things and time will tell.

While we're on the topic... Wood, Brass & Steel ‎– Funkanova / What Cha Say White label ‎– AN-001-A Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Unofficial Release, US, 2005 info This is a 2005 white label featuring Kenny Dope re-edits of two disco funk burners from Wood, Brass & Steel. Kenny Dope Gonzalez is best known for his house productions as half of Masters At Work, but the guy's soul, funk and disco credentials run deep with many years of disco mixes, hip-hop productions, and running his Dopewax and  Kay-Dee Records labels. Kenny slipped these mixes into the world on one bootleg 12" and, as far as I know, they've never been issued anywhere else (other than one track popping up on CD-R promo mix CD he made once promoting a Kenny Dope disco compilation). It's a shame, these are something special. I had forgotten I had this- even better than I remember! Both tracks come from WB&S's 1976 self titled LP. By now Doug Wimbish had officially joined the group on bass. ...

Skull Snaps ‎– Skull Snaps GSF Records ‎– GSF-S-1011 Vinyl, LP, Album, US, Reissue (Original release, 1973) Info I mentioned this 1973 LP by Skull Snaps in my last post and figured I'd follow up on it. Continuing with the saga of "It's A New Day..." The Diplomats, originated as a Washington DC area soul group, a trio (and sometimes quartet?) of singers who released  a string of 45s through the 1960s . By the early '70s, they had moved both to New York and to a new sound. As their music shifted toward funk, so did their name, dropping the R&B diplomacy of their early days and rechristening themselves "Skull Snaps." Skull Snaps only released one LP, a 1973 album recorded with George Kerr for GSF records. The Skull Snaps were now comprised of Diplomats Samm Culley (bass) and Ervan Waters (guitar) along with new recruit George Bragg on drums. They were billed as a band, not just a vocal trio, and album's liner notes credit them playing those instrume...

Wood, Brass & Steel ‎– Hey, What's That You Say / Always There Soul Brother Records ‎– SB7023 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Remastered, UK, 2016 Info Much to be thankful for? Yes. But as a friend recently said to me, "2020 can kick rocks." I haven't posted anything here in months, but decided Thanksgiving would be the day I made some time. I prepared this record late last night, before finding out about a friend passing this morning. Chorus on Side A: "Hey, what's that you say? It's a new day. And a better day is coming." Doing my best to try to take that one to heart. I'm thankful for those who struggle despite everything in our way. My forgiving friends and family. I'm reeling a little today- heartbroken and furious about losing someone that this world needs ... and confident that she'll keep inspiring us to stick with our fights , be deeply committed, and take care of each other like family. _____________________________________________...

We return to Bim Sherman for Reality,  his 1992 album backed by Style Scott's Dub Syndicate.  Bim Sherman & Dub Syndicate - Reality Century Records - Century 1700 Vinyl, LP, Album, UK, Nov 1992 More info on  Discogs Tracklist A1 Over The Rainbow A2 Brother And Sister A3 Keep On Moving A4 Fire A5 Rock Crys Out B1 Wake Up Reality B2 Take Me B3 Go To The Mountain B4 Best Of Love B5 Too Hot The album isn't an official "On-U Sound production," being one of the few records credited to Dub Syndicate without having Adrian Sherwood at the controls. Instead, Mad Professor contributes the mix with the great Skip McDonald as "engineer" for the actual recordings. Skip McDonald is the former Sugarhill guitarist mentioned in my last post, who not only played on pivotal funk and disco recordings and helped invent the sound of recorded hip-hop, but went on to be a central figure in the On-U orbit of artists. His guitar (and production work) became def...

A Keith LeBlanc and Adrian Sherwood production from 1984, paying tribute to the massive Miners Strike then taking place in the UK. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this is probably the greatest pro-union, electro hip-hop single of all time. (I dream of a world where it would have more competition!) The Enemy Within - Support The Miners Rough Trade - RTT 151 Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, UK, 1984 More info on Discogs Tracklist A        Strike B        Strike (General Mix) Keith LeBlanc is an American drummer, probably best known for his 1983  No Sell Out  single, released by a still new Tommy Boy Records. The record was credited to Malcolm X, whose  cut up speeches were set over a LeBlanc produced beat . Although claims that it was the first record to use "sampling" or the first to use a DMX drum machine are laying it on a bit too thick,  No Sell Out  is rightly celebrated as a key moment in hi...

I mentioned this 1981 On-U Sound classic in the last post, so we'll go with it as the next record to share. Low hanging fruit seems like a good idea while I try to get back into the swing of this... New Age Steppers - Action Battlefield Beat Records ‎– BRC-96 CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Paper Sleeve Japan, 2004 (Originally released in 1981 on Statik Records in the UK) More info Tracklist 1 My Whole World 2 Observe Life 3 Got To Get Away 4 My Love 5 Problems 6 Nuclear Zulu 7 Guiding Star "Bonus Tracks For Japan" 8 Wide World Version 9 Unclear New Age Steppers, like many On-U Sound "bands" from the early years of the label, featured a rolling roster of the musicians and vocalists working with producer Adrian Sherwood at the time. The center of the group's orbit though was Ari Up, fresh from her years singing for the Slits as they dove from the punk platform at the end of the 1970s into the noisy dub, reggae, and funk experiments that chri...

Again, I didn't intend to drop this project for so long. Work got hard, houses flooded, and sending out music felt a little trivial as the world was bursting open with racial justice struggle, exposed violence, pain and inspiring actions. The pandemic and quarantines had already left me feeling disoriented and that many of the yardsticks I used to measure progress and possibility had changed. The past month -George Floyd's murder, the uprising and movements sparked, the reevaluations of our needs and strategies, etc.- confirmed that times 100. I'm not the world's deepest thinker and I don't know how to write, so no real contributions to those discussions are likely to be found here... But maybe, as I dip my toes back into this, a few of the songs that soundtrack my processing, panic and occasional progress will do something for you too. Bim Sherman ‎– My Whole World Pressure Sounds ‎– PSS 017 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, UK, Released: 2007 info A My Whole World B D...

Short and sweet today... A D'Angelo cover of what might be my favorite Prince song. Is there another artist in the last 25 years that you'd trust more to do justice to a Prince cover? Capitol Records ‎– SPRO 7087 6 12813 1 6 Vinyl, 12", Promo, US, 1997 info A She's Always In My Hair B She's Always In My Hair D'Angelo + Raphael Saadiq + Questlove + Prince. Do you really need to know more? I missed this back in the day, when it first came out buried in a late 90s horror movie soundtrack. A promo single was also released, on crackly vinyl in the US and CD for Europe and Japan. I eventually grabbed a copy of the 12", washed, recorded and the worst of the pops removed this week. Same track on both sides, so hopefully you'll forgive me for only putting one of them on here. (From side 2, if you're curious...)  I put some work into it but just don't have the hours that someone could spend trying to clean up the recording of this terribly noisy reco...

One more visit to an off beat corner of Tony Allen's music before we move on from the legendary Nigerian drummer. In one of the previous posts I mentioned the diverse recordings he made later in life, before passing just a few weeks ago on April 30 at age 79. Long after his days with Fela Kuti, Allen was still bringing us new Afrobeat and stretching himself into electronic music, dub experiments, a return to jazz, and some surprising collaborations. Here are a couple of those collaborations that should make a good introduction if you haven't heard these groups before. (And they include a few rare tracks you may not have heard even if you're already a fan.) I didn't mean to take such a long break between posts, but life has been busy and I bit off more than I realized with these two records! I enjoyed getting reacquainted with them though, the second one in particular. It took some serious work to clean up the recording, but what a great song! It's perfect for, say, ...

From one of Tony Allen's final recordings to one of his earliest (coincidentally from another 10"). Fela Ransome-Kuti And His Africa '70 ‎– Fela Fela Fela Knitting Factory Records, Kalakuta Sunrise ‎– KFR-4007 Vinyl, 10", 33 ⅓ RPM, US, 2010 (Original LP released Nigeria, 1970)  info In their earliest days working together, Fela Kuti and Tony Allen played both the American-styled jazz that Allen would revisit in his later days (and in my previous post ) and their take on highlife, the jazzy Western African music originating in Ghana. By the late 60s, they were making the break through in new rhythms and styles that they would call "afrobeat," a change that was brought to a head during their 1969 trip to America. A ten month stay in Los Angeles, a deeper exposure to the latest funk styles, and (just as important to their new music, politics and attitude) exposure to Black power politics (partly through Fela's relationship with Black Panther Party member a...

One of the world's greatest drummers passed away Thursday. Tony Allen ‎– A Tribute To Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers Blue Note ‎– 574439 4 Vinyl, 10", 45 RPM, Europe, 2017 Tributes to Tony Allen  will understandably focus on his years leading Fela Kuti's Afrika 70 band, where the two Nigerian legends led the creation of afrobeat. They broke new ground in the 1970's and their influence has continued to grow far beyond Africa, funk and jazz, the last few decades bringing them deeply into hip hop, dub, electronic and more . Allen was 79 years old and remained active until the end. A  new album was released  just a month before he died this week. He avoided becoming a nostalgia act in his later years. His career revitalized in his highly visible 60s and 70s, he released a slew of new albums (both as a solo artist and in various bands), was signed to Blue Note, put out some important dance records and joined a band with a member of the Clash. If you're no...

Michael Jackson ‎– Original Demos From 1978 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Unofficial Release, US A Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough B Working Day And Night Here we have two 1978 "Off The Wall" demos that surfaced on this bootleg 7" sometime in the early 2000s. (Discogs claims 2009?) Not much has to be said. Sure, it's a shady bootleg that was probably mastered from a third generation cassette tape someone had been selling out of their trunk. But does that get in the way of my pure joy at hearing these stripped down, up tempo, percussion heavy versions of songs I've loved my whole life? Not a bit. Actually, the sound isn't terrible and the bits of studio banter ("Michael, turn down my earphones, man!" "He's trying, Randy!") are priceless. Not a lot of info to glean from the record itself. No labels (just a pic of young Michael on one side) and only these notes are offered on the back cover: Original demos from nineteen se...

For the three of you still following these, sorry for the absence! I'll be trying to catch up a little this week. A request: Even if you are pretty sure that a group of white, British (and German?), punk rock women doing noisy covers of classic reggae songs could not possibly be your thing, give this one a chance. If any of you enjoy it, we could go some interesting new directions with this little music exchange... The Slits ‎– Man Next Door Human Records ‎– YUS 1 Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, US, 1980 A1 Man Next Door A2 In The Beginning There Was Rhythm B Animal Space The Slits ‎– Man Next Door Y Records ‎– Y4, Rough Trade ‎– RT 044 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, UK, 1980 A Man Next Door B Man Next Door (Version) The women who formed the Slits as part of the original 1976-77 wave of London punk bands stood out in the decidedly male dominated scene. There were some lineup changes along the way, but the band remained almost entirely women until they ...

Last week was challenging. Several days of cloudy skies, snow(?!), and me playing "Ain't No Sunshine" repeatedly. Now let's go a different direction. I hope people enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend and made time to step outside to take a deep breath. Everybody loves the sunshine. Ramp ‎– Everybody Loves The Sunshine ABC Blue Thumb ‎– BT-274 Vinyl, 7", Promo, 45 RPM US, 1977 A  Everybody Loves The Sunshine (Stereo) B  Everybody Loves The Sunshine (Mono) One of Roy Ayers' greatest albums doesn't feature him playing a note. The brilliant vibraphonist produced and composed for the sole album released by RAMP (aka Roy Ayers Musical Productions). The handful of recordings released under the RAMP name have a cult following these days, not just they were sampled by A Tribe Called Quest or because Incognito covered their songs and named albums in tribute . It's because they were really that  good. Listen to this on headphones and the m...

The world of remote working, social distance and closed schools has been pretty disorienting. Hard to tell some days how much I've accomplished, no matter how hard we work. That said, knowing that I managed to make at least one of you into a new Billy Boyo fan makes me 100% confident that this has been a productive week in my life. So, by request, one last visit to our high school MC. __________________________________________ Billy Boyo ‎– Zim Zim Silver Kamel Audio ‎– BB5640 CD, Album, US, 2002 Billy Boyo's career seems to have disappeared almost as swiftly as he had come on the scene. By about 1985 he pretty much disappeared from recording. Another handful of singles trickled out over the years, but I believe his exit from music went along with leaving Jamaica for New York. Years later, there were rumors that he had been shot and killed, but they appeared to be untrue when news circulated in late 2000 that Billy Boyo (at age 30?) had just died from brain cancer. ...

Bill Withers died almost two weeks ago now. Here's a final installment (for now, anyway) in my little tribute to him and one of the most perfect songs ever written. Isaac Hayes ‎– At Wattstax Stax ‎– SCD-88042-2 CD, Album, US, 2003 The 1972 Wattstax concert took place in LA, organized by Memphis based Stax Records on the seventh anniversary of the Watts Riots. Promoted as "the Black Woodstock," The Staple Singers, The Bar-Kays and Richard Pryor performed, Jesse Jackson MC'ed, and the concert was filmed and recorded for a movie and album released in '73. Not one for subtlety, a gold plated Cadillac drove Isaac Hayes up to the stage in the middle of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where he took the stage wearing a vest of golden chains. The whole set was recorded, but only one Hayes track was included on the original Wattstax album. But what a track it was... A 17 minute live version of Ain't No Sunshine is something special. The full set wasn...

Continuing our brief tribute to the late, great Bill Withers... Horace Andy ‎– Ain't No Sunshine Jaguar ‎– J 189 Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM Jamaica, 2006 A    Horace Andy  -  Ain't No Sunshine B    Mafia & Fluxy  -  Ain't No Sunshine Version In the early 70s, Jamaican vocalist Hoarce Andy had a hit on the island with his cover of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." What we have here is an early 2000s remix of that cut by musicians and producers Mafia & Fluxy. Horace Andy has one of the most distinctive voices in reggae, crossing decades and genres yet still managing to remain relevant. Since the 1990s, he's been best known to non-reggae obsessives for his work with Massive Attack, but he's been on the scene since the early 1970s, originally releasing records for Coxsone Dodd and his legendary Studio One label. Even by the prolific standards of reggae singers, he's put out an impressive number of memorable songs and that in...

A broken hard drive cost me a lot of music, time, and peace last week. I've been piecing things together, but lost a plenty of music and am running even further behind in these posts than I would have been. I'll try to make up for lost time a little in the coming days! ____________________________________________________________ We lost Bill Withers, a truly great songwriter, last week. The man didn't just produce hits, but timeless, popular songs that spoke to regular people. I don't know the ins and outs of his life story, so you won't have to be bored with my usual trivia festival, but the handful of details that I've heard only made Bill Withers more special for me. He started his career later than your typical pop star, already in his thirties after spending a decade or so in the service. He was cutting his first recordings while working as a mechanic and released "Just As I Am," his first album, in 1971. Despite a string of classic songs and...

I do intend to get back to some Chicago music (and even another visit to George Washington Carver Area High School ), but first another visit to JA and Billy Boyo, the "high school MC" from my last post. I'm passing on two of his strongest singles, including one of my favorite reggae records ever. Please, grab this! ________________________ In the early 1980s, the dancehall explosion in Jamaica brought scores of artists who, instead of chasing the international stardom of Bob Marley or the cult of roots reggae collectors abroad, brought the focus back home. Deejays and singers of the new reggae style were more focused on the hometown audience, rocking mics at the dance over the "version" (dub or instrumental) side of crackly, JA pressed 45s. The lyrics could touch on "roots and culture," but you were at least as likely to hear a 3 minute tribute to the virtues of Clarks shoes as repatriation themes or devout Rastafarian tributes. Both Billy Boyo s...