Category: Funk

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

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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)

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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

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

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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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Fat Larry’s Band – Off The Wall (1977) (Stax STX-4103) Day 3 of FV’s 12 Days of Christmas

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Fat Larry’s Band – Off The Wall
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC |  300 dpi scans | Funk, Soul, Disco
1977 Stax Records STX-41303

 

Two words: Peaceful Journey…  I mean, the lead-off song Sparkle is fantastic: it’s about getting it on with an alien, so how could it not be?  I like to imagine it as an alternative version of the film of the same name with the Aretha Franklin / Curtis Mayfield soundtrack.  But Peaceful Journey, that’s where it’s at.  The group must have thought so too since it was the first single off the album, though it barely registered on the R&B charts, reaching No.98.  Still, you know you have a first-rate start-to-finish funk and soul album when even the slow tunes burn with a tight, smokey groove.  That rock solid beat just kills: founder and bandleader Fat Larry, aka Larry James , was a drummer. This is definitely a classic highlight from Fat Larry’s Band’s brief catalog.  And, like another classic highlight, Soul Makossa, it contains an idea that Quincy and Michael J would rip off a few years later. Continue reading