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)