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.

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)

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)

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).

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)

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 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

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

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 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

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

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)

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)

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

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

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..

Taken down at the request of the rights holders, who were very nice about it. Sorry folks.

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)

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)

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

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

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)

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)

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

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

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

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)

Bronner Brothers - Pretty Boys

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

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

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)

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

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)

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?

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)

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

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 

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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