Big Bang Big Boom

I bought an apartment recently and I've been renovating it like crazy so I haven't had any time for blogging but don't worry, I'll be back soon. In the meantime you can entertain yourselves by watching Blu's amazing video Big Bang Big Boom and listen to a massive Tom Moulton banger.

Roger Troutman appreciation

I came across to a couple of good Roger Troutman clips on YouTube with great freestyle talkbox action by the master himself. Damn, he was such a genius with that thing plus an all-around cool cat.

Here's a 12" version of a classic Zapp joint to accompany the videos.



Zapp - Computer Love [320 kbps, DivShare]

Googie & Tom Coppola - Missing Love

I was watching this video clip of Kon and Amir picking up records at a store and chatting about their selections. It's a nice clip, nothing special but I always enjoy watching these and the choices Kon and Amir made were brilliant. I could have bought all the records except for Missing Love by Googie & Tom Coppola since I already have that one. It's a lovely, mellow soul joint with a great groove.

Just like Kon says on the video, the promo 12" of Missing Love and especially Shine The Light Of Love are rare and tend to be a bit pricey but I've seen this Columbia 12" quite often with a reasonable price tag so keep your eyes open for that one if you're into quality early 80's soul.

Googie & Tom Coppoloa - Missing Love [320 kbps, DivShare]

Marvin Gaye - I've Got My Music

It's been a while since the last time I watched Marvin Gaye: Transit Ostend but today I was pleased to notice that its' available through Google Video. Transit Ostend a.k.a. Remember Marvin (by Richard Oliver) is a film about the 18 months Gaye lived in Ostend, Belgium trying to get his body and mind clear and writing his comeback album Midnight Love.

It's not the greatest documentary when it comes to portraying the delicate and difficult time Gaye was going through. Regardless of some shortcomings the documentary is unique and contains priceless footage of Marvin jamming/rehearsing and a painfully emotional scene of him singing the Lord's Prayer (just after the 35 minute mark).

I've Got My Music (original vocal version of Turn On Some Music) from the Midnight Love sessions seems like a perfect song to describe his situation at the time and his battle between good faith and bad habits. At the same time it shows why Marvin is the G.O.A.T.

Marvin Gaye - I've Got My Music [320 kbps, DivShare]

The Joneses - Summer Groove

I have a vicious and a persistent flu and I'm on bed rest for the fifth day now. I have already watched all five seasons of The Wire and at the moment I'm sitting at home watching snow fall. The amount of snow over here is so overwhelming that it makes the upcoming summer feel as a vague, distant dream.

To make things worse, I've been watching Helsinki 78-82's newish music video. It captures all the best features of summer in Helsinki: long sunny days, bikes, beer and good music. Such a feel good video (produced by Flatlight Films) and a killer tune (released by Top Billin).

To make things even worse, I started to compile a playlist of all the best summer tunes. Summer Groove by The Joneses is most definetly on the list.

Enjoy the winter and keep yourselves warm.

The Joneses - Summer Groove (Moving On) [320 kbps, DivShare]

O.V. Wright - Let's Straighten It Out

For me Let's Straighten It Out is THE song when it comes to bluesy southern soul. It's one of the many great cuts on O.V. Wright's album The Bottom Line (1978). Some would say that the sound of Hi Records was losing a bit of it's tightness during the late 70's but this album is solid gold from start to finish. I find it to be the strongest release of the label in late 70's. O.V. Wright's collaboration with the late great Willie Mitchell works perfectly on the album. The result is not as sexy and slick as with Al Green/Willie Mitchell collaborations but it's equally soulful and somehow a lot more intense and powerful.

O.V. Wright - Let's Straighten It Out [320 kbps, DivShare]

On top of this one being a favorite southern soul tune, it's been sampled by RZA on one of my all time favorite Wu Tang beats.

Chase & Status feat. Kano - Against All Odds

Great video and great usage of the Apache break.

myspace.com/chaseandstatus

myspace.com/ramrecords

It's christmas time in Hollis, Queens

I'm flying back home for the holidays today so I figured it's time for a some sort of christmas post though I'm not much of a christmas person. I really can't stand these cheesy sellout christmas tunes. Especially I hate all the wack christmas raps out there. Luckily there's a couple of classic christmas bangers that you can count on. Run DMC's Christmas In Hollis and of course the classic Christmas Rappin' by Kurtis Blow are the ones for me. The beat on Christmas Rappin' is so dope that I hooked you up with the instrumental as well. The Furious Five is killing it on the same beat live in 1981. Check it out via Outside Broadcast.

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin' [320 kbps]

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin' (Do It Yourself Version - Instrumental) [320 kbps]

Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis [320 kbps]

Happy Holidays!

P.S. Make sure to check the video for Christmas In Hollis. It's hilarious.

The Budos Band - Chicago Falcon (The Washington Sq. Lads Remix) feat. Wale

Because Make The Road By Walking was so amazing I've been listening to other Daptone related stuff a lot lately and rediscovered a nice remix of The Budos Band's track Chicago Falcon. The band is known for making raw instrumental afrobeat/funk whereas The Washington Sq. Lads Remix is completely different with electronic sounds and raps by Wale but still the remix works really well. The remix is taken from Scion CD Sampler Vol. 19. If you're not familiar with Scion AV, check it out. These samplers are part of Toyota's guerilla marketing campaign. The compilations are usually full of good tunes from independent labels. It would be nice to see more marketing campaigns like this one.

The Budos Band - Chicago Falcon (The Washington Sq. Lads Remix) feat. Wale [320 kbps]

Here's a cool video (made by pakratNYC) for The Volcano Songs that appears on The Budos Band's self-titled debut album (2005).

Paul Nice - Journey To The Centre Of The Beats

Paul Nice is one of those talented DJs/producers that are consistently putting out excellent stuff but never get enough props for their work. If you aren't familiar with Paul Nice you got a lot of listening to do. Check out his excellent mixtapes Soul On The Grill vol 1 & 2, Sade Blends, Breaks For Days...the list is long.

The tracks that I'm sharing today are taken from Journey To The Centre Of The Beats released by Antidote Records in 2004. The mixtape contains some freestyles, blends and remixes. It's not as soild as Paul Nice's other stuff but the dubbed remix/mash-up of The Message impressed me back in the day and it still works for me. It really takes balls to change the beats of a Grandmaster Flash joint but Paul Nice pulls it off in style.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message (Paul Nice's Super Duty Bootleg Mash-Up) [320 kbps]

Sugarhill Gang - Paul Nice's Megamix [320 kbps]

Videos courtesy of MTV's music search.

Fabulous Souls - Take Me

Take Me by an obscure touring funk combo Fabulous Souls is a great organ lead funky charger with nice interchanges of female and male vocals. Lamp Records released the tune on a 7" originally in 1971 and Stones Throw reissued it in 2002. The single itself is worth buying but the art work of the package is equally amazing.

If you feel like dancing to this tune but you don't have the right moves let this guy help.

Fabulous Souls - Take Me [320 kbps]

MTV's new music video search

Hi! Just droppped in to tell you that I've been wasting my day browsing through old rap videos on MTV's new music search. The quality of the videos is good and the memories are priceless. I'm really hoping the folks at MTV would finally realize that M stands for Music, not My Sweet Sixteen and all that wackiness.

Please MTV, bring back Yo! MTV Raps.

Ann Sexton appreciation

In my opinion Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is the best movie director of the 21st century. I was wathing his 2003 masterpiece 21 Grams yesterday. You really have to check it out in case you haven't. The flick is awesome and the soundtrack features Ann Sexton's classic You're Losing Me. I realized I hadn't been listening to Ann Sexton for a while so I decided to post all my favorite Ann Sexton tunes.

Her songs weren't very successful when they were originally released but later many of them have become popular on the Northern soul scene. I've always appreciated her voice that is equally great in smooth soul ballads and hard hitting souther funk. The first two songs appear on this 7" and the latter two on this 7". Both singles came out in 1973 under a small label, Seventy-Seven Records. All four songs can be found also on Ann Sexton Anthology put together by Soul Brother Records.

EDIT: This turns into a mega post but I gotta add this. I was looking for the trailer of 21 Grams on youtube and came across to this one. It's a clip from the Baltic Soul Weekend '08. Ann Sexton is in her 50s still rocking it harder than these whining, anorectic souls sisters of today. Amazing!

Ann Sexton - You're Letting Me Down [320 kbps]

Ann Sexton - You've Been Gone Too Long [320 kbps]

Ann Sexton - You're Losing Me [320 kbps]

Ann Sexton - You're Gonna Miss Me [320 kbps]

DJ Mark The 45 King Appreciation

DJ Mark The 45 King doing what he does best. Amazing stuff. No Serato, no high end turntables or mixers, just skills and love for the beats.

I know you are here for the free downloads so here you go. I uploaded the classic joint in case you don't have it and as a bonus Eli Escobar's 2k8 remix.

The 45 King - The 900 Number [320 kbps, zShare]

The 45 King vs. Pase Rock - The 900 Number (2k8) (Eli Escobar Remix) [320 kbps, zShare]

Hörselmat - Right On

Nice video clips that I had slept on. How great would it be to go crate digging with Kon & Amir. If you watched the videos you might remember Amir telling a story in the beginning (2:00-2:30 min) of the latter video about a record he bought for 500 bucks. He was having difficulties pronouncing the artist. It spells Hörselmat. Yep, you try pronounce it. I wonder where he got the information about the album cover saying "If there's someone selling this one for over 20 SEK (about 2 USD) don't buy it", because the text on the cover art is in Swedish. Anyhow, it was a funny story at least for Swedish speaking people.

Well, the song is really tight and the album is really rare so Amir spent his money right. The track made it to the CD version of Kon & Amir's compilation Off Track - Volume 1: The Bronx. If you dig the track, the whole album seems to available for dowload here so go get it.

Hörselmat - Right On [320 kbps, zShare]

C-Mon & Kypski - Shitty Bum

I just love the video and the song is great too. The track appears on C-Mon & Kypski's Static Traveller EP that came out in 2004. Download it here.

I would really like to see them live. I've read that they produce songs from scracth on stage with the help of sampling, looping, effects and Kypski's scratching. Their performance is also said to be visually very strong. Sounds like a winner combination. Check out more from their website.

Kleeer - Tonight

A whole lot of horrible funk with electric elements was done in the 80's. Luckily there's some amazing stuff as well. Kleeer's Tonight is one of those tracks. For some people, it's the definition of smooth funk and I don't disagree. The tune had an impact on the early classic sound of west coast rap though the band is originally from the east coast. The song dates back to year 1984 when it appeared on Intimate Connection.

Kleeer - Tonight [320 kbps, zShare]

And here's DJ Quick sampling Kleer on Tonite.

I came across to this video of Paul Dateh and DJ Inka One mixing violin music with rap (and other stuff). It seems like a worn out idea from the 90's but I liked it...especially The Roots part of the mix.

MP3 of the mix seems to be available for download on Paul Dateh's MySpace. Go get it!

Blu appreciation

I've been watching this amazing wall painting video called Muto by Blu at least 20 times. I can't stop admiring the skills and the patience of the artist. It must take a hell of a lot time to make such a painting. I was also very impressed with all the other works on blublu.org.

I decided to post a song at the same time although the music on the video is great. Freddy McKay's Picture On The Wall is a nice little Studio 1 joint from 1974.

Freddy McKay - Picture On The Wall [320 kbps, zShare]

Ernie K-Doe - Here Come The Girls

Ernie K-Doe is best known for the biggest New Orleans R&B hit Mother-In-Law which went #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961.

Originally Here Come The Girls was performed by K-Doe in 1970 but it wasn't released on a record during his lifetime. K-Doe passed away in 2001. Soul Jazz Records put the song out on a single sided 12" in 2007. The song is taken from the album New Orleans Funk. The same year a beauty store/pharmacy company Boots used the song as a soundtrack in their christmas advert.

Ernie K-Doe - Here Come The Girls [320 kbps, zShare]

And here's the Boots advert...