The Sylvers – The Sylvers (1972) (Mr.Bongo 2019)

The Sylvers – The Sylvers
Vinyl rip in high resolution
FLAC |  300 dpi scans | Soul, Funk
1972 Pride Records || 2019 Mr.Bongo

The early seventies were the heyday of “family” bands from The Jackson 5 to The Staples Singers to, um, The Partridge Family. But there many less famous groups like The Stairsteps, and The Sylvers, with their own patriarchal figure helping shape things, and several guys named Leon in the mix. Continue reading

McFadden & Whitehead – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now (12″ extended mix) b/w I Got The Love (1979)

McFadden & Whitehead – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now b/w I Got The Love
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC  & mp3 |  300 dpi scans | Disco funk
515 MB  (24/192) + 280 MB (24/96) + 87 MB (16/44.1)  34 MB (320 kbs)
1979 Philadelphia International Records  – 2Z8 3675

It’s a Wednesday and everyone can use a little help to power through the rest of the week, so I thought I’d make a very short post here.  Featured here is a solid slab of funk-driven disco, a dance floor anthem, and a smash hit for McFadden & Whitehead.  It overflows with positivity and joy.  This extended mix brings an additional 3 minutes to its already prodigious length. The B side, “I Got The Love”, seems to be the same mix as the album version. This tune owes a lot to Otis Redding, in particular the chord changes of ‘Hard To Handle’ in the chorus.  It’s also a great tune, but “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” is what you came for.  A good friend of mine called it a perfect song the other day, and I’m inclined to agree.

Label/Cat#: Philadelphia International Records – 2Z8 3675
Country: US
Year: 1979
Genre: Funk, Soul
Style: Soul, Disco
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Single

Tracklist
A – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now (10:45)
B – I Got The Love (03:32)

Total length: 14:17

More information: https://www.discogs.com/release/363828-McFadden-Whitehead-Aint-No-Stoppin-Us-Now

Transfer lineage:  Record cleaned on Music Hall WCS-3 machine with custom fluid; vinyl 1979 Philadelphia International 2ZB 3675; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica Signet TK7E cartridge; Pro-Ject Tube Box S2 preamp with Philips NOS ECC83 tubes powered by Accu-box battery PSU; Audioquest Black Mamba and Pangea Premier interconnect cables; RME Babyface Pro interface ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; Click Repair with output monitored in real time; further clicks and pops removed manually with Adobe Audition 3.0; resampled, dithered, converted to FLAC using iZotope RX Advanced. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

 

 

Alain Goraguer – La Planète Sauvage Original Soundtrack (1973) (2020 RSD)

Alain Goraguer – La Planète Sauvage Original Soundtrack
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC |  300 dpi  | Jazz-funk, Psychedelic
2020 Superior Viaduct – SV058 translucent yellow vinyl
Original release 1973 on the Pathé label (France)

When I was a teenager, staying up late on the weekends, I used to see this film come on the TV.   I found it beguiling, unsettling, and trippy.  It seemed to combine everything my adolescent self was immersed in: science fiction, psychedelia, and groovy music.  Then I forgot about it for years and years until I ended up becoming friends with a guy from Toulouse who was also into records and vinyl and eventually this film and soundtrack came up.

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Nat Turner Rebellion – Laugh To Keep From Crying (2021)

Nat Turner Rebellion – Laugh To Keep From Crying
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | |  Soul, funk
Philly Groove Records, Chrysalis – PGRV101

The Nat Turner Rebellion – the musical act, not the historical event – was a promising group from Philly that imploded before they ever really got off the ground, featuring vocalists Joe Jefferson, Major Harris, Ron Harper and Bill Spratley. With only a pair of singles issued while they were together, their planned debut record got shelved and sat collecting dust among the holdings of label Philly Groove Records before ending up in a stash of donated material at Drexel University, waiting almost half a century to finally be released. Continue reading

Joe Cuba Sextet – Bustin’ Out (1972, Venezuela pressing)

The Joe Cuba Sextet – Bustin’ Out
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | mp3 320 kbs & FLAC |  Web scans | Latin, Salsa, Soul
1972 Tico Records CLP-1300 || Venezuelan Pressing, Bob Ludwig laquer

Is “Put-Da-Din” the Latin American equivalent of “Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus”? Well, probably not, but maybe it could be. The big take-away here is that this is one of the best records Joe Cuba ever made, and I think it was the last to be credited to his Sextet.  The track “Can You Feel It?” also has an amazing soul vocal on it and a well thought-out dialog between the spoken narration, with romantic rememberances of “el barrio” that would make Lin-Manuel Miranda blush, immediately followed by the thoughts of somehow who “feels it, in a different way”. Brilliant stuff. And like always, no horns here, so that may help draw the reed- or brass-averse into this genre.

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