Soul / Funk

“Genius Black Musicâ„¢”

Shelly Dane: Sage & Satin
I’ve been meaning to post Shelly for a while now. I don’t know what the story on this dude is aside from the fact that there is a sick “cat on piano” photo of this “composer” on the back and he gives a shout out to L. RON, whom he bears a striking resemblance to.

Fris Sranang – Gie Mie, Mie Lobie/Sabana
Here’s one of my all time favorite 45’s from my collection, and probably the only cracked record I keep in the collection. It’s a Surinam single, pressed in Holland in 1978. The band name Fri Sranang is a combination of the Surinam creole language Sranang Tongo and Fri, which, I’m guessing, must mean free. Fri [...]

Maori Volcanics – Live
Maori showbands have a pretty deep history stretching back over the last 50 odd years. Essentially a touring review style band incorporating at times an almost variety show-like review. Many of these bands found success all over the world and toured relentlessly and also released a few records while they were at [...]

Spring Concert ‘67
I’m pretty sure I originally bought this because it had a rather crudely hand decorated back cover with ancient pictures of school girls and a birthday inscription of some sort. It was in rough shape so I probably justified the purchase by telling myself I could always give it to a friend who I tend [...]

Soonkay Lisa: What I Want Out of Life / Give Me All Your Love
This perky little 7″ was one of my choice finds from a guy selling records out of his garage in Cottonwood, Arizona last year. Interesting artist name, pink Hawaiian label, great titles — sounds promising, put it in the pile, it’s worth a try. Didn’t take long after setting the needle down to realize that [...]

Various Artists: Made in Leverkusen
I was born in Cologne/Germany. Although Cologne is widely in peace with the cities surrounding it, there is however a strong rivalry with the neighbouring city of Leverkusen. Naturally, as a loyal citizen of my hometown I share this sentiment. This is fairly easy since Leverkusen is indeed a pretty boring city mainly consisting of the infrastructure of the Bayer drug company.

I had to pay my dues to the city though after finding the private pressed record “Made in Leverkusen” that reflects the musical scene of Leverkusen in the mid seventies. This scene might have been limited but was great nevertheless. Be it the most famous artist on the record Wolfram Brunke with his Gary Pacific Orchestra Outfit and some solid funk music, the equally funky inFormation Media Band, or the psych guitars of Quasimodo. Well, in the end Cologne won again. We had Can during this time, but “Made in Leverkusen” saves Leverkusen a well deserved second rank.

New Zealand Jazz Orchestra – s/t
This 1973 LP is a product of a “workshop” styled big band which was put together in Wellington by American Frank Diliberto. The album itself tries to cover a few too many different styles of Jazz to be a consistent listen from front to back, but there are definitely some great moments. [...]

Vikki Styles – Tears Won’t Stop Falling
Here’s a cool 45 that is a product of the headache inducing labyrinth of entangled record labels out of Greenville Mississippi in the mid-late 1960s. The fact that this is such a direct bite of Darrell Banks’ massive “Open The Door To Your Heart” seems audacious & probably is. Vikki Styles released [...]

Die Laumäckse – Jazz geht’s los
“Die Laumäckse” was a school band from the small german town named Koblenz. I picked this album up at a local flea market. Although I had never heard of the record I gave it a try as one of the cover versions they do on there is a interpretation of a Mombasa song (German afro-funk [...]

Nancy – Like You Do
Not completely sure what this song has to do with POW’s, but I’m really feeling it. Yet another nice track in the vein of country funk. Enjoy!!!
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Spooky – Digital Readout/Shake That Thang (Thunder Thumbs)
Crunchy, lumbering outsider analog synth funk perfection. Created by the mysterious Spooky in 1984 in someplace called Warner Robins, GA. I need more of this kind of thing in my life.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Fred E. Scott – ‘Journey Within’
Unique ‘afro-synth’ 45 out of Detroit on the Natural label – engineered by Detroit bluesman Bobo Jenkins – likely at his own studio on Joy Road. Jenkins had a long history in the Detroit music scene – stretching back to ‘Democrat Blues’ on Chess (1954). By the 70’s he was producing artists for his own [...]

Poly Rythmo De Cotonou – Zero + Zero = Zero
I think Frank’s (http://www.voodoofunk.blogspot.com) travel and digging reports played quite a role for my growing interest in West African music. I always liked the mixes he put online but at the same time I was not too confident to ever find any of these records as I don’t live in Western Africa and I don’t [...]

The Impossibles – Stage show
“Stage Show” is a great funk album by the well known Thai band The Impossibles who recorded the classic “Hot Pepper” album in Sweden. This album includes various interpretations of classic American funk tunes done in a Thai style. The recording is super low budget and the sound quality might remind you of your last [...]

Ivo Nilakreshna – Tegakkan Sembahyang
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I’m not sure if this record was made in Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia. What makesÂ it noteworthy is the funk track Rukun Islam. I can’t understand the language but it’s dealing with Allah and Muhammad. The chorus is cool, the refrain is lush. The male la la la chorus makes it somewhat trippy. There’s more good [...]

Troubled Mind – I’m Good For You
The Troubled Mind(s) were a late 60s band that started off in Napier, New Zealand around 1966/67 and then moved to Auckland around July 1967. The band seems to have disbanded shortly after releasing this, their third and final 45 in February 1969. Their earlier stuff covered more of a traditional 60s R&B [...]

Ersen – Cakmagi Cak
Before I went to Istanbul in 2007 to study there for half a year I did some research about record stores in Istanbul. One Ebay seller from Turkey who I asked for info just moved from Istanbul to Ankara so he was so kind to share his knowledge of good spots with me. While some [...]

The Exotic – Title Unknown
The Exotic is one of my favorite finds I ever made in Asia. Except one track it’s mainly a Thai pop album with some obscure and even psychedelic moments that unlike many other Thai albums you can listen to all the way through. The stand out track though is a raw funk track with Thai [...]

Fuesuen Oenal – Alo Ben
Fuesun was a well known turkish pop star back in the seventies. Most of her music might not appeal to many nowadays but this album has the great funk track “Ayyy Kacma” on it. While digging in Turkey ain’t that easy unless you want to spend serious money i found this LP for cheap in [...]

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