It's been a busy week since I got back from D.C. and I finally had a minute to record a few tracks to share here. I had a great time out there, got a chance to look at records almost every day of my visit, saw the Earcave in person, and got to meet the Beautiful Swimmers. The cherry on top of the trip was a private show from George Smallwood in his home a few hours before my return flight.

 Som Records is the best shop in D.C. I loaded up a healthy stack of twelve inches including many local go-go funk records that are obviously everywhere in their home town but a bit harder to find here on the west coast. Here are two of my favorite local finds. Master Jam released two singles on local D.C. micro label 2nd To None. "Celebrity Funk" is a cool vocoder instrumental on the one-off DOC label.

Master Jam - Freak With You

Chris Thomas - Celebrity Funk (instrumental)

 Here is a dollar bin sleeper. Private Sector were a New Jersey scene punk'ish new wave act that played under a couple of different names in the clubs, Odin, The Proof etc depending on the style of music and clientele they were playing for.

 Like A Ton Of Bricks was their first of two singles, coming out in 1983 on the not insignificant and one day to be bought by Sony,  Relativity Records. There is a 1986 single and a 1987 album, but nothing else they did was as funky as this instrumental B side.

Private Sector - Bricks Mix (Instrumental)

  Gospel-boogie is a style overridden with more tepid one tracker LPs than regular non-gospel boogie, which is quite an accomplishment. It is all too often that these records step over the bounds of cheesiness outweighing any small nugget of that certain sound we all look for.  There are still some quality tunes out there waiting to be rescued from a wasteland of Savoy and Light label junk.  Black Shag already posted one of the uncontested heavyweights of the genre.

  I found another cheap copy of Kenny Smith's Witness LP a few days ago, a record I hadn't touched since I made this mix nearly a year ago. At that time I was pulling things out on the fly and the first track sounded good, so in the mix it went. This weekend I spent a little more time with the record and realized its actually pretty solid, there are several strong tracks which in my mind automatically places it in the upper 10% of any boogie type record. The title track "Witness" is possibly the best. If you can hang past the sax solo at the beginning you'll be treated to some shimmering 1986 production and vocals that are mercifully subtle in their Jesus-related subject matter.

Kenny Smith - Witness

 Here is a dollar bin secret weapon dub that in some alternate reality I use to vanquish and smite my enemies, sending fronting nineties revivalists to the mead halls of Valhalla to sing tales of my greatness. But, seeing as that doesn't really happen, you can have it.

 Manchester Brit funk act 52nd Street have some good instrumentals, but this 1986 B side I think is their best. It marks the first UK effort at the still young 'Haunted House' genre, partly inspired by the glut of 80's straight to VHS gore flicks of the time but probably mostly inspired by the heroic amounts of loot Thriller made earlier in the decade. This vocal on this one has some lyrics about have amnesia and being really scared and the dub keeps some of the screams and spooky key stabs here and there, but you can barely tell, it actually gives it some flavor.

52nd Street - You're My Last Chance (Reprieved Dub)

 Digging in San Francisco means dredging through a lot of shit Hi NRG records, I have accidentally bought so many in the belief that they were something else that I have actually developed a taste for it. I consider myself a Hi NRG connoisseur, like eating food in prison after at some point during your ten year bid your palette changes as a survival response.

 That being said, San Francisco DJ's in decades past would also pick up more Italo records than most of their contemporaries in other West Coast cities at the time, the boys in the clubs and bath houses liked that sound, and from time to time when I look through collections here in the Castro district where I live, amongst the Barbara Streisand singles, next to 20 copies of Karen Young's Hot Shot, I will come up.

 Yesterday I found a clutch of cheese euro disco, electro and italo records that were all marked on the labels as belonging to 'Levi', I couldn't find a historical documented account of there being a significant DJ named Levi in San Francisco in the very early eighties, but if you know different please leave a comment. From the bunch I liked this instrumental of Freedom by Thanya the most, there are some good bass elements in the vocal version that are missing in the instrumental, but the vocal itself is a little harsh, can't have everything..

Thanya - Freedom (Instrumental)

Omar - P.M. Affair

 I didn't find this one at a thrift store or swap meet in San Francisco, I'll be real for a minute, I bought it on ebay.

 There now thats out of the way, we can all move on. As with (nearly) all the afro funk in my collection, which I love, I had to yearn for it over many years before finally succumbing to the fact that I was never going to pull it out of a box in some California backwater, suck it up, save my pocket money, and buy it off a Nigerian dentistry student living in Frankfurt.

 Oby Onyioha was the daughter of a West African spiritual leader, His Holiness Ogbaja Kama Onu Kama Onyioha, prophet of the Godian faith. Which isn't something you hear every day.

 These tracks are taken from her 1981 LP, 'I Want To Feel Your Love'.

Oby Onyioha - Enjoy Your Life

 I found this track at the tail end of a weird 1982 new wave compilation out of Japan. It looks to be pressed by Toshiba, as in the people who make the washing machines, so what there connection was to electro dance pop at the time I don't know, but if anyone has any other electronic music compilations put out by home utensil manufacturer please let me know.

 Logic System was the solo project of Hideki Matsutake, a synthesizer technician who worked for Tomita and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Before I was about to post this up I saw that this particular track had already seen a reissue in 2011, but it seems it was all remixes and they never included the original cut, so here it is..

Logic System - Clash

James Bratton and Joel Washington are probably best known for their garage and New Jersey scene house of the late eighties, but thats sort of outside of my wheelhouse and I haven't really heard much of what they did later in their careers. I know them for their first project, Illusion Of A Band, an electro funk act that put out a couple of records in 1985, which had a definite proto house sound.

'Work Me' is the one Illusion Of A Band cut that I own, and I don't own the 12" with the club mix on, but the 7" I have does have an instrumental, which the 12" doesn't. So I tell myself its better.

Illusion Of A Band - Work Me (Vocal)
Illusion Of A Band - Work Me (Instrumental)

Has anyone made a football-themed boogie mix? I don't have enough songs for a solid mix yet but maybe with help from readers we can put one together. Here is one quality track recorded by five members of the San Diego Chargers in 1981. To me there are two strong tracks on their LP with lyrics that could be about romance or football.  If you are down to participate please drop a comment with your favorite (quality) boogie tracks made by football players or about football. Please no "Superbowl Shuffle".

Hi-Five - We Came To Play.mp3

 The Earls are a Doo Wop band from The Bronx, New York. They still play, and their blue eyed soul is still popular on the oldies circuit. Sometimes its overlooked that past decades also had their revival movements, and I suppose The Earls rode a wave of Doo Wop nostalgia in the late nineteen seventies, re-forming and putting out a few releases that included this contemporary disco number for the kids.

Lead singer, Larry Chance, currently has an album out entitled 'Larry Chance Sings Country', which I checked out on youtube and will be reviewing in a future post.

The Earls - The Continental 

Here is an obscure g-funk gem from Little Rock, AR from an unknown year, presumably early eighties.  This track has a classic mellow slower kick-clap groove. Hang on for one of the greatest breakdowns ever with soaring Junie Morrison style synth whine. Big thank you to Eddy Funkster for hooking me up with this rare 45.

Future - Girl

 This was a weird score to make in backwoods Northern California, a rare'ish UK boogie 12" that I would have thought would have been limited to those lucky enough to come across it in an East London charity shop or hanging up on a record store wall in plastic, priced in euros somewhere, but who am I to argue with divine providence, I'll take it.

 Claudia put out a couple of funk singles on the Ilford, Essex based Rhythmic Records, an obscure new wave punk label run by the members of British industrial band Portion Control. I had heard Don't Give Up (Your Love) before on some mixtape and its around on the internet, but hadn't heard the more electro sounding B side, Do You Wanna Dance With Me, before anywhere, so it might be it's first appearance on digital, who knows.

Claudia - Don't Give Up (Your Love)
Claudia - Do You Wanna Dance With Me

 I was in the mountains for work over the weekend, there was some time to kill and I went by a record store in a south Lake Tahoe strip mall. Cool story. Anyhow, I dug through a lot of country music and the occasional psych rock piece (the Electric Prunes mono pressings, not bad) before I came across a few twelve inches. It was cold outside and I had already lost my shirt in the casino, so I decided to turn the store upside down whilst one of my co-workers questioned the guy behind the counter about how often he sold VHS tapes.

 This instrumental was on the back of a 1983 dark wavey pop single on Mango records by the German (I believe) Bonk Combo:

Bonk Combo - Car Jam (Electro Jazz Mix)

San Francisco's Reynolds Records was only around for a few years spanning the 1970s, releasing a catalog of strong Bay Area funk and soul material.  Producer, Songwriter and horn player Steve Marshall's first appearance on the label is on this masterpiece of haunting deep soul.  His subsequent releases on the label head straight into disco territory. After cutting two versions of his hit "Maintain" he released an album length statement Do What You Will in 1978.  The LP is a consistent listen start to finish and leaning toward extended instrumental jamming with clean arrangements.  Disco LPs that are solid beginning to end are a rare breed, combine that fact with the small label pressing of this release and we have a bona fide disco grail on our hands. Here are two of my favorite cuts off the record.

Steve Marhsall - Do What You Will

Steve Marhsall - Maintain (LP version)

 Back in the distant past I posted up both the 1982 released Jive rhythm version albums, 'Jive Rhythm Trax' and 'More Jive Rhythm Trax', but I never put up the third in the series, 1983's Jive Scratch Trax, because my copy is beat to shit and I always said I would hold off on the tedious task of ripping all four sides of this double album of electro instrumental dubs until I came across a decent copy. Well I never came by a decent copy, and I refuse to buy one on the internet, so I'm just going to record and put up the one I have, at least it gives you an idea of what its all about.

The first track on the A Side, BPM 117, is especially noisy, but they get better..

1. BPM 117
2. BPM 111
3. BPM 122
4. BPM 120
5. BPM 115
6. BPM 99
7. BPM 110
8. BPM 107
9. BPM 117
10. BPM 120
11. BPM 112
12. BPM 118

 This Greg Henderson production was bootlegged recently, so bare that in mind when you see all the $20 copies floating around on ebay right now. Yes I have a website that gives away other people's music for free, so its hard to criticize but I have been through the licensing process for obscure recordings a couple of times now and know that whomever put this boot out could have gotten it squared away properly if they had just put in a little effort.

I don't know much about vocalist Rome Jefferies, if that was his real name it doesn't seem to come up again after this record was made. Greg Henderson on the other hand had a couple of minor hits that got picked up by SAM and due to said label still having a business entity that deals with copyright his stuff still appears from time to time on European comps etc.

 Good Love never made it off of Greg's own Rain private press imprint, so originals are scarce, but his production is unmistakable and the instrumental on Good Love probably stands out as the best among his work.

Rome Jefferies - Good Love (Instrumental)

 45 minute mini mix of valentine love jams for you.  In typical B.E. fashion these tracks represent the extremes of class and sleaze. Thank you to our friend for providing the lone cassette sourced track on this mix.  Happy valentine's day.

Beat Electric Valentines Mix

JCB Band - Being In Love (86)
Andre Lavonne - I Want Your Love (87)
Roy Ayers - Midnight After Dark (89)
Bobby G - Lollipop Girl (91)
Robbie M - What Is It Girl? (instrumental) (89)
Show And Tell - Sex With Me (9?)
Danté- Freak In Me edit (85)
10dB - I Burn For You (88)
Michael Wycoff - Tell Me Love (83)
Enchantment - Somebody's Loving You (83)
Chas - For Your Love (85)
Sensation! - Lovergirl (instrumental) (8?)
Ingram - Just For You (85)

 Here is another slamming Miami style funk 12" I picked up during the winter holidays while out of town. I wasn't able to find much info on the producer or label, this is likely their only release. There are two copyright years listed, 1983 and 1985. I'm guessing this 12" represents their latest and greatest updated for '85 version. If anyone knows of an earlier mix, perhaps under a different name, please drop a comment.


Gang Gang - To Get Kinky With Me (Mad Mix Instrumental)

 I picked this up yesterday from the bins of a record store in North Beach, not the place with the basement but the other one further up the street. I hadn't heard of it, it was without doubt euro disco, but I chanced it on the basis of the cover alone. When I got home I found that side A had a sped up medley of disco hits from that around that year, 1979, a little harsh, but on the flip there was a good cosmic instrumental. What a nice surprise.

 Turns out I'm a little late to the party on this one,  Discothèque's 'Disco Special' was re-issued as part of Morgan Geist's revival triggering Un Classics series in 2005, but it must have slipped by me at the time.

Discothèque -  Disco Special

Private Eye - I Lose Sleep Over You

 California finally got a break in the weather, it was a long hard winter folks, but B.E wants it's friends in the Mid West the East Coast and in Europe to know that we toughed it out and are doing ok, thank you for all your well wishes and thoughts over the past month and a half.

 In celebration I'm putting up some coked out Cali boogie wave, a smash on San Jose radio in the summer of 1983, the instrumental side of So Wrong, the 12" single from Doobie Brother's guitarist Patrick Simmon's first solo album.

Patrick Simmons - So Wrong (Instrumental)

Willie Colón ‎– Set Fire To Me (Inferno Dub)

  I just got back from a couple weeks out of town and managed to scrape a few cool eighties funk records from some bible belt shops. First up is a Macola-distributed 12" by Kristie, a glossy '85 indie production. Macola-related funk records have a similar disjointed later 80s sound that I can't get enough of.

  Our own Cosmic Champaign is known for spinning Fine Quality's "Aah Dance" in his sets lately. I was stoked to find the generic looking LP including that track along with some other solid cuts from the studio crew behind Sugarhill. "Saturday Night" is one of the better cuts from the LP, written and produced by Bunny Sigler.

  Finally, Osborne & Giles were a short lived duo featuring Billy Osborne from L.T.D. and Attala Giles from Deco. I'm really only feeling this one cut from the LP but it is definitely worth sharing.

Kristie - Head Games

New Guys On The Block - Saturday Night

Osborne & Giles - I Can't Stop This Feeling

 I have the day at home so I took a little time to try and find something festive to record and put up on BE, but after listening to a couple of options I decided that was a bad idea and instead of putting up some garbage for the sake of it I will put up a thrift store score from my walk up Haight Street's record store strip yesterday.

 Captain Sky doesn't really need much talking up, his steez epitomizes everything I love about the era, he wore a sparkly silver cape, had a super hero persona and his funky proto-rap 12"s were thick with synth and super heavy.

 This is the instrumental B-side of an ok sing song sort of disco rap that he put out on WMOT, its basically just the instrumental with session keyboard player Aaron Jamal jamming on a moog for the duration, I like the dreamy piano chords and cosmic edge this has over the forgettable vocal side.

Captain Sky - Station Brake (Innermission)

 Someone was asking for the track listing to a mix I did, and I was a dick and didn't provide it but you have to understand it was mostly due to the fact that we are in negotiation to re-issue something I put on there etc, so I wanted to keep it quiet. They then asked me to at least identify one track in particular, so I thought I would go one better and post it up on here as a sort of apology for being the sort of secretive crate digger snob that B.E proclaims to hate.

Dizzy K has been much written about over the past seven years or so years since the interest in 80's Nigerian funk, soul and synth  really started (I won't say revived, as I doubt there was ever a popular interest in post Fela era Nigerian lo-fi electro funk in the west until now). He is historically significant because he is regarded as the first African artist to rap on record, on 1982's EMI Nigeria released album 'Excuse Me Baby', I own it and it's hard to front like I scored this or any African pressed funk record I own during some basement digging expedition, the reality is they don't exist in California and I bought it on the internet from a Nigerian dentistry student living in Frankfurt.

 I played this one cut off the B side out for many years anytime I was ever stupidly allowed to play at peak hour, but the recycled Lagos pressing plant vinyl isn't holding up to the heavy club needles and it's probably time to retire it before I ruin it forever:

Dizzy K - Link The Boogie

I'm also putting up a slightly pumped up, louder version of an edit I did years ago that I like and seems to end up on some back packer type mixtapes but every time I hear it the volume would suddenly drop, which was embarassing, as it was au naturale and uncompressed or limited, from back when I thought people cared about dynamic range. This is sax legend Benny Golson's I'm Always Dancin To The Music, without all the bits that used to make people stop dancin to the music:

Benny Golson - I'm Always Dancin To The Music (BlackShag edit)

George Butts-I Love You So Much

While listening to Black Shag's incredible Uptown Express mix I realized that since being invited to contribute to Beat Electric back in June 2011 I haven't contributed a mix. On Sunday I grabbed a bunch of records that had been kicking around in my dj boxes and threw this together.  Ranges from some common dollar bin stuff to not so common.  I included a couple gospel boogie tracks to make up for blasting the hifi while a neighboring church was in session.

November 2012 Beat Electric Mix

Live Band - A Chance For Hope
Phase II - Follow Me
United Voice Players - Disco 5000 pt. II
J.D. Hall - Freak On Down
Risan - Eastern Palace Pt. 2
O'mar - Satisfaction
Warren G. Burris ft. Michell - I've Got It
Conway Brothers - Raise The Roof (Instrumental)
Azar Lawrence - Keep It Hot
9th Creation - Maybe
Kenny Smith - Holding On
Black Ivory - Hold On Tight
Chad - Voluptuous
TFO - Friend Of Mine
Junie Morrison - Jarr The Ground
Clockwork - I'm Your Candy Girl (Instrumental)
Funk Deluxe - Part Time Lover
Chas - I'm Going To Give You All Of Me
Lee Moore - Do You Feel Like A Party
Brian & Zan - Pump Your Body
Candye - Lover Boy
Ronnie Diamond & Nu Ohio Players - Playgirl
Rashawn - You're The One
Mint Cookie - Sweet Things to "G"

As far as uptempo gospel boogie goes, I think this is pretty much the alpha and omega of all things. Sanctuary's 'I Am Going To Love Him' is of course written about Jesus, and whomever wrote it obviously felt strongly about the subject matter as the track bangs and is without doubt the best record the ever spotty Montage label put out. In fact I can't think of another good one, maybe that French language cover of Billy Jean as a ten million mile away second place. Tom Browne is the only notable on this cut, his solo lp cut sampled by Coolio or someone from that era, which must have been nice, lucky fellow. He never made much of his solo career but was one of the stand out session guitarists on the circuit, and I think his rhythm part on this is one of his best.

Sanctuary - I'am Going To Love Him (Vocal)
Sanctuary - I'am Going To Love Him (Instrumental)

I'm also putting up a 320kps version of a mix I did for Ulysses32's radio show, Uptown Express, back in March..

The BlackShag - Uptown Express Guest Mix

I know it's passe to still rep Roy Ayers in 2012, but this one still sounds fresh and is one of his harder to find releases. Eighties Ladies was a one off project on Roy Ayers' Uno Melodic label featuring vocals from Sylvia Striplin, Susan Beaubian, Marva Hicks, Vivian Prince, and Denie Corbett. Edwin Birdsong contributed to the production. Definitely a top set of disco funk, here are a couple of my favorite tracks. Hope Soulie likes this one.

Eighties Ladies - Tell Him
Eighties Ladies - It's Easy To Move

 Continuing on the Italo Funk theme with one of my favorites, Tom Hooker. Tom was an American who happened to grow up in central Europe, he was discovered in Italy in the early 80's by some record producers who aided him in forming a career in Italian pop music that lasted until the early 90's, when he eventually returned to the US, got married and changed his name so that his wife could avoid being called 'Mrs. Hooker'. Those in the LA abstract photography scene may know him better as Tom Barbey, you can see some of his work here.

 Tom is also somewhat of a champ, and if I by some divine grace or good fortune I live to see my middle age, I wish to be just like him. He's looking great, and has decided to revive his italo pop career, has a couple of new videos, and whats more has kicked off a beef with Italo contemporary Den Harrow, a bozo that to this day still lip syncs over the legend Tom Hooker's songs in eastern European shopping malls and claims them as his own. Check Tom calling homey out in this video.. 


Tom Hooker - Come Back Home (Vocal)
Tom Hooker - Come Back Home (Instrumental)
Tom Hooker - Talk With Your Body (Vocal)
Tom Hooker - Talk With Your Body (Instrumental)
Tom Hooker - Indian Girl

Ago was a long running Italo project based around the voice and long haired, gothy porn star image of Agostino Presta, veering into soft pop rock as the 80's wore on, but rooted in the Italo funk sound during the early part of the decade.

Lots of top synthy Italo producers spread across the Ago singles, but the first couple of releases had the Cavalieri brothers working the keys and as such are stand outs.

I'm putting up two cuts from 'For You' the first album, as well as an instrumental from their first (and I think only?) US single release:

Ago - Trying Over
Ago - For You
Ago - You Make Me Do It (Instrumental)

I found this record recently while digging through a box of sleeveless 45s. The classic generic label stock with pink to white gradient caught my eye. Fortunately I dropped to needle to find this haunting and mellow seductive funk track rather than some rap or freestyle shrapnel. This is a quality California indie production from on of the best years for funk: 1987. There is an earlier release of this track from 1984 by Laurie Roberts, maybe someone with the 12" can tell me if that version is different (as far as I can tell from the shit quality youtube videos out there it is the same).

This one is a sought after 'slapper' in the Orange County low rider funk scene, but the 45 actually originates from Memphis, where Tom Sanders recently re-emerged, reviving his long running James Brown tribute act and a new CD, with Johnny Scott, the same producer and deep south TV personality that worked with him on these indie funk jams back in the early eighties..


 Check out this interview that was published just a month ago in a smalltime local Tennessee rag (click to read)..  

"Remembered for his pioneering television program – "The Johnny Scott Show" on WREG – back in the day, Scott had hung up his microphone and was operating his own small label, Portra Records, when he found Sanders at a nightclub in Brownsville. After finding they were compatible, the two decided to collaborate and released a string of singles." 

Tom Sanders - I'll Get To That

Richard Bush And Orbit appears to be a one off studio project, Richard Bush subsequently falling off the face of the earth, but co-producers Barry Yearwood and Warren Dorris getting a few more garage and freestyle releases under their belts before the 80's are up.

A lady drops science knowledge throughout the track, telling you about the circumference of a sphere, how to calculate the the longest edge of a triangle, and some other useful shit that doesn't really come up as often as it should in conscious funk lyrics. Although that being said, confusingly the record label is marked as being 33rpm but the record actually plays at 45rpm, so she obviously wasn't that clever.

Richard Bush And Orbit ‎– Solar Flight

This is from 1983 on Sue Records International and happens to be one of my favorite tracks of all time! Kaiya Matthews was one of the singers for the ADC Band, a mildy successful band from the early 70's early 80's. Kaiya went on to release a few more records in the late 80's on Northern Records but none of later tracks have the hood rat appeal of "Scandalous". The song is basically about Kaiya being into a party don who every other lady wants to get a piece of and not caring that he is getting his. The track title encapsulates the song perfectly, and in the words of Latarian Milton "it's fun to do bad things".

Kaiya-Scandalous

 I'm headed back to England next weekend, the trip was unexpected and sadly its not all fun, but I'm there for a couple of weeks and hoping to get some record shopping in, maybe a few days on the mainland too.

 The UK are competitive hunting grounds, with lots of domestic recordings as well as decades worth of imports, more DJ's, collectors and obsessives per capita than anywhere else, a nation of black music lovers and taste makers, every record store is expensive and the dealers educated and mercenary to the core. I'm no expert record buying there by any means, but I did grow up there before coming to the states and have a couple of theories. Firstly forget the big cities, you will find plenty of what you want but it will be hanging up in plastic on the wall waiting for a tourist such as yourself to come buy it for the top end of market rate, where is the sport in that? When I go I hit up the small coastal towns north of London, especially the dying and forgotten resort areas. Strange, grey, windswept, Victorian built colonies often in beautiful settings, but full of unwelcoming eccentrics. These places had their hey day in sixties, seventies and early eighties, in the era before cheap flight and package holidays to Southern Europe shrank their economies and turned them into seaside nursing homes. There would be small discos and nightclubs in the larger more popular beachtowns during the British northern soul and jazz funk eras, and I have found remnants from those collections from time to time.

 I was thinking about the last time I went, and pulled out this record that I bought at a village post office near Cromer, old ladies would line up to get their pension money or send a postcard, and by their feet were boxes and crates of records, taking up most of the floor space. I pulled out a minty copy of the spacey 'disco burner', Candido's Thousand Finger Man as well as a bunch of other brit funk, turns out the post master was a collector back in the day when the cliff top caravan parks were full of city dwellers on vacation and looking to party. A typically English digging experience if you get off the beaten track. This recording isn't from the copy I scored there, its actually a late nineties remaster from the original master tapes, I heard it and thought they did a great job so I'm using it instead..

Candido - Thousand Finger Man (12" version)

I wrote this post earlier this evening, it was originally supposed to be a cool, dub version of Serious Intention's garage hit You Don't Know. I cleaned the record because it was filthy, moved some sort of potted tree that had ended up infront of the recording rig, turned on the computer, I have this 8 year old Toshiba laptop connected to the MOTU recording interface that sits on a shelf and does nothing but rip records, but it takes half a lifetime to boot up.. I ripped the record, moved the plant back, transfered the wav over to another computer from the modern age to do a little post prod and convert it to mp3, tagged it, put it on the server, read a couple of biographies of the producer and wrote up some blurb on blogspot, chose a picture by trawling around some weird flickr groups, published the post, tweeted about it and linked it on facebook, then promptly tried to get on with my bleak existence. Ben txt's me 10 minutes later to tell me that he already posted the same track a few months back and that I should delete it and put up something else.

So I'm posting Sexy Dancer by Donald Bird..

Donald Byrd & 125th Street, N.Y.C. - Sexy Dancer

Miami dance records always seem to have a certain unique sound, and Noel Williams' Konduko label's output is no exception. Williams was born in Jamaica and cut his teeth working at the legendary Studio One. In the 70s he moved to Miami and started producing disco records on his own label Konduko and others like T.K. Disco.
"Haven't Been Funked Enough" is a hype track that always gets my blood going. There is a definite proto-house feel to the arpeggiated bass line. The janky dubbed out mixing and arrangement style is great as well, I am a big fan of raw productions.  Noel Williams is also the producer behind "Get Down" by Connie Case, a classic Beat Electric spin.

Extra - Haven't Been Funked Enough

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/______\    /______\    /______\

 A reader wrote in and donated some nice sounding rips of two rare 12"s from his collection, one of which I had been after for a while and the other I had never heard of. This was very agreeable, as he had done a great job with the recordings and I get to make a post and share the wealth without putting in any effort. If you want to share a secret weapon, or you simply want to artificially increase the ebay/discogs demand of some obscurity your are trying to hock, then please, by all means send it in. Thank you spacemanrecords.

 Expression was an act out of Maryland, they had a couple of singles, one of which 'Expression' made it onto a couple of comps a few years ago in edited form, which I think took parts from the A and B side and pasted them together, after which I had always been on the look out for the real deal, but alas. Thankfully we now have mp3's of both sides of the original wax by virtue of a stranger's kindness.

 Renegade's 'A Fine Time' is perhaps the youngest track we have ever posted here, even including the occasional classic house track here and there, with a youthful funk vintage of 1989, this year onward is dangerous acid jazz revival territory, but it sounds like it could have come out in 1985. This one will set you back some ducats.

Expression - Release Disco
Expression - Release (Part 1)
Expression - Release (Part 2)
Renegade - A Fine Time
Renegade - A Fine Time (Instr)

 Me and my friend Jimmy were looking through a couple of crates of records at a spot in a forgotten corner of San Jose, the old geezer who ran the place sold doo wop and surf rock but had come into a few boxes of old 80's dance 12" singles that his was offloading indiscriminately, siloed like garbage in a corner, safely away from his Elvis memorabilia. We took a box each and flipped through, handing scores back and forth and Jimmy in his benevolence passed me this beaten e.p by The Pool, telling me it was good and that I could have it as he already had a copy, I didn't thank him, for that would be admitting ignorance, and put it in my pile to be forgotten.

 I was looking through my shelves today for a totally different record that I was planning on recording to post up, couldn't find it as per usual, but in the process came across this record and finally decided to give it a listen. It was good.

 The Pool was Patrick Keel, a drummer in several Austin new wave and punk bands who went solo with this dark wave electro outing in 1982. This e.p follows an album, both on Moment Productions, a label that released records by I think one of the most overlooked punk bands that I know of (not that I know that many), Austin's own The Big Boys.

 Patrick is still in the industry, teaching Music Business at a media college in Irving, TX.

 The A side, Dance It Down, was supposed to be two tracks, a vocal and a dub, but after I recorded it I couldn't tell where one began and the other ended, they just blend together, so I'm putting the entire side up as a single track. You'll figure it out, if it even matters, which I doubt it does as it still sounds good.

The Pool - Dance It Down + Dance In Dub
The Pool - Jamaica Running
The Pool - Jamaica Resting

Here is a rare female-produced funk song from Jackki Milligan. "Got Me Burnin' Up" has an all star lineup of musicians including Latin percussionist Willie Bobo, jazz-funk guitarist David T. Walker, and Darryl Roberts from Mighty Fire on synthesizer. Synth work on this record is especially great with nice bass line and the perfect hook. Jakki also released an earlier 7" version that is more rare. I prefer the harder synth funk approach of the 12", though the 7" is still great and would appeal to modern soul fans. Apparently Jakki realized she had a hit on her hands and assembled a great crew to re-record an updated more club friendly version. I'm glad she did. This record also has the distinction of having the most exhaustive musician credits on the label of any I've encountered with the majority of its real estate devoted to text.


Jakki - Got Me Burnin Up

 Known for his duets with Alyson Williams and a handful of modern soul releases on Def Jam in the mid eighties, Chuck Stanley is still apparently working but I can't dig much up on what he has been getting into recently. 'I Want You Here' is his 12" debut from 1984 on Starlite records, it was produced by Olufemi Fasehun, who has a few synth heavy New York scene singles to his credit, one of which inparticular always seems to allude me on ebay and never shows up in the crates.


 I love the keyboard lead on this one, its relentless..


Chuck Stanley - I Want You Here (Vocal)
Chuck Stanley - I Want You Here (Instrumental)

Though he is from New York City, DJ and producer Tony Carrasco is considered a pioneer of the Italo Disco sound.  This is a recurring theme in the history of recorded music, Americans being unable to recognize and appreciate the quality of their own most talented musicians.  Many of Tony's productions never saw a proper U.S. release. His most famous contribution to dance music was being one half of Klein & M.B.O. and co-writing and producing the classics "Dirty Talk" and "Wonderful".
Here is one of Tony's harder to find productions, an Italian-only 12" from 1983 under the group name Gongs Gang.  This tune is an excellent piece of Italo-boogie and fortunately the vocals aren't too wonky to screw up the great production.

update: instrumental added by request. enjoy.

Gongs Gang - Gimme Your Love (vocal)
Gongs Gang - Gimme Your Love (instrumental)

 Crossing the Willis Avenue Bridge, Scott found an ad in the newspaper for an upstart, do-everything entertainment company called Rock Candy Records and Filmworks. They fished through their pockets, found some change and a pay phone, and called. As Scott got directions to their office, Kris scribbled a B-boy character holding a radio. That sketch became the logo for B-Boy Records, the label Rock Candy entrusted them to found.

The Paragons who recorded this record might be the very same Paragon's who appeared on so many sweet male vocal group reggae 45's during the same period, I wouldn't be surprised, but can't say for sure as no names on this 12" release seem to match up, but elements of the production are the same even though this is a proto house tinged modern soul recording..

The Paragons with The Love Machine Orch. - Don't Go Nowhere 

The RAH Band is the brainchild of studio musician and producer Richard A. Hewson who had previously worked with such acts as The Beatles, Diana Ross, and Supertramp. This track needs no introduction, especially since it has been gaining traction after being played on a Stones Throw podcast via none other than Dam Funk a while back. This is one of those songs that immediately grabs your attention and never lets go, and I totally lose my shit once the synth solo starts. This is classic 1983 greatness, enjoy this track while spaced out!

RAH Band-Messages From The Stars (Long Wave Mix)



I also have a special treat for all you boogie monsters out there! Snacking is one of my favorite past times, especially when those snacks come in the form of rare boogie tracks. This is a special mix put together by my man Eddy Funkster from L.A's Funkmosphere crew. From start to finish, this mix runs the gamut of hard to find songs and rarities. Per usual, this mix is all 45's and pure aural goodness! Track list will be up in the comments soon unless one of you is cavalier enough to provide it before I can.

Eddy Funkster-Boogie 45 Snacks Mix

 Some euro trash in fluorescent green sunglasses surprised me by asking me about this record during our head to head poolside DJ set vs the Funkmosphere crew this weekend. His thick continental accent formed itself awkwardly around the California hip jive he had picked up so far on holiday, as he either asked me what I was playing, or why I was playing it. I couldn't quite penetrate the quasi Italian rap speak, so I chose to hear what I wanted to hear and told the poor fun loving soul everything I knew about The Batiste Band, which isn't much..

 Starlite was an early (perhaps first) self released 7" by the locally rated New Orlean deep funk act, they would go on to make a highly regarded a hard to find disco funk EP in the early eighties and would release a couple more electro funk 7"s on their own label all the way up until 1985, all on their own Dynasty Records imprint, mostly sold at their live shows on the deep south's soul circuit. This is the instrumental side, it has a touch of the starsky & hutch to it but the breakdowns are epic, slightly psychedelic and I very lament that this is the only 7" of theirs that I have. I wish I knew where I got it from..

Starlite - Batiste Band