Sounds of Liberation – New Horizons I

Sounds of Liberation – New Life

YouTube Blog Posts = You’re Not on The Hype Machine

Is it me, or is every funk and soul song ever on YouTube now?

It certainly feels like it. Last weekend, I was on YouTube nabbing some of my favorite ‘real tough’ love soul songs from back in the day in honor of anti-valentines day, and posting them right up on the Facebook Earfuzz fan page – http://bit.ly/earfuzz …

On the Earfuzz.com site, I don’t do entire posts of songs from YouTube, because mp3s are better for discovery of the Earfuzz posts. What I mean is, The Hype Machine – the biggest and best music blog aggregator – doesn’t seem pick up YouTube videos you post on your blog. So, if I do all YouTube content posts on Earfuzz, you won’t see them on the Hype Machine.

At the same time, Google is taking down audio blogs on it’s Blogger platform that are posting mp3s. I find this to be ** WILDLY IRONIC ** because like I said, all of those mp3s bloggers are putting up, well likely Google’s YouTube has FLV / video versions of those same songs!

BTW, my brothers over at the law / tech / music blog 95Years.com – have a great post up about the whole Google blog take down stuff that you should read…

I often try to point to YouTube videos from Earfuzz for the reason that it saves me the onus of uploading and getting the content from my own archive. Also on YouTube – you get sometimes the real experience of seeing the record spin, or the cover art.

But yeah, then you don’t show up on the Hype Machine, when you post the YouTube videos of songs.

Mallia Franklin featuring Junie Morrison – Buzzards

A tribute post to two great members of the P-Funk family – George Everett Clinton Jr. (aka Georgie aka George Clinton III), and Mallia Franklin.

George Everett Clinton Jr. – George Clinton’s son – I knew well from time I spent with P-Funk in the mid to late nineties, some people call him Georgie C. George Clinton’s children like Georgie, Barbarella, Sean, and also the infamous TreyLewd (Tracy) – http://www.myspace.com/treylewd – always have looked out for me like I am a member of the Clinton family. Such beautiful people.

I remember Georgie’s wide smile, and constant lectures at me, as I was a young buck at the time. Georgie’s got plenty of his own music, and I know there’s more to come out – you can check his group out here on MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/gc3andpfunkfamily.

Georgie – you are sorely missed. Prayers go out to the entire Clinton family, George Sr., and especially George Jr.’s daughter, the talented rapper and vocalist Sativa Diva – seen on stage with P-Funk quite a bit, who I urge you to earpeep over here - http://www.myspace.com/sativadiva

Rest in P-Funk, Georgie.

Unfortunately the news came down Monday, after George had celebrated a really successful 2010 Grammys. I’ll get more to the Grammy performance in a minute.

Buddy Miles – Rockin and Rollin on the Streets of Hollywood
Buddy Miles – Nasty Disposition (with Stevie Wonder)

Sorry folks, I was held up in Hollywood. Ergo, that’s why I haven’t been keeping up with sharing the funk! But we’re still posting links over at the Facebook fan page -

The experience really made me think of Buddy Miles’ song ‘Rockin and Rollin in Hollywood’.

Earlier this Spring, I posted up about Buddy Miles (RIP) and his post Hendrix / funk years. I think you’ll find Part 1 of my look at Buddy Miles funk years informative, but let’s share some more of his funk.

Blancmange – Game Above My Head (Extended Mix – faster)

Blancmange – Game Above My Head (Razormaid! Mix – slower)

Blancmange – Blind Vision (Razormaid! Mix)

Blancmange – Blind Vision (Live in Holland, 1984)

Blancmange – Kind (Live in Holland, 1984)

Blancmange – My Baby (Live in Holland, 1984)

West India Company – Ave Maria

West India Company – Thieves of Our Lovers Lives

Prologue

Sorry I’ve been so busy and haven’t posted along with the rest of the Earfuzz mates in a bit, I promise I’m out there doing thangs like with my group fONKSQUISh or learning about digital music and stuff on the job.

In the meantime, you know the Earfuzz crew are pulling the best funkiest parts of the blogosphere, and putting them over at our Earfuzz Facebook fan page.

I would love to maybe re-syndicate the Facebook stuff back on to this page, but I think the actual Earfuzz.com site is more *editorial* and less *curatorial*, like the fan page which you should sign up for right here if you haven’t already – http://bit.ly/earfuzz .

We have a Twitter too, but many I’m always locking myself out of the account.

Let us know what you think in the comments – more content curation, or more deep introspection on the jams?? I’m at least one who is curious about this CURATE vs EDIT debate when I try to write thangs.

Blancmange + ‘Game Above My Head’

So I recently have been just jamming over and over again a song that seems as relevant to me as it did in 1984, both lyrically and musically. It’s Blancmange’s ‘Game Above My Head’.

I’ll spare you all the nostalgia I feel with Blancmange, but I have been listening to this song since it came out. Sure the angsty lyrics like -

’someone touched me late last night, someone tried to tie me down / cut me down let me sleep – there’s a promise I’ll never never keep’

- not likely appropriate for a 13 year old (when I first fell in love with it), but man the vocals of Neil Arthur and slink synth of Steven Luscombe hit me like a ton of bricks back then and still do. Get up with their wikipedia page here for all the info – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blancmange_(band). I think also the clever album artwork was extremely appealing to my young self. It wasn’t like Blancmange was being felt stateside like a Duran Duran, it was more a ‘real discovery’.

I have two versions of the track up here – I always seem to find different versions of ‘Game Above My Head’. The ‘extended’ track coming in at 5:00 minutes or so, is slightly faster than what you get from the Razormaid! remix which builds much more slowly. Don’t know about Razormaid! remixes? (of course you do) – but if you don’t you should catch up with the wiki page there as well – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razormaid!

More servings of Blancmange

Also I dug up the Razormaid! version of ‘Blind Vision’ which comes from Blancmange’s 2nd major label album, ‘Mange Tout’. A must have LP, same one with ‘Game Above’ on it. This Razormaid! version was a revelation for me, for the just claptastic breakdowns throughout the jam. And you hear in here kind of the secret sauce that made Blancmange so funky – super soul back up singers, bright synths, and a horn section. They got more angular funky by this 2nd LP before kind of moving out of a funk phase and fading away around 1986. See if you lose that funk, you lose

I remember I went to London in the winter of 1985 and my parents let me run around like a wild man. I copped a live tape of them in Holland from 1984 on one of the many bootleg cassette tape stands in Kensington. Man I was glad when I found that Soulseek let’s you find this rare ish. I got that concert now, and so I’m offering up a live version of ‘Blind Vision’ from that concert. It is so spirited. Neil Arthur just rips it and with the soul singers, these guys I feel move into some deep club funk territory. Two more favs from the set – ‘My Baby’ and the really interesting ‘Kind’. Their live renditions pretty much stick to the way they came out on the ‘Mange Tout’ LP but still deliver. I’ve never found a live version though of ‘Game Above My Head’ but I’m going to YouTube in a second. No, can’t find it. But here’s a super slinky percussive version of ‘God’s Kitchen’ which comes from their first LP, ‘Happy Families’.

Wrap up – Post Blancmange, CLAPTASMS!

I noted in that version of ‘God’s Kitchen’ above – that even with all these Australian and French remix crews (I won’t name names recapturing these 80’s drum sounds, replete with hand claps and stuff – they never seem to place the claps and extra percussions in the right place on the beat to be extra funky. When I first heard DJ Eli in early 2007 on a remix of Pase Rock’s ‘Sexy MF’ – I quickly IM’d into East Village Radio, like what is this man .. I think I for the first time I heard some tabla and claps placed in just the right places in such a long time.

I’m not a music theorist from the Berklee College of music, but clap placement is so important for the ears you dig? You can be a new jack remix crew all day long rocking them 80’s new wave / funk / pop sounds, but unless you place the claps in strategic places, yer lost. That’s one element of Blancmange I think I love so much – the claptasms.

I put up DJ Eli Escobar and DJ U-Tern in the opening pic, because I really love how they recapture that Blancmange vibe with some of their jams, and I haven’t heard many people be able to work the drum machine in that direction. So I think in some sense these guys’ clapability and lush funk sounds have me revisiting this Blancmange ish on the regular… here are some of their recent works via RCRDLBL:

I always figure if I have to give a dappp to the future if I’m giving dapps to the past, in this case, sound wise it all certainly ties together just a bit.

Steven Luscombe went on from Blancmange to do some real claptastic things that even are more lush with Indian singer Asha Bhosle – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha_Bhosle .. the project was called the West India Company, and dang man, I had this 12″ back in the day and I’m putting up both sides up here, ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Thieves of Our Lovers Lives’.

I see Blancmange is working on a new album, but meh, everything I heard had nothing of the old sound – http://blancmange.biz/Music.html

Jean Carn – ‘What’s On Your Mind’ (Soulseek Edit)
Jean Carn – ‘What’s On Your Mind’ (Original LP Version)
Amanda Blank – ‘Might Like You Better’ (DJ Hoff ‘Jean Carn’ blend)

Listen, I used to scour record stores just like everyone else for funk records, but I always found I was looking for something specific, maybe some P-Funk, etc. That means, since I’m not a DJ, a crate digger etc., many many great funk records have escaped my knowledge over time. And that’s of course why I read Earfuzz.com (which you can also follow here on Facebook now).

Another great funk discovery resource – DJ Blends. Our friends at the great music blog Discobelle.net turned us on to DJ Hoff’s ‘Jean Carn’ blend of Amanda Blank’s ‘Might Like You Better’.

As soon as I heard this blend of Mrs. Blank’s jam, I had to rush over to wikipedia to read Jean Carne’s biography / discography and find the original source material that DJ Hoff used.

The source material is Jean Carn’s ‘What’s On Your Mind’ from ‘When I Find You Love’ LP, the Jean Carn 1981 album put out on Philadelphia International Records.

So with the DJ Hoff blend, you have Philly’s Amanda Blank rapping over an instrumental funk edit from Philly signed soul artist Jean Carn. And Dexter Wansel, a Philly based power funk producer – read his bio here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Wansel – really is driving this jam, with solid gold funk.

Sure I love this Dexter Wansel produced jam ‘What’s On Your Mind’. Unfortunately, you have to sit through about 1:40 of syrupy disco soul before Wansel drops the uber tight, congo and synth laden break for the song. Expect some mighty tight bass ripples in here too, unfortunately in this digital world, I can’t find the player credits, so I don’t know who from Philly International is dropping in this amazing bass line. Any thoughts? Leave it in the comments.

At 3:00 minutes into the song, again, we hit the disco syrup, strings and Dexter Wansel’s orchestral work. It’s nice, but it’s not that banging break, with the vocal ‘ooohhhs’ (which also work nicely in the ‘Might Like You Better’ blend against Amanda Blank’s sassy rhymes).

So I provided an edit I found on Soulseekthat focuses in on the tightest part of the Jean Carn / Dexter Wansel jam. Enjoy the edit, it makes me just freak out it’s so on the one.

Funny, SoulExpress.net totally ripped ‘What’s On Your Mind, they wrote:

the track is a truly awful uptempo dancer with a fast metronomic beat perfect for people with no sense of rhythm.

Are you kidding me? I got plenty of rhythm and I’ll be dancing to all three versions above for the next few months! I hope you do too.. #funkyfriday.

Funkadelic – Friday Night, August 14th

The Temptations – Sweetness In The Dark

Smokey Robinson – Open

Rose Banks – Whole New Thing

Bonnie Pointer – More and More

Fred Wesley and The Horny Horns – Half A Man

Billy Bass + Eddie Hazel – I Ain’t Got Nobody

Introduction

It seems like I’m always doing my brother Billy Bass Nelson wrong. We sometimes just disconnect! I was going to connect with him this week and interview him on his long career. Missed calls, miss connections, we didn’t make it happen.

Besides being a warm guy and quite a personality (how many of you personally know Billy’s wicked / sly laugh?? – ‘a heh, heh, heh’), Billy Bass Nelson is one of America’s most important bassists. Billy came up with the name ‘Funkadelic’ and started the group with Eddie Hazel and George Clinton ; and he has a tremolo and slap bass style that is quite unique, though Billy will most rap at you about James Jamerson and his importance instead.

So yeah, I messed up and missed the opportunity to directly review with Billy some of his important post Funkadelic work as a session bassist for Motown Records, when he was recording for the likes of The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, The Commodores, Lenny Williams and Jermaine Jackson. I have some selections from that Motown era (1975 – 1978) though still here in this post. We’ll get a 1:1 interview up here with Billy Bass Nelson soon. And you know, I’m leaving off here a chunk of Billy Bass’s work for Holland Dozier Holland’s few record labels in the early to mid 1970’s. Honestly, I think Billy did so much session work for Motown during these years, it’s hard to tell exactly what he played on and did not play on.

I recommend you read the All Music Guide post on Billy, or the Wikipedia page is a quick one.

Funkadelic Period

I also thought it was significant to post this collection this week as one of Billy’s earliest songs for Funkadelic, you can hear him on vocals on this one, ‘Friday Night, August 14th’ – well low and behold it is INDEED, Friday Night, August 14th here in 2009.

One of my favorite Funkadelic jams, and Billy and Eddie Hazel trade lead vocals on this one – rapping about ‘buying all the good times’ with an ‘income tax return’ that just came in .. just a bad ass Funkadelic grinder from 1970’s Funkadelic LP ‘Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow’. The song demonstrates, Billy is no sluff of a singer, and actually he’s one of my favorite singers in P-Funk.

Billy’s work for Motown

Next up I went into Billy’s work for The Temptations. Here’s a grainy vinyl rip from the 1976 LP ‘ Wings of Love’ ; the whole A side features Billy Bass there locked in with drummer Ollie Brown.

My favorite jam on the A side is ‘Sweetness in the Dark’ It is so typical of Billy’s style, where he just rides a a really simple groove and then drops a little flair break / drop, tight in, just right before ‘the one’. I believe Freddie Stone is getting in some guitar duties here as well on this jam.

Regarding the Temptations, of course Eddie Hazel and Billy Bass are more well known for penning a monster hit on the 1975 Temptations LP ‘A Song For You’ – that’s the one and only ‘Shakey Ground’. (Here is 2009 version with Billy playing bass with a local group in Nashville covering ‘Shakey Ground’).

And Billy’s tremolo bass open is all over ‘I Feel Sanctified’ by The Commodores though he’s not credited as a writer.

You’ll hear Billy use this ‘drop it before the one’ riff device a lot, and the ‘Sweetness in the Dark’ riff seemingly turns up again, sped up a bit for Smokey Robinson’s ‘Open’. My friend Dwayne Wilson pointed this out to me. I was going to play it for Billy and ask him if he remembered it. The album credits for ‘Smokey’s Family Robinson’ LP from 1976 don’t cite Billy, but Billy tells me if Jeffery Bowen produced the album for Motown, he likely played a role. And this riff is so Billy! (even if it is watered down a little bit). Jeffery Bowen leaned heavy on Billy during his Motown period – more on Bowen here.

You can hear Billy’s boyant bass playing leading Sly Stone’s little sister Rose Banks solo LP effort ‘Rose’ also from 1976. Damn Billy, 1976 was a busy year for you!

Jeffery Bowen takes the writers credit again, but I know this track ‘Whole New Thing’ is a Billy jam. Darn, I wish I had caught up with Billy before he took off for a little trip for more clarifications. He’ll be back. Enjoy the cascading scales on this jam. Truman Thomas is credited with keyboard duties here, but don’t be surprised if that’s actually Billy Preston on those pianos and organs, as he offered another version of ‘Whole New Thing’ to be the lead / title track on an album for A&M in 1977 ; another talented bassist, Keni Burke (of ‘Rising to the Top’ fame) leads on that version.

Billy can be heard leading on bass on this ballad from 1978 on Bonnie Pointer’s self titled debut album, also for Motown. It’s called ‘More and More’. I think Eddie Hazel is playing guitars with Billy and it to me sounds like the ultimate late 70’s Funkadelic slow jam, except it’s not on a Funkadelic album! This one just nabs me. Drop us a comment on this one for sure, I want to know how ‘More and More’ makes you feel.

Even though Billy Bass was at Motown in Los Angeles in the mid to late 70s doing tons of session work, it isn’t like Billy ever left the Parliament / Funkadelic camp!!! You can find him on Parliament albums, Parlet, Brides of Funkenstein all the way into the eighties and beyond.

So on that note, I added a tune here he penned with George Clinton, called ‘Half A Man’ which wound up on ‘Say Blow by Blow Backwards’, the P-Funk thang, 1979 Atlantic LP by Fred Wesley and The Horny Horns.

All the things I mentioned earlier, the “drop it before the one” riff technique, the tremolo bass style, it all stylistically winds up on ‘Half a Man’ and it’s superb bass playing. One of Billy Bass’ finest moments. Eddie Hazel isn’t credited on the guitars here, he may have shown up for the session, but I think Billy Bass is also handling or at least writing a lot of the guitar parts on ‘Half a Man’. Maceo Parker handles lead vocal duties. Lyrically, the song is all about avoiding being cuckolded.

Billy Bass Nelson Solo Work

Has Billy Bass Nelson ever recorded any solo records, like Eddie Hazel did with his Warner Bros. solo album ‘Games Dames and Guitar Things’ (where Billy does appear)?

Well Billy does have an effort called O.G. Funk that he released with Bill Laswell’s help on Rykodisc back in 1994, and I suggest you cop it over here at iTunes (link). Maybe I’ll share more of that in a further post on Billy Bass when I get this interview with him done!

As I mentioned at the top of the post, Billy is quite the singer, so I’m including one more jam here where he shines in that regard. About 10 years ago, a CD came out called ‘Tamurinillis’ – George Clinton with Funkadelic. I’m not sure where the tracks come from really, but there are two Eddie Hazel / Billy Bass Nelson jams on the CD – ‘As Good As I Think I Can Feel’, and ‘I Ain’t Got Nobody’. Rodney Trotter put this CD compliation of P-Funk tunes out, and I don’t know much about Rodney Trotter other than what’s here at this link. I do know that Mr. Trotter did put bass overdubs on top of Billy’s work here on ‘I Ain’t Got Nobody’ so you can’t really hear Billy’s original bass work – bummer! But Billy sings like quite a mug on ‘I Ain’t Got Nobody’, lamenting the hell out of not having his old lady anymore! Check it! ‘As Good As I Think I Can Feel’, not posted here, by the way appears as a Funkadelic B side back from around 1970.

I promise to post an interview and more of Billy’s catalog soon.

The Jacksons – Take Me Back (Regrooved by Parker)

The Jackson 5 – Dancing Machine (Regrooved by DJ Kid Stretch)

The Jackson 5 – I Want You Back (Regrooved by Basement Freaks)

Overview

I recently lamented that I’m not a big fan of remixes of great funk and soul artists. I’m usually like “if it’s funky, don’t mess with the funk!”

I posted to Earfuzz a few weeks back pointers to Good Groove Records – http://www.myspace.com/goodgrooverecords – giving the label and a few producers kudos for their ‘James Brown Regrooved’ selections. Proper remixes of Soul Brother #1 – check it again here – http://www.earfuzz.com/2009/07/james-brown-remixed-well.html

Well thanks to funk brother Tal M. Klein – check his fan page here – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tal-M-Klein/20244850729 – I was made aware that Good Grooves Records has another collection of ‘regrooves’ e.g. remixes of Michael Jackson. (Side note – Tal M. Klein’s ‘Houston Brownwater Moccasins’ is one to ear peep!).

A few of the regrooves focus in on the Jackson 5 catalog as well.

About the selections above …

Producer Parker or aka DJ Parker – http://www.myspace.com/djparker – appeared in the James Brown ‘Regroove’ compilation with a crazy “dubstep” remix of JB’s ‘It’s a Man Man’s World’ – it really blew my mind – I was like, really, dubstep + JB, on a ballad?? Ok.

Parker comes back here for a ‘regroove’ of Michael Jackson’s ‘Take Me Back’ that jams-jams-jams with all kinds of old school hip hop breakbeats in the back of this mid tempo number from MJ ; ironically I had never even heard the original ‘Take Me Back’ before, I’m just not that well versed in the Jacksons, really / honestly

Well that’s a good question asked after I tweeted this selection. That’s because I think the Jackson 5 ‘Dancing Machine’ remix is the STAR OF COMP – this one, wins, wins, wins. Can anyone help me in the comments below by identifying the genre it got remixed into – it’s like a beautiful summer island remix of ‘Dancing Machine’. A little Balearic maybe?

I had never heard of DJ Kid Stretch before this particular remix but he is from Greece, and I’m over at his MySpace page right now jamming away to a tune he’s got there called ‘Get Away’ – http://www.myspace.com/kidstretch

I also posted a real burner – the regroove of Jackson 5’s ‘I Want You Back’. This song has been remixed quite a bit so I was expecting to be bored. It’s nothing outlandishly innovative yet I’m glad this one from the Basement Freaks brings me back to like 1988 or 1989 with it’s boogie-club-hop groove.

Get the whole Good Grooves compilation of Michael Jackson ‘Regrooved’ right here

http://drunkfunk.net/goodgroove/MJ_Regrooved.zip

Mervyn Kem – ‘Working Aberration’
Mervyn Kem – ‘Calm Before the Storm’
Mervyn Kem – ‘Restricted Labor – Part I & II’

Introduction

Yes, yes there is lost funk in your town and I recommend you go find it!

Above is some lost funk from the great city of Denver, a cassette album known as ‘Working Aberration’ by Mervyn Kem Williams – check it out …

Backstory to ‘Working Aberration’

In 1993, George Clinton & The P-Funk All Stars came to the Denver’s Ogden Theater. It was the tour for P-Funk’s ‘Hey Man Smell My Finger’ album. Andy from Albums on the Hill arranged an in store appearance for George. I always thank Andy for an introduction to George which began my long association with P-Funk. Anyways, I digress, back to the story behind ‘Working Aberration’ which does involve the P-Funk concert.

George Clinton signed poster from his 1993 tour , http://www.albumsonthehill.com/

In 1993, just felt like the Mothership hadn’t landed in Denver for a long time. A lot of pent up demand for the P-Funk was in the air.

I roll into the dark deep Odgen theater for the 1993 P-Funk show. I had already told George early in the day that I was ready to sing with the P. So I made sure to be in the front row of the audience so I could sing my ass of and get the full P-Funk experience. Bootsy had rolled through town a year earlier at the Gothic Theater on Broadway (the first version of it), and it wasn’t a show for Bootsy – it was Bootsy’s Rubber Band as the backing band for Dee-Lite. Anyways, I digress again. What I am trying to say is I think we all felt in the audience, like wow, finally P-Funk is in Denver ; let’s get geeked!

J.T. + Dwayne

Right up front with me before the show was a real tall brother. As we waited and waited, this guy who finally introduced himself as JT (his given name – Johnny Taylor – he’s also on this ‘Working Aberration’ album). JT and I kind of got into it. Like he was singing songs from all over the Parliament catalog. Maybe into the Bootsy catalog, even some Bernie Worrell jams. I’m just getting into it to, completing every line JT would lead off with in the “pre show singing / P-Funk quizzing”. This is sort of the era, I believe, BEFORE there were legions of jambander type peoples following P-Funk. So I think me coming in there, they weren’t expecting a very young white guy to know these songs. JT was like, “how do you know all these songs!?!?”. I am sure he was just playing, but it seemed like he got madder and madder the more songs I cited

Finally after introductions, JT told me how I should meet his friend Dwayne Wilson. I’m not sure if I met Dwayne that night, or if I got JT’s telephone number or what. Dwayne and I are both musicians, we both love P-Funk, so JT said it would be good if we would meet. At the time, Dwayne was working with a mixed funk ‘hippie hop’ group, aka Pepperment, which you can read about here (link). So I guess go to a P-Funk show, in 1993, that’s one way to find the lost funk in your town.

Denver’s Westword Magazine – 1990’s article on Pepperment

Merv Kem Williams

So when I finally hooked up with Dwayne and got started working on new music with this motley crew of Denver funkers, I was introduced to one of the guys from this crew, Mervyn Kem Williams, aka Merv. He was getting his album together at the time. I wonder if he pressed vinyl of his finished effort ever. I noticed Disc Makers did this ‘Working Aberration’ tape.

Merv is a real unassuming dude. He has so much funk though. Always a smile on his face, he’s just not like the musician who you know as a the musician’s musician – he would just be in Denver’s kitchens just serving up some good food. Yet Merv’s concepts and songwriting are unparalleled and his resulting solo album from 1994, ‘Working Aberration’ is full of funk. It is likely my favorite ‘indie funk’ tape of all time. I describe Merv’s aura as kind of like if you melded Bootsy Collins and Phil Collins together with a dash of Mark Knopfler.

I won’t post the entire album, but there are some slabs of clean liquid funk. I’m not sure how Merv got the sound here, because the Pepperment sound Merv was playiung around with was way different and much more loose. I heard some of the demos for this album, and they were way different. For instance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3UK4DD9Y9o

Songs

First up, I posted the title track, ‘Working Aberration’. It’s the first track on the tape, and I’m not sure how to even classify the genre of music. It’s got some nice horn lines by Denverites Doug Jackson (trumpet) and Melvin Bell (sax) that open up the song. Then some fresh jazzy bass runs from a guy named D.A. Oldis. You start to wonder about these local funkers, what they do now and where they are, and maybe Dwayne Wilson will add some context below in the comments. The ‘Aberration’ title track is like some kind of pop-new wave funk that could also be right out of the mid eighties as a top 100 massive hit. There is a burning guitar solo from a guy named Dan Bontranger. This one has it all. I’m not even sure I know what a ‘Working Aberration’ is – but the track is certified funk regardless.

‘Calm Before the Storm’ is another selection I chose, a slow burner. I mean it’s epic pop funk. Again, this to me could be right on the charts in the mid eighties – with a smokey music video and all. It’s likely my favorite from the set.

Finally the most funky jam on this tape comes way at the end – ‘Restricted Labor – Parts 1 & 2′. This jam starts off with a sexy (or sexist depending on how you hear it) boogie funk rap jam from rapper Trae Dog, and then the song morphs into an all out funk stomper with Merv and Dwayne Wilson handling the P-Funk like vocal duties. It really is a two part song – part one, the rap, and part 2 the funk stomper.

I didn’t post my other favorites from the tape, ‘You’re Not a Stranger’, ‘Another Funky Song’, and ‘What Comes Naturally’. Let’s hope this tape gets reissued.

Here are the credits and the art work by Dwayne Wilson.

James Brown Regrooved

James Brown – Get Up Off That Thing – Regrooved by Featurecast
James Brown – My Thang – Regrooved by DJP
James Brown – It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World – Regrooved by Parker

+++++++

Other remixes

James Brown – Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – DJ Eli Escobar Remix

I AM NOT a fan of remixes of songs originally created by great artists, especially when it comes to classic funk ; the remixes have to be done really really right for me to enjoy them.

During the whole Michael Jackson memorial week, I couldn’t even start getting into all of the MJ remixes, to me, they just seemed poorly conceived and unfunky. I think I found one I liked – the Saalam Remi remix of ‘ABC’ and I was already aware of Bird Peterson’s awesome remix of ‘Thriller’.

Yet I found a new collection of funk remixes I’m really enjoying now. This one remixes the Minister of the Super Heavy Funk – James Brown.

I was peeping the newly created ‘Twitter Music Chart’ built by the Hype Machine – you can peep the new chart here yourself – http://hypem.com/#/twitter/popular/1/ . At position #4 on the chart that particular day, I found a dubstep oriented rework of James Brown’s ‘It’s a Man’s World’ by a guy named DJ Parker. This one is proper – I’m not a dubstep fan, but I dug this. The bass layered on top of this, the congas, it’s just makes for a nice but clean bubbling update of what is typically a rare JB ballad.

It turns out DJ Parker’s rework of ‘Man’s World’ is part of a larger collection of James Brown remixes put out by UK based Good Groove Records – http://www.myspace.com/goodgrooverecords. I would head over to their page and read the back story and artist roster they have.

What’s really good is that Good Groove is offering the entire collection of James Brown remixes as part of it’s ‘ReGrooved Series’. You can download the ZIP folder here that contains the entire collection.

Some other picks from this collection are at top of the post.

I thoroughly got down with the Featurecast Edit of ‘Get Up Off That Thang’. I plan to earpeep more of Featurecast’s edits in a minute over at his MySpace page. The ‘Get Up’ take here offers a clean remix; Featurecast adds some subtle disco elements, a thicker beat and scratches and hip hop samples. I jammed to it on my run across San Francisco this morning and I swear I was about to stop jogging and break into a street dancing routine.

Also recommended in the collection is the Basement Freaks’ take on ‘My Thang’. This remix adds in a little dingle dongle synth in, plus some vocals from other James Brown songs like ‘Get Up, Get Into and Get Involved’ over the top. This remix, or should I say ‘regroove’ as Good Groove Records dubs it, just delivers right on time, right on the one.

Know of other good James Brown remixes? Let us know in the comments. Most of the spring of 2009, I was jamming on DJ Eli Escobar’s nice re-edit of ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’. But to me it’s more than just a re-edit, it is simply, ‘CLAPTASTIC’!, and a very proper remix.

Parliament – Terrestrial Touch

Sometimes I get so hung up on trying to tell you all about the music, it takes weeks to get a post up!

So let me be brief instead and get this one in.

A song that is labeled Parliament – and the title of the track is ‘Terrestrial Touch’.

Its a funk burner, likely circa 1980, about the time Parliament’s last album ‘Trombipulation’ was coming out. I just pinged Ron Ford on Twitter – http://twitter.com/RonProphetFord – to see if he can tell us more about this jamming P-Funk track that I believe he wrote and performed for the group. I was also trying to find a good web site that tells you all about Ron Ford, but I can’t find that. I know Ford was instrumental in P-Funk’s development in the late 70s into the 80s.

I’m not even sure how over the years I came across this track – but with lyric hooks like ‘I tried to get that mouth, that mouth was on the house’ + plenty of clippity clop horse type percussions + slap bass + pianos for days, this is late period Parliament at it’s best.

I’m using that Terrestrial Touch – now let’s get down y’all … I’m sure we’ll hear more in the comments. By the way, the artwork above made by George Clinton apparently for the CD that this song was reissued on, but again, I’m not sure how this track wound up in my collection.