We've covered a lot of post-disco electro funk material here at Beat Electric, here's a little throwback with a more traditional straight ahead disco sound. This beautiful Canadian cut was included in a Trocadero Transfer mix we posted a while back. A friend of mine gave me this 12" around December and its haunting infectious sound has found its way back on my turntable many times since. Canadian keyboardist and member of Nightlife Unlimited Louis Toteda handled production duties on this masterpiece. Enjoy the full seven minutes of swirling disco perfection.

Vera - Take Me To The Bridge

Oscar Perry-You've Got My Nose Open

Nathan McKinney-Very Special Lady

Charms-Givin' It Up

 I was downtown and stopped by a spot on a whim whilst I was supposed to be doing something else entirely. It turned out to be worthwhile though, as I came up with this Timmy Regisford produced proto house dub that I had heard a couple of times over the years. I'm sorry for the slight crackle, the dub side of the record wasn't in the best of shape and was a little thrashed, but the vocal A side was pristine as though it had never been played, which makes sense as the vocal ain't all that and it was the dub that lit up the clubs.

Chocolette - It's That East Street Beat (Dub) 

 Carol Williams was the first female solo artist on Salsoul, she had a handful of singles that did pretty well through the 80's and has spent the past twenty years or so on the disco revue circuit, doing throwback parties and oldschool themed events at casinos and the like.

 Her biggest underground hit, Can't Get Away (From Your Love), gets a lot of CD compilation and internet love, and rightly so as its one of the best, but the 12" single is getting a little harder to come by and I haven't seen the instrumental around anywhere so I'm putting that up, and as an added bonus a couple of her heavier unreleased tunes from a series of sessions she did in 1983.

Carol Williams - Can't Get Away (Instrumental)
Carol Williams - 60 Yard
Carol Williams - Have You For My Love
Carol Williams - I'll Do Anything

  We've covered Bay-Area-transplant-by-way-of-Ghana Rim Kwaku Obeng before on Beat Electric. His self-released recorded output produced two highly sweated LPs, Rim Arrives and Too Tough. As far as I know there is just one other Rim record other than the mediocre International Funk 12" also mentioned in Black Shag's post, fortunately it's from 1983 and very high quality.
  I first found this 12" in a Santa Cruz thrift store several years ago. I kept putting it in my record bag and never working it into sets due to the higher tempo and slightly odd arrangement of the track. Frustrated, I eventually traded it to another collector. As these things go I heard the track again much later in a mix and began to regret letting it go. As luck would have it I wound up finding another copy last week on the way to a gig and alerted Black Shag who demanded to hear it. When Black Shag asks you for an mp3 you'd better deliver.

  Rim And The Believers - I'm Not Going To Let You Go

 Word was put out that a big Italo collection had been put out at the Rasputin chain of record stores in the Bay Area, but of course given my busy lifestyle by the time I finally got around to taking a look the vultures had already picked it over, bragging about their scores on my facebook page, whilst I was left with their scraps, fumbling around the Rasputin downtown that all the crack heads wonder in to. That being said, perhaps they missed this one, or simply didn't consider it worthy considering the other prizes on offer, but I was pleased to come home with it as a consolation none the less.

 Azul y Negro were a Spanish electro duo, that I suppose if you grew up in Spain in the 70's and 80's you would have heard of, but are new on me. They are sort of a Spanish equivalent of the Pet Shop Boys perhaps. This balearic sounding instrumental was actually on a Disconet DJ pool LP which came pre-mixed, so I cut it out and faded the song before a Norma Lewis track kicked in.

Azul y Negro - Mar De La Tranquilidad

Goldie Alexander is an Australian author, well known around Melbourne for her murder mysteries, and her ability to fictionalize difficult subjects from her native country's past into stories from children.

According to my internet research, which is detailed and authoritative, at some point in her career she went to Canada to become a black soul singer in the disco scene there and put out a handful of records, including a super tight e.p that includes that has this sought after jam on the B side, before abruptly disappearing from musical history and reentering the literary world of Australian short stories.

Goldie Alexander - Spend My Life With You

 This is a strange dollar bin score for a couple of weeks ago, or $2 bin at least from the price sticker, I think even the Bay Area dollar bins are more expensive than other places. Trickle down economics coming in to play, as another social media company goes IPO in the city, fucked up 12" records, that nobody other than me wants anything to do with, double in price in order that the record store owner can share in silicon valley's prosperity.

 Anyhow, this is a local private press experimental, new wave'ish electro record out of San Francisco, by a band called Dub Oven. This e.p has an entry on discogs, but no mention anywhere else, so I think this is an internet first. Claiming to be put out on Tenderloin West Music, the Tenderloin being a pleasant neighborhood/skid row resisting gentrification despite proximity to the new Twitter HQ.

 The producers Gary Miles and Blase Smith were synthesizer players on the local punk scene in SF although I don't know much about them beyond that, I'm not sure if the guys on the front cover in tribal outfits carrying a gas oven through the jungle are them or not, still its one of the better covers.

Dub Oven - Millions Of Sensations 

 Even back when we started BeatElectric it was already sort of difficult to post something new to the internet, that is to say something you couldn't already hear on youtube, another blog or maybe some weird file dump aggregator site in France. Not that that was ever our primary objective, it was more about the quality of the rip and ease of download for laptop DJ's, but you know, its a cool feeling when you know something is completely fresh. These days though, its near impossible, I haven't done it in a while, even if the tune is complete garbage its already out there somewhere to listen to, and thats a great thing, as it means so much more weird music now accessible. Yet still, sometimes its nice to be first.

 Anyway, I was walking down 24th St, which is a strip in San Francisco's Mission district that has been a little more resilient to gentrification, there are still some new restaurants and coffee shops opening up along there of course, full of tech workers (such as myself) but there are also still the traditional residents, working class Latino families making a living.

 This older Mexican guy in wife beater had some random stuff for sale on a blanket on the sidewalk. A toaster oven, a sony walkman, a corkscrew and some records. I flipped through the Polka LP's that usually turn up on the streets of this part of Mission, and suddenly I saw some hombre's in jumpsuits and afros, it was definitely an indie Tejano Polka record, produced by a small label in South Texas, but there was a single track listed that had an English title, Stepping Out Tonight, so perhaps a song about partying, and a credit for someone named Pedro Gonzalez who performed synth duty on it. Maybe there was a stand alone disco track on this among all the accordion music.

 I offered homey a dollar, and he spat "No way! where else you gonna find this record right now!? This old school right here!" , to which I bravely responded "who else is gonna buy this record right now? Eh!? Today's your lucky day, I'm going to give you a dollar for it." .. how about that razor sharp wit, I had only just spent twice that amount on a coffee, and here this guy was trying to eek a living selling used toasters off of a blanket .. anyway, I didn't win, he scratched under his armpit, looked at me unwavering like the piece of shit I was and I gave him two bucks.

And it turns out it was a disco track..

Little Joe & La Familia - I'm Stepping Out Tonight 

Test the sound system at your next gig with this one, or just dance to it in your bedroom while you’re getting ready to go out to your favorite weekly funk/boogie club. Either way, it’s a serious jam!

  Detroit has provided an incredible wealth of black dance music to the world. We've posted a number of tracks from Motor City here on Beat Electric, here is yet another to attempt to chip away at the endless musical output of this city. Cookie Do is a one-off artist as far as I know with production from Danny Omar, who also worked with Detroit super group The Spinners and has guitar, songwriting, and special thank you credit on some of their late '70s to '80s LPs. Dream Girl features somewhat cheesy rap style vocals on the A-side, the instrumental is my favorite mix and really delivers the goods with a loose minimal funk groove over a basic shuffling drum machine pattern.

  Cookie Do - Dream Girl (inst)

I always instantly think of 'Reach Up' and 'Love So Deep' when I hear the name Toney Lee. I came across 'Teaser' not too long ago while on my seven day hunting expedition. Written and Produced by Richard Bassoff, and Nick Braddy who brought you 'The Party Side Of Town' performed by Essence III, 'Take A Risk' performed by Empress, and Tracey Weber's 'Sure Shot'.

Not the rarest, or most expensive record, but a solid synth workout, with the perfect touch of cowbell, piano, and the background vocal telling you to "take your time".

Toney Lee - Teaser (Instrumental)

 This is one I had to double, then triple check that we hadn't posted before, its that much of a classic and indicative of the sound we wanted to capture on the blog. 'So In Love' came out on maybe my favorite New York based label, Silver Cloud, and has Jocelyn Brown on vocals and future Leroy Burgess producer Stan Lucas on the mixing boards. You can't lose.

Raven Featuring Jocelyn Brown ‎– So In Love


Also, check it out, we have a YouTube channel now that I try and put all the content from the blog on (that I'm allowed to, they let you get away with less on YouTube). Subscribe!

 Its that time of year again, and as is customary on Valentine's Day we break from normal programming to bring you a guest mix of deep, crusty, sweet soul 45's. This time, as a follow up to 2009's Blood From My Soul, San Francisco's finest exponent of the genre, Deejay OM, brings us Part 2 of his epic journey through the process of love, inevitable heart break and back again.. this from OM himself..

  Here is another indie '80s soul record to file in the M.J. impersonator section along with Alfonzo and Michael Sterling. Timothy Marrow's self released Killer Moon sounds like it was recorded in an afternoon with a borrowed synth and drum machine. Every little mistake and looseness in the meandering bass line is captured in its full glory over a basic drum loop. Timothy's vocals tread dangerously close to copying the flow of Billie Jean. A recipe for a killer track if I've ever heard one.

Timothy Marrow - Killer Moon

 The Mad Lads were a legendary Memphis sweet soul group that had a string of R&B hits in the sixties, recording on Stax fir a while. After two of the key members got drafted things sort of fell apart and the group's fortunes declined until eventually they broke up in the seventies.

 At some point in the mid eighties, former member John Williams put a version of the group back together again to play shows on the revival circuit, they even put out a couple of records in the run up to the nineties including this single re-mixed by Memphis boogie maestro Willie McClain.

The World Famous Mad Lads And The Crossfire Band - You Blew It

                                                             HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Andre Forget Me Not-After Midnight (B Side)

  I believe our hosting was successfully moved at this point so I'll go ahead and put up a new post. This is a record that has evaded me for a while and I finally tracked down a copy. Released towards the end of peak boogie era in 1985 Shebba's We Should Get Together is still a fine example of the sound and has remained one of my favorite tunes for years. This one off track features production from Young & Company who brought us classics like Joy "I Need Your Love". The classic Young & Co. sound is in full effect here with excellent bass guitar work. I really like the '85 flavor of this one with drum programming that reminds me of Miami freestyle/electro, albeit a more laid back version. The skittering delayed percussion and cowbell sounds really tie together the atmosphere of this masterpiece.


Shebba - We Should Get Together

 I have been struggling with moving beardodisco, B.E's music server, over to a new a hosting provider. The old hosting provider decided to make wild claims that we were using their datacenter services to distribute gigabytes of funk mp3's over the internet, blah blah blah, which went against their terms of service.

 Whatever.

 Anyhow, things are back up, I just need to get around to setting things so the other B.E members can contribute. Until then its just me.

 By way of an apology I'm going to put up an instrumental I'm really into, the UK 1986 remastered instrumental of Kreamcicle's No News Is News..

Kreamcicle - No News Is News (Remix) (Instrumental)

 I assumed that over the years I must have posted every single Sharon Redd instrumental that has ever seen a San Francisco dollar bin, but I was wrong, as I found a promo of In The Name Of  Love in someone's discard pile sitting on the floor that had an instrumental of Never Give You Up on the B side. Live and learn.

Sharon Redd - Never Give You Up (Instrumental)

 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)