20 Bensons


Bonking


He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy!


D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah

D’Angelo’s third album came out in 2014, emerging from a period when his life had gone completely to shit.

This all gets channeled into a murky, complex, heavily-layered funk album, often compared to Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On for good reason.

Questlove played on the album, as does – to my surprise – Pino Palladino.

It’s my favourite of his three studio albums.

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#DAngeloandtheVanguard
#BlackMessiah
#PinoPalladino
#Questlove
#Funk
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Highly-strung


Miles Davis - Amandla

The final album of the Miles Davis and Marcus Miller partnership, with the pair taking onboard go-go and African influences as well as re-introducing more live musicians. Those synthesizer demo-mode sounds are still prevalent, though.

Listening to this period of Davis’s work, I’ve really come to appreciate the work of Foley, the lead-bassist, who played a bass up-tuned by an octave to sound like a guitar. Mad lad.

The rear of the sleeve has a photo of Davis where he has been cut and pasted onto the background. So shoddy is the workmanship that his feet look like he has been subject to ancient Chinese foot-binding.

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#MilesDavis
#Amandla
#Foley
#Jazz
#Music

Cream always rises to the top


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Pack up all my care and woe, Here I go, Singing low


Do I hear 21,21,21?


Per-son-nal-ly


Sonny Charles - The Sun Still Shines

One of my all-time favourite DJs is Dr Bob Jones. He is someone who has got me into such a lot of indie soul over the years, including Put It In A Magazine, the lead track from this album, which I recall him playing on pirate radio in London in the eighties.

I’ve really no idea what the sleeve artwork is supposed to depict. The rear of the sleeve was designed by someone with a passion for hyphens, mixed fonts, and centre-alignment, which gives it a kind of sovereign citizen website vibe.

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#SonnyCharles
#Soul
#DrBobJones
#Music

The Black Album


Mmm...did someone mention chips


Chaka Khan - What Cha' Gonna Do For Me

Chaka Khan’s third solo album, from 1981, shows her at her absolute finest, supported by Arif Mardin’s super-slick and deeply-groovy production.

Soul tunes from that era don’t come any bigger or badder than the title track.

I’m not sure that A Night In Tunisia was screaming out for a eighties soul-dance re-interpretation, but Dizzy Gillespie himself plays on it, so it can’t be too bad.

Her picture on the cover is (I’m guessing) airbrushed to the max, making it look like it’s had an awful 2025 AI enhancement.

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#ChakaKhan
#WhatChaGonnaDoForMe
#ArifMardin
#DizzyGillespie
#Soul
#Music

Trailer Trash


Caravan - In The Land Of Grey And Pink

I saw a post on Vinyl Stupidity where a copy of this was up for sale for something like £1500+. Reading a bit about it (largely to see if my copy is worth that! It’s not.), someone had described it as the greatest record ever made, or something. So, even though I’ve had this sitting on the shelf for 30-odd years, since someone gave me a bundle of their old LPs, it got its first play from me today.

What a bag of shit.

Imagine the most dreadful, whimsy-laden, posh-knob, elf-nonce, hippy bullshit, if it was played by Jonathan Cohen and the Play School Band. I’m thankful it’s a pretty scratched up copy with a few jumps, which reduced the amount of time I had to be exposed to it by some precious seconds.

Also, I know it was 1971, but these lyrics haven't aged well:

Candles burn, a dull red light illuminates the breasts of four young girls
Dancing, prancing, provoking
(Winter Wine)

Eww & Lol.

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#Caravan
#InTheLandOfGreyAndPink
#Canterbury
#ProgRock
#Music

I switched from coke to pep and I'm a connoisseur


There's a brand new dance, but I don't know its name


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Screaming resistance a thousand years into the future


Irreversible Entanglements - Irreversible Entanglements

When you do a bit of reading about Irreversible Entanglements, the phrase "liberation-oriented free jazz" keeps coming up.

That’s perfectly fine by me. As is the phrase "grim and unremmitting".

It’s not an everyday, easy listen, this, but you feel a bit smarter afterwards.

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#IrreversibleEntanglements
#FreeJazz
#Music

Keep your heads to the sky


The Real Thing – Can You Feel The Force?/Children Of The Ghetto 7”

The sound of young Black Liverpool and probably the most commercially successful of the Brit-Funk bands.

I bought this single when it came out in 1979. Can You Feel The Force? is a decent disco cash-in on Star Wars.

Children Of The Ghetto, however, is what happens when Chris and Eddie Amoo hear Gil Scott-Heron and see the Toxteth riots. A fucking awsome piece of protest jazz-soul, which fades out too soon. I later bought the 12” so I could have a longer version, but nope – it’s the same length.


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#BritFunk
#TheRealThing
#CanYouFeelTheForce
#ChildrenOfTheGhetto
#Music

Wo-oah, wo-oah, wo-oah!


The moonlight warms the silver sand


Sergio Mendes & Brasil '77 - Equinox

I have a real soft spot for Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66 or ‘77, and I’ve always picked up their records if I see them for sale. (In fact I own two variants of this Aussie pressing, with different sleeves.) They're cheap and plentiful.

Essentially, they did very middle-of-the-road covers of other people’s tunes. All a bit Abigail’s Party at times, but with enough quality musicianship to keep them from grating.

As with many musical preferences, I blame Gilles Peterson, who would spin them to the latin-hungry youth of the eighties. Cinnamon and Clove off this album takes me right back.

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#SergioMendesandBrasil77
#Equinox
#BossaNova
#Music

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She's the anti-mother, mother, mother, is that you?


Crass - Stations Of The Crass

Crass were the most important punk band of their age (possibly of any age). I feel that more than enough has been said about their influence on DIY punk, anarchism, animal rights, typeface, stencil-art...you name it, so I won't repeat it here.

Not enough is mentioned about the tunes. This is an album full of really catchy tunes, the best of them delivered over a pitched-up Glitter Band rhythm. If you ever want to see a 60-year-old man pump his fist in the air while chanting ‘Big M.A.N.’, just stick this on.

Three sides of this double album are 45RPM and one is 33RPM. That’s fucking anarchists for ya.

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#Vinyl
#Crass
#StationsOfTheCrass
#Punk
#AnarchoPunk
#Music

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We'll always be together...


"the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything."


Level 42 - Level 42

Whilst I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures, if I did, Level 42 would be one of them. I can still remember when the band were only known to the UK jazz-funk cognoscenti, for making a really unique-sounding British jazz-funk, rather than the bloated stadium pop-fusion, based around Mark King’s big bendy thumb, of their later years

This is their 1981 debut, recorded with Wally Badarou helping out. It’s great.

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#Level42
#WallyBadarou
#JazzFunk
#Music
#DouglasAdams

Flag-shagging


Listen to the letter


Seawind - Seawind

One of the good things about the internet was how it changed access to previously hard-to-find records. As a result I ended up paying £70 for this off eBay, which is about what a decent copy would cost nowadays, allowing for inflation and all that. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.

Of course, I wanted it for Sunday-afternoon-session-at-a-soul-weekender-sing-along He Loves You. I'm sure this was colloquially referred to as Listen To The Letter back in the old days.

I didn’t realise until I sat down and listened to the record properly that the He in question is the Big He up in the sky and the album has an awful lot of bothering of Him on it. If I was old mate God, I’d be well-pleased that someone recorded such a beautiful flugelhorn solo in my name (big up Jerry Hey) and I would have it piped through the heavens on repeat.

Other than He Loves You, the album is pretty average jazz-funk fodder.

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#Vinyl
#Seawind
#HeLovesYou
#JerryHey
#Music

Alex The Seal


How do you say Muzak?


Call the wah-wahmbulance!


Some like it hot and some like it cold.


Across the crowded disco-room


Come on up the ladder, honey.


Mary Jane Girls - All Night Long/Musical Love 12"

This 1983 12” was pressed on really thick vinyl. Like double-thickness. No idea why.

Mary Jane Girls were a Rick James project, and – as with other Rick James projects – you can hear him all over it. To add to his faults, I think he was a bit of a micro-manager.

All Night Long is a perfect piece of 80s R&B – beautifully performed and produced. I do feel like I should comment on the content, though. Our hero has arranged to meet a – and let us not beat around the bush here – potential root. Where? On the roof. Why? I can’t fathom this at all. Not to kink-shame like, but shagging on a roof seems both uncomfortable and dangerous. Unless, I've got it wrong and what they’re going to give to them is a roll of zinc flashing or some gutter guard?

The B-side, Musical Love, is a dreary ballad.

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#MaryJaneGirls
#AllNightLong
#Soul
#RickJames
#Music

Snow is falling all around...


Specials - Specials

It’s the run-up to Christmas 1979 and I’m going out with a girl called Kim. I remember trudging through the freezing slush, in that mid-winter Saturday afternoon half-light, to W.H. Smith in Canvey Island to buy this LP for a fiver for Kim’s Christmas present. She chucked me later that week and I kept the LP. Cool.

There’s really nothing I can tell you about this perfect LP (although, can we have a moment’s pause to reflect on Elvis Costello’s impeccable production?)

Instead I’ll tell you about my mate who started going out with his long-term girlfriend because he was a massive Specials fan and she looked like Terry Hall.

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#Specials
#TheSpecials
#2Tone
#Ska
#ElvisCostello
#Music

Some afro sheen, some afro clean, some afro fluid, some afro do it to it


Marlena Shaw - Sweet Beginnings


Back in about 1985, I remember a friend paid 35 quid for this album. It was quite sought after for Go Away Little Boy. That’s about £95 in today’s money (~A$200). That’s too much.

Today I learned that Go Away Little Boy is a Goffin/King tune, which started life as a 1962 hit for Bobby Vee called Go Away Little Girl, in which old Bob tells the ‘little girl’ to go away because he can’t resist her. There’s a lyric that hasn’t aged well.

Not that Yu-Ma/Go Away Little Boy and Look At Me, Look At You (We’re Flying) aren’t absolutely wonderful pieces of music. Unfortunately, the rest of the album veers between the mediocre (the pallid, disco’d-up version of The Controllers’ Pictures and Memories, for instance) and the so-very-middle-of-the-road-it’s-unlistenable.

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#MarlenaShaw
#SweetBeginnings
#Jazz
#Music

I'd always built to last on weak and shifting sand.


El-P - High Water

El-P does some very discreet production in this collaboration with a bunch of top-notch jazz players. It seems a little unfair to me that this is under El-P’s name, rather than the collective.

This album made me realise that Charles Aznavour’s Yesterday, When I Was Young is a fantastic tune.

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#Vinyl
#El-P
#BlueSeriesContinuum
#Music

Oh.


Ready For The World - Oh Sheila (Special Double Pack)

Funny old record, this. A total Prince rip-off with intermittent Dick Van Dyke fake-English accented spoken bits. I like it.

I picked this double 12” ('At a single price') in the mid-00s from a chazza in Harborne in Birmingham for 49p. It has more mixes of Oh Sheila than one could ever need, none better than the original mix, plus a dreary ballad, Slide Over (ew!) and the mid-tempo meh-fest, I’m The One Who Loves You. The gatefold sleeve, has a photo of the band looking a right bunch of Bobby Dazzlers, against a smoky backdrop, which makes it look like they had the photo taken by the bloke who usually does schools, although they have added a grey cloudy border and, across the lower right, the legend ‘Like they always say...here we go!’ That’s really quite the observation.

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#ReadyForTheWorld
#OhSheila
#Music

Oh how much I wish I loved the human race


The Colourfield - Deception

I found this ex-radio station stock LP whilst having a bit of a deep dive into my collection today. I don’t think I’ve ever played it before, so here goes.

During the recording of this album, the band went from a trio to duo, as one of them left. The wikipedia page says they used Racquel Welch’s backing group as session-players, but I think that’s a lie.

The album is made up of very decent Terry Hall compositions and a couple of covers (Sly & the Family Stone, The Monkees), which are absolutely drowning in late 80s production.

I’m going to play this again.

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#TheColourfield
#Deception
#TerryHall
#Music

Talkin' 'bout W,O,R and a D


The Junkyard Band - Sardines/The Word 12"

It’s almost hard to believe now, that back in 1986, go-go music was seen as a real contender for the crown of supreme black music champion of the world. With the rear vision goggles on, hip-hop was always going to come out on top.

In a go-go world of stages packed with keyboards, drummers, percussionists, guitarists, bass player, brass and woodwind, The Junkyard Band chose to make a racket with improvised instruments and youthful exuberance.

This gelled very nicely with Rick Rubin’s production.

This remains a brutal-sounding 12”.

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#Vinyl
#JunkyardBand
#Sardines
#TheWord
#DefJamRecords
#RickRubin
#GoGo
#Music

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Let me see your I.D.


Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson - From South Africa To South Carolina

It's hard to listen to this without thinking how fast Gil Scott-Heron must be spinning in his grave.

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#Vinyl
#GilScottHeron
#BrianJackson
#FromSouthAfricaToSouthCarolina
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I am a fragrant flower


Jill Scott - Beautifully Human: Words And Sounds Vol. 2

Philadelphia, man. The font of all fine female soul singers.

Soul was in the doldrums a bit in 2004, when this album was released. The combined influence of hip-hop’s emergence as the premier black musical art form, house music as the premier dance form and the insipid, corporate form of the genre becoming its popular representation had robbed soul of its essential...soul, I suppose.

Out of this murky pond emerges Scott, given a leg-up by The Roots and blossoming like a beautiful orchid. Scott doesn’t just have fine vocal chops, her background as a poet ensures her lyrics are always so well-crafted and worth listening to.

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#JillScott
#BeautifullyHuman
#Soul
#Philadelphia
#Music

"The idiots are winning"


Deodato - Prelude

Back in around 89/90, I used to finish late shifts on Mondays at 10pm, and me and some work chums would make our way down from Whitechapel to the Bass Clef in Hoxton to bear witness to Norman Jay’s Original Rare Groove Show, as packed, smoky and sweaty a club night as you could ever hope for.

Hoxton, though not very far in actual distance, was really tricky to get to and a fucking stabby wasteland. This was before it became the epicentre of east London’s shitification.

Anyway, I tell you this because Norman Jay started his set with Also Spracht Zarathustra from this album and it is etched onto my brain. Genius DJ-ing.

The rest of the album veers towards lounge-latin in places.

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#Deodato
#Prelude
#Jazz
#BassClef
#Hoxton
#NathanBarley
#NormanJay
#Music

The sins of the father


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