"Now's the time, forget your nine to five. Come on, have some funn."
Okay, I will thanks.

The Gunchback Boogie Band - Funn

I created an exclusive new DJ mix at the request of my friends Remy and Lamar aka Portland's Monorail Boys. These guys throw the best parties in Portland hands down and do a damn fine job on their blog as well. Indicative of my current DJ sets, this mix leans heavily on the boogie-funk tip with a bit of early house, italo and late era disco thrown in for good measure. As always its all live, hastily mixed at home after a long, shitty day a couple weeks back. Anyways, go to the Monorail blog, download the mix and take a look around. You will also find some other stellar mixes by the likes of Ulysses 82 and San Serac amongst other goodies.

I also have posted the Stimulation title track here on this blog. Stimulation is a semi rare and ultra heavy vocoder track by The Strangers from the Salsoul Records stable circa 1983.

Stimulation Tracklist:

Prestige - Cheating
Squirmin Herman - Move and Shake Your Body (Inst.)
The Strangers - Stimulation
Pleasure - Sending My Love (Inst.)
Aurra - Baby Love (Shep Pettibone's Mastermix)
Slave - Feel My Love
Wizardz - Boogie Slyde
Sinnamon - I Need You Now (The Fierce Reprise)
Jamie Principle - Your Love
Inner Life - (Knockout) Let's Go Another Round
Stephanie Mills - Put Your Body In It
Weeks and Co. - Go With The Flow (Inst.)
Leather - Nervous
Electrik Funk - On a Journey (Inst.)
Eazy - Project Funk (Inst.)
A Number of Names - Sharevari
Kano - Now Baby Now

BT Magnum - Stimulation Mix
The Strangers - Stimulation

I could tell you a few things about this song. Maybe you would like to know that it's written and produced by Arthur Russell. Or maybe that it is mixed by Larry Levan. Perhaps you would like to know how it's got amazing piano, horns and whistling. But really, you probably just want to listen to this track and get your ass up and dance around your room in your underwear. Or, is that just me?

Loose Joints - Tell you (Today) (Vocal)

This is a very nice upbeat track from Cleveland, OH based artist Frederick. Move On was buried on the B-Side of a throwaway ballad 12" entitled Gentle (Calling Your Name) released in 1984 on private label Time Trax and later reissued on LA Based Heat Records in 1985. I really like the sanguine gospel feel to this cut, reminds me of a less polished Leroy Burgess-Stan Lucas production. I apologize for the impurity of this rip, but I had to chop off the sliding piano line in the intro. It was just too cheesy and distracting to an otherwise great track.

Frederick - Move On

Here is something smooth for you to enjoy this Monday evening. Pieces of a Dream was produced by the late Grover Washington Jr. and they put out three albums. Their sound was very tame and smooth with polished production. While many of their tracks are a bit too smooth, this one has a nice poppy snap that is reminiscent of a Change record. Dexter Wansel helped pen this one.

Pieces Of A Dream - Fo-Fi-Fo

I should probably be building an arc right now because California is going to be washed away into the sea in a couple of hours. I have been practicing parting water, and I think I may have it figured out just in the nic of time.

Manu Dibango - New Bell

I have played this for a few people over time and I have gotten mixed responses, perhaps they were just not in the right mindset, or perhaps the heart felt, atonal, choppy English as a fourth language vocal put them off. Its a weird tune for sure, but I think maybe Lowell's No Matter is one of the unsung Italo greats, dark and brooding, with a touch of electro and soul, sang by a light Swiss version of Tina Turner circa 1985. Its not Italian, it is Swiss, and I think all of the recordings off of the short lived Tam Tam label were made in Switzerland. Extremely hard to find, often a little off color somehow.

Lowell - No Matter

I haven't been home much lately. I haven't posted much lately. I haven't been to the gym much lately. What I have done though is work, work, work.
But it's Friday, it's Fleet Week in SF and I finally remembered on the right day it is my time to post.
What I have this week is Edgar Winter's instrumental track "Above & Beyond". It's bad ass and full of amazing sonic ear candy. It's cosmic, it's weird and it is made Mr. Winter who looks as though winter landed all over him.
I scored this record, actually 2 copies of the white label, nicely filed in alphabetical order whilst digging at a record store. Talk about a score.
Enjoy.

Edgar Winter - Above & Beyond (Instrumental)

Thought I would switch it up for a change and post an 80's synth pop track from the legendary Factory Records stable. This cut from Section 25 was a staple of mine some years back when I incorporated quite a bit of new wave and post punk into my DJ sets. I dusted this record off in anticipation of the upcoming Section 25 show at Mezzanine in SF and it served to remind me that I still love this kind of stuff. The British in particular were damn good at making new wave/synth tracks. They tended to add a more soulful element that their American counterparts were not quite as adept at pulling off. Looking From a Hilltop was released in 1984 as the first single off of the From the Hip LP which was produced by Bernard Sumner of New Order.

Section 25 - Looking From a Hilltop (Restructure from FACT 90)

This was Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force's first record and was released in 1984. It was released on a European label as a single and was featured on the compilation album Breakdancing. In 1985, their first full length came out and it was a big success. LL&CG along with production by Full Force was a winning combination and led to the team dominating pop radio throughout the 80's.

Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam - I Wonder If I Take You Home
Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam - Ringtone

A seriously deep black wave/synth boogie record here from San Francisco circa 1984. Everything about this LP from the crusty production to the sleeve is just so dusted and killer. If you live in the Bay Area and spend enough time in the thrift stores, you might just dig up this private press gem on Treasure Records. Prophet the artist faded away into obscurity after the release of this LP, never to be heard from again. Here are a few of the LP's Highlights.

Prophet - Right On Time
Prophet - Stick Around
Prophet - You Really Turn Me On

Who are these mysterious Wizardz?

Here we have a very hard release entitled Boogie Slyde from the year 1984 that has been floating around the internet for a few months. 1984, eh? It was pretty much unheard of for an obscure funk group to do an instrumental only one sided 12" in the early 80's as they would be trying to push an A side vocal to get radio play. Still, I can see how one could be confused by such a heavy hitting and authentic sounding cut. It was almost a bit painful to watch some people spend top dollar for this joint on ebay for a minute there. That being said, there aren't too many of these babies floating around so it might just be worth it. Don't blame Disco Tom for keeping this release on the sly, he finally just received his personal copy from the head Wizard only yesterday and he played guitar on this record!

A shout out to Sheela for the wizardz image as well as the fresh new BE logo.

Wizardz - Boogie Slyde

This is my favorite song about gay male prostitution. It was produced by Alessandro Zanni in 1984 and was Ken Laszlo's first record. Zanni produced a lot of my favorite italo hits including those by Baby's Gang, Hipnosis, Cyber People, and Koto. The strange subject matter and the non-decipherable beginning give a lot of charm to a well produced textbook italo-pop track. This is the original remix on Memory Records. There is also a cheesed out US remix out there that is a little too macho.

Ken Laszlo - Hey Hey Guy

No complaining that I don't know what these are. No whining about early cut offs or janky recording. Here are over a thousand recordings of 45's made by a record dealer over the past few years since he started selling online. Lots of pricey rare stuff in here, some standards too. Its mostly soul, but there is some funk, boogie and disco in there as well. I haven't even dented it yet, so if you find something that stands out please post it in the comments so we can start cataloging the gems.


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