Supersonic Boogie - A Snap, Crackle & Pop Disco Mix

Dirty sounds for basement dancers:

Supersonic Boogie by Mr Tear on Mixcloud

You might want to put it on your walkman, in which case you can download it HERE.

Trio Madjesi & Orchestre Sosoliso - Photo Madjesi

I think this may be the highlight of this year's finds, some supremely funky rumba from the Congo.  The influence of James Brown is clear and the addition of a keyboard sets Sosoliso's sound apart from many of the other rumba groups.  Check it out and I'm sure you won't be disappointed.



Tracklist:

01 Photo Madjesi 1 & 2
02 Moussa Photo Na Yo
03 Na Leli Mokili 1 & 2
04 Carte Blanche 1 & 2
05 Mama Tshika Ngai Malembi
06 Moseka
07 Cinema

Get it HERE.

Años Psicodélicos - Various Artists

This is an incredibly strange record - a Peruvian compilation of (mostly) Brazilian music from the 1970s, the Psychedelic Years.
Side one consists of jazzy, funky, synth heavy MPB.  There are some wonderfully heavy breaks to be heard here.
Side two, on the other hand, presents us with five choice cuts of Brazilian psyche, progressive rock and good old fashioned rock 'n' roll.
All things considered, I'm preferring the funkier side at the moment, but that could change with my mood.

Here are a couple of tasters:



Tracklist:

01     Dudziak – Mosquito     
02     H. Belardi – An American In Paris     
03     Lott – Baby         
04     Orlandivo – Tem De Ser (Tiene Que Ser)         
05     Grupo Arco-Yris – Coisas Da Vida (Cosas De La Vida)         
06     Ary Lobo – Nego São (Nego Sano)         
07     Terço – Ilusão De Ótica (Ilusión Ôptica)         
08     Light Reflections – Send It For Tomorrow         
09     Mutantes – Tudo Bem (Estás Bien)         
10     Tutti Frutti – Nessa Altura Dos Acontecimentos (A Estas Alturas De Los Hechos)         
11     Karma – Depois Do Portåo (Después Del Portón)

Get it HERE.

The Flamingo Group featuring Marie Rottrová & Petr Němec - This Is Our Soul (1971)

Fabulously funky sounds from the Soviet Bloc.  These tracks are mostly cover versions of songs by American artists but there's enough energy and personality here to make this album a very worthwhile listen with some great party starters.  And both sides end with a mind-melting instrumental freak-out!

Tracklist:

01         Big Chain         
02         The Weight         
03         Hey Lonely Girl         
04         Ain't No Way         
05         Sunny         
06         Chain Of Fools         
07         I've Got Dreams To Remember         
08         Oh! What A Fool I've Been         
09         Nothing's Too Good For My Baby        
10         Purple Angels         
11         Quasimodo's Dream

Get it HERE.

I Seek to Know this World

Here's this week's exciting flea market find, a lovely album by The Doves. This crackly old (1979) record is full of some bubbling Nigerian reggae/funk/highlife grooves with plenty of wah-wah and mooginess. You can read more about the group over at Comb & Razor.

Tracklist:

01 Life Is Gone
02 I Seek To Know This World
03 Strange Land
04 True Love Is Gone
05 The Urge To Sing Our Music
06 Living Together
07 I Shall Be Free
08 Lawrence Rest In Peace

Get it HERE.

The Tru-Tones Combo of St. Lucia - Cream of the Crop

This was a fantastic find at this Sunday's boot sale - a great set of funky, instrumental cover versions of classic songs we all know and (probably) love. Yes, yes I hear you say, we've heard it all before, and that would be true, but not quite like this.

Wikipedia has this to say about 'em:

"The Tru Tones are a Saint Lucian band led by Ronald "Boo" Hinkson. The band formed in the 1960s and had a significant following in the 70s in the United Kingdom. They recorded five albums and several singles, most famously "Hungry Belly', "Burning Eyes" and "Sexy Thing" (remake of the Hot Chocolate song).

Since the Tru Tones break-up, Hinkson has had a successful solo career and toured across the world."

I imagine the Tru-Tones set the dancefloors on fire in St. Lucia's hotel nightclubs and cabaret venues.

Tracklist:

01 Light My Fire
02 This Guy's in love With You
03 Aquarius
04 California Dreaming
05 It Must Be Him
06 Pan Man
07 House of the Rising Sun
08 By the Time I Get to Phoenix
09 Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'
10 Sock it to Me
11 My Way

Get it HERE.

Alain Goraguer - La Planete Sauvage

Lovely, bubbly French psyche soundtrack. You might like it:



Tracklist:

1 Déshominisation (II)
2 Déshominisation (I)
3 Générique
4 Le Bracelet
5 Ten Et Tiwa
6 Maquillage De Tiwa
7 Course De Ten
8 Ten Et Medor
9 Ten Et Tiwa Dorment
10 Ten Est Assomé
11 Abite
12 Conseil Des Draags
13 Les Hommes-La Grande Co-Existence
14 La Femme
15 Mira Et Ten
16 Mort De Draag
17 L'oiseau
18 La Cité Des Hommes Libres
19 Attaque Des Robots
20 La Longue Marche-Valse Des Statues
21 Les Fusées
22 Générique
23 Strip Tease
24 Méditation Des Enfants
25 La Vieille Meurt

Get it HERE.

Betty Harris - In the Saddle (1980)

Here's a Saturday morning treat for y'all! Forty minutes of fierce and funky R&B from the Queen of New Orleans Deep Soul. These songs are raw and heartfelt and Betty's incredible voice are perfectly complimented by Allen Toussaint's gritty production.




Tracklist:

01 Ride Your Pony
02 Show It
03 What A Sad Feeling
04 Take Care Of Your Love
05 I'm Gonna Git Ya
06 Nearer To You
07 What'd I Do Wrong
08 Trouble With My Lover
09 Twelve Red Roses
10 I'm Evil Tonight
11 Cry To Me
12 I'll Be A Liar
13 There's A Break In The Road
14 All I Want Is You
15 I Can't Last Much Longer
16 Mean Man

Get it HERE.

Street Sounds Crucial Electro - Various Artists

This is a really classy collection of hot electro-funk tunes from 1984. Should bring back some sweet memories for all you folks old enough to remember Afrika Bambaataa, polyester tracksuits and body popping.

This music sounds so fresh, futuristic and progressive its easy to forget that these tracks were produced in some of America's most impoverished ghettos - the Bronx, Detroit, Washington D.C. - at a time when the Reagan's brutal individualism and predatory capitalism were deepening the divisions between communities and between the haves and have-nots. Fortunately, people find ways to express themselves even in the most desperate of times and this music is a testament to that; as Twilight 22 put it:

Huh, deep in the city people live in the streets
You got to be careful of everyone you meet
There’s lootin and shootin’, people stabbin’ and grabbin’
The innocent bystander the police are grabbin’

Ain’t it a pity ‘cause you hate the city
But the way you feel ain’t no big deal
You’ve got to survive and that the real nitty gritty
You go uptown, downtown, you’ve got to turn your life around (Huh)

Back in the jungle a man is free
Free from the street, from captivity
Break out, break in, it doesn’t matter where you’ve been
Snake pit, lion’s den, you need someone to be your friend

My first exposure to this stuff came when I was a schoolboy in 1984 when Channel 4 (I think) showed this fabulous documentary:



Tracklist:

01 Tyrone - Brunson The Smurf
02 Warp 9 - Light Years Away
03 Warp 9 - Nunk (New Wave Funk)
04 Man Parrish - Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don't Stop)
05 Herbie Hancock - Rockit
06 Twilight 22 - Electric Kingdom
07 Cybotron - Clear
08 Hashim - Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)
09 Captain Rock - Return Of Captain Rock
10 Time Zone - Wild Style

Get it HERE.

Trouble Funk - Drop the Bomb (1982)

Last weekend the sun was blazing here on the south coast, temperatures crept up above 20C and I got a bit of a tan. This fantastic album got some play in my house and a great time was had by all.

When I was in my teens in the North-East of England (a small town called Bishop Auckland to be precise), Trouble Funk were big with the local B-Boys (there were maybe 5 or 6 of them in the mid-'80s) along with Schooly D, Kraftwerk and Run DMC. Trouble Funk make an almighty noise, theirs is a weird brand of disco-funk - heavy on the polyrhythmic percussion, fat bass and simple call and response vocal lines.
If the sun is out where you are, then you might want to give this a go.

'Pump Me Up' is my favourite track, so here it is:


Tracklist:

01 Hey Fellas
02 Get On Up
03 Let's Get Hot
04 Drop The Bomb
05 Pump Me Up
06 Don't Try To Use Me

Get it HERE.

Black Moon - Enta Da Stage (1993)

Hard to believe that this is 17 years old. Homicidal hip hop from Brooklyn, this is so confrontational, so very anti-social, that you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Cartoon gangsta bravado flows into gritty tales of life in the projects, all underpinned by grimey beats that sound like they're bubbling up from the depths of the Black Lagoon.

Tracklist:

1. Powaful Impak!
2. Niguz Talk Shit

3. Who Got da Props ?

4. Buck Em Down

5. Black Smif-N-Wessun

6. Son Get Wrec

7. Make Munne

8. I Got Cha Opin

9. Shit Iz Real

10. Enta da Stage

11. How Many Emcees

12. U da Man

Get it HERE.

An Album Full of Soul - Various Artists ($tateside 1965)

Excellent compilation of rare soul sounds from the mid '60s. I picked this one up in a flea market last week but unfortunately it came without a cover and also with a big scratch which makes Brooks O'Dell's 'You Better Make Up Your Mind' unplayable - hence it not being included in the zip. My current favourite tracks here are Little Eva's excellent cover of 'Stand By Me', which is an uptempo dancefloor stormer, and Titus Turner's 'I'm a Member of the Club'. Mostly though, this is lovely, blue, doleful, soulful stuff.

Tracklist:

01 Clyde McPhatter-Everybody's somebody's fool
02 Little Eva-Stand by me
03 Brooks O'Dell-You better make up your mind
04 Lee Dorsey-Work work work
05 Glady's Knight & The Pips-Lover's always forgive
06 Eddie Billups & The Gigs-My Faith in you
07 Pearl Woods-Something touched me
08 Titus Turner-I Am A Member of the club
09 Gladys Knight & The Pips-Stop and get a hold of my self
10 Big Dee Irwin-You satisy my needs
11 Betty Harris-What a sad feeling
12 Ed Towmnsend-I Love you
13 Earl King-You'll Remember me
14 Bobbie Smith-Wait
15 Clyde McPhatter-I Belong to you

Get it HERE.

The Marvelettes - The Marvelettes (1967)

A couple of weeks ago Dominic from Gigante Records posted a comment warning us that Motown Meltdown Volume 2 was about to be released as a freely downloadable album. Well, thank you Dominic for getting in touch, I've now had the chance to check out the music and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. If you're interested in hearing some seriously demented re-workings of classic old Motown tunes, then this is the album for you...and its all free and fun.
And if all that lunacy whets your appetite for a little more Motown, then you could do worse than to check this out:


In the early '60s, The Marvelettes were one of Tamla's biggest girl-groups scoring the company's first number 1 single in 1961 with 'Please Mr Postman'.
This 1967 album features killer versions of Robert Parker's 'Barefootin' and the Velvettes 'He Was Really Sayin' Something'. The real classic here though, is the gorgeous 'The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game' which has some beautiful lyrics and a really soulful feel as well as fantastic backing from the Funk Brothers:

Tracklist:

1. Barefootin'
2. Message to Michael
3. The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game
4. When You're Young and in Love
5. I Know Better
6. I Can't Turn Around
7. He Was Really Sayin' Somethin'
8. The Day You Take One (You Have to Take the Other)
9. When I Need You
10. Keep Off, No Trespassing
11. Tonight Was Made for Love
12. I Need Someone

Get it HERE.

Mataya Clifford - Star Fell from Heaven (1976)

This is a weird, mixed up mess of loads of different sounds and styles, all of which must have filtered through the ears of Mataya Clifford during his 1970s in Ladbroke Grove. The music here is sometimes kind of funk-rock, sometimes soulful and awash with mad strings, there's some reggae influences in there, and then the whole lot has this SOUND that is very pub-rock, or maybe influenced by the Notting Hill community bands of the period. I don't know. Maybe its none of these things and just some shonky old record I found in a flea market.

You decide:

Tracklist:

01. Star Fell From Heaven
02. Black Woman

03. Things Are Going My Way

04. Amazing Grace

05. Mama (Stay A Little While)

06. Just A Little Love

07. Running

08. Little Girl

09. Lost Child

Get it HERE.

Nkengas - Destruction (1973)

I've been a bit busy in recent weeks, hence the lack of music posts. However I hope to make up for this absence by presenting you with this bad boy of an album. Devastating, earth-shaking funk from Nigeria, this is as raw and hypnotic as it gets.

Tracklist:

01 Anyi Bundi Igbo
02 Obuna Alu
03 Anyi Buofu
04 Jungle Beat
05 Ube Frank Special
06 Ndu Bu Isi
07 Nkenga Special
08 London Special
09 Destruction

Get it HERE.
Nkengas in London can be found HERE.

Rap Tracks - Various Artists (1982)

I've seen this compilation a few times in various boot sales and charity shops over the years, but this morning it was going particularly cheap so I thought I'd better give it a try. I'm so glad I did because every track (nearly) is a winner! I'm particularly loving the spaced-out slippy disco sounds of the Funk Fusion Band, this one really hots up after a minute or so of jazz-fusion noodling:


Also loving Count Coolout's fabulous bassline:


Anyone who enjoyed the Genius of Rap that was posted a while back should consider giving this a listen.

Tracklist:

01 Frankie Smith - Double Dutch Bus
02 Funk Fusion Band - Can You Feel It (Progressive Version)
03 Captain Sky - Station Brake
04 Count Coolout - Here To Stay (Me And My Double R.R.)
05 Doctor Ice - Calling Doctor Ice
06 Midnight Blue - Enjoy With Me
07 Treacherous Three - Put The Boogie In Your Body
08 Disco Four - Do It, Do It

Get it HERE.

Mandrill - Solid (1975)

Mandrill were a psychedelic funk band from Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 1968 their sound was a heady brew that threw funk, soul, rock and latin influences together. In the early '70s their sound was characterised by energetic funk jams with acid guitar and mindblowing percussion breakdowns, by the time this album was released their sound had become a touch smoother...still cosmic though, and still funky.

Here's a clip of the band playing live on Soul Train in 1973:


Tracklist:

01 Yucca Jump
02 Peck Yer Neck
03 Wind On Horseback
04 Tee Vee
05 Solid
06 Stop & Go
07 Silk

Get it HERE.

Don Covay & The Jefferson Lemon Blues Band - Different Strokes for Different Folks (1970)

I was excited to find this in a fleamarket recently, mainly because I've been loving the Covay song that appears on this recent post. I initially thought that it must be a compilation of tracks from throughout his career, but then was intrigued to find that its actually a reissue of his 1970 album "Different Strokes for Different Folks". Check out the man in his finery on the original cover:
This is a great blend of deep soul, funk and blues sounds and its been keeping me entertained. Here's the excellent closing track:


Tracklist:

01		Sweet Thang
02		Daddy Please Don't Go Tonight
03		Why Did You Put Your Shoes Under My Bed
04		Stop By
05		Bad Luck
06		Hitching A Ride
07		Standing In The Grits Line
08		In The Sweet Bye And Bye
09		Ain't Nothing A Young Girl Can Do
10		If There's A Will There's A Way
11		What's In The Headlines

Get it HERE.

Get Up and Get Down! - Various Artists (Philips 1974)

Absolutely top notch collection of rare mid-'70s funk, soul and disco. The record contains some sweet northern soul like this one from Brother's Guiding Light:

It also has a sprinkling of street-tough ghetto funk like Etta James' stunning 'Out On the Street Again':

My very favourite though (and also one of John Peel's all time favourites) is this classic from Don Covay:


Tracklisting:

A1	Act One -	Tom The Peeper
A2	Brothers Guiding Light -	Getting Together
A3	Al Downing -	I'll Be Holding You
A4	Joe Tex -	Cat Got Her Tongue
A5	King Floyd -	Can You Dig It?
A6	Aaron Neville -	Hercules
A7	Cissy Houston -	Midnite Train To Georgia
A8	Annette Snell -	You Oughta Be Here With Me
B1	Whispers -	A Mother For My Children
B2	Roy C -	Got To Get Enough (Of Your Sweet Stuff)
B3	Etta James -	Out On The Streets Again
B4	Joneses -	Hey Babe (Is The Gettin' Still Good)
B5	Don Covay -	It's Better To Have (And Don't Need)
B6	Ohio Players -	Streakin' Cheek To Cheek
B7	Dramatics -	Choosing Up On You
B8	Little Anthony & Imperials -	La La La At The End

Get Up and Get Down HERE.

Genius of Rap - Various Artists (1982)

This is a great archive of sounds from that delicious moment when hip hop burst out of New York's ghettoes in a blaze of spangly disco grooves and delerious, sharp tongued swagger. Here's a clip from the 1984 BBC documentary, Beat This, which featured all the great dj's, mc's, breakers and bombers of the time:

This film certainly caused a stir in my school playground, and you can watch the whole thing here.

Tracklist:

01	Twennynine Featuring Lenny White -	Twennynine (The Rap)
02	T-Ski Valley -	Catch The Beat
03	Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde -	Genius Rap
04	Afrika Bambaataa & The Jazzy 5 -	Jazzy Sensation
05	Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five -	Superappin'
06	Bon Rock & The Rythem Rebellion -	Searching Rap
07	Tom Tom Club -	Rappa Rappa Rhythm
08	Compass Point All Stars -	Peanut Butter

Get it HERE.