Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Tee Scott  


A couple of Tee Scott mixes here including Jazzy Rhythm my favorite Arthur Baker/Michelle Wallace collaboration. In lieu of writing a long winded post on this already well documented artist, Black Shag pointed me to this bio page complete with an excellent 1994 interview conducted by a young Danny Wang a year before Tee's untimely death.

Michelle Wallace - Jazzy Rhythm (Tee Scott Mix)

Brooklyn Express - Sixty-Nine (Tee Scott Mix)
Brooklyn Express - Burning Hot (Tee Scott Mix)
Sparque - Music Turns Me On (Tee Scott Instrumental Mix)
Northend - Tee's Happy

Posted by Magnum | 6 comments

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Hydraulic Pump  


 Well, I'm abbreviating this artist to P.F.A, as although this is the B side dub of an early work that came out on the Clinton owned Hump Records imprint in 1983, I would imagine some monster corp has long since bought up the rights somewhere down the line, and the major labels have sort of been riding BeatElectric's nuts in recent months. Hassling us, getting the man on our case and getting posts taken down etc for music we never knew they even owned, so I'm obfuscating the artist name in an attempt at playing it safe. The ID3 tags are still correct so its probably a lost cause anyway. Why won't they just let us give their weird funk music away for free, in high fidelity, with incorrect credits and poorly researched hearsay at best or made up at worst journalism, in peace? Greedy fat cats.

 Hydraulic Pump Part III is a trippy electro disco dub version found on the flip of psych funk dancefloor winner Hydraulic Pump, popular with Ron Hardy and other midwestern selectors of the era. There is a part II on the A side too, but I can't remember what that sounds like, I think its a vocal reprise of some kind. When I hear it I feel it could be a modern trendy UK radio hit from a few years ago, something about that vocal line and the rolling synthy bass, reminds me of a popular current day act whose name escapes me, not because I'm too cool to know any current day pop acts or anything, but because I deteriorated that part of my brain, its gone forever and I'm too proud to use google.

P.F.A - Hydraulic Pump Part III

Posted by Black Shag | 11 comments

Monday, July 19, 2010

Take a Chance Foo  


There have been a handful of italo disco songs about taking chances; I have been wanting to do a mix of them for a long time. Of all of them, this one probably has the cutest presentation. It was produced in 1982 by Frabrizio Gatto and Aldo Martinelli. It is one of my favorite italo tunes for many reasons, but I am a sucker for that tambourine. My copy is a bit dirty, sorry for that.

Bizzy & Co - Take A Chance

Posted by Joel Brüt | 2 comments

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Saturday, July 17, 2010

No Stranger To Love  


This is one of those rare synth laden funk tunes that still manages to get name checked by the Northern Soul heads. I'm not a scholar of Northern by any means, but I know enough to know that those that are rarely feel anything out of my crates, there isn't much crossover, but Glenda Mcleod's No Stranger To Love is an exception. 'A Stafford classic!' they will say. I like Stafford, with it's easy access to the M6 and pleasant pedestrianized neo classical shopping precinct. This tune is great.

Posted by Black Shag | 11 comments

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Sunday, July 11, 2010

More Presents  


It is Mid-July and the dog days of summer are upon us. Beat Electricians have been dropping off like flies and it seems the remaining core members are spread a bit thin. But no more excuses, it's time to get back on the horse and post some fresh cuts from One Way's Kevin McCord the Mastermind behind Detroit private label Presents Records. Obviously y'all know the Carmen tracks on Presents, additionally McCord and his wife Candye Edwards wrote and produced a handful of recordings on the label circa '84-'87. Stylistically McCord seemed to be bouncing all over the mid 80's soul spectrum, throwing whatever shit he could against the wall to see what stuck. Ultimately from a business standpoint nothing really did. That said, McCord produced some seriously brilliant stuff on Presents and the secret weapon here is Candye's Loverboy which steers closely to the proto-freestyle Carmen vibe.

Candye - Loverboy (12" Mix)
Candye - Loverboy (7" Mix)
Snooky - Ease The Pain
Reel Touch - I Want You

Posted by Magnum | 7 comments

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Sunday, July 04, 2010

Dr. John Blair.. Respect  

An unusual boogie rap record by an unusual and brilliant man. You could write a book on Dr. John Blair, also known as Master John Blair, a weird unsung renaissance man with a background that you couldn't make up. I was lucky enough to come across a record pool promo copy of 'Respect' that not only had a printed bio write up included in the sleeve, but also this amazing signed photo of Dr John Blair himself, saying a thankyou to the record pool in question. Sadly I can't read his handwriting that well (he is a Dr after all, they all have bad handwriting), and can't make out the message or the name of the record pool this record was sent to.

The good Dr's main claim to fame was as the inventor of the Vitar, which features on all of his later works, a type of electric violin. He had a handful of credits on recordings by major jazz funk artists of the early seventies and released a couple sought after psych funk albums on Mercury, Columbia and CTI. He was a powerful academic, holding degrees from Eastman and Curtis conservatories and founding a school (The Universal Natural System) in hippy lifestyle type stuff that was popular at the time, as well as being an 8th degree 'red' belt as awarded by the 'American Institute of Martial Artistry'. The list goes on and on.

Sadly he disappeared off the map during the eighties, some saying he was homeless for many years, but eventually, after the turn of the millennium he reappears on the radar. His musical comeback was never to be, as an obituary, perhaps written by his daughter, tells news of his passing in 2006, which I have included below:
IMPROVISATIONAL VIOLINIST, JOHN BLAIR PASSES AWAY

June 3, 2006 -

Obituary by: Joyce E. Blair

New York, NY

June 3, 2006
-

Singer and violinist John Franklin Blair passed away on June 3, 2006 of heart failure. A song and sharing memorial service was conducted at the VA Medical Center Manhattan on Thursday, June 8, 2006. John is buried at Calverton National Cemetery, Calverton, NY. John was born in Toledo, Ohio on November 8, 1943, and is the eldest of nine children.

His mother was a classical pianist and he grew up in California and began taking violin lessons as a child, graduating with honors from Lincoln High School in San Diego in 1961.

He attended the Eastman School of Music for two years, and joined the Air Force as an instrumentalist in the orchestra. In the 1960's he began further developing his musical talent and accompanied many well-known artists eventually producing two vinyl albums, "Southern Love" and "Mystical Soul."

The song entitled "Sometimes a Man" did very well with jazz stations. In the 1970's he co-developed an instrument called the "Vitar," an acoustical combination violin and guitar.

Two vitars are in the possession of his family and display requests are being considered. Most recently John was attempting to renew his career by cutting another CD. He volunteered this year at the VA Medical Center Manhattan and performed for disabled veterans there.



Dr. John Blair - Respect

Dr. John Blair - Respect (Instrumental)

Posted by Black Shag | 4 comments