Starmagic

On a bit of roll here, no edits since Record Store Day and a li'l spotlight on some of the hottest original tunes going on right now. Seriously here is another record that really blows the lid off with quality. Queens based label *DanceCamp* Music just dropped their second 7", this time by Discovery, a Brooklyn outfit with star power in their veins. Their track 'Starmagic' is super fresh Boogie/NY Disco/Cowbell Funk and the flip side remix by label boss Alfredo Romero is massive. It all seems a little mysterious; a boutique label out of Queens, a live band with real Disco chops, a golden nugget 7" only release... But really what you have here is a guy who's hearts deeply in it, he's really obsessed with good tunes, he has a real history on the scene and now he's pimping hot vinyl with his own label designed for open minded music lovers. You may already know Alfredo from his 90's Acid Jazz hit 'Deep Vibes' as Swing Machine or from any one of his fine collaborations with House genius Pal Joey (on Loop D' Loop) and if you're a New Yorker you'll definitely know him from his many gigs around town over the years, backing heavyweights like Afrika Bambaata, Kool Herc, Cannibal Ox and others. Alfredo's thing is playing what's good across a multitude of genres, you can hear it in his warm and Dubby, Psychedelic 'Moonlight' remix on the flip side of Discovery's single (check the clip below).

Discovery have their own history, which includes playing in NYC for years, drawing influences from Disco, Prog Rock and Latin quarters and an evolving line up that's had some very influential New Yorkers at varying times. They've an album out and have been known to do the occasional cover of tracks by Debbie Deb or Smokey Robinson amongst others. What's important for the minute, is this single on *DanceCamp* Music. Check stores and the labels own web site to get your hands on it... Killer! (the clip below is not the full track, this is all about getting the vinyl)

Amazed by how many blogs have shut down, just going through the list on the sidebar and had to remove more than 25 links so far (i havent gone through them all yet)... the landscape continues to change...

Alumnia & Torn Sails

By now label Claremont 56 should hardly need an introduction... Quickly then, the domain of Paul 'Mudd' Murphy has been the source of some of the finest music and diggers collections available on scenes with or without names in recent years. With truly classic releases from Fist Of Facts, Holger Czuckay, Bison, Smith & Mudd, Dog Eat Dog, Ahmed Fakroun, Icasol and Blackbelt Anderson, superb remixes by the Idjut Boys, Lexx and more and supreme diggers compilations from Joylon Green, Matthew Burgess, Sean P, Felix Dickinson & Mark Seven, you know you're where great passion and serious talent dwell.

The label has two new releases, already on Piccadilly Records Pre Order lists. Alumnia's debut album 'New Moon' pitches Psyche and dubby live Disco into the mix, forging a kind of sun bleached west coast Disco not Disco, imagine Arthur Russell living in Colorado via LA and you've half got it. Ok clever descriptions aside, the record is wonderful; I love the Pink Floydy title track and also 'Moving Up Slowly', a weighty drifting epic for beards. 'Kissing Time', another favourite, is a near perfect, dusty Pop gem that's been on playback in my head since I first heard it. Like many of Claremont's records 'New Moon' could easily be called Balearic, but Alumnia's 'Dos Estrellas' for example, is so well constructed, so beautifully written that it's better to call it classic; what really matters is you and i will be playing this record for years to come. Check out the fantastic 'L&G Psychedlic' on Soundcloud or that top title track below.

Almunia - New Moon by Claremont 56

The other record Claremont has waiting in the wings is by Torn Sails, it's even more West Coast than the Alumnia side, it's also similarly a must have. Torn Sails are from Nottingham (not very West Coast I realize), fronted by Huw Costin (vocalist for Smith & Mudd), the bands single 'Birds' comes as a double pack 12", with the first part hitting stores shortly. What an incredible track, it's right up there with the best of John Martyn or CSN; 'Birds' starts out as an achingly beautiful acoustic meander and quickly develops into a 'soaring over canyons' even Laurel Canyon'esque classic. Flip the record over for Tiago's milestone remix; in the interest of trying not to write the word 'classic' in this post again, 'track of the year' will do it. no jokes... essential purchase right!!!

go check the youtube vid of the original track here... do it!! 

plastic hero

Drummer, singer and songwriter Toni Esposito's 1974 debut on Numero Uno is another of those must own records, rather sadly the copy I found looks a little like someone took a sheet of sandpaper to it. It's not the first time I've had to buy a record in spite of it's condition, knowing that I'll probably not come across another copy. Anyway Episito's rhythms are superb, he almost speaks through his percussion, add to that warm funky bass lines, spacey jazz synths, some vocals and beautiful melodies and you have an album that covers a kind of forward thinking Jazz Rock with heavy shades of Funk, Cosmic overtones and mesmerizing tropical jams. Almost every track could go on much longer than they do, hence the whole thing flies by a little too fast. Check the marvelous 'L'Eroe Di Plastica' below for a slice of this album's genius....

Toni Esposito - L'Eroe Di Plastica 

deco lady

Continuing then with tunes found while digging in crates... I've actually been sitting on this track for some time, I thought I might do an edit of it, you know make it a little longer, a little more dj friendly and such, but the more I looked into it, the more I felt it didnt need one. It's not a particularly rare track or a particularly rare album (though I haven't seen it on blogs or in any of the usual digging spots at all), it's kind of like one of those incredible Robert Palmer tracks that popped up everywhere over recent years, his records certainly aren't rare but you had to check out his earlier albums to find those real gems. 'Deco Lady' by Rupert Holmes is an amazing lush mid tempo Disco groover, with marvelous camp lyrics and smooth strings heavy breaks and it resides on his debut LP on Epic from 1975. It's the sort of record one might gloss over while hunting, but you know how it goes, every record must be checked, just in case... So maybe you heard this dynamite track for the first time right here...

Rupert Holmes - Deco Lady

press play #45 - Lord Of The Isles

Lord of The Isles has some fantastic music coming out on American Standard, Sleazybeats, Little Strong, Ene Tokyo, Adult Contem- porary and probably a few I don't know about yet. It's not just the labels that love LOTI though, Neil's got quiet a following on Soundcloud too where you'll find his tunes cover a range of very deep and atmospheric flavours; he produces original material and he works on edits. Moody, spacey, intricate, melodic, light twisting, evolving, shape making, thought massaging, synth abusing, underground and often slightly melancholic journeys are the Lord's way. Best of all (for me anyway), he's also just joined the mega talented few who's mixes make up a.n.o.e.'s Press Play series. 

#45 aka 'Another Earth At Night' is a masterclass in deep oscillating underground House, it hovers at that intricate electronic, low coma, experimental, loop level for some time before piping in sweet blasts of air and bright lights. If you are or were ever a true Deep House head this is going to appeal greatly to you. I definitely don't mean that soulful sleep House or Vocal House or Funky House which all but obliterated my interest levels in the genre. The Lord goes in for that heavy smudged Detroit sound, mixed up with a little classic Chi Town Deep House, a little dusky beats from Edinburgh, some Ukrainian magic, throw in some genius Romanthony and you have a slice of the night with Lord Of The Isles. Massive gratitude goes to Neil for this, now the pleasure is yours...

Press Play #45 - Lord Of The Isles - Another Earth At Night

Track list:
Sudden Landing - Fudge Fingas
Blame It On The Boogie - Theo Parrish, Osunlade and Rick Wilhite
Here’s Your Trance Now Dance - Omar S
2x5: Movement 3 Fast - Steve Reich (Vakula mix)
Morning Fever - Ron Trent
Solar Funk - Kyle Hall
The Brand New Heavies – Close To You (Maw Mood Dub)
Deep Horizons - Rick Wilhite
One Off - People Of Earth
Fudge Fingas – Shake Off
Romanthony – It’s Not The Same
Danse City – Lunar Tune
On A High - Ozone 

another must read...

Another must read article about the death of 'Rare' music and the roll of the internet. The comments section has lots of interesting points of view. I don't necessarily agree with the main points of the article itself as I myself am still very excited by music in all sorts of forms and formats, rare or not rare... still it's worth a read...

re upped

I've just noticed some of the Press Play links have gone dead. Our friends at Divshare seemed to have frazzled some of the older files once again (they also reset all my counters, buggers). Both Disco Outcast's wonderful mix and Mike Burns' killer selections are back up. There are some others that need sorting which I'll get to in the next days... Oh and speaking of killer Mike Burns mixes, have you checked out this?

fantasia

Do you know German band Bayon's 'Suite' LP? Categorized as Folk Rock on Discogs, others might suggest it's Proto New Age. What ever journo style heading it falls under, this 1980 album is an exercise in superbly designed 'natural' sounds and 'multi cultural' melodies. Check out the track 'Fantasia' and tell me that it wouldn't fit beautifully into a Moonboots or Joylon styled Balearic mix. File under 'music that sounds like the sun'...

Bayon - Fantasia

may you can

As Saturday was Record Store Day 2011 I went digging in my favourite spot, I found some great records as luck would have it and thus I've decided to give the edits a break for a bit and focus on some original music and a few recent crate finds. Finding a record like Five Letters 'Hysteries' on the original Crocos Records in a bin in a store in Johannesburg is unlikely, but thanks to someone who brought it in and let it go, it now resides happily in my collection. It's quiet a mad album to say the least, but the last cut on the record 'May You Can' is stellar. There are edits of it already out there, it appears on a Rong Music/How & Why? Edits 12" and also on one of Felix Dickinson's Bastedos releases. Perhaps because the original isn't so easy to digest, perhaps because its packed with glorious breaks, perhaps because it's way too short, it was inevitable that the track would be dug up and re programmed for current ears; the deep 'n spacey intro alone is worth attention. That said 'May You Can is the standout moment on the LP, where Five Letters harness their warped and far out Disco ideas and produce a catchy high octane, almost soulful jaunt. Later of course there would be 'Tha Kee Tha Tha' and a few other very worthy bits...

Five Letters - May You Can

pacifica

Dominic Dawson has been making underground club bombs for years. Hydraulic Dog's 'Shake It' would be the one that crossed over for him back in 2000 and as such is probably his most well known track. Every time I dropped it back then, someone would ask me to play 'that Daft Punk track' again, even Eric Rug quizzed me about it when I opened for him the same week I got it. The track captured that Disco/Touch House sound & time brilliantly, but it's by no means Dominic's best work... Personal favourites of his would be his remix of First Choice's 'Armed & Extremely Dangerous' on Arthur Bakers Minimal Records or his edit with Blackbeard of Pleasure's 'Joyous'... there are others. Anyway I was delighted to see his DJD moniker on the subject line of a promo send to me this week from new label Pacifica. The first of the three tracks on their debut 12" is Dominic's refix of Cuba Gooding's 1983 version of The Main Ingredient track 'Happiness', the result is a dubby, feel good Sound Factory'ish bump & grinder which I predict will be heard on more than just the Croation coastline over your summer. On the flip side you get 'Chunga Funk', a superb and breezy Afro Caribbean Disco workout of an original by sought after French band Tumblack, and also 'Arkade Funk' a B boy, icy Electro, oddball bruiser. The 12"s themselves also look very classy, the mastering is superb, so it's an all round quality item and I for one will be playing 'Chunga Funk' repeatedly. Check it..

Pacifica 001 - DJD 'Happiness' by Pacifica Records

a must read!!

Stefan Goldmann writes a very succinct and slightly depressing account of where we're at in the music biz right now and what you need to be in order to survive as an artist in 2011, for the excellent Little White Earbuds site. Go read it now...

sky's the limit

Nocturnal are back with a very limited run of their new double sider 'Late Nite Tales'/'Sky's The Limit'. If you dug their Disco Deviance release from last year, you're going to scramble for this one when it hits the stores in a few days. This time on their own label Nocturnal Music, the two superbly mastered tracks will no doubt be getting the same heavy support from the likes of The Revenge, Greg Wilson and Pete Herbert as their last outing did; 'Sky's The Limit' is the one for me. For the minute there are only short clips of the two tracks up on Nocturnal Music's SoundCloud page, this to keep pesky file grabbers from sharing these lovely items before they have a chance to sell. Stores will probably provide longer clips for previewing, or u could, nay should bag 'em when you see them in the shops shortly...

Sky's the limit PREVIEW - Nocturnal by nocturnal music

flash watcher

I know absolutely nothing about A Tint Of Darkness, except that they had an eponymous album in 1978 on SOB Records. It's a Funk/Soul record with at least two really cool tracks on it; the slinky blaxploitation Disco of 'Flash Watcher' and the super sweet r'nb banger 'Play Fair'. The album cover is a strange white on black graph of 5 bow ties and jackets, it would be easy to pass over it in a record bin, especially after the mind begins to numb from too many Dan Hill compilations and Neil Diamond lp's. But you'd be missing out on this...

A Tint Of Darkness - Flash Watcher

lee in africa

Got word on a great edit that popped up on Soundcloud this morning... I first heard JKD Band's 'Africa' chopped up on an early Noid Recordings record, though I can't remember if it was by Phantom Slasher or Ray Mang or... The Noid version works the intro and some instrumental parts of the track into a great DJ tool but Danny Blue's take utilizes the whole fortune cookie. JKD Band's 1979, Bruce Lee themed album 'Dragon Power' fetches good money on the increasingly expensive collectors circuit. It's produced in the main by Henry 'Stardust' Hadaway and features the fairly well known track 'Dream Machine'. Danny's edit takes on the wonky and very beardy Disco 'Africa', the best part is you get a 320k download by clicking the little down arrow on the right side of the player.. Loving this.

Africa (DannyBlue Edit) by danny blue

a disco deviant goes digital... again

Right peoples... Disco Deviance just released their second 'Digital Deviance' compilation on CD. As with volume 1, the collection gathers tracks from their amazing 12" series and throws in a couple of exclusive, unreleased goodies to sweeten the deal for those of you who have been buying the records. The thing is, these tracks have not been previously available as digital files, this makes them highly desirable for many folk, especially considering the phenomenal contributors. Situation rub shoulders with Social Disco Club, Nocturnal, Dicky Trisco, The Revenge and more. BC aka Boogie Corporation's contribution 'NY Jump' remains my all time favourite edit from the Deviance crew bar none and it's the first track on the cd. What follows are all heavy hitters..I have the feeling you're already all over this, but just in case get a copy here and/or check the clips below if ya aren't...

Digital Deviance Vol 2 Clips by Disco Deviance

Lumberjacks 002

Marcel Vogel's top class Lumberjacks In Hell label just released their second 12", which I reckon is one to add to the collection. Rare Wiri's Rayko hands in two great edits, of which his take on Barbara Kieth's cover version of 'All Along The Watchtower' is primo beard vinyl. Actually so is his stripped down re-write of Candi Staton's 'Nights On Broadway'. Marcel's own Em Vee edit reworks Alma Lee's version of 'Give Me Your Love' into a heavyweight cut up which, for me, will put him in the same class as Leonard Part Sixx (aka Underdog), Danny Krivit and the like. Also definitely keep a look out for Lih 003, an incredible double sider from Chicago's Traxx which will follow pretty soon... btw you might know the guy who designed the labels for this lovely record...

RAYKO/EM VEE:"Lumberjacks In Hell 002" by JUNO DISTRIBUTION

windy lady

I was recently introduced to the music of Tatsuro Yamashita by an upcoming guest on a.n.o.e. He's obviously very well known in some parts of the world and has made at least 10 albums between the middle of the 70's and the early 2000's. They cover smooth Funk, Soul, Jazz, Disco and Pop sounds. Check out his first four records if you can, jammed as they are with lush n' deep, hook filled tracks which sound like Bob James meets Love Unlimited Orchestra meets Dexter Wansel and Lonnie Liston Smith with a Japanese Jay Kay on vocals... kind of...A brief search on Soundcloud reveals that the edit heads have already begun plundering his back catalog, but listening to his 'Circus Town' and 'Spacy' albums one can easily hear why. I'm certain a couple of Hip Hop head are about to point out some related sample information too. Being a fan of a great deal of Japanese music, I'm very pleased to have learned about the wonders of Yamashita. Check 'Windy Lady' for classic Tatsuro...

Tatsuro Yamashita - Windy Lady