it's all good…

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Weekend before last I was at ck’s and he dropped this audio bomb on my ear lobes. Sounding like Mtume had decided to reform and release new material, ck introduced me to Dâm-Funk’s world. Ck and Keith have specialised more into hiphop than I ever have but their tastes mean they acquire material like this, boogie funk or modern-soul (whatever you want to call it), which I needs to get me into and stock up on.  It’s got that West Coast L.A. early eighties vibe thang goin’ on, totally nails it and I’m saying that despite not even visiting the States, let alone Los Angeles. On the flip side, you have the more uptempo but equally retro-sounding Galactic Fun, bringing to mind the productions of the Belgium outfit Spirit Catcher who forge a similar path with a love of eighties synths but more from a house angle.

Dâm purrrdy sleeve as well; released earlier this year but still widely available and h-h-hot, so grab a slice of this boogie pie and support the artist. Looking forward to checking out his forthcoming long player on Stones Throw in the new year.

www.stonesthrow.com/damfunk
www.myspace.com/damfunk

Buy on: discogs | gemm | musicstack

ck’s all over it – he also played me this promo vid Dâm-Funk put together to publicize his Funkmosphere parties in L.A. – check out the sassy eighties vibezzz. When I eventually get to visit the States and hit L.A. I’ll definitely be visiting to hear all the black wax original pressings, analogue goodness, and to cut some shapes on the floor.

A mix of disco, funnily enough, although there are a couple of other changes of tempo and flavours lurking within of a more soulful and funky leaning. This mix opened my eyes to a whole new world of disco glitter… and wallet-stretching rare tunes to attempt to find and purchase. I mean, Dave Lee (aka Joey Negro) put together some scarce disco nuggets on this two hour mix; didn’t matter to him, ‘cos he’s already got them! I think alot of them are his own edits and he throws a few samples over the top of some tracks as well, like the spoken word bits over Gino Soccio. I broke my own ceiling on what I thought I would ever spend on a single record getting a rare disco mix of Gladys Knight And The Pips. I’ve seen original copies of the Ashford & Simpson’s One More Try go for over £300 on eBay, far in excess of what I would or could pay, so made do with a bootleg until I find the original for tuppence in a charity shop.

Luckily even though this mix is from 2004, the wonderful chaps at milkaudio.com are still hosting it. Be advised that it is a fairly low quality RealAudio streaming file, I’ve also uploaded it to TipTop.

Tracklisting from milkaudio

1. | 0:00:00 | Gladys Knight & The Pips - It’s A Better Than Good Time (Walter Gibbons Mix)
2. | 0:05:46 | Sonny Jenkins And The New York Pot Pourri Strings – That Friday Pay (Eagle Flying Day)
3. | 0:10:57 | Jessie G. – That’s Hot
4. | 0:15:26 | Aura – L.A. Sunshine
5. | 0:20:52 | Mighty Fire – Love Fantasy
6. | 0:27:16 | Ashford & Simpson – One More Try
7. | 0:31:44 | Phreek – Everybody Loves A Good Thing
8. | 0:36:22 | Dazzle – You Dazzle Me!!!
9. | 0:42:13 | Jupiter Beyond – The River Drive (Instrumental)
10. | 0:48:28 | The Players’ Association – Hustlin’
11. | 0:52:32 | John Gibbs With The Jam Band – J’Ouvert
12. | 0:57:27 | Xanadu & Sweet Lady – Rappers Delight
13. | 1:00:20 | Risco Connection – Good Times
14. | 1:05:31 | Gino Soccio – Try It Out
15. | 1:11:33 | Boeing – Dance On The Beat
16. | 1:16:18 | Touché – Just Like A Doorknob
17. | 1:21:04 | Change – Heaven Of My Life
18. | 1:25:39 | Kinsmen Dazz Band – Love Design
19. | 1:29:04 | Invisible Man’s Band – Love Can’t Come / Love Has Come
20. | 1:36:13 | Sergio Mendes – Love Music
21. | 1:39:24 | Cerrone – Music Of Life
22. | 1:45:32 | Webster Lewis – El Bobo
23. | 1:48:57 | The Main Ingredient – Work To Do
24. | 1:53:24 | Stratavarious – Nightfall
25. | 1:56:18 | The Sunburst Band – He Is

Info/Stream on Milkaudio

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Music can be such a personal thing, alot of the time your impressions are formed within the first few moments as the sounds cut through the noisy detritus of life to arrest your attention. Other times the subtlety of some tracks need repeated listens before, having initially been dismissed, you appreciate them; this is one of the former. I got handed a mixtape one night back in ’99 when running the bar in Thailand as I used play mixes using my walkman (remember those?) and was dead impressed by it. It mixed psychedelic rock with funk, mostly stuff from the 60s/70s if I recall correctly, excellent transitions between the tracks considering the material. I’m sure I’ve still got it (the guy who gave it to me in Thailand never came back to collect it; I remember when I first put it on, seeing him nodding sagely to it whilst sipping a beer.) but it will be in storage, I’ll definitely put it up on TipTop once retrieved.

It wasn’t until I saw and bought this re-release of the album that it’s from that I found out that it was played at 45rpm and pitched right down on the mixtape! Played at the correct speed it just sounds way too slow and just wrong – my impression was formed from listening to it on the mixtape and I have to listen to it now the same way. I’ve put both versions up here, the first is the original track and the second one was recorded at 45rpm but pitched down 8%; what do you think? Sped up, the bass almost sounds acidic, when I first heard this I thought it was until the track was id’ed, reminds me a little of Jean-Jacques Perrey’s track, “E.V.A.“. There must be whole websites devoted to highlighting tracks that sound either as good or better played the wrong speed and I also recall a compilation album years ago using this as it’s theme. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of music.

Buy on: discogs | gemm | musicstack