The Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock

I listened to the Apache episode of Andrew Hickey's podcast The History of Rock Music In 500 Songs the other night and, being as meticulous as he is, he included the version from this album. And rightly so.

I first became aware of the Apache sample when it was used in Double Dee & Steniski's Lesson 3, being played by Jonathan More at Caister Soul Weekender in the 80's.

To be honest, there's very little else of any value on this album, and it's a bit of a chore to play all the way through. Especially on my barely adequate Italian pressing.

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The Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte (Kentaro Remixes)

Tokyo's DJ Kentaro is one hell of a turntablist and, on this 12" from 2009, he throws the Kunta Kinte riddim around like a fucking blindfolded juggler on a unicycle...on a tightrope...over a tank of piranhas. It's all very fancy.

There's nothing at all wrong with that, in my book, but then I'm a complete sucker for the Kunta Kinte riddim however it arrives to me, although this does seem like a lot of hard work at times.

I'm also partial to a lock groove. Saves you having to get up to turn the record over.

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Chick Corea and Return to Forever - Light As A Feather

The second RTF album, with Flora Purim on vocals, her husband Airto Moreira on percussion, Stanley Clarke on bass, and Joe Farrell on flute and saxophone, has them gliding through really complex Brazilian-jazz-fusion flavours, without compromising on complexity or losing the groove - a very hard balance to achieve.

It's one hell of an album, even on my rather shitty Australian pressing.

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Robin Eubanks - Different Perspectives

In 1988, when this album came out, I had a mate who was a rep for a record company, and I would leave his flat with my pick of whatever records/CDs he was promoting at the time. That's how I got this.

This was Eubanks' debut album and it holds up well, despite being festooned with slightly jagged eighties rhythms.

Eubanks is a player of some aplomb and is one of FOUR trombonists on this album. That's a lot of trombone.

There's a fucking awesome version of Stevie Wonder's Overjoyed, where Eubanks and his guitarist brother, Kevin, interact beautifully, and which I frequently experience as an earworm.

You can't beat free tunes, man.

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Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly

I thought I'd play a bit of Roberta Flack to mark her death earlier this week and discovered this LP, released in 1973, which I'd picked up somewhere and forgotten about.

For an album with an all-star cast of jazz players and arrangers, and dedicated to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, it's a remarkably low-key, MOR affair. There's nothing here that'll frighten the horses. Which is a shame, because she was at her best (IMHO) when she was in a less languorous mood.

The title track is still so much better than its better-known cover version, and her version of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne really works.

My copy has a slightly pointless die cut sleeve where a piano is overlayed on the cover in two flaps. I have one flap missing.

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Squarepusher - Feed Me Weird Things

It's an indication of how many of my musical boxes Squarepusher ticks that I can clearly remember the first time someone played his music to me and how it felt so exciting and new.

This is the 25th anniversary edition - double LP and a 10", with a booklet containing more information than you would ever care to read.

Twenty-five fucking years, man! (More now). Still sounds fucking great.

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Planxty - Cold Blow and the Rainy Night

In case you're not already aware: all Planxty albums are great.

Things I love about this, their third LP, recorded in 1974:
- It was recorded in Whitechapel, a place close to my heart. (Although Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded in the same studio and I think that's wank.)
- The cover has a cartoon portrait of the band, which is...unflattering.
- It has a killer version of one of my favourite folk songs - the title track. What a timeless tale of humanity's flaws and mistakes that is?

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Thundercat - Drunk

Yesterday, my granddaughter and I watched Yo Gabba GabbaLand!'s NPR Tiny Desk Concert, which features Thundercat. It reminded me to sit down and give this a rare spin.

Now, I love Thundercat's music. His playing is simply beautiful, and who doesn't love a falsetto vocal?

This box set of four 45 RPM 10" singles on red vinyl, each in its own double-envelope cardboard sleeve, is a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, it's such a ballache to play that I never touch it. A format only good if you want to get your steps up.

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Charles Mingus - Pre-Bird

I borrowed this album from the library when I was about 13 and really enjoyed it. It was the first jazz album I had really listened to and I remember reading the sleeve notes, learning about contrapuntal arrangements and being blown away. I was a bit of an odd teenager, at times.

Got myself a mint 1961 mono copy a few years ago off discogs and promptly (literally) dropped the needle onto Prayer for Passive Resistance, making a big old skip in the middle of Eric Dolphy's amazing alto sax squawking. Oh well.

This album is a stone cold 10 and I'm playing it twice.

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#Jazz

ZZ Hill - A Man Needs a Woman

Mid-8Os blues was where 60s soul went out to pasture.

The first side of this LP is structured as a 'blues opera', with clunky dialogue between the tracks, playing out a tale of relationship discord. A precursor to hip hop's awful skits, I suppose.

ZZ Hill has a classy voice, and I love blues from this period.

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The Headhunters - Survival of the Fittest

A Herbie Hancock produced Afro-space-funk project.

If You've Got It...takes me back to listening to pirate radio in London in the late '80s.

Alas, this is just a reissue.

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#funk
#vinyl