Holiday Hodge Podge: Random Fuzz Posted by Junior

Art & Ron: Can't Stop Talkin' From: Black Fist OST [Happy Fox, 1977] Gabor Szabo: Thirteen From: Mizrab [CTI, 1973] Afro Kelenkye Band: Moving World From: Moving World [Emporium, 1974] Jose Mauro: Obnoxious From: Obnoxious [Quartin, 1970] Pied Piper Of Funkingham: Clap Song From: Pied Piper Of Funkingham [Chocolate Cholly, 1972] Kool Moe Dee: I Go To Work From: Knowledge Is King [Jive, 1989] It's about time for me to take a few weeks break as I get away from it all with sun, sea, sand and, I suspect, an overindulgence in alcohol. No matter that nine times out of ten I return from my breaks feeling more knackered than when I left, as long as the daily grind is left far behind I'm more than happy. Although my more than able fellow Fuzzers will be dropping gems left right and centre over the next few weeks I can never head off without leaving something behind so here's a random selection of tunes I could never quite work out where to put. Once again, they're all great songs looking for homes... Can't Stop Talkin' off the soundtrack to little known or seen movie Black Fist is a stomping slice of wah wah funk full of brooding menace that develops into something that the late great Mr Hayes would have considered acceptable as a small slice on one of his early seventies productions. Love those horns lying deep in the mix. Gabor Szabo's epic Thirteen is what happens when guitar noodling and great percussion come together in sweet harmony. Starting with a wandering solo the track adds nothing more than a second guitar, piano and drums to this mix for its entire 9 minutes but that does me just fine. Some may find this strays too far into lounge (it is on CTI after all) but give it a go and make sure that the drums are turned up LOUD. Moving World by Afro Kelenkye Band is a nice and dirty slice of afro funk with its heavy bass and bongo percussion accompanying the rough and ready vocals. What hits me on this is the switch up just before the two minute mark where the rough sound is merged with piano and then again at the three minute mark where trumpets and keyboards fill out the sound with some nice reverb added to the mix. From the raw to the utterly sublime. Jose Mauro's Obnoxious from the album of the same title goes through two personality changes in the first minute as it moves from big band swing to ethereal pop before hitting its stride with one of the loveliest Brazilica ballads I've ever put my ear to. The voice, the production, the hand claps. This track is truly gorgeous. Next up, some synth goodness with Pied Piper Of Funkingham's Clap Song. While the rest of PPOF's album is decent rap disco this track comes from nowhere and is like an aural bolt from the blue. With it's electro bass, percussion and synths the track sounds like PPOF picked up on Detroit House of the future and channelled it. So far ahead of the curve it's hard to believe this first came out in 1978 (yep, you read that right, 1978). Finally, because I rarely feature rap in these hodge podge posts, here's some Kool Moe Dee to finish things off. Taken from KMD's 1989 album Knowledge Is King, the track I Go To Work showcases a rapper still at the height of his powers ten years in the game. A blistering slice of fast rap, Kool Moe Dee doesn't miss a beat, showing he had the skills to ride alongside the likes Rakim and Big Daddy Kane. Classic. Anyway, that's it from me for now. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with all new material including, in light of the recent loss of both Isaac and Wexler, some much needed indepth looks at the Stax catalogue. Stay classy.