Too Hard For the Radio

Mac Dre: California Livin' (Music Video)
From Young Black Brotha [Strictly Business, 2001]

The next two weeks are going to be hectic so don't expect to see me too much around here. For now I'll leave with a follow up to my Mac Dre post with the music video he did for "California Livin'."

Is it just me or does he remind any of you of Fatlip in this video?

Take The Pepsi Challenge

The Mohawks: Pepsi
From: Pepsi/Mony Mony (KPM, 1969)

Back with some more library flavour today. Not just any old library sound either but a group of session musicians fronted by a legend among library musicians, Mr Alan Hawkshaw.

Most famous for the sampled to death The Champ, the Mohawks produced an album's worth of heavy Hammond organ funk in the sixties which rivals many of the big name artists of the day and there's no better example of their sound than on the follow up to The Champ, Pepsi.

Pepsi comes at you like a whirlwind of hammond funk. Check out the sublime bass and bongos introduction before Hawkshaw's trademark organ playing takes over proceedings. The rising horns then help build the songs momentum until it becomes an absolute dancefloor monster. What really gets me every time with this track though is the brilliantly sparse use of the vocals, these guys were funking hard but enjoying it immensely.

Originals of this cost around $400 so thank god for the reissue of this killer piece of funk. You now have no excuse not to buy it.

Small Group Sounds

Rene Costy: Scrabble
From: Rene Costy And His Orchestra [Chappell 197?]

Rene Costy's 'Scrabble' is a tune taken from a library LP he released on Chappell. Chappell is one of the most prolific of all the European library labels, with lots of juicy nuggets to find among there vast catalogue. To my knowledge Mr Costy did not release that many library LP's, I know he's released a few things on Chappell and Montparnasse 2000 (another big French library label) and also a few release's on the tiny Belgian label 'Selection Records'. Scrabble was a big influence on me getting into the whole library scene, I first heard the song on a now out of print comp 'Dimensions in Sound' (Scrabble is given the false name 'Dimension number 9' on this comp), along with a few other library tunes Scrabble was some of the first library music I heard. I still have not managed to bag the original record, yet, its regrettably still on my wants list. The song is perfection from beginning to end with electric violin, electric trombone? and organ solo's underpinned by some funky drum and guitar work, oh and did I forget to mention blinding drum breaks? I've listened to this song so many times an it always does the trick.

Rain falls, over my head

Mandrill: Two Sisters Of Mystery and Fat City Strut
From: Just Outside Of Town [Polydor 1973]

I had been wondering what I should write about for my first post on this here earfuzz, while contemplating to put up some obscure library material or some funk or soul, I asked myself what kind of sound are you people going to dig? Then one word came into my head 'FUZZ'. This led me to the first track on side two of Mandrill's album 'Just Outside Of Town'. Mandrill are a Latin funk band from New York, a popular band on the scene back in the seventies. Their music has an eclectic style ranging from Latin , soul, rock or funk. The track "Two sisters of mystery" is a solid piece of funk rock with a throbbing fuzz guitar leading you through the track, accompanied by some dope lyrics and horns, some of you Public Enemy fans will have heard the intro to this before. The second track Fat city strut shows how Mandrill could play music in different styles. The track is a solid, unrelenting funk jam, which has a little surprise chunk of Latin slapped in the middle of it. The LP also contains the classic track Mango meat which, unfortunately you'll have to go get the LP to hear. Click up top to soak in the goodness.

Fly Beattown!

Trishes & Whizz Vienna: Ill Brazil and Slide Into Confusion
From: Fly Beattown! (Beattown, 2005)

In light of our search for new writers (Fuzzsters?) I thought it was about time to take a breather from the funk and remind you readers that we don't only listen to music pre 1985.

One of the things that first drew me into the world of Mp3 blogging, along with the egotistical desire to inflict my listening tastes on the internet, was the chance it gave to promote lesser known artists.
Blogging allows you to drop music that wouldn't normally be heard so we at Ear Fuzz are always interested in promoting music made by up and coming artists.

Therefore today we have sounds coming to you from Austria via fellow Myspace addicts and Beattown Records label owners Trishes & Whizz Vienna. Instrumental hip hop of high quality the two tracks come from their latest release Fly Beattown!.
Half produced by Trishes and half by Whizz Vienna the album illustrates the duo's love of all things hip hop and a diverse selection of styles and sounds.

Ill Brazil by Trishes is like some evil twin of Mr Scruff's classic track Ug - with a rolling, squelching, farting, funky bassline and ominous strings accompanying the stripped down beats. Has a nice pitch shift halfway through as well. I've yet to try it but I reckon this track would go down a storm played loud and heavy.

Slide Into Confusion by Whizz Vienna is on the more downtempo tip with meaty beats, violins, and a cheeky little music box sample accompanying the quality scratching of DJ Emodee who laces vocal and instrumental cuts over the track with considerable skill.

Be sure to check out the Beattown label's website and, of course, their MySpace page for details on present and upcoming releases.

Polish Delights

Henryk Debich: Na Opak
From: String Beat [Muza, 1975]

Wojciech Karolak: Instant Groove
From: Easy [Muza, 1974]

Polish Jazz has to be one of the most coveted forms of the genre outside of the U.S., and it's rise to popularity has a deep history. After 1945, Poland fell under the dominance of Russia, quickly labeling Jazz music as music of the enemy and banning it alltogether. Like the course of Prohibition, jazz soon went underground, symbolizing the spirit of independence, noncomformity and cosmopolitnism in Poland. But after Stalin's death in 1953, jazz music quickly resurfaced, and fans in Poland were able to turn to the U.S. for inspiration, using it to mold their own brand of jazz. I'm glossing over this information rather quickly, but there's a plethora of coverage on the subject if you just Google "Polish Jazz."

Like killermike's post on Skalpel a few weeks ago outlined, Polish Jazz has become quite the hotbed for breaks and loops for contemporary music. Today, I'm posting up a couple tracks that clearly define the Polish Jazz climate of the mid 70's and I don't know much about them so I'm not going to front like I do.

The first tune comes from Henryk Debich, off of an album that has been called one of the holy grails of Polish Jazz. The first track "Na Opak" opens with a great drum break, and then introduces layers of instruments before coalescing into a classicly funky jazz track.

Wojciech Karolak I happen to know a little more about thanks to Wax Poetics Number 4. Born in 1939, Karolak studied piano and saxaphone at a music high school in Krakow, and played in various Polish jazz ensembles before switching to the Hammond organ in 1971. "Instant Groove" off his album Easy is a monster tune, utilizing Karolak's spacey keyboard synth work under a mellow vibe. Great bass work and open beats are all over this bad boy.

A Little Respect

Rotary Connection: Respect and Sunshine Of Your Love
From: Songs (Cadet, 1969)

So, when I decided to use the tenuous link of cover versions to do a series of posts there was no way I could pass up mentioning one of the great masters of the art form - Rotary Connection.

Led by Marshall Chess with additional production by Charles Stepney and featuring vocals by Minnie Riperton, Rotary Connection produced a series of albums from the sixties to the seventies covering a range of styles. Their legacy of music goes from the sublime to the faintly ridiculous but when they were on form they were nigh on untouchable.

Songs, their penultimate album together before Minnie went solo is one of their strongest offerings and includes a number of killer cover versions.

Respect is so reworked as to be almost unrecognisable. The band forgo the pleading passion of Redding's original and the righteous anger of Aretha's version and replace it with something altogether more sultry, Minnie's voice oozing sexual yearning. The instrumentation reflects the tone with distorted guitars and the kind of brooding, epic orchestration that producer Stepney excelled at, slowly building up to a crescendo of harmonising between instruments and vocals. If you're gonna cover a classic then this is the way to do it.

Sunshine of Your Love slows the mood right down from the original's high energy to a stoned soul groove. While not as dramatic a reinterpretation as Respect this is still top quality stuff. Check out the drums that are ever so slightly off beat at the the beginning of the chorus, the mournful horn accompaniment and the note that Minnie hits, and holds, in the chorus. Spellbinding stuff.

Approach to Danger

Lalo Schifrin: Scorpio and Theme From Magnum Force
From Sudden Impact and the Best of Dirty Harry (Viva, 1983)

I've long been a fan of soundtracks from the 60's and 70's, and I don't really know that I could tell you why. I know that the sparce arrangments and the "cinematic" elements appeal to me, but these aspects could apply to rock based soundtracks from pretty much any era. There really isn't one specific thing about scores from the late 60's to the mid 70's that does it for me, but I can say the aesthetics of Lalo Schifrin's music from this time period had a large part in shaping what I look for in a soundtrack lp. The fuzzed out almost spaghetti western guitars, the sharp back beat drumming, the horn stabs, and most of all the attention to motion and tension. Schifrin's music is not the wacka-chicka-wacka of the lazier 70's action themes, nor is it often the lush, stirring stuff of some of the better soul soundtracks. While the tension is created through the use of rhythm and accents, there is enough of melodic interest to make the records worth listening to outside of the context of the film.

I'm going to post several Schifrin tracks for the next couple weeks, starting with one of my favorites. I don't believe a proper soundtrack LP to Dirty Harry (or the following two films) was released prior to the 180 gram Simply Vinyl editions which popped up a few years ago. While 1983's Sudden Impact and the Best of Dirty Harry doesn't include the entire score to the original Dirty Harry movie, it thankfully features the bad guy's theme: the soundtrack to his roof top snipings. Rough stuff it is, which an on point drummer leading many tempo changes. The "Magnum Force" theme is also worth a listen, with its call and response fuzz guitars and open drums. Stay tuned for some more Schifrin heat.

A Few Of My Favourite Thangs

Dennis Coffey Trio: Let The Sunshine In and Iceberg's Thang
From: Hair and Thangs (Maverick, 1969)

Continuing with the covers theme, one such record this style of digging through my own crates brought up was Dennis Coffey's Hair and Thangs. My previous knowledge of Dennis before picking up this record was mainly based round his timeless breaks Scorpio and Taurus but this record offers up more proof of the man's talents.

Starting off as a session musician, Dennis played with many of the greats including The Temptations, Parliament and, eh, Ringo Starr before starting his career as a solo artist. You can read more about his music here.

Hair and Thangs offers up a combination of cover songs and original compositions, but what caught my ear was Coffey's version of Galt MacDermot's Let The Sunshine In. So dirty it hurts the track has to be one of the funkiest reworkings of the song ever laid down on vinyl, layering up killer hammond organ with an extremely heavy guitar solo and a couple of drum breaks. Check out the way the vocals are brought into the mix for the final bars as well, ingenious.

Iceberg's Thang displays Coffey's skill at writing original pieces with clattering drums and sweaty guitar work. A couple of tempo changes keep the listener's interest and the intensity of the sound demand that this track gets played loud. This stuff is raw as you like and all the better for it.

Cold Sweating Purdie Style

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie: Cold Sweat and Wasteland
From: Purdie Good (Prestige, 1971)

In the world of breaks there's drummers and then there's Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Responsible for the jaw dropping work on "Soul drums", this legend has worked with everyone who is anyone in the soul funk scene including Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Jackson 5, Miles Davis etc etc etc. His prolific output is enough to make you believe the claim that he's the "World's Most Recorded Drummer". To read more about his 40 plus years in the industry you can visit his website here.

Purdie Good is a decent introduction to Bernard's world, a typical mix of original and cover numbers all blessed with his superb skills.

Cold Sweat is one of my favourite covers of any James Brown song, ever. Starting from a musical vibe similar to the original, Purdie progresses the sound into a multi layered jam, before stripping the sound back to the bare minimum of his pounding drums and thundering bass line.

Wasteland shows that Purdie didn't have to be in full on kit wrecking mode to create great music. An epic slow burner, the tune starts with the simplest of horns and dubstyle bass before slowly building up momentum until it ignites in the final stages and slays the listener.

Listening to Purdie's version of Cold Sweat got me thinking about great covers of classic tunes so expect to see a few more posts focused on cover songs in the next few weeks, feel free to suggest your own favourites.

Lot's of Loving

Ranking Dread: Supa Star
From Lot's of Loving [Tad's, 1980]

Marijuana Soul
From Girls Fiesta [Burning Sounds, 1978]

Per earfuzz reader request (yes, you guys can do that) I'm doing a post on reggae supa star Ranking Dread. Lot's of Loving was the first album of his that I bought and it instantly became one of my favorite dancehall albums. At the time, Dread was doing vocal work for Sugar Minott's Youthman Promotion sound, and they recorded this album under his production. Like the title would indicate, the LP is filled with feel good riddms and rhymes, the choice cut being "Supa Star." Dread's exceptional vocal ability is showcased on this one, mixed especially high which I think greatly intensify's the album's acoustics.

The other song I chose here was from an earlier album, "Girls Fiesta," produced by Linval Thompson. Unlike the dancehall riddms of Lots of Loving Dread works with dub soundscapes, which naturally changes his delivery. It's much more melodic and doesn't have all the random buh-dah-bee-bum-bum-bum stuff, making it an entirely different listen. "Marijuana Soul" is a great cut, even if it is the most played out topic in reggae music.

Flora Purim: Angels
From Nothing Will Be As It Was... Tomorrow [Warner Brothers, 1977]

Some more laidback weekend goodness for y'all... I have to run out the door, so I can't do this justice in writing. Flora on the mic, Earth Wind and Fire's Al Mckay on guitar.

Men at Work

Brass Construction:
Changin'
From Brass Construction [United Artists, 1975]
The Message
From Brass Construction II [United Artists, 1976]

I threw a pretty ridiculous house party last night, but rather than clean up the beer-soaked floors or remove the orange traffic plyon that mysteriously appeared in the hallway, I thought I'd sit in front of the computer and post some of my favorite hangover/lazy weekend music for y'all.

I'm still too dazed to write a decent description, but I'll give you the basics. Brass Construction were a nine-man band with funky outfits and even funkier music. "Changin'" works a four-on-the-floor groove for eight minutes, switching up the instrumentation between horns, strings, and guitar. "The Message" is more laid-back, starting with an instantly recognizable sample and moving into a lovely sing-along section. Just listen.

(Apologies for the crackles and pops, my copies are far from pristine.)

It's Party Time

Roy Porter: Funky Twitch
From Jessica [Chelan, 1971]

Roy Porter: Party Time
From Inner Feelings [Bel-Ad, 1975]

Born in Colorado in 1923, Roy Porter was a drummer who backed up many jazz greats, most notably Charlie Parker during the 40's. He unfortunately fell victim to alcoholism which consumed much of his musicianship and public spotlight until producer Rober Blackwell urged him to get his career back on track. Abandoning his be-bop roots, Porter assembled a band and recorded the album Jessica in 1971, which was the beginning in his development of the funk. For me the winner here is "Funky Twitch," a nice groovy number that makes great use of Hendrix inspired guitar.

He then recorded Inner Feelings which cranks up the groove considerably from its predecessor. One of many standout tracks, "Party Time," starts with a blazing drum break and devolves into a flurry of uptempo vibes, and if memory serves correct Porter didn't even play the drums on this one, he played the claves. This track always makes me feel good and was comped up on Ubiquity's California Soul compilation along with the Mike James Kirkland track that was featured the other week.

Porter was enthusiastic about the merging of hip hop and jazz, and turned many producers on to Bop and encouraged them to sample his music. He was excited to participate in the "Keepintime" project, the collaboration between jazz drummers and DJs, but he unfortunately passed away in 1997 before the project could be funded. Porter is one of those artists who often gets lost in the shuffle of larger more well-known musicians, but for many his contributions to jazz and hip hop hardly go unnoticed.