Paraphrasing the Soul Sonic Force and sorting through today`s releases for tunes that could have graced Alfie & Leo’s Amnesia dance-floor…
Alfie, Alfredo Fiorito, has been in poor health for a while. His son, Jaime, along with The Secret DJ, recently started a new fundraiser to help pay for his father’s care. Please take a minute to follow this link, and please donate if you can.
(Cover image – of Alfredo in the Amnesia booth – courtesy of Jaime)
C.A.R. / Anzu (Hardway Bros Remixes) / Ran$om Note
Hardway Bros remix C.A.R., placing Chloé Raunet’s cryptic lyrics, words that look back on hard and fast times – and find her “hooked on having fun” – over a pounding 4 / 4 and jumping, kinda camp Italo b-line. The dub is arpeggios a-go-go, but the teutonic march tamed a tad, and now boasting a souped-up swing. Spaced-out and hypnotic, this takes its time to build, playing on the punk edge to Chloé’s whispers and growls. Its details rattling the room, and your teeth.
Marius Circus / Lost On A Path To Nowhere / Is It Balearic?
Marius “Circus” Øvrebø-Engemoen, the Norwegian analogue electronics guru, has signed a few tunes to the Is It Balearic? boys, Timm and Ampo. The new 4-track E.P. seems to be already selling out, and the title track is perhaps the highlight. Built on the slow bubbling and percolating of what might be a ponderous TB-303, this is dark, booming, introspective downtempo techno. Warm, and hypnotic, its bass bleeps and its synths wail like ethereal sirens.
On their “Pathfinding” remix, Polish pair Jakub Sautycz and Mateusz Filipiuk aka Jazxing add live touches, like bongos and congas, a vocal mantra / loop, and a powerful, punk funk b-line. Melodic and very Peter Hook-like it leads the track into tribal, ritual, Native American territory.
Dominic Dawson / Twilight / Flower Records
Veteran DJ / producer Dominic Dawson – who some of you might know better as DJD – recently relocated to Tokyo. He’s now hooked up with the city’s dance institution, Flower Records. The first fruits of this connection are a cover of Maze’s Twilight, a much-loved old school B-Boy jazz-funk favourite. D’s is a kinda house take, chunky and chugging, with a bionic boogie b-line. The familiar melody is played out on machined marimba, and joined by mad, little Moog-y fills. Miotina supplies the chant-like vocals.
On the B-side label mates Coastlines give the track a quality Brazilian flavoured lick, and transform it into a samba. Carried by their now characteristic chiming steel pan tones, it also squeezes in tumbling timbales and a fine, proper piano solo.
Fat White Family / Bullet Of Dignity (Beyond The Wizards Sleeve Re-Animation) / Domino
Beyond The Wizards Sleeve return, after an eight year hiatus, and deliver a brilliant rework of Fat White Family’s Bullet Of Dignity – the first single from the Peckham-based pack’s forthcoming album, Forgiveness Is Yours. The result is a big, big Balearic beat. Built on catchy, perky percussion and bouncing, bumping bass, it calls back to the Happy Monday’s clubland heyday – their sides with Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osbourne – and Flowered Up being fucked with by Weatherall, Jagz, and Burns (BTWS have coincidently also recently remixed FU’s Weekender). The vocal, it has to be said more Iggy Pop than Shaun Ryder, now set to a giddy mid-tempo gallop and accompanied by zither-esque riffs and Balkan polka strings. The music also mirroring William Orbit’s marvellous mix of Les Negresess Vertes’ Zobi La Mouche. Vinyl please.
Fuemana / New Urban Polynesian / Gazebo Records
Melbourne / Naarm-based label, Gazebo Records, have licensed New Urban Polynesian for a vinyl reissue. Initially released on CD and cassette in 1994, the album, produced by multi-instrumentalist Phil Fuemana, is considered a landmark in New Zealand / Aotearoa R&B and soul. Enlisting an extended cast of friends and family members Fuemana covered Stevie Wonder, duets by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, and also penned six originals.
The pukka production pits rolling street soul rhythms against heartbroken lyrics. Mixes gospel-influenced vocals with synthesised strings, and the Funky Drummer break. Deep Of The Night is bass heavy, and Soul II Soul-like. The slow Latin Rocket Love is suffused with shades of Sade… and George Michael. Last Summer’s sax summons the jazz of Courtney Pine blowing. Cool Calm stands up to comparison with Sounds Of Blackness. Fa A Samoa is a hit of house.
The highlight for me is the rougher, rawer, mix of Closer, from 1993. Collaged more like hip hop, with its samples in plain(er) sight, the playful piano riff recalls Smith & Mighty subverting Erik Satie, while the rap, dazed, and daydreaming, doffs its cap to Blue Lines-era Massive Attack.
Carl Moore / Must Be The Beat / Sweet Free Association
Soulful selector Sam Don launches his label, Sweet Free Association, by licensing two tracks from American keyboardist / composer Carl Moore. Both are lifted from a super rare E.P. that was released in Japan in 1984. Carter Lake is a jazzy, sax-y strut, whose lyrics hark after days of cutting classes, high school dances, and first loves. On the 45’s flip, Must Be The Beat is partly machined funk. Slapping its bass like Rick James, or a young Prince, its a really cool, cult “unclassic”. Fuel for furious footwork for sure. Featuring proto-house drum patterns, where doses of delay summon snare rolls, Carl’s sweet vocals and subtle synths significantly smooth over the song’s Lo-Fi sound.
Something sonically similar, all be it a bit more slick and polished is Terrance T’s Power, which has been picked up by Isle Of Jura. Packing a positive message – believe in your talent, don’t let others diss your dreams – this is prime TR-808 driven `80s electro-boogie. Rhythm guitar flickers, the lead is very jazzy, and the big bad bass-line is ripe for sampling.
Scratch / Eastern Lady / Soul Jazz
Scratch’s Eastern Lady is a brilliant bit of slapped and bionic-based boogie, singled out by its showers of ringing sitar-like synths. Tony Williams originally produced the track in 1984 for his Master Funk Records – the Brit-funk imprint responsible for Funk Masters’ proto-house Loft favourite, Love Money, and their It’s Over – a kind of lovers meets soul groove that you simply couldn’t escape when I was a youth. Soul Jazz have now snapped it up.
Chichester-based kosmische / space-rock trio Traams have been radically remixed by two dons of modern, leftfield dub. Between them, Jay Glass Dubs and Elijah Minnelli have transformed all but one track from Traams 2022 album, Personal Best. Rendering the pieces unrecognisable. Where the originals were cathartic guitar and drum-driven motorik meets Sonic Youth rushes, JGD’s versions are slow, chugging and ethereal. Smoother, more soothing even than his seminal shake of Sade. Elijah’s are also super sedate, but have a stronger traditional roots feel. His melodica paying tribute to Augustus Pablo’s Far East Sound, while characteristically incorporating Eastern European and South American sounds.
Ban Ban Ton Ton 