A few interesting things have popped up on teh web in the last week or so….
The man Kuri over at Energy Flash got the Oliverwho Factory to sit down for an interview. I have almost all the Madd Chaise records, but had never seen anything with these guys anywhere before. It’s cool to see someone taking it back underground after some major label action way back in the 80s; they make excellent soulful techno and house now, and they have something coming on Planet E (which bodes well for the label after so many disappointing recent releases!).
Our boy Jacob Arnold continues his lessons on house music history with a round-up of early 80s NYC electronic dance dubs. This is probably one of my favorite era of dance music, I play shit from this style all the damn time. Timmy Regisford and Boyd Jarvis are two of my favorites, and they are well represented on this list. He did omit a few of my other favorites like Eric Matthew (check the instrumental of Toney Lee’s “Love So Deep”!) and Shep Pettibone (dub mix of Weeks & Co.’s “If You’re Looking For Fun”!!!), but this is still a good starting point for those looking to get deeper into house’s roots. Be sure to check out his previous roundups of italo and late disco music as well. After you’re done reading up on these, go check out the tracklists and links to Ron Hardy mixes on the web that he helped compile from various sources. These are great resources! Gridface is killing it for me these days.
The fellows at Random Circuits got Bruce Ivery (whose release this year on Stilove4music has been beaten to death in my sets) to do a mix for them. Mr. Ivery is part of the new breed of deep Chicago cats who have been around for a while, but are only now making real noise in dance music. I’m probably more excited right now for what is happening in Chicago than anywhere else. This is a great mix chock full of original edits and things.
Last but not least, there is a teaser track online for the new album coming soon from ISM all-time fav Gil Scott-Heron. The music takes a turn towards dark, weird electronic music, and it works well under his poetry styles. I hope he sings on this new one as well, I actually prefer his singing to his poetry at this point! My man Andrew Burger and I were plotting the lineup of a soul music super group that we would like to see: Gil Scott-Heron, Erykah Badu, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Waajeed, Theo Parrish, Moodymann, Dam-Funk, Flying Lotus, and Reggie Dokes. Are there any independently wealthy individuals out there in ISM-land who want to fund this project and let us mastermind it?!?!
Also, Andrew found this ridiculous Dorothy Ashby record from 1961 called “Soft Winds” on Jazzland Records. It’s beat as hell, but that has to be one of the best jazz records I’ve heard in a hot minute. Super deep soulful stylings, if anyone knows where a clean copy can be found for cheap or if you have mp3s, let me know.
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2 vinyl copies available on Amazon.com. There’s a ton of Dorothy Ashby CDs as well, and I haven’t done the research, but you should search for your faves from the LP — a lot of 60s stuff gets re-issued under different album names.
http://www.amazon.com/Dorothy-Ashby-Soft-Winds-Jazzland/dp/B001UCMUOQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1258993089&sr=8-1
Tom, thanks for the write-up!
Another sweet dub that I didn’t have room to mention is the François Kevorkian mix of “Outta the World” by Ashford & Simpson. Some great spacey effects at the end.
ha, been listening to the Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby quite a lot in the past few weeks, it’s incredible stuff. I’ve got that and Afro-Harping which is also pretty cool, pity she died so young, she was a major talent. I haven’t heard the album you mentioned but I generally prefer her late 60’s work from what I’ve heard.
pretty impressed by the teaser for Gil Scott-Heron, I hope he’ll be touring to promote the new album. saw him in Dublin about 8 years ago and it was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.
i wouldn’t even have thought to look on Amazon! and i believe this one wasn’t issued under any other name, at least from my quick research the other day.
i’m telling you, that period had so many great tracks it would be impossible to even serve up a short-ish list and have it be anything near complete. i love it!
those later joints are dope, but that Soft Winds shit is amazing too. it also has a female on vibes who is really dope!
i would love to see GSH live, he is the man!
yeah, he’s the man alright
at that gig, he came out at the start and just started talking, beat style with no music and he got heckled by some idiot who’d must’ve never heard GSH before (play some fucking music old man!! etc…). but he put him down brilliantly, despite all his drug problems he’s still so sharp and intelligent. they finished the show with The Bottle and the whole place was going crazy, so good.
tom, when you gonna drop a mix oh here already, pressure’s mounting 😉
Hi guys,
thanks for this post and mostly for the oliverwho factory interview link. (you may want to edit the link because it’s not working directly)
big fan of this blog
all the best, Alex
thanks for the heads up, i don’t know how that formatting got messed up, but it did!
haha, i have a mix from earlier this year that i wanted to use for another project, but i might stick it up here instead because that project is not off the ground yet. i also owe some cats some guest mixes, i need to get on that. i’ve been lazy on that front this year!
thanks for the write up on the Oliverwho Factory interview. great cats and glad to hear they’ve got a planet E release forthcoming. about time some other labels picked up on them.
wish I had the $ to fund as I would love to see that concert. ridiculous lineup.