things and time will tell.

Jill Scott – Slowly Surely (Theo Parrish Remix) Label: Not On Label (Theo Parrish) – JSTP 1 Vinyl, 12", 33 ⅓ RPM, Single Sided, Unofficial Release, UK, 2002 info Slowly Surely is hands down my favorite song by Jill Scott, remixed here by one of Detroit's most important house producers, Theo Parrish. I already loved the original track off her first album when I heard this single-sided bootleg 12" a couple years later (2002?). Parrish made something magic here, working with an already beautiful song and building it into a deep house epic. Jittering, clicking beats give way to bass over looping sounds from the original track. (How great is that sample- Anyone know where it comes from?) Percussion, echoing handclaps, and other mysterious sounds and beats flow in and out of the mix, topped by layer upon layer of Jill's voice until a mellow soul cut becomes some kind of dense, psychedelic, dancefloor ecstacy. My wife and I saw her live years ago. I remember us talking,...

Sade – Promise In Tokyo: Nakano Sunplaza, Tokyo, Japan - 11th May 1986 Wardour – Wardour-194 2 x CD, Limited Edition, Numbered, Unofficial Release, Japan, 2016 info Sade in Japan part 2: A Japanese bootleg double CD that I somehow ran into featuring a nice soundboard recording of the group's May, 1986 concert in Tokyo. I doubt I have to motivate this... as someone commented on the last post, could you ever really get too much? My two cents: This is the kind of bootleg that justifies the existence of bootlegs. My life is just a little bit better for having listened to it. Sade gets associated with romantic songs, but there's always been a dark, brooding side to a lot of their songs. I think part of the appeal comes from the way that voice can be so beautiful and at the same time so heavy , if that makes any sense. That said, to my ears, there's just a little more joy to some of the live performance on this album than on the studio versions I'm so familiar with. It broug...

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. ...

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...