So yeah, the plan to post this during the relevant year was a failure. But it doesn’t detract from the greatness of the music!
The most obvious of the new things I got is the new Moodymann LP (or should we be calling him “Moody” now?!?!) which is pictured above. I think the mann’s descent into insanity has been pretty well documented, but this new one sees him really reaching a whole new level. Aside from the new moniker, the long-awaited release of “Freeki Mother Fucker” and the “poster” included with the album give this release a heavily demented Prince feel. While the purple one was definitely musically influential to “FMF”, “Hello 2morrow” sees Kenny singing over an uptempo disco groove while “Det.riot” is a minimal electronic house jam with white-guy narration talking about the Detroit riots. Throw in a couple other jazzy soulful jams ala Black Mahogani 2 and some spoken interludes to increase the Blaxploitation atmosphere and there you have it: the last best album released in ’08.
Continuing his generally great year, Reggie Dokes’ cut on the new Prime Numbers 12″ is another outstanding house jam. Once again blurring lines by using live instrument sounds in a very electronic setting, Reggie’s cut is head and shoulders above the other tracks which sound like Detroit house rejects from ’99. I’m not sure how these tunes share the same piece of vinyl as they are so inferior in quality and execution. At least this time they gave the Dokes cut the full side treatment. Can I possibly be the only person not feeling the Trus’me/Linkwood crew’s tracks? To my ears they are a prime example of doing it wrong. It all seems so studied and derivative, if you already have those old KDJ, Harmonie Park, and Sound Signature records there is no reason to pick up this crew’s new releases. If you don’t already have them, quit reading this right now and get on Ebay/Discogs/Gemm!
My ace Dean tipped me off to these remixes of Grace Jones done by Yam Who? inna disco style. I’ve been a big fan of Yam Who?’s nu-disco remixes going back to ’03 when they did bootleg mixes of Pharrell, Little Brother, and N’Dambi that utilize live playing in a very deep manner. The Grace Jones mixes are a little more 80′s influenced than Yam Who?’s earlier joints, stylistically they are not far off from the Sly and Robbie produced GJ records that were so big at the Garage. Since they are quality musicians, these mixes have song structure and melodic content that so many remixes don’t and it elevates ‘William’s Blood” to being a great song. I’m not sure why GJ’s label rejected these mixes, but I’m more than happy to be able to pick them up!
I didn’t buy too many edits records this year, but I had to go for Moxie’s re-edit of Donald Byrd’s “Love Has Come Around”. Word on the street is that James Murphy from DFA did these edits, and I guess that shouldn’t surprise me at this point. He loops up the best part of the track and lets it ride for a long time, drawing you in with the hypnotic loop. This is definitely a good one for the late night crew.
In what I feel has to be one of the most slept on stories of ’08, Ron Trent continued his comeback with yet another dope release on his Future Vision label. Ron’s “City Beat” is a nice slice of deepness, but it is Trinidadian Deep’s steel-drum house jam “Future Sonic” that does it for me here. Injecting some island vibes is an excellent way to warm up a set on a cold winter’s night.
Finally, I grabbed Slow to Speak’s little spoken word compilation. I’ve been in the mood for dropping speeches and whatnot in my sets recently (like a couple weeks back when I opened a set on WRCT with Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grassroots” playing over Pharoah Sanders’ “Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt”….) and this collection features lots of good snippets by some of my favorite artists and other figures talking about music, politics, and spirituality amongst other topics. A nice collection for creating atmosphere.
On the diging tip:
Stan Getz and João Gilberto – Getz/Gilberto – Verve LP
The New Stan Getz Quartet and Astrud Gilberto – Getz Au Go Go – Verve LP
After becoming obsessed with Astrud Gilberto this summer, I constantly rocked her greatest hits CD in the ride. At that time, the only Gilberto I had on wax was João on Getz/Gilberto #2 which annoyingly did not feature Astrud at all. It was good to finally find nice copies of both of these timelessly beautiful albums.
Patrick Adams Presents Phreek – Phreek – Atlantic Promo LP
This one had been evading me for a hot minute. When my boy Jason Pascuzzi came up with a second copy, he was more than happy to hook me up for a very fair price. And that bitch is minty as hell!
Sylvester & The Hot Band – Sylvester And The Hot Band – Blue Thumb LP
Years before s/he became a disco/Hi NRG diva, Sylvester fronted this bluesy funk album that has two extremely ill cuts on it. First off is the opener, a cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man” in a mid-tempo funk vein. I’m sure the ol’ southern men love the black drag queen version of the song even more than Neil’s! My favorite jam though is the instrumental jazz-funk interpretation of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” which becomes almost unidentifiable, in the best way possible.
DJ Spinna – Intergalactic Soul – Wonderwax 2xLP
Norma Jean – Saturday – Bearsville 12″
The Gap Band – Early In The Morning – Total Experience 12″
Christmas sale at Jerry’s landed me these three for $10. Spinna’s album has a bunch of nice soulful house tracks on it, highlighted for me by the Kraftwerk cover. The Norma Jean track is a Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers produced pop-disco jam that I had passed on before because the copies were always beat up. This one was never played! And that Gap Band 12″ is one that always gets stuck in my head whenever I hear it, I’d been meaning to pick that one up too.
Thom Yorke – The Eraser – XL LP
Mandrill – Mandrill – Polydor LP
Hugh Masekela – The Promise of A Future – UNI LP
The Blackbyrds – Flying Start – Fantasy LP
My trip to the local Rehoboth Beach record shop on my little New Year’s vacation turned up these. The Thom Yorke was actually new, but old enough that it gets stuck in here. FINALLY I can play my favorite cuts off this classic album out. The Mandrill album is typically jazz-funk with some vocal cuts, while the Hugh Masekela rocks the more mainstream end of Afro-Latin jazz. I realised that I didn’t have that Blackbyrds album when one of my boys dropped “Blackbyrds Theme” a little while back, and I’d been meaning to hunt it down since then. For $1.98 in perfect shape, I couldn’t turn that one down.
That wraps up quite a nice year of record buying. In ’09 I should actually be joining the workforce and receiving paychecks so I’ll have money to buy even MORE records. I guess they will end up being more old records, since even this year I didn’t have a problem keeping up with new releases despite making possibly the least amount of money in a year since I was in high school. Ah, the glory of being broke!
yeah i picked up the new reggie dokes thing on prime numbers, it really is fantastic. as usual it has that kinda haunting soul vibe going on, you feel like you could listen to it for hours. he has been on fire this year. i also picked up rahaan’s edits on stilllove4music, which i think got mentioned here recently. lastly, a lil heads up – never managed to track down a copy of ‘nice & slo’ by house god lil louis? me either… it’s just been reissued on mathematics, along with ‘jazzmen’ and a remix of ‘french kiss’…. go get it
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Yo i didn’t actually know those Grace Jones joints were by Yam Who?, when i picked it up there was no artist info on discogs. I was dying to know who was behind them. Was just looking on discogs and saw they did a remake of Charles Earland’s classic Leaving this planet (http://www.discogs.com/release/235518). I fuckin love that track, may try hunt that shit down!
Whilst i agree that Reggie’s cuts usually blow the Linkwood/trus’me shit out the water, you can’t fault Miles Away (http://www.discogs.com/release/402127) or RIP (http://www.discogs.com/release/1225220) thos joints are sick, esp Miles away
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pipecock reply on January 2nd, 2009 6:37 pm:
I have that “Leave This Planet” cover, it’s pretty dope. I also have the John Legend rmx they did that turns the track into a Latin thing that is so ill. They did a nice mix of an Only Child cut with Amp Fiddler on it that I think I kicked off one of my early mixes with. It’s wild to think how much good shit those guys did in a short period of time. I didn’t get much from them recently until the Grace Jones which is definitely a return to form. I saw Norm Talley drop the Little Brother thing in Detroit back in 04 killing it of course, that rack samples Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Klan” which is a killer track itself.
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Dean reply on January 3rd, 2009 10:24 am:
Man i gotta search that shit out
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i don’t know, i like both the Linkwood/Trus’me cuts as well as Reggie Dokes. i like the Linkwood shit on Firecracker better tho. RIP was good (minnie ripperton remix). I just think they have a time/place depending on what kind of set you playing and the crowd you are playing to but no doubt i think they have a place and are all good.
that moxie release was definitely a DFA/James Murphy edit. i went to the record release party in NYC and it was sweet. it was james murphy and pat mahoney. checkout http://www.specialdiscoversion.com to stay on the up and up on that tip. he did his show with james hillard and severino panzanetta of horse meat disco. they dropped a lot of serious jams.
also, just an FYI, go to http://www.ustem.org/dopejams. this is one of my fav rec stores in brooklyn that is home of nick, paul and francis of slow to speak and have also been putting out all of the sick reissue singles that you’ve been seeing pop-up lately (charles earland “leaving this planet”, http://www.juno.co.uk/covers/337245-01-front.htm for example). they are cheaper if you get them straight from them. about $3 USD more on juno. good pressings too. they’ve been silently flooding the market with sick music and spreading the word on shit that sucks. their end of the year top ten is hilarious. they aren’t as snobby in person as they sound on the site. they get all the shit that you talk about your site and that’s where i get about 80% of my shit from. anyways, enuff of the plug.
i personally got kinda crazy on the edits this year. some of my favs were the edits on moxie, dj harvey’s black cock edits, and the ron hardy edits on partayhardy. sick.
and i def second being broke!
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pipecock reply on January 4th, 2009 5:09 pm:
RIP is one of the ones i dislike the most, actually. maybe i am the crazy one, who knows
as for Dope Jams, we should have some things going on with them very soon. we’ve been in contact and whatnot, just waiting for it all to come together.
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I have to give a little respect to discreet unit because on that prime numbers comp they sampled a cut off this:
http://www.discogs.com/release/121429
but yeah, the dokes track pretty much blows the other two away.
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the dokes track was out ages ago on psychotasia, its a re-release. i quite like that fudge fingas track. as dean says above the ‘miles away’ track by linkwood is ace, i also like that ‘lost experiment’ track they did, as well as a few others. persnally i have no problem with people imitating the detroit sound – so long as i like the track – ultimately that’s all i’m bothered about. this is a another good example of music influenced by detroit by Hot Coins (of Nottingham, England) – http://www.untrackedrecordings.com/ut006
with regards to yam who – check their edit of raphael saadiq from a few years back – http://www.discogs.com/release/142683
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Dean reply on January 3rd, 2009 10:22 am:
You mean the Fudge Fingas one which samples What’s goin on? That shit was tight also. I see a lot of people sampling what’s goin on recently and they’re usually very poorly done, shit what’s goin on is almost sacred to me and i hate to see things i love that much getting “done over” but the fudge fingers joint is definately presenting something original and worthy of the sample.
I’m not so sure about that moxie edit of Donald Byrd’s love has come around tho. That’s another sacred track for me and i’m not really down with what they’ve done with it. Slight re-arrangement and thicker drums just doesn’t cut it for me
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Dean reply on January 3rd, 2009 10:28 am:
EDIT- I mean to say Gettin together from the What’s goin on LP
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pipecock reply on January 4th, 2009 5:18 pm:
to me, what they did to “love has come around” changes how it should be played. the original is something i would play in a spot calling for a funky live jam. this edit is something i would play in a deep repetitive part of a set. it’s not necessarily a huge facelift that they did to it, but its enough to recontextualize it and make it useful for different purposes.
also, the flipside of that might appeal to Kenny and other Italo heads. it starts off with a funky boogie vocal thing but morphs into this huge synth riff thing in the middle. i don’t know the original track, but that edit is pretty nutty.
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pipecock reply on January 4th, 2009 5:14 pm:
i mean, it was on a highly limited self released CD that almost nobody has which doesnt even have track titles on it. “release yourself” didnt even sound vaguely familiar to me, even though i own that Vault 2.5 CD and play it all the time. i guess that speaks to the separation in my brain of things i own on CD for listening and things i own on vinyl for playing.
as for the knockoffs, to me the tracks arent bad but theyre not really very good. theyre not bringing anything new to the table. i wouldnt mind if they were making outstanding tracks, but to my ears theyre all filler.
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Moodymann piece is nice. I’m out of touch though so just dropping in to say happy new year ISM. Hope all is well Pipe, catch ya.
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This is where I’d picked up the Reggie Dokes track previously – http://www.whatpeopleplay.com/browse/album/?id=3641&tid=12603&found=tracks
Seriously, have a listen to Piece of Mind by Linkwood – http://www.whatpeopleplay.com/browse/album/?id=6651&tid=25403&found=tracks
and Miles Away
http://www.whatpeopleplay.com/browse/album/?id=6649&bc=true
and Lost Experiment of this
http://www.whatpeopleplay.com/browse/album/?id=6970&tid=26602&found=tracks
I know you’ll probably still say the same, worth a try though :;
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gmos reply on January 5th, 2009 11:30 am:
Yeah, some of the Firecracker stuff is decent but in general I’m with Tom on this one, most of the Linkwood etc stuff will be forgotten in a few years imo.
Disappointed that Psychostasia 11 was a digital exclusive, never even heard that it came out at all. Is he only releasing the Psychostasia stuff digitally now?
And if it wasn’t for Freeki MF, I’d have been disappointed by the new Moodymann too. It’s good but not really comparable to his other albums imo.
hmm, I’m grumbling a lot here, maybe I just ate and drank too much these last few weeks
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Dean reply on January 5th, 2009 7:23 pm:
It looks like Psychostasia 11 will be on vinyl though, if you zoom that image in the link you’ll see it’s an actual vinyl middle with centre hole cut out..
here’s to hoping at least
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pipecock reply on January 5th, 2009 8:32 pm:
i know a couple years back, just after the last vinyl release on the label, the psychostasia mentioned 4 new releases being on white label soon. i of course immediately emailed reggie to see what was up with that, and iirc he said that they hadn’t come back yet. i have no idea if they ever existed or not, but at least hypothetically there are a bunch more in the can ready to go. he needs to get them fuckers out, i’m tired of buying imports to get his tunes!
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Mandrill are a pretty tight band, their albums always seem to have quite a bit of nonsense on them in between the one or two gems.
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pipecock reply on January 8th, 2009 5:12 pm:
The gems are always quite sparkling!
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gmos reply on January 9th, 2009 6:22 am:
Indeed they are, Fencewalk from their 2nd album is a big fav
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The moodymann release was shit, the only track worth listening to on that release was freeki mutha fucker.
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pipecock reply on January 8th, 2009 5:11 pm:
I couldn’t disagree more. In fact, FMF might even be my least favorite track on there!
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kenny reply on January 8th, 2009 8:34 pm:
I’m not fully convinced by the Moodymann release at all. Freeki is the standout by a long shot. I’m really not sure if I could be bothered buying the release just for it.
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