Soothing The Pain Of Commuting: For Real

Flowers: For Real
From: Soul Spectrum Vol. 2 [Bbe, 1999]

Roy Ayers & Wayne Henderson: For Real
From: Step Into Our Life [Polydor, 1978]

It's always an eye opener when you go for years appreciating a track only to find out that it's a cover and the original is even better.

Roy Ayers & Wayne Henderson's Step Into Our Life was one of the very first records I ever picked up on my digging travels and, while the record as a whole failed to capture my imagination, I'd always had a soft spot for the track For Real with its mellow sound and sunshine style.

I'd always believed that the track was an original until a friend played me the Flowers version a few weeks ago and it blew my tiny mind.

Both versions feature the same languid rhythms and blissed out soul but the Flowers version brings an added punch to the party that belts and relaxes me at the same time. Full of true soul and beautiful melodies this is one of The Greatest songs to chill out to on your way to or from work.

I've included both versions for you to compare and contrast but in my eyes there's only one winner. I hope it makes your Monday a little bit more tolerable.......

Grey and Pink

Can't Be Long Now/Francoise/For Richard/Warlock
From: If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You [Decca, 1970]

Nine Feet Underground
From: In the Land of Grey and Pink [Decca, 1971]

Feeling kind of random lately during this warm spell in NYC; so, here is a random selection from the progressive rock vaults - Caravan. For those uninitiated in prog lore, Caravan was part of the Canterbury scene and they made some pretty kinda fairly decently good albums (~4) in their prime ('70-'74). I haven't thought about this band for quite a while; and then, last week I was sitting in a bar and I swear I heard a hip hop track sampling some of the synth lines from Caravan's 23 minute "opus" 9 Feet Underground. I assumed I had heard wrong until the next track came on and it worked around the main riff from Cross-Eyed Mary by Jethro Tull (didn't see that coming). Long story short, I'm still not sure if it actually was a Caravan sample, but regardless... apparently progressive rock is fair game for beat mining now. With that said, I guess it's acceptable to dork out on this music again. I mean, I did hear a Diplo mix with snippets of Amon Duul's Yeti.

Can't Be Long... is a suite of smaller tunes that showcases the full gamut of the Caravan sound: psychedelic pop->some lite rocking->smooth jazzy jamming->psychedelic pop. Some say they perfected that formula in Nine Feet Underground. They're both here so you can be the judge. Hope you enjoy.

Note: The links above will take you to the Gibraltar Encyclopedia or Progressive Rock. It's definitely a super-fan site so take all the reviews with a grain of salt. It has all sorts of info about obscure albums so it might prove to be a useful research tool from time to time.

Get Down - Mexican Style

Cosa Nostra: Get Down And Do It and Change Of Mind
From: Cosa Nostra [Raff Records, 1971]

So, who wants some funk?

I really don't know a lot about this Mexican rock/funk outfit beyond the fact that they released two albums of stomping funk in the early seventies, that their sombre album cover gives no indication of what's in store, and that they badly need to be reissued as a matter of great urgency. and that the album is now available on a reissue.

This means that you get to enjoy the music without too much blah blah blah coming from my direction.

Get Down And Do It is a great piece of unhinged, urgent, epic funk. The garage edge to the record as a whole stands out in particular on this track with the singer wailing uncontrollably over not only the upbeat but also the breakdown. With the right mixture of great playing and sense of fun this is a buried treat.

Change Of Mind begins with an absolute killer bass/percussion/organ intro and goes up from there. Darker in tone to the party vibes of GDADI the band's funk takes on a more out there edge with the singer's calmer mood offset by the warbling synthed backing vocals. Just when the band have lulled you into a funk groove the band pick up pace and venture into a messy rock middle before bringing the funk back as if nothing had happened. Bizarre yet brilliant.

Ah, don't take my pisspoor attempts at describing as proof, check this stuff out for yourself.

In Memory Of J Dilla

Rene Costy: Scrabble

Jackson 5: All I Do Is Think Of You

Stan Getz and Luiz Bonfá: Saudade Vem Correndo

The Cyrkle: The Visit

The Three Degrees: Maybe

Ahmad Jamal: Swahililand

A year to the day of Jay Dee's untimely death and the blog world is rightly filled with tributes to the brilliant catalogue of beats the producer left us with.

Not having anything unheard to add to the tributes out there I thought instead I'd just share a few of my favourite tracks that Dilla reinvented for his beats. It may just be a coincidence but to me what many of these originals share is a deep rooted soulfulness similar to the great beats that the man delivered time and time again during his lifetime.

While I tend to shy away from breaks posts the quality of tracks produced from the great songs above is justification in it's own right. May his music be celebrated for many years to come.

James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974–February 10, 2006)

Been a long time since I left you...

Wandering Star - Portishead
Sheared Box - Portishead
from the Glory Box EP on FFRR (1994).

It's been a while since I've gotten something up here, and the reason for that dear listeners/readers is that my laptop crashed. Since I basically both work and play on that computer every day it was traumatic...but it is back from the fine folks of IBM without trouble and everything intact so here comes the music.

While I was without computing power, somehow old, sad trip-hop tracks seemed to be the best thing going for me. Two are up today from Portishead, the pretty and haunting "Wandering Star," which appeared on their debut album Dummy, and "Sheared Box" an instrumental self-remix of "Glory Box." Good memories come flying back listening to these tunes.

There is a beatbox cat out here in San Francisco, who has made a solid career doing a live-looped all-vocal songs including a pretty stellar rendition of "Wandering Star." Check the styles below from Kid Beyond.



Lots more soon.