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The native terrain of funk is undoubtedly the 7" single. Now don't get me wrong, there are stacks of great funk LPs out there, albums by original dons like James Brown and The Meters through seventies purveyors like Parliament, Cymande and The Beginning Of The End, and running right up through Zapp and Mtume in … Continue reading Sir Mack Rice – Dark Skin Woman
Daft Punk: The Dons of French Disco Just the other day, the rumors began circulating that Daft Punk had parted ways, and shortly after it was confirmed. I guess I'd always assumed that they would just go on forever, two robots unfurling wave after wave of digital disco into perpetuity. They'd certainly been a reliable … Continue reading Daft Punk
Just 101 more albums that were in the running... ...Barbara Mandrell’s Treat Him Right Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Jobim The Isley Brothers’ The Heat Is On Black Sabbath’s Black Sabbath Steely Dan’s Can't Buy A Thrill Eddy Grant’s Walking On Sunshine Queen’s News Of The World Chrome’s The Visitation Neu!’s Neu! '75 Yoko Ono’s Fly Blue … Continue reading ’70s Bonus Beat: The Heartbreaking Exclusions
Tony Allen with Afrobeat 2000 N.E.P.A (Never Expect Power Always) Mercury: 1984 In the course of writing last week's tribute to Tony Allen, I was purposefully brief when discussing this record because I knew I'd have to return to it for a full-length feature in its own right. After all, it comes in at a … Continue reading Tony Allen – N.E.P.A.
Cresting into the dawning days of springtime, the last frost retreats into the shadows and the culling of the winter weeds. A towering stack of records nestled under the marquee, waiting in the cool of the morning shade, ready to accompany the landscape/ing as the lingering cold slowly recedes beneath the warm rays of the … Continue reading Garden Grooves 007
Little Richard, piano man Sunrise plane to Chicago back in 1997, Dirty Guitar playing across the headphones, flying back with my brother to visit the glory days. I remember Grandma telling me about how my Grandfather used to listen to Little Richard on the car radio back when they were first dating, picking up the … Continue reading A Tribute To The Late Great Little Richard
Motion 004: Infoworld Motion 004 happens at the axis of electronics and rhythm. Taking its name from Juan Atkins' key track in the transition from the Model 500 eighties to the Infiniti nineties, this mix draws its inspiration from the lost highway sound of Infoworld (Magic Juan's R-Theme?). Conceived just as the heaviest rainstorm of … Continue reading Motion 004
Various Artists 20 Parallel SystemsCheap Hotel 2020 In a sense, this compilation picks up where we left off last time with CHR-009: Terminal Vibration Vol. One, drawing a line from Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's New York New York through all manner of metal beat hip hop right up to the present day. The … Continue reading CHR-010: 20 Parallel Systems
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo Live And Let Die Cold Chillin' 1992 In putting together the Metal Beat 15, the Schoolly D feature and an upcoming rap entry for Cheap Hotel, there was one record that began to crystallize as the obvious choice for January's Tile Of The Month. Even the 25 From 91 … Continue reading Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – Live And Let Die
DJ Code Money & Schoolly D Emerging from the ice-cold wastelands of the mid-1980s with partner-in-crime DJ Code Money on the wheels of steel, Schoolly D was larger than life. Spiking his rhymes with casual violence and more than a little criminal intent, he often gets the credit for inventing gangsta rap. Indeed, no less … Continue reading Schoolly D