Some more records…

Tom’s post has made me get my arse in gear to post about a few of my own summer record purchases. I most likely could have done this ages ago as I’m focusing on 2nd hand buys,  many of which were got on my trip to Chicago and Detroit all the way back in May (!). Ireland doesn’t have much of  a selection when it comes to 2nd hand shopping, certainly not on the scale you get over there. It was a lot of fun getting to do some proper digging, though I could have done more – especially in Chicago where my flaffing about meant I only got to visit Gramaphone – nice shop with some nice peeps, I even got a little discount, and it my first visit. Which was nice.  Anyways, on to the music.

Sinner Man by Sarah Dash was a big ol hit back in the disco days, and with good reason. This is proper late 70’s stomping disco, end of nighter written all over it.  War’s You Got The Power is some more uptempo disco style action for the floor, the only problem with it is a silly harmonica solo that comes through at the end of one side. (I may be a bit vague on sides and what not today, posting this from work instead of with the records in front of me).  On a more synthetic tip I discovered a early 80’s disco tinged T.C. Curtis 12 – “Party Down” doing a little digging in Cork recently, which I can’t find a trace of on discogs. I think the instrumental on this works the best. One 12″ you couldn’t possibly want to play without the vocals is  Stone City Band’s Bad Lady, – a promo copy of which I got in Dublin recently-  which comes courtesy of the one and only Rick James. Even the  wailing guitar works on this. Sometimes I just love dumb party records, this is certainly one of these.  Keeping on an 80’s Motown tip for another second is Motor City Crew  Scratch Break , which is some excellent electro boogie funkness. O’Bryan’s I’m Freaky is another fine slice of early 80’s  electronic funk. It’s pretty high tempo making it fitting for throwing people sideways in the middle of some techno or modern electro.

My Mine’s Hypnotic Tango is a classic Italo bomb and there is a plethora of versions of it knocking around but I was still stoked to pick up a copy for 3 bucks with a battered sleeve with HYPNOTIC TANGO written in massive writing across it. I got it for the original but my version also has a Frankie Knuckles remix that I wasn’t pushed on at first but has really grown on me and love it now. It takes it to a deeper more chi-town place, leaving out the vocals but sparsely keeping the rest of the track contained with in it slowly but surely appearing over the course of the song. A perfect example of the Italo/Chicago connection.

My other favourite Italo purchases of the summer have been a couple of re-issues. Firstly is the sky-scraping slo mo epicness of Alex Cundari & Brian Ice’s Walkin’…( Zumbae) which Delivery Records put out a couple of years ago now. My word the synths on this are HUGE. Coming from the same gang is the I.D. Limited collection of Sandra Olive related cuts  Rose of Tokyo which I’m not madly fussed on bar the original version of Mark Tower’s “You Aren’t Fall In Love”,  a short and bittersweet heartbreaker.  Moving into hi-energy is the Bobby O produced Oh Romeo – One More Shot one of a few Orlando 12″s I’ve gotten recently and is top pick of them.

Picking up random records you’ve no idea what they are is always a fun part of digging, especially when you get a prize find. One of mine was Monologic – Super Deluxe which is all about the Anthills cut, an EBM style electro-ish cut, which has a gotten a “whats that??” response every time I’ve played it.  The minimal amount of info on the label meant that I didn’t know what this Paris The Black Fu release was when I picked it up but it’s dark, dubby atmospherics were another pleasant surprise.

Slightly more well known is Carl Craig’s brilliant 69 monikor and I finally got my mits on the 4 Jazz Funk Classics 12″ which I got for fuck all, a lot less than his ridiculously over priced box set that’s knocking about at the moment. I’m not sure what Mr Craig was at with the price tag on that box set, as who’s gonna buy it? He may have garnered a lot of new fans with his recent stadium techno remixs that are big in Europe, but thing is the music on the 69 releases is so far removed from that that I wonder how much of an appeal those releases would be to some, which is a crying shame.  I picked that up in Detroit Threads which this year had Submerge’s stock in it, and amongst some other UR purchases I got The Theory which was only usually available through Submerge’s mail order. A classic deep Detroit techno cut.

Off hand I don’t think I’ve ever encountered someone who, if his name is brought up, has a bad word to say about Edmx/DMX Krew. Be it killer dj sets, inspired live shows or countless good records your life is always that little bit fuller with some ‘Krew in it.  A couple of oldies have fallen in to my lap in the last few weeks, firstly a reissue of an old Reflex number Come To me which finds him in electro pop mode; I found this in Tower Records of all places! His re-edit of Biochip C’s Steal It And Deal It, is more of a complete overhaul/remix than edit with Upton adding some typically DMX vocals over the top alongside his trademark electro groove.  When he gets it right like on that his sound is damn near perfect.