Psychedelic Blues Sludge

Steel Drum Funk

Ah, summer is here and what better way to get in the mood for grilling, drinking with friends and dancing is there than STEEL DRUM CALYPSO FUNK?  Damn.  Nothing I can think of.

"Steel Drum Funk"

1.   Gay Flamingoes - Balck Man's Cry

2.   20th Century Steel Band - Heaven & Hell Is On Earth

3.   Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band - Loo-Ka Py Py

4.   Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra - Oye Como Va

5.   Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra - The World Is A Ghetto

6.   The Dutch Rhythm Steel & Showband - Funky Stuff

7.   Esso Trinidad Steel Band - I Want You Back

8.   Original Tropicana Steel Band - Calypso Rock

9.   Original Tropicana Steel Band - Spanish Hustle

10. Original Tropicana Steel Band - Funky Abbey Road

11. Trinidad Steel Drummers - Cissy Strut

12. Carl McKnight - Ain't No Sunshine

13. Carl McKnight - The Devil Is Out Tonight

14. Earl Rodney - Midnight Man

15. The Dutch Rhythm Steel & Showband - Hey Joe

16. Sapodilla Punch - Hold On, I'm Coming

Feeling alright, feeling dynamite!

Shirl Milete: Boss Country

My favorite song on either of the Country Got Soul comps that came out a way-while back is definitely Shirl Milete's "Big Country Blues" (also featured on my country funk mix posted earlier).  Townes Van Zandt wrote it, but Shirl sounds like he's the one who means it.  Milete also wrote a few songs that got licensed and used by Elvis.  He only released one LP under his own name, a self-titled effort put out by Poppy records in 1969 and recorded in Nashville.  This baby has long been out of print, but due to some relentless digital dollar bin hunting (= Gemm), I was able to score a copy on the cheap.  Damn it was worth it.  This is the kind of country with balls.  Serious outlaw business.  Milete's lyrics reveal him as a man of faith, but a man who has been around the block more than once as well.  And there are some bona fide country protest songs about war!  I can't believe it (vid., or rather hear, him sing "They'll call me a coward / But they just don't understand the values I hold / Now war is right mom / I wonder if Canada's cold.")!  Any way, I couldn't find out much about him at all.  If any one is hep to his bio or any 45s or singles he released, DO LET ME KNOW.

OK, his out of print LP.

The Hygrades and Nigeria Rock Special

In honor of Soundway's Nigeria Rock Special I give you an extended remix of one of my favorite afro rock tunes, The Hygrade's "In the Jungle."  The instrumental version which I'd never heard before is included in Nigeria Rock Special and it is a serious piece of psychedelic, acid infused funkiness.  Here's the vocal version with the instrumental version spliced in between for an extended 6 minute jam.  Damn would it have been nice to see The Hygrades live.

"In the Jungle [Extd Edit]" by The Hygrades

Space Funk & Hobo Breaks

Well, I'm done with course work so hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently.

Here's a couple of mixes I threw together:

Up first, a mix that concentrates on spacey synth groove 'n funk with a "romantic" theme.

"Interstellar Quiet Storm Funk"
1. Brian Bennett — Discovery 0:00
2. Ned Doheny — Get It Up For Love 5:55
3. Alan Hawkshaw & Brian Bennett — Mon Amour 10:29
4. Brian Bennett — Name of the Game 14:00
5. Moody — Sour Soul 17:38
6. Projection — Abstraction 20:16
7. Pete Jolly — Plummer Park 21:51
8. Mystic Moods Orchestra — Cosmic Sea 25:22
9. Andre Previn — Executive Dance Party 27:51
10. Larry Mayfield — Love Crave 29:39
11. Bad Medicine — Trespasser 33:00
12. Daniele Prencipe & John G. Tyssen — No Exit 38:44
13. Guitar Red — ? 41:18
14. The 4th Coming — The Dead Don't Die Alive 44:33
15. Manzel — It's Over Now 48:02
16. Moody — Lonely Jelly 51:31
17. International Pony — Pony the Funk 55:34
18. Alan Hawkshaw & Brian Bennett — Oddball 60:13
19. Bernard Fevre — Magnetic School 63:08

Enjoy

And next we have a countryish mix, the songs of which lean hard on and borrow much from soul and funk.

"Country Funk, Blues Grits & Hobo Breaks"

1.   Snoop Dogg - Johnny Cash: A Real American Gangster

2.   Jerry Reed - Welcome To Nevada

3.   Larry Jon Wilson - Sheldon Church Yard

4.   Johnny Jenkins - I Walk On Gilded Splinters

5.   Little Sonny - Woman Named Trouble

6.   Rosalind Murphy - Fancy

7.   James Brown - Your Cheating Heart

8.   Parliament - Little Ol' Country Boy

9.   Wilbur Bascomb - Black Grass

10. Tony Joe White - High Sheriff Of Calhoun Parish

11. Townes Van Zant - Black Widow Blues

12. Dennis the Fox - Piledriver

13. Shirl Milete - Big Country Blues

14. Jim Ford - I'm Gonna Make You Love Me

15. Artie White - Gimme Some Of Yours

16. Estelle Levitt - All I Dream

17. Tony Joe White - Did Somebody Make A Fool Out Of You?

18. Larry jon Wilson - Ohoopee River Bottomland

19. Dan Penn & Chuck Prophet - Heavy Duty

20. Gary Atkinson - Wanderin' Soul

Enjoy

Stoned Afro Rock Mix

WOW.  I'm finally posting something else.  Here we have a tasty afro rock post on the psych side.  I guess I'm posting this because I'm super excited about an upcoming release by Analog Africa, African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo.  If you're hep to T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, then you should be super excited.  TPOPR often sounds like a combination of James Brown, Jefferson Airplane and Fela all at once.  In other words, they are incredible.  African psychedelic grooves a plenty.  African Scream, though I have yet to hear more than the snippets posted over at Analog Africa, seems to be a comp harnessing the best of this style.  And it ain't bootlegged!  The artists will be PAID!!  Buy it people, buy it!

Now, about my more modest post:

The Hykkers: "Stone the Flower"

I snagged this one from Peter Beaver.  This man has crates deeper than Loch Ness.

The Wings: "Gone with the Sun"

I ripped this as a stream on the Matsuli blog.

Ofege: "Devil's Work"

Taken from the Last of the Origins LP posted on With Comb & Razor.

The Black Souls: "Baki Mutane Nakuka"

I downloaded this impossibly rare track from a DJ connected to Konzeptlos who uploaded it on Soulstrut.

The Hygrades: "In the Jungle"

I ripped this from an online stream of an episode of The Goods Radio Show.

The Strangers: "Two to Make a Pair"

Hmmm...can't remember where I snagged this.

Afro Kelenkey Band: "Moving World"

Taken from their Moving World LP as posted on Prog Not Frog.

BLO: "Chant to Mother Earth"

Snagged from their Chapter One LP as posted on With Comb & Razor.

The Apostles: "Black is Beautiful"

Ripped from Frank aka DJ Soulpusher's This Hustling World mix.  If you haven't hit up his Voodoo Funk blog, do so for a music-life changing experience.

The Peace: "Black Power"

Taken from their Black Power LP as posted at Prog Not Frog.

Akeeb Kareem: "White Horse"

Another gem ripped from a Soulpusher mix.

The BLK JKS: "One Must Die"

Ripped from their 10", Lakeside.  This is an up and coming South African band who are ripe for international recognition.  They seem like an African version of TV On the Radio with a funkier slant.  I love this 10" and am eager for a full LP to be released soon.

Oh, some of these are AAC encoded so if you ain't running an Apple OS, find some free online software to convert.  Enjoy and please visit the sources for the tracks on this mix.

Stay tuned as I plan to do a series of posts dedicated to the mighty T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo.

Best,

E

Oh, yeah, the link:

Stoned Afro Rock Mix

Ooh-wee! More Funky Barış Manço!

10/6/07  Funky Baris Vol. 2 update; some of the files on the last post are corrupt in places.  So…go here for the complete Baris discography.  From my research, Baris loses some steam beginning in 1983, but all albums before 1984 have serious winners on them.  So get your fix Oakland, and all places east as well.

So, university has begun.  My students seem interested in Plato so they must be good human beings.  The march toward ABD status continues.  For the tiny number of you who have graced my first post, I hope the first installment of the illustrious Mr. Manço has been a delight for your ears.  As promised, here goes the second installment.  Alas, the bit rate is not as high (only 128), but getting a hold of the original vinyl in the US is, well, impossible.  Nonetheless, the sound is still good.  Enjoy.

Baris Manco is Turkish Funk.

Hello interned.  This is my first attempt at posting some music.  I'm a third year grad student and begin teaching in a week (= no life) so it remains to be seen how much I'll post and with what frequency.  "Dancing Time for Dancers," is the first line from a song heist "Dancing Time" by the 70s afro funk outfit The Funkees.  It sums up well the aim of this here blog, that aim being to post funky music that anyone will feel the need to dance to upon entering into a state of aural contact with it.  I intend to post mostly out of print gems or funkiness that's so hard to get a hold of, it might as well be out of print.

Enough manifestoing, on to my first post.

Those of you not familiar with Now-Again Records should get so as quickly as possible.  

One DJ Egon heads the imprint and has done not a little to unearth many lost gems of funk.  He also posts some sweet-ass podcasts every now and again (ha ha).  And such is the stuff of this post.  Several months ago Egon put up an amazing mix of Turkish funk tracks.  After doing some research I discovered that all the tracks were by Baris Manco (Bar-ish Man-cho), a massive figure in modern Turkish music.  I mean, look at his picture.  You'd be better bring some serious nasty if you're going to go around looking like that.  But Baris delivers.  So.  I tracked down a bunch of his stuff and collated the funkiest tracks from his 70s output.  Here is the first volume (@ 320 kbps).  My second collection will follow "soon".  Enjoy!  Leave a comment that will nurture this little blog like water for a tender plant!

Pt 1

Pt2