Lamont Dozier — Dearest One
b/w Fortune Teller (Mel-o-dy, 1962)
Before his disco-funk raging in the 70s, Lamont Dozier was a damn smooth soul singer, and already baring his impressive songwriting chops. This—at age 20, mind you—was his first Motown recording.
Tatsuro Yamashita — Daydream
from Ride on Time (1980)
One of my absolute favorite things is Japanese disco. So smooth, so sugary…like Fun Dip in musical form. Makes you wanna scream. Tatsuro Yamashita is one of my musical heroes, as he also founded the classic Japanese group Sugar Babe about seven years before this. Pop genius.
Robert Palmer — Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley (Allen Toussaint)
from Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley (1974)
This album cover is just outlandish, in the best possible way. And holy shit is the band on fire.
Lowell George, Allen Toussaint and The Meters can be heard on this funky classic…
(via artofthesong)
David Axelrod — The Auction
from The Auction (1972)
The name David Axelrod may bring to mind Obama’s strategic adviser. Now meet the other David Axelrod—prolific jazz and funk producer/composer.
This percussion-heavy spoken word groover appears on Axelrod’s 1972 slavery concept album The Auction. If you like this, make sure you check out Lincoln Chase, who operates on a similar plane…
Thanks to Know Your Conjurer for posting this gem. Get yer audio there…
B.T. Express — Do It Til You’re Satisfied
from Do It Til You’re Satisfied (1974)
Here is some extremely chewy disco-funk from the “Brooklyn Sound” of the 70s—the group known first as Madison Street Express, later Brooklyn Trucking Express. The spoken word call/response on this track is nothing short of genius. Their other big hit, ‘Express,’ features someone blowing on a wooden train whistle. Also genius. And surely not a coincidence that the album hit #1 on the Soul charts.
This also happens to be the primordial funk from which crawled the smoothly evolved R&B of Kashif (he was keyboardist for the band for a stint in the mid 70s, though doesn’t appear on this album).
The cover is not a platform from the JMZ line, as I’d originally imagined. Instead, as the train sleuths (and former Long Island Railroad conductors) over at Railroad.net have determined, those beautifully ornate railings once graced the Nostrand Ave LIRR station. Trains. An obsession of mine, I’ll admit. My biggest unrealized fantasy as a 9-year-old, nose buried deep in Model Railroader magazine, was to build a train set that would displace everything else in my parents’ garage. Never say never…
Sly Stone — I Ain’t Got Nobody
from Recorded in San Francisco 1964-67
Killer psychedelic soul track by Sylvester Stewart—aka Sly Stone—recorded in 1967, eventually released as a Sly and the Family Stone single in 1972. The bass & drums break about halfway in is outlandishly good—don’t miss it. The rest of the album is a bizarre collection of spoken word pieces, funky singles like this, and a Herbie Hancock cover, ‘Watermelon Man.’
Sly is reportedly living in a van in LA right now, too paranoid to go into his rented house, but friends say he’s content and recording tunes on a laptop in the van.
Kashif — Help Yourself to My Love
from Kashif (1983)
I’m slipping deeper and deeper into a smoove music coma, circa 1983. I already posted a track from this album, but as Michael J would affirm, I just can’t get enough. That synthesized bass is so delicious.
My sister says my music tastes are trending towards the impossibly cheesy. That may be true. But I hope you’re right there with me.
Stay tuned for a trip back to Kashif’s early days with B.T. Express. (Brooklyn Trucking Express)
Suzanne Kraft — Turning
from Green Flash EP (2011)
As promised, here’s a track from Green Flash, the new Running Back Records EP from Los Angeleno Suzanne Kraft, aka Diego Herrera. You need to wait about a minute for this Kraft track to ignite… it’s made for spinning on vinyl, with plenty of bare beats to work with. But I’ve listened to this track enough to start drooling once those metallic snare hits drop around 1:05. Because then the sexy sounds of Kashif are about to wash all over you. (sample is Kashif’s ‘I Just Gotta Have You (Lover Turn Me On)’)
That’s another thing I love about Kraft—he’s always turning me on to synth-bass FM dance hits from the 80s. Kashif & Change are two recent examples.
Go buy the Green Flash LP or the mp3s. Check out more beats Suzanne might be working on at his tumblr. And you know you like it on Facebook.
André Cymone — Kelly’s Eyes
from Livin’ in the New Wave (1982)
Epic squiggly-synth dance track about a long-distance affair, from Prince’s childhood buddy and onetime bassist André Cymone. With what may be one of the best lyric couplets ever:
I’m sick and tired of this phone affair
I just wanna get into your underwear!
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore, do they? Though WALSH sampled this track on his tune ‘Birthday Girl.’ So maybe they do.
Change — Heaven of My Life
from Miracles (1981)
Yesterday Vinyl Confessions & Her Friends was wondering who Suzanne Kraft sampled in his track ‘Chng.’ Well I wasn’t about to figure that out (encyclopedic knowledge of early 80s disco/funk bands notwithstanding..joking) so I asked Kraft.
He says “Change are my number 1.” And yes, it’s this funky track from Change, a pair of Italian producers who wrote music, tracked it, and sent the instrumental versions to New York to get vocals slapped on. Change launched crooner Luther Vandross to prominence; he sang lead on their first album, The Glow of Love, but wasn’t offered enough money to do so on this album. He still did backing vocals though…very distinctive. Indelibly Luther.
Also worth noting (as Vinyl Confessions did) that Cole M. Greif-Neill, of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, sampled this same tune on the track ‘Peppergood’ by his side project The Samps. (2010) To be served up later…
Lamont Dozier — Going Back to My Roots
from Peddlin’ Music on the Side (1977)
Last week I posted Teaspoon Ndelu’s South African disco take on ‘Going Back to My Roots.’ Here’s the original funk orgy, by Motown titan Lamont Dozier, the man behind dozens of hits by Martha & the Vandellas, the Supremes and the Four Tops. This track actually has an Afrobeat-style breakdown at the end, so the Teaspoon Ndelu track is sort of an interesting example of musical ideas travelling from Africa > disco America > Africa.
As for Dozier’s other work, you’ve definitely heard some of the stuff he penned: he collaborated with the brothers Eddie and Brian Holland to write dozens of top 10 singles, including “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” for Marvin Gaye, and 10 of the Supremes’ 12 number one singles, like ‘Baby Love’ and ‘Stop! In the Name of Love.’
It’s fascinating to hear what a guy who wrote hits for others for so many years came up with when he was unleashed to do his own album! This track may not be a radio-friendly length, but he certainly hadn’t lost his pop instincts. Check out ‘Break the Ice,’ another track from the album. And practice your disco moves…
Jean-Claude Pelletier et son Orchestre — Hello Streakers!
from Streaking! (1974)
I don’t know what he did or saw there, but upon returning from Los Angeles in 1974, French jazz composer Jean-Claude Pelletier had a singular mission—create this 40-minute-long ode to streaking. Blending the sounds of blaxploitation and orchestral French jams a la Gainsbourg/Jean-Claude Vannier, he created funk grooves with all the adrenaline of a naked streak through the city.
In an interesting parallel, both this album and the aforementioned Jean-Claude Vannier have bare ass on the cover. Go figure.
My copy of the album sounds like Rice Krispies, but the LP has just been reissued by French rare-groove label Vadim Music. Don’t be shy now…
Jef Barbara & DannielRadall — On Mirror
from Cocaine Love EP (2011)
Oh gawd… you’re gonna need sunglasses for this one. This sounds almost just like that slinky synth jam by Italian pornstar Ilona Staller I posted a few weeks back… only she was singing about bedtime entertainment. These guys are serenading cocaine. Already lined up ‘On Mirror’ perhaps?
Funny, because I’ve been reading about white powder all week for a work-related assignment, the new book An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine. Did you know Freud used to get suited up in white tie and gloves, head to Parisian soirees populated with medicine’s best and brightest, and snort a little cocaine to “untie [his] tongue”? Yeah.. me neither.
Freud wrote his ode to cocaine, Über Coca, in 1884. You can grab this slightly less scientific modern tribute for free, courtesy of Mr Barbara, Mr Radall and the ever-great AM Discs.
Teaspoon Ndelu — Sputla
from Ke Kopa Madulo (1981)
Disco funk from South African sax legend Teaspoon Ndelu. Just a few years before, American disco hit big in the townships, crosspollinating local mbaqanga and soul styles with glossy dancefloor sounds. Here’s the result. Yes please!
From the back of the LP: “Side Two kicks off with Sputla, a township lingua franca for a gin and tonic mix. If you are a man who seldom sleeps at home, better listen to this woman’s lament.”
Grab the album over at Electric Jive, an excellent collection of rare and out-of-print recordings from South Africa.
Twin Sister — Bad Street (2011)
Was listening to the excellent new yvynyl summer mix yesterday, and this tune jumped right out, because I thought Mark accidentally threw a Tom Tom Club b-side on there.
Which, to my ears, means Twin Sister has locked into their best work yet. They’ve come a long way from their (also awesome) free-floating space jams—this is rock-solid new-wave funk, punctuated by glittery synths and staccato contributions from the rest of the band. And Andrea Estella’s vocals are better than ever—ultra-confident, alluringly deep. Dance party, anyone?
