Young & Co. still tour to this day and Buddy also has his own project The Buddy Hank band. I am particularly fond of their blown out 1990's 1.0 web page. Also thrown in for good measure is Sending My Love by Pleasure because either it was collecting dust in my rips folder or maybe it is the perfect response to I Need Your Love's call.
This 1979 disco tune by the female power trio Stargard came out on Warner Brothers in 1979. The track was co-produced by Verdine White of Earth Wind & Fire. I have always loved the stomp and the yacht cruising feel of this cut but have never liked the guitar solo. So here is an edit without that nonsense. I plan on editing the vocal version in the future. Stargard - Wear It Out - Instrumental (LeBaron Edit)
Lyrically disco funk wasn't all about 'good times' and escapist hedonism. In practice it was I would assume, these tracks were for the dancefloor, but those acts that were born out of the urban funk and r'n'b scenes carried over some of the subject matter in their song writing that was pertinent to the young people in inner city dancing to and making this music at the time. Here are two upbeat, disco funk dancers that convey the struggle of making it day to day in the turn of the eighties.
Denny Greene's 'The Great Escape' is a real favorite of mine, it has all the hall marks of an expensive, highly collectible record. Its an indie pressing on the small Lenox Ave. records print, with it's two tone picture sleeve, hard boogie down backing percussion and moog lead breakdowns. Yet for some reason 'The Great Escape', Denny's only solo 12" that I know of, and his solo LP, go for a buck or two whenever I come across them. There is no justice. Especially considering one half of the album is great, slightly dusted indie disco and the other well written soulful reggae, I thought people were all over that. The Great Escape's powerful vocals hit hard and do justice to the instrumental... people dying, all the time, to skag and blow and pils and wine.. I have no idea what happened to Denny Greene despite trying to track him down. If anyone knows please leave a comment.
Next is the more known and sought after bboy historian favorite Prince Charles & The City Beat Band with 'In The Streets' on Greyhound Record Productions. This one is quirky, even to the point that it has it's labels on back to front so I ended up having to record both sides having accidental recorded the instrumental instead of the vocal. Double bonus for you:
This is a great 1983 track that came out on Mango records in 1983. It has a proto garage sound with a dark synth bass and cosmic synth sounds. It also has a really long janky keyboard solo up front that I love. Sorry my copy(s) are so jacked, I tried my best to remove the pops. Affinity - Don't Go Away (Runaway Dub)
So Black Shag already plugged the upcoming House Arrest event in his excellent Z Factor post on Monday. I will let you read the listing below if you want more details about San Francisco's first epic house music party of 1989.
It seems we only post tracks from modern artists maybe once a year at BE and in my opinion this duo is well deserving of that slot. Azari & III's fresh update on the early Chicago House and Detroit Techno sounds has struck a large chord with us over here. Expect many more deep synth stabs from these wizards in the not so distant future. Azari & III - She's An Illusion Azari & III - Hungry For The Power
There is a mainstream revival of the classic 909 driven Chicago house sound at the moment, which most of you probably are more aware of than me, but some of the popular stuff that has crossed over recently doesn't sound so much inspired by mid to late eighties Chicago house so much as is mid to late eighties Chicago house in higher fidelity, and that's fine by me.
As such we are hosting Azari & III this Friday at Mezzanine in San Francisco, and I will be spinning alongside Jeno, Solar, Conor, Ken Vulsion and Derrick Love, it'll be a blast. If your not a San Francisco local or Euro holiday maker passing through, simply came here for the mp3's and don't give a shit about our party or the local hero line up (myself humbly excluded) then no apologies are given, as you are still better off for it, because it inspired me to record my beaten copy of Z Factor's Fast Cars for this post. Argued by academics to be the first ever house record made available to the public.
Z Factor included Vincent Lawrence and Jesse Saunders, two names that are well documented in the music history books and there are great interviews and accounts of that time in 1982/83/84 and what they achieved. Both would have been in their late teens when Jesse Saunders joined the new wave synth punk band Z Factor in Vince's father's studio, the owner of Mitchball records, the label that put out the promo I have, at the time a small soul and Chicago blues print. Some say 'On and On', Z Factor's follow up record is the first true house recording, a tape edit of some rhythms that Jesse Saunders would loop in the south side clubs during his sets at the time, but you can certainly hear the foundation for what was coming here in this rare 1983 release:
I had initially conceptualized this post as a means to reveal that both Black Shag and myself must be Ray Caviano's illegitimate children due to our shared reputations as scoundrel's. Now of course we draw the line long before ripping anyone off least of all Jimmy Ross. Leaving Jimmy stranded and broke in New York City only to be deported seems just a little extreme. Oddly enough the many negative comments about Caviano accrued on the last Beat Electric RFC post have now mysteriously disappeared leaving his scoundrel status somewhat dubious. Still it seems hard to deny, enough old schoolers in the know reached out to us and explained in detail what a crooked bastard this guy was.
That said, Caviano had a pretty good ear for talent. Here are a few key tracks from the partnership of RFC and Toronto based Quality Records. I now ask each of you to find it in your hearts to send A Number of Names a paypal donation or drop Monica Thornton a modest check in the mailas it seems clear Ray Caviano wasn't much into making good on his artists royalty payments.
Beat Electric is all about these Italo versions of yacht rock classics. Here we have our favorite rendition of a Chicago classic with a sultry sexy treatment that almost makes the listener want to commit suicide. Next is probably the first mash up ever. What happens when you mix Michael Jackson with Steely Dan? Tough question, but we are sure you will clown fools when you play it in the club tonight.
We have put up some early eighties offerings from New Orleans disco funk outfit Chocolate Milk before, but I flipped over their 12" 'Who's Getting It Now' this afternoon and was reminded of how funky the instrumental is. A great long running hi hat driven intro for the DJ's amongst us. I heard these guys reformed and played some shows around Louisiana a couple of years back, I wonder if they ever make it out of their home state.
As an added weekend bonus here are some 1980 cosmic disco sound library joints from Gianni Safred, Django Reinhardt's keyboard player (?).
The one theme of continuity between the two tracks that I'am posting today are that firstly, they were both in front of me as I had recently listened to them, and secondly they are both high energy dancers but from opposite disco epochs, 1977 for Bionic Boogie's 'Boogie Boo' and..well, I don't know when the DJ Peebo did his JDC released "U.S Remix" of German new wave pop band Boytronic'sBryllyant as it's not on the label, I'm guessing 1987. Maybe I'm clutching at straws for a thin connection between the two simply because I wanted to post more than one records and didn't want to think hard about it. Oh, wait, they both have lots of B's in their names and titles. That's good enough for me.
A really sick 7 inch featured here from Pittsburgh, PA unit The Assignment. Released in '87, Jammin' to the Beat was the groups first release and quite notable as it so nicely bridged the gap between lo fi boogie and late 80's electric funk. The band released a few more singles and experienced regional notoriety but never quite broke through on the national stage. If you want to dig a little deeper on The Assignment, I found a pretty sweet bio page with some lo-res scans of the band (featuring members Chill Bill, Fly Ty and Cookie) in full Prince-esque splendor. The Assignment - Jammin' To The Beat The Assignment - Keep Jammin' To The Beat
I am leaving for vacation France on Thursday and thought it would be a good time to post this edit of a 1968 Serge Gainsbourg song. This cut was written for the soundtrack of the classic film La Pacha. I have no idea what he is saying, but apparently it is a funeral speech at the burial of an asshole and there are no holds barred. Let me know if there if something fun going on in Nice this weekend! Serge Gainsbourg - Requiem Pour Un C... (LeBaron Edit)
Sunfire is probably the least heralded and hardest to come by project of Reggie Lucas, former Miles Davis band member and production partner of percussionist Mtume, whom he met whilst they both played for Davis. his best known work probably being Madonna's 1983 debut album. Both these tracks were taken from Sunfire's self titled and only album. There is a 12" of Shake Your Body out there (somewhere) which is well worth tracking down. I love the beautiful synth work on the album, its like a perfect balance between newer electronic sounds that were coming in and more traditional funk live sound that was already well established.
Reggie Lucas founded Quantum studios in New Jersey, which now famously is used for all the big selling lovely new jersey scene screamo core punk emo goth whatever that comes out of that part of the world, and teaches at the music department in Montclair University. (source - the internets)
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.
Nicky Siano was one of the first DJs to mix records and owned the legendary club The Gallery in Manhattan which he opened in 1972. He was the most proficient DJ of the era and mentored both Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan. His sound system, which was a scaled up version of the one at the loft is thought by many to be the best sounding club system ever. Nicky had isolators and crossovers set to tweak the sound in his live sets which he mixed on three turntables. The club set the standard and predated the legendary clubs Zanzibar, Studio 54, and The Paradise Garage.
Nicky set another benchmark when he became the first DJ to produce a record. Arthur Russeland Nicky released Kiss Me Again by Dinosaur in 1978 on Sire Records. Guitar work is done by David Byrne. Nicky put a couple of records out under his own and this one from 1986 has a strange Ultravox meets pop disco sound.
I think this tune was written to be the perfect car chase or karate fight scene song for a late 70's cop show. It came out on Shady Brook Records in 1977 by a group known as S.S.O. or The S.S.O. Orchestra. Their name is an abbreviation The Soul Sensation Orchestra, so the later name is redundant. I like the blaxploitation feel and the jazz funk sound that is going on. Vocals are executed by The Sugar Sisters. The track was produced by Roland Kruger, who also produced Que Tal America and other tunes by by Two Man Sound.
Broccoli Rabe Records is still in business to this day, although now I believe the co-founder, Brian Drago, runs it as a post production and film scoring facility in it's home of Fairfield, New Jersey. Yet for a period in the early 80's Broccoli Rabe turned out some now much sought after east coast style synth funk and proto rap records.
I have seen L'Amour's Let's Make Love Tonight turn up elsewhere on the internet recently, but the vocal side that has been posted around is a little campy for my tastes, and I tend to play the 'remix version' on the flip, which is more of a dub with just extracts of the chorus. Hope you enjoy:
I recently came to the realization that we haven't explicitly covered the band Slave here in the several years since BE's inception. Now our omission can be justifiable to a point. Slave is a rather obvious group from the era, but a damn important one at that. Hailing from Dayton Ohio circa 1975, Slave were one of a handful of 70's artists that set the foundation for the Boogie-Funk sound as we know it. A common record no doubt but thanks in large part to Steve Arrington's vocals and the bands top notch arrangement, Feel My Love delivers in a big way. As Slave continued to hit new peaks in the early 80's their "Fearless Leader" Steve Washington left the band to form the equally killer group, Aurra. By request I also am posting Baby Love a prime Aurra track from 1983 with a b-side Mastermix by Shep Pettibone to boot.
This jam by The Bang Gang came out on Sugarscoop in 1981. It is an early track produced by the most prolific dance music producer of the 80s and 90s; Bobby Orlando. This track has a much more black and boogie oriented feel than the Hi NRG sound for which he is known. His most notable release was Passion by the Flirts. Bobby O has an interesting story. It turns out he was a religious, raging homophobe, but made the gayest music known to man. Being a short, sober man of epic self confidence, he set up lots of labels and produced lots of music just for the payday. I stumbled upon this amazing quote by the narcissist that was originally printed in music magazine The Face in 1987: "I regard each record I make as worthless and useless just like anybody else’s"..."Anybody who thinks that their music is something special is worshiping a false doctrine. There is nothing that any artist can say that is really of any importance because anything other than God’s word is laced with the evil and has to regarded as sin tainted." Click HERE for the article. The Bang Gang - Street Music The Bang Gang - Street Music (Instrumental)
I finally unpacked my records, but managed to put each and every individual cable I needed to get the home rig set up in a separate box, as if I was, at the time of packing, playing a stupid joke on myself. It was quite funny, costing me a day of my stupid life. Look what I found though in the back of a an old microwave box marked as containing kitchen utensils, another New York scene synth classic.
It's Heavy! is the dub instrumental on the flip of Barbara Norris's Heavy Hitter, the vocal side of which I saw bootlegged in the UK or Belgium a couple of years ago, but the campy hi-nrg vocals don't do justice to the synth funk instrumental. I have no idea why the first couple of bars of my copy of the record sound so crackly and beaten, I remember it being pristine when I found it. Its probably just an indicator of how many times I have dropped this in a set, spilt beer on it, put an overweighted, thrashed club needle on it and enjoyed listening to it since first having the fortune of pulling it out of a crate in San Mateo:
Jocelyn Brown is a bad ass. The beginning of this song is just stunning and rarely has a song about two timing love been so upbeat. "Somebody Elses Guy" was released in 1984 and peaked at #2 on the US R&B charts. It's not exactly a difficult record to find, I found it in a dollar bin, but it's a song that has that sound, that hook and instrumentation that sticks with you and I can't help but clap and sing along "OoohhhhI can't get off my high horse aaand I can't let go. You aaare the one who makes me feeel soo reeal." The break down really takes the song into a cool groove that just makes it even more danceable, the kind where one closes their eyes and enjoys a few minutes in a zone on the floor.
Just when I thought I was out of high caliber boogie records to post I went digging through my crates tonite and found this jam on Prism subsidiary Snowflake Records. Another one off track by the husband and wife team of Curtis and Laurice Hudson, Feel My Love apparently got a good amount of airplay on Kiss FM in NYC during the hottest summer for music on record, 1982.
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.
After hearing the disturbing news that several mp3 blogs were decimated last night by our friends at Skynet, I am stepping out of my cave this evening to mourn and wallow with some oblivious party toddlers. Therefore I ask forgiveness for the brevity.
So Different is a modern soul stepper on Sound of New York Records from Kevin Bassett aka Kinky Foxx. Complete with a "Sure Shot Mix" by Tony Humphries, this was Foxx's only known release. I suppose if you are going to cut only one single in your career, might as well make it a winner.
Addendum:
Our friend Matt from Montreal shared an email he received about the band from a gentleman that worked at the club where Kinky Foxx kept a residency in the early 80's. Here goes:
I worked at Checkers from '81-'87, and the Kinky Foxx effect took hold maybe in '82. Their big heyday was maybe for the 2/3 years following, though they kept showing up as long as I worked there.
When they first came up, Johnny Kemp was the lead vox but he left 'em when they more or less moved up here, and was replaced by Vincent Lilly (who sings on So Different.) Personally, I liked 'em more with Johnny, as Vincent was a bit of an MJ clone, but they were still a fierce live band (and I mean live: trap drums, percussions, slap bass, Jimmy Nolen-style rhythm guit & Ernie Isley/Eddie Hazel wailing lead, keys...) Rhythm guit Kevin Clarence Basset (who wrote So Diff) sang great lead on a few, which were the highlights for me: Champagne's Try Again, Rick James' Ghetto Life etc.
As a live band they were every bit as good as Cameo, or whoever you might name from that era, but they never got the break to get out of the bars. They worked a fuck of a lot in bars, though. One night I turned 'em all onto 'shrooms, which (to my surprise) they'd never encountered in NYC: half of them loved it, and the other half wanted to kill me!
It was intense times to be around for sure, but just think: if you'd been there then, you'd be old (or dead) now! I still have some pretty much equally intense times, but obviously everything's that much larger than life when you're 20 than when you're more'n twice that. I wish I'd taped a few KF shows: I still remember them really vividly, but I can't make you a dub of that! Kinky Foxx - So Different (Tony Humphries Sure Shot Mix)
This is a heavy cosmic disco track that is almost guaranteed to get you laid this Valentine's Day. Demis has had a long and storied career of swooning schmaltzy tunes but he put out a couple of great disco records. You can find another one of his tracks in the tags section. Also here is a slow jam to help you seal the deal. Demis Roussos - L.O.V.E Got A Hold Of Me Zapp - Computer Love
With its anthemic backing track and trippy sped up vocals, Lady Bug is considered by many to be a definitive disco banger. I have always been somewhat dubious of the chipmunk style vocals but Patrick Adams and Greg Carmichael's incredible production work definitely breaks through. There were many 12" versions pressed upon its release in 1978, including the original on Greg Carmichael's Red Greg and a later RCA pressing featuring remix work from two of New York City's hottest DJ's at the time: John Morales and Larry Levan. These were both very early remix gigs for Morales and Levan and in my humble opinion Morales's hypnotic dancefloor mix shines brighter than Levan's more sparse version. UK label BBE recently issued a stellar comp featuring classic Morales remixes and a bunch of unreleased M&M session mixes from the era.
Legendary dance music label Mirage Records was formed in 1980 by brother Bob and Jerry Greenberg, Bob holding down the West coast and Jerry setting up office in the East. Jerry had previously been the youngest ever major record company executive, moving to the top position at Atlantic Records at age 32, and both brothers had storied careers in the music and entertainment industry that continues to this day. They have restaurants in Vegas and Jerry was involved in Michael Jackson's music rights holding company, sitting as chairman for Michael throughout the 90's.
Mirage was famous for producing underground electro funk and freestyle records that successfully crossed over to the mainstream. A couple of years ago John Morales remastered a selection of Mirage releases from the original tapes for the small indie re-release label FTG (Funky Town Grooves) records, which released them as an under the radar CD compilation series in the UK. They look like low quality bootlegs from the photoshopped, cheaply printed covers, but they are legit. Please seek these out and buy all 3 volumes so I don't feel so bad about posting a few of these great remasters.
These tracks may be a bit too smooth for some of you, but Valentines Day is coming up so all you foos better get with the program. Cecil and Linda Womack make up the husband and wife duo Womack & Womack. Linda Womack is the late Sam Cooke's daughter and Cecil's brother Bobby Womack is a well known R&B artist. There are quite a few scandals that surround the family and as it turns out, Linda is Cecil's niece through marriage.
Womack & Womack have a very unique sound that seems to blend modern soul, country, and pop seamlessly. There is a lot of Sam Cook influence in there as well. I first heard Conscience of My Conscience in the Henrik Schwarz DJ Kicks and it remains one of my favorite jamz. I picked up the Strange and Funny 12" a while back and I love its country soul vibe. Teardrops is a dancefloor ready tune that was recently covered (and surprisingly, not in an "ironic" indie way) by the xx.
Using a picture of a tricked out, synthesizer laden studio from 1987 is a little misrepresentative of a orchestral disco track from 1977, but I like pictures of machines and the artist behind the track in question, Mike Theodore, doesn't have many redeeming mug shots laying around the internet. I did find one from Soul And Blues Magazine, but it makes him look like a cheerful college professor and doesn't give him the druggy, edgy, party genius sheen that we like to impose on our borrowed remembrance of every figure form this era. The photo was all in focus and he was smiling.
The Bull is from Cosmic Wind, The Mike Theodore Orchestra's debut LP. It was used as the entry music for an NFL player of the time, also nicknamed The Bull, and would play whenever he ran onto the field, the vocals were sung by a local belly dancer the guys in the band had met at the Playboy Club whilst on a night out shortly before recording.
Starting slow and then building into a full on, jam packed disco groove, "Get Another Love" was Chantal Curtis' biggest hit. The version posted here is a 12" promo single from 1979 on Key Records. Chantal and producer Pierre Jaubert created a sexy and sultry full-bodied song. I love all the instrumentation and breaks and how totally wickedly amazing the harmonica sounds. Everything in this song just sways and has some sort of passionate, languid confidence that makes it a real gem.
The Guardian Angels are a vigilante force probably formed in Norwich, Norfolk in 1979, during the height of the disco era, as a public response to violent social decay and increased crime on the Sanders Coach line between Horsford and Cromer.
The Guardian Angel movement soon spread to other major world cities such as New York, Los Angeles and even here in San Francisco, where ordinary citizens dressed in distinctive red berets and trained in self defense would patrol the streets, turning the tide of intimidation and filling a void left by the under staffed police forces.
Such an icon of the time were the Guardian Angels, protecting party goers on the late night subway lines, that several hit songs and dance records of the day were dedicated to and inspired by them. Here are two of the best, P&P disco funk classic 'The Guardian Angel Is Watching Over Us' by The Golden Flamingo Orchestra and my own edit of the much lesser known italo influenced 'Angel Man' by Rhetta Hughes:
This release compiled and edited by Ron Hardy in 1989 showcased some of Frankie Knuckle's finest work on the groundbreaking Chicago label, Trax Records. From his time as the house DJ at Chicago's legendary Warehouse club circa '77-'82, Knuckles was at the forefront of the original and only legit American House music movement. Nowadays Knuckles has a fetish for chillin' out in his ample collection of Louis Vuitton gear. I scored his cell phone number from my friend who works in the LV call center but I haven't had the nerve yet to cold call him and fire up a conversation. Anyways, my apologies for the somewhat dicey quality of these recordings. I picked this sealed copy up at a flea market but most Trax records were cheap shit and I think they forgot to master the recordings for the wax pressings. I believe that was actually a big part of the label's charm.
This Plastic Bertrand edit by the late great Ron Hardy has a loop that you can listen to forever. It evokes a patient dance floor full of enchanted people. Here also is a mix is from Ron Hardy's own club in Chicago, the Music Box which was in the old home of the Powerplant. This mix really well represents his playful and eclectic mixing style. Plastic Bertrand - Stop Ou Encore (Ron Hardy Re-Edit)
Playlist: 1. Nightlife Unlimited: Peaches & Prunes (edit) 2. Two of China: Los Niños Del Parque (Tormenta-Mix) 3. Virgo: Free Yourself 4. Frankie Knuckles: It’s A Cold World 5. Frankie Knuckles: Baby Wants to Ride 6. Tempest Trio: Do You Like The Way It Feels 7. Hercules: 7 Ways 8. The Originals: Down To Love Town (edit) 9. Parlet: Pleasure Principle 10. Sleeque: One for the Money 11. Carl Bean: I Was Born This Way (Better Days Version) 12. Billy Paul: Only the Strong Survive (edit) 13. Loleatta Holloway: Catch Me on the Rebound (Disco Madness Remix edit) 14. Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes: Don’t Leave Me This Way 15. Loose Joints: Is It All Over My Face (Male Version/Female Version)/reversed 16. Blue Magic: Welcome to the Club (edit) 17. Teddy Pendergrass: The More I Get, The More I Want (edit) Ron Hardy - Live at the Music Box 1986
We lost another soul great. There are obituaries for Teddy Pendergrass all over the media right now, and I'm no authority so I will refrain from trying to cut and paste his life story from other sources, but in tribute I'm going to put up my favorite electro funk tinged number from his 1983 Heaven Only Knows album on CBS:
Teddy Pendergrass - You And Me For Right Now
.. and seeing as I'm putting up music from unsung major label modern soul heroes, here is an instrumental British offering from 1987:
Beyond the fact that singer/guitarist Steve Shelto (or Mr. Class as he is now known) recorded an exceptional 12" for Sam records in 1983, he also managed to perform at Ronald Reagan's 2nd inauguration and the Queen of England's 60th birthday party. Not bad for a guy with one solo 12" and a only a couple of releases with his previous band Area Code (212). These days you can find Steve as an extra in the upcoming Will Ferrel film The Other Guys and performing with his band during tourist season in Naples, Florida. Nice one. Steve Shelto - Don't You Give Your Love Away (Shep Pettibone Mix) Steve Shelto -Don't You Give Your Love Away (Instrumental)
This lazer soul jam was released in 1985 on Genius Records, a Macola subsidiary. This track was born in the days of ultra slick modern soul production. It could have done without the guitar solo, but nevertheless, it would be a good track for a good old fashioned dance off.
The not so aptly titled Wreckin' Crew formed in Chicago, Il. in the late 70's and you can read their bio here. At least regionally Found The Groove was a fairly well known boogie-funk cut that was released in 1981 on several different imprints including this 7" version on private Chicago label Starville. We received an email a while back requesting we post the b-side modern soul cut You Don't Care as it was included on the Funkacise mix LeBaron and I put out early last year. After giving it a listen the other nite I came to the conclusion that edits were in order for both sides of this 7". You Don't Care was a minor one, a bad horn solo desperately needed removal. Found the Groove on the other hand needed pretty major surgery. Some outdated P-Funk bits and a shit chorus made a potentially stellar track fall flat.
Happy New Year from B.E, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves to excess. I guess this is the first post of 2010, so to keep things in a jubilant, optimistic mood I'm going to post a feel good proto boogie number, yet again, from the West End stable.
I Get Lifted was written by H.W Casey and Rick Finch of K.C and the Sunshine Band fame, and comes with a mix by label owner Mel Cheren himself.
The late Ray Caviano was the A&R man for T.K. Records and its offshoot Marlin during the peak 70's disco era signing Voyage, Kat Mandu and a slew of other artists. Caviano left T.K. in 1978 to become the Executive Director of Disco (dream job) at Warner Brothers Records. Warner gave him his own imprint RFC Records titled after his initials. Caviano executive produced many LP's and 12"s in the late 70's/early 80's for Warner/Atlantic and struck up a partnership with Quality Records in Canada with some notable releases from Jimmy Ross and A Number of Names amongst others. Today I am posting a few jams from the RFC/Atlantic stable circa '81-'83. All told, if you are out hunting for disco or boogie 12's and see the RFC imprint it's quite likely you will have a pretty decent cut on your hands. Tomorrow's Edition - U Turn Me On Prestige - Cheating Suzy Q - Get On Up Do It Again Attitude - We Got The Juice Change - This Is Your Time
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.
So this is a picture of classical jazz pianist Oscar Peterson with the Roland TB-303 and TR-606, taken from the original Roland brochure in 1982. This is what they intended the machines to be used for when they designed them I suppose, and Oscar is probably smiling, wondering when this easy money photoshoot will be over so he can go back to the studio and lay it down with a real drummer and bass player. I doubt many Oscar Peterson's bothered picking up either machine, but they did take off, hence the blog exists probably. I just thought the photo was funny in retrospect, it would have been cool if old bebop guys in tuxedos jammed on the 303 a little more.
I'm putting up a soulful electro boogie jam by Chuck Stanley, produced in 1984, two years before his Def Jam era began, and two records I found whilst digging recently, a proto techno number from Egyptian Lover named Computer Love, and a novelty electro instrumental mashup from Italy of Chic's Good Times with Stevie Wonder's Superstition (ha! no its good) :
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.
This track led to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis getting kicked out of The Time. The two band mates produced this record while on a brief hiatus when they were in Prince's group The Time. After this recording session, they got stuck in a blizzard and were stranded in Atlanta; unable to meet the band for their next tour date. Prince fired them. The subsequent success of this record launched their long production career.
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had an amazing ability take an act that had disappeared into mediocrity and mold into a powerful force. The duo rescued the S.O.S. band from workout disco obscurity when they penned this jam that was released on Tabu in 1983. This track is the epitome of their lazer soul sound that went on change the face of R&B into the late 80's. The S.O.S. Band - Just Be Good To Me (Long Version)
