Sly & The Family Stone - Fresh

Whilst discussing bass playing the other day I named If You Want Me To Stay as my favourite bass playing on a tune ever: super-funky, understated but really clever. Unfortunately, I’d given Larry Graham the credit, but it turns out he’d been given the old heave-ho from the Family Stone just prior to this album being recorded and replaced by Rustee Allen. Perhaps it would have been a completely different track had Graham played on it. Incidentally, Rustee’s name is spelled incorrectly (Rusty) on the sleeve.

When I was about 18, my mate gave me this album. It had been given to him by a local smackhead in payment for giving them a lift and, as it had been robbed from someone’s car the previous evening, my mate didn’t want the bad karma and wanted to pass it on. I had no such karmic-qualms.

This is a really subdued funk album, which is surprising considering Stone had got stuck into the gak with considerable enthusiasm. You’d think it’d sound more coke-y.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#SlyandtheFamilyStone
#Fresh
#Funk
#RusteeAllen
#Music

David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

I always feel a pang of guilt when I think of this album. It came out when I was 14 and I borrowed it off a kid at school called Jonathan, and have yet to give it back. Jonathan is dead now, having died in a tragic barbecue accident, so I heard (I know it sounds like I’m taking the piss here, but I’m not), so he has no further use for it.

This was Bowie taking stylistic-influence from the Blitz kids, and he was keen to get out of the Berlin Trilogy-doldrums, which – ironically – were partly due to his imitators getting all the record sales. It worked – the album contains two massive hits in Ashes To Ashes and Fashion and buoys him up for a split with both long-time producer, Tony Visconti, and long-time label, RCA, heralding one of the worst periods of his career.

I’ve always loved Robert Fripp’s guitar playing on this album (even before I knew who he was.)

Michi Hirota’s Japanese spoken vocal on It’s No Game (No.1) elevates the track to make it my favourite of the album. She is one of the two women on the cover of the best album sleeve ever, but you probably already knew that.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#DavidBowie
#ScaryMonsters
#Music

John Spithead

2025-06-12 01:28:57

Lawns grow plush in the hinterlands

Sparks - Kimono My House

I can still clearly recall the impact of seeing Sparks on Top Of The Pops for the first time in 1974, performing the lead single from this album, This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, Ron’s Hitler moustache creating quite the stir, even in a pop world occupied by the frocked-up Bowie and Robbie from Mud, and Steve Priest from The Sweet dressed like a big gay fash on the Christmas Day TOTP episode.

This is the album in which Sparks set out their stall with the wares they will hawk, albeit in variations, until today. Wares that will be blatantly shoplifted by some of their contemporaries (looking at you, Queen.)

The front of the sleeve has to be one of the best album covers ever.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Music
#Sparks
#KimonoMyHouse

Beggar & Co. – (Somebody) Help Me Out/Rising Sun 12”
Light Of The World – Swingin’/The World Is Out 12”
Light Of The World – The Boys In Blue / This Is This 12”

Vale Chris Hill.

He was a generation ahead of me, so when I was a kid, he had already attained legendary status.

A genuine eccentric, he had been the DJ at the Lacy Lady in Gants Hill, where he played imported soul music at a time when almost every other disco was playing chart music. The venue drew a super-fashionable crowd of working class kids who really dressed up for the occasion. It’s seldom acknowledged that this was where‘77 punk borrowed its sartorial style from.

He later worked for Ensign Records and was instrumental in getting Brit-Funk bands signed, so I thought I’d have a morning of playing just Brit-Funk.

I saw him DJ a few times in the early eighties, and that highly performative DJ style had been nicked and done to death by others, who had sometimes made more money from it (Steve Walsh, for instance) . I can still remember him squeaking a pet toy or something along with Brass Construction’s Movin’ though.

As is often the way, the originators of the Brit-Funk sound only achieved a modicum of commercial success whilst those pop acts who co-opted their sound (looking at you Spandau Ballet, ABC, Haircut 100) got the glory. It’s a tale as old as time. Makes you wonder what it was about those acts that made them more palatable to the British pop market.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#BritFunk
#EnsignRecords
#ChrisHill
#BeggarAndCo
#LightOfTheWorld
#Music

John McLaughlin With The One Truth Band - Electric Dreams

My copy of this is a US pressing, which has been ‘manually rebranded’ for CBS in international markets. I’ve read about this but never seen it in the wild before. The back cover has been redacted with a texta and the labels have black rings stuck over them, obscuring the Columbia logo. This would’ve been someone’s job, man.

Talking of shit jobs, L. Shankar, the violinist on this album, went on to play on Phil Collins’s Face Value album the following year.

This album came out the year after my favourite J.Mc album, and it’s a clear move further into the rock sphere, which for my ears, makes it a tad dull.

I’d never properly looked at the sleeve before today. The front photo is a sepia toned photo of old mate John sitting at a white Formica fold out kitchen table in his jim-jams and satin dressing gown. Before him is a coffee cup full of pitch black fluid, with a spoon standing up in it. Now this could be seen as uncouth, although please remember Johnny-boy comes from Donny, where this is probably OK. Also, the black fluid could be Yorkshire tea.

Behind him, his appliances seem to have gone boonta, have adopted ghostly manifestations, and are levitating. This is particularly worrying because what can only be described as a kettle/clock combo are plugged in quite high up the wall on a short cord. If it stopped levitating it would be just dangling there.

To make matters worse, ALL FOUR rings on his electric stove top are blaring. Turn them off, man!

As if all this isn’t bad enough, there’s a ghostly girl stood outside the window holding a suitcase. No-one wants that.

Nightmare.

Here’s an interesting snippet for you: the son of Fernando Saunders, who played bass on this album, represented Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#JohnMcLaughlin
#OneTruthBand
#ElectricDreams
#JazzFusion
#Music

John Spithead

2025-03-05 02:52:58

We got one there. We got one there.

John McLaughlin - Electric Guitarist

I believe that this was the first proper jazz-fusion LP I bought. I remember picking it up in JiFS Records, Chadwell Heath in about 1984. (Man, I'd fucking love to go back and have a dig in that shop again!) I was an avid reader of guitarist magazines at the time and kept reading about McLaughlin and his Gatling gun playing-style, and just had to hear it. There was no way of hearing it before buying in those days, so it was a bit of a gamble, although to be fair, I knew I was going to love it.

All the big guns are wheeled out in support of McLaughlin on this album and they all get a fair shake of the sauce bottle.

The second track, Friendship, is a frequent spinner on my earworm jukebox, and has been for some 40 years now.

url=https://friendica.world/photos/johnspithead/image/120244070867c7bc835c083569008833][/url]

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Jazz-Fusion
#JohnMcLaughlin

Various Artists - Blow the Man Down: A Collection Of Sea Songs & Shanties

If you want my opinion, there’s far too much flag-shagging going on at the moment, especially in my country of birth, where it seems to be all the (Fa)rage to paint the St George’s cross on every surface, Shankhill Rd style.

When I grew up in England, flag-waving was looked down on as something that was only practised in inferior nations who didn’t know they were the best. There is no greater indication that England is floundering than painting flags on mini-roundabouts. Also, surely no-one who loved their flag would paint it on the ground, amongst the dog shit, phlegm and fag-butts, would they?

The problem for English nationalism is that English culture is an eclectic culture. Its primary cultural achievement is taking on other people’s culture and re-purposing it. I’ll give you some examples: London – invented by the Romans and built by the Irish; The Beatles and The Rolling Stones – co-opted American music; fish & chips – brought in by Jewish refugees; baltis – adapted from Pakistani food; Farage – copying 1930s Germany. The important thing to say is that’s OK. The English can be proud of this.

The reason I’m stating the bleeding obvious here is that I’m playing this CD of sea shanties (work songs) and forebitters (chilling-out songs) from England’s great seafaring past. Nothing more English than that. Except there’s Irish, American, and Portuguese influence galore. And that’s the way it works.

Incidentally, there’s some fucking beautiful songs on here. For instance, Lovely Nancy, from the 18th Century, sung by Ian Campbell acc. Dave Swarbrick – a song that reprises an ancient theme of a woman who dresses as a man to go to sea. The fucking tofu-eating wokerati right there.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#BlowTheManDown
#VariousArtists
#Folk
#Shanties
#CD
#FlagShaggers
#englishnationalism
#Music

Go-Go's - Beauty And The Beat

The other day we watched Lolita (the 1962 Stanley Kubrick one). What a stunning film. Really discomforting. Brilliant performances by Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon (who really should be a household name) and James Mason. The reason I’m telling you this is because James Mason is Belinda Carlisle’s father-in-law.

A week or so later we were watching Trixie Motel and who should pop up as a guest, but Belinda Carlisle. Thought it was time to give this a spin.

This really is such a well-known album that there’s little left to say about it. However, on sitting down and giving it a proper listen, it struck me that it’s a much more vocal-rich recording than I’d previously heard: BVs galore.

Also, I like the fact that they returned the towels used in the cover picture to the shop afterwards.

I picked this copy up from the $5 bin at Mr V's in Semaphore years ago. It was previously owned by Lesley Hilgendorf, who had written her name across the top of the back of the cover. Somewhere in the Barossa Valley, I expect.

About ten years ago, we did a themed radio show, which featured people’s mondegreens (misheard lyrics). One of the finest examples was ‘alex the seal’ ('‘our lips are sealed’). This has stuck like the proverbial shit to a blanket. Thanks Dee.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Go-Go’s
#BeautyAndTheBeat
#StanleyKubrick
#JamesMason
#Lolita
#SueLyon
#Music

Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo

This is the second Fathers’ Day LP. I’ve never heard nor heard of them before.

They are a Texan trio who are big fans of Thai and Persian tunes and they’ve got that guitar sound nailed down, with minimalist funky drumming and the occasional bit of vocal or something else.

Firstly, I can see no reason why I would need my Persian funk filtered through an American lense.

Secondly, you know how music that’s meant to be chilled leaves you feeling more stressed? Yeah that. I could literally feel my arsehole clenching in irritation by the middle of side two. It’s fucking Muzak.

Oddly enough, it left me thinking of Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross – a piece of music I have always loathed.

The only time I could imagine playing this would be in the background whilst having a dinner party (if I had dinner parties) or something. Which is probably the worst thing I can say about a piece of music.

Astonishingly, it gets glowing reviews everywhere.

Now I have to work out how to not sound like a completely ungrateful cunt or hurt people's feelings when I get asked what I thought of the album. Whilst I do that I'm going to have to play some Discharge or something just to restore equilibrium.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Khruangbin
#ConTodoElMundo
#Music

Miles Davis - Live-Evil

It was Fathers' Day yesterday in Australia. I try my best to be a conscientious objector (I mean, the kids didn't ask for me to impregnate their mother, thus forcing them into existence, and so really have no need to thank me for doing my basic duty to them in the intervening years), but my bastard children won't have it. In an attempt to limit the proceedings, I suggested that - if they must - they just fill a Live-Evil shaped gap in my record collection and be done with it. It was a partial success, in that I do now own a Record Store Day reissue of the album on teal-splatter (What a time to be alive, eh?) vinyl.

I haven't heard Live-Evil before and it's quite a substantial work, so these are just my initial thoughts:

- Like I say, there's a lot of it. It's going to take time to digest.
- This is firmly in the On The Corner ballpark, although generally dialled up a notch or two. Davis is wah-wahing away like a man possessed.
- John McLaughlin's guitar sound, let alone his playing, took my breath away.

Anyway, I might add further comments in future as I get into this more.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#MilesDavis
#LiveEvil
#JazzFusion
#JohnMcLaughlin
#Music

Dennis Brown - Money In My Pocket/Joe Gibbs And The Professionals - Running Irie 12"

In 1979 there was a Saturday morning kids’ television show called The Saturday Morning Show. It was presented by an affable-seeming chap called Steve Jones, about whom it’s hard to do any deep internet research due to his Sex Pistols namesake. My favourite part of this show was ‘hit or miss’-type evaluation of some of the week’s new single releases, called ‘Keep or Heap’. This was where I first heard Money In My Pocket. I bought it on 12” that afternoon.

Unfortunately, I later swapped it for a plastic carrier bag full of porno mags with a kid from school, later replacing it via discogs.

This is Brown/Gibbs’ reworking of their 1972 tune, engineered by Errol Thompson and with added toasting by Prince Mohammed, neither of whom even get a credit. Brown’s vocals are as smooth as a real estate agent run through a Nutri-Bullet. The A side is a proper extended version, and the B side, Runnings Irie, finds Joe Gibbs and the Professionals smashing through the instrumental with gay abandon.

In hindsight, lovers rock was charging over the hill like a big sexy bull. But none of us knew it yet.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#DennisBrown
#MoneyInMyPocket
#Reggae
#SteveJones
#TheSaturdayMorningShow
#KeepOrHeap
#JoeGibbs
#PrinceMohammed
#ErrolThompson
#Music

Edwin Starr - Contact/Don't Waste Your Time 12"

Edwin Starr was American by birth and Polesworth by choice. I used to go to college with one of his backing singers.

I’d bought the 12” of this in 1978, then sold it to a girl at school. I later picked up this copy in a second hand shop down the south coast somewhere. It has ‘Toffs’ written in texta on the label.

The only Toffs disco I can find online is in Sligo, Ireland, but this is an Aussie pressing, so it’s unlikely to be from there. I can’t help thinking there would have been loads of discos with that name when this record came out. Fucking terrible name.

Contact is a cracking slab of disco: Starr’s roaring vocals, sweeping strings, bongos, hi-hats, open percussion breaks – wicked.

Lyrically, it tells the story of our protagonist seeing someone he fancies across the other side of the disco, where she is sitting quietly by herself. She meets his glance and Edwin locks eyes with her. He seems to have read an awful lot into her catching his glance, if you ask me, but that was the seventies, I suppose. He then describes his state of excitement as he crosses the dancefloor to bother this woman. Rather disturbingly, he says ‘I never took my eyes away from yours, not even for a moment’, which could be perceived as a bit odd, menacing perhaps, not to mention increasing the risk of bumping into people.

The B-side, Don’t Waste Your Time, is a dreary ballad, and is, rather ironically, a waste of time.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#EdwinStarr
#Contact
#Disco
#Polesworth
#Music

Yussef Dayes - Black Classical Music

Because this album sits next to 'Davis' alphabetically on the shelf, it gets looked at more often than most and I think, “must play that again one day” more frequently than most other records.

Brownswood really splashed out on this album: double album, decent pressing, embossed sleeve (ooh-la-la!), cast of thousands. It feels like the concept was to do a British Kamasi album and the result is a highly competent funky, jazz album which shows off all Dayes’s influences. I remember when I gave it its first listen, thinking, “I know all the records you’ve been listening to, mate.”

I find it all just a bit underwhelming. Where are we going here? What are we hoping to achieve? How are we driving the art form forward? Because without this, it’s such a waste of talent.

Also, I’m of an age where the sound of a fretless bass through an octaver still sets my teeth on edge, thanks to the over-use of Pino Palladino as a bass player in the 80s (No Parlez, anyone?) Pino’s son, Rocco, plays on this album and has a remarkably similar sound which is slathered on all over the shop. Fucking horrible – it’s still too soon.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#YussefDayes
#BlackClassicalMusic
#Jazz
#Music

The Comet Is Coming - Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam

I was lucky enough to see The Comet Is Coming live in Sydney, promoting this album, I reckon. The audience was roughly 50% super-cool young folk and 50% old white dudes who looked like they owned record shops. It really went off.

Whilst I acknowledge the hard work and talent of the other two members, Shabaka Hutchings is so fucking cool. Such a restrained yet imposing presence. His Caribbean-tinged, front-foot, Gatling gun blowing, marks him out as something really special.

The band called it a day after this album.

The band drew lazy comparisons to Sun Ra, which was largely based on them having a space/cosmic shtick, rather than it being a musical comparison. You’d be better served comparing them to Van der Graaf Generator musically.

I own three of their albums, but rarely fancy playing them, to be honest. I thought it might be because that speck of the zeitgeist on which they sailed had passed. However, playing this today, I’ve really enjoyed it.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TheCometIsComing
#HyperDimensionalExpansionBeam
#Jazz
#Electronic
#ShabakaHutchings
#Music

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force - I Wonder If I Take You Home (Extended Version)

I found a whole section of my record collection which contains loads of 1980s 12" singles. Hooray!

I’ve talked about Full Force’s production skills before, but there is really no better example of them at their prime than this - it all sounds so...expansive and punchy. The perfect setting for Lisa Velez’s stab at becoming the Puerto Rican Madonna.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#LisaLisaandCultJamwithFullForce
#IWonderIfITakeYouHome
#Electro
#Freestyle
#Music

John Spithead

2025-03-08 04:39:47

Give me some static!

James Brown with Full Force - I'm Real

It's 1988 and James Brown is mightily pissed off about everyone sampling his work (and, more to the point, him not making any money from it). He's had a bit of a comeback with Living In America and decides to hitch his horse to the Full Force wagon, which is careering down the hill of hits at breakneck speed.

It's really a Full Force album, featuring JB (and Maceo Parker), with Brown pissing and moaning about not getting what he deserves, and going on about how great he is, like the man in the pub you've tried not to make eye contact with for the past 45 minutes. It rather clever-onically uses loads of JB samples.

I clearly recall how fucking MASSIVE Static, I'm Real and - to a lesser extent -Keep Keepin' sounded in clubs at the time, until the wheels were stolen from Full Force's wagon by...everyone (including Stock, Aitken & Waterman), leaving it on four little piles of bricks by the side of the funky highway.

This is the UK edition (on Scotti Bros.), which has a small photo of Full Force (with JB front and centre) on the back, which measures an inch by an inch-and-a-half.

Lew Lewis Reformer - Save The Wail

In the early 90s, used to live about ten doors away from a book and record shop, although I don’t think I ever bought any tunes from inside the shop, as it was quite expensive and I was on the dole. However, I did pick up a couple of crisp biscuits from the 50p box out the front, including this.

This has a little label telling me that there is 2 tracks slight wear. This kind of detailed evaluation of condition used to be pretty much standard practice for record shops, rather than just sticking $50 on it and hoping no-one notices the warp, scuffs, scratches, inner-groove distortion, food particles, jizz stains, or whatever.

Lew Lewis came from Canvey Island, in the ‘Thames Delta’. He taught Lee Brilleaux to play harmonica and was in Eddie & the Hot Rods, before going off to do his own thing. This album came out in 1979 on Stiff Records, and its got a very Stiff sound to it.

It’s one of my favourite albums of that time and place.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#LewLewisReformer
#SaveTheWail
#RythmnandBlues
#CanveyIsland
#StiffRecords
#Music

The Crusaders - Pass The Plate

In 1971, The Crusaders released this funky little nugget, after dropping ‘Jazz’ from their name.

It’s an album full of early jazz-funk grooves, with the occasional bit of proper jazz thrown in for good measure. I swear down that Stix Hooper hits the rim of his snare by accident at the end of the drum solo on Young Rabbits – ‘71-’72, and I think they fade it out to try and hide it. That’s my #low-stakesjazzfunkconspiracy.

Whenever I hear The Crusaders, I am reminded of a house party I attended somewhere in east London in about 1984. I was wearing a white t-shirt with the band’s logo in red across the chest. This had led me to get into a bit of a conversation with a group of black women. There was a bloke at the party who I don’t remember much about, other than he had a Southern Death Cult tattoo on his forearm, and, as he got increasingly pissed, he started being more and more of a cunt towards me. This came to crossed words, and the relative merits of The Crusaders and Southern Death Cult were mentioned, I think. I don’t think he liked any jazz-funk, to be honest, or me talking to a group of black women. At that age, I wasn’t one to walk away from a fight, and, rather inevitably, the conflict turned physical. I wonder if that chap ever hears The Crusaders and remembers his teeth.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TheCrusaders
#PassThePlate
#Tamla-Motown
#Jazz
#Music

The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun

I grabbed a handful of Jimmy Castor Bunch LPs from a second hand record shop in the 80s, this one included, just because, by looking at the sleeves alone, you couldn’t go wrong. This, Castor’s second album from 1972, was the best of the bunch (geddit?)

I remember being delighted when, back in the old rare groove days of yore, probably my favourite DJ of all time, Nicky Holloway, used to open his set with It’s Just Begun. A MASSIVE tune.

The album later had its bones picked clean during the sampling years.

Listening to it today, as an entire piece of work, I’ve realised that it’s far more of a latin-tinged funk joint than I’d previously realised. It’s good, man.

An interesting quirk about this album is it is pressed on Dynaflex vinyl. This was RCA’s way of utilising less oil-thirsty vinyl during the oil crisis, by making a wafer-thin record. The record itself handles like Rolf Harris’s wobble board. The jury has been out for the past 53 years over the quality of these pressings, but to be fair, this copy is doing just fine.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TheJimmyCastorBunch
#ItsJustBegun
#Funk
#Music
#Dynaflex
#RCA

Subhumans - Worlds Apart

The bloke who has reviewed a couple of Subhumans albums, this included, on AllMusic is an annoying cunt. He clearly doesn't know or understand punk well enough to give a decent review. I was going to go into more detailed critique of his criticism, but, to be honest, thought I might just give it as much effort as he has. This made me smile, though – it shows the standard:

‘A grungy-looking quartet of punkers’

Ignoring him, though, this is a top-notch Subhumans album, their third. It’s a bit less proggy than the one before and has quite a few of their big anarcho-singalong-bangers on it.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Subhumans
#WorldsApart
#Punk
#Music
#AdamBregman

John Spithead

2025-04-28 22:51:55

But when the children call you "Bastard" it will make you think again

Subhumans - From The Cradle To The Grave

Turns out I have this on both CD and vinyl.

When I read the recent book on Subhumans, I was delighted to find out they had been massive Rush fans. Once you know that, you can't not hear the influence. Musically, rather than lyrically - no Ayn Rand tributes here, thankfully.

This is a great album. The title track is one of my favourite 17 minute-long pieces of music.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#Subhumans
#FromTheCradleToTheGrave
#Punk
#Rush

Dr Feelgood - Sneakin' Suspicion

This album, the one where Wilko Johnson left the band, is one of their best.

The usual mix of covers and originals, with these sometimes containing little Canvey Island references, maintaining the Feelgoods’ kayfabe that the Thames Delta was just the British version of the Mississippi Delta.

Midnight on the river,
In the light of the flames (Sneakin’ Suspicion)

Me and my best girl along the wall,
In the long grass side by side,
Where the big ships go gliding by, go gliding by (Paradise)

Nowadays, Canvey has the UK’s largest ultra-orthodox Jewish community, who made the exodus (can I say that?) down from London over the past few years to live in this ultra-Brexity estuary-side town.

The Gered Mankowitz photographed sleeve has Lee Brilleaux looking both snug and cool in a proper old sheepy, lighting a fag outside the Alibi Club, keeping a watchful eye on a woman and man having a proper old snog.

Flip it over, and you get a closer shot of the woman’s arse, because her beau has hoisted up her skirt, and it has a Dr Feelgood tattoo on it. Class.

Nowadays, people would assume that Brilleaux was being a bit of a nonce for doing this, but I think he was supposed to be exercising coercive control, which of course everyone was greatly in favour of in those days.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#DrFeelgood
#SneakinSuspicion
#WilkoJohnson
#RythmnandBlues
#CanveyIsland
#Music

Various Artists - Kunta Kinte 2017

Brooklyn sound system/label https://dub-stuy.bandcamp.com/album/kunta-kinte-riddim-2017Dub-Stuy give us four shining, and very varied, examples on this 12” from 2017.

I've mentioned before what a sucker I am for a Kunta Kinte riddim, so I won't repeat myself.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#KuntaKinte
#Dancehall
#Reggae
#BurroBanton
#RiderShafique
#ShantiD
#DJMadd
#Dub-Stuy
#Music

John Spithead

2025-02-28 04:19:17

Flash Kunta

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.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#DJKentaro
#KuntaKinte

Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution

I fucking loved Steel Pulse as a kid. This is one of those LPs from around that time that, even though I didn’t own it, I was familiar with every track. My sister had the 12” of Ku Klux Klan, which got rinsed in our house, and I'd acquired the 7” of Prodigal Son from one of those newsagents cheapo random 7” rotating tower racks they would have at the time. The rest of it I guess I picked up by listening to John Peel, or by osmosis. I picked the actual LP up at a boot sale in Romford in the mid 80s. It has one of those Record & Tape Exchange stickers on the front which show it being reduced in price over time.

When I moved to Brum in my late 20s, I can remember how thrilled I was to be walking across Handsworth Park (going for a free veggie feed at the Sikh festival, which is in itself pretty thrilling) - my equivalent of when people go and walk across that zebra crossing at Abbey Road, I suppose. It didn’t look much like the record sleeve.

This holds up as a fine example of political British reggae, infused with the spirit of Jah and under the expert roots reggae knob-twiddler and exactly the right man for the job, Karl Pitterson. David Hines’s vocal style was ripped off wholesale by Sting, which is so obvious once you know.

The thanks list on the back of the sleeve has amongst its thankees, stalwart of Brummy pub-blues-rock, Steve Gibbons, and The Stranglers, both of which seem like odd mates.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#SteelPulse
#HandsworthRevolution
#Reggae
#Birmingham
#Music