Just recently I made another fantastic discovery via emusic, a funk soul band by the name of Baby Charles.
Their self titled album released last year is described by the band as "simultaneously tight but loose, heavy but soulful and dirty... yet beautiful."I love their version of DJ Shadow's 'This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)', which if you don't know the original is a great record with a cool video... Baby Charles' version... Thier first single off the album is called 'Hard Man to Please'...
This morning I was listening to Curtis Mayfield's legendary album "Superfly" from 1972 on my way to work, as you do, and suddenly a cheeky sample jumped out at me.
Unfortunately it was one of those samples where I could hear the part of the song that used it in my head, but had no clue as to the name of it or even the artist. Rage!I knew it was a hip hop tune and after a quick Google search and a look on the awesome sample site The Breaks, I had to turn to a manual search through my library of mp3s. Amazingly I some how managed to find it! The original Mayfield track I'm referring to is called 'Give Me Your Love' and is well worth a listen. The sample is right at the beginning on 9 seconds. The track that takes the sample is "Whassup With U?" ft. Keisha Shontelle by 9th Wonder from the quality album "The Formula".
I feel a massive 60's & 70's soul/funk/motown revival is on the horizon.
Amy Winehouse clearly had huge success with 'Back to Black'; proving beyond doubt there's a demand. She's sold 10 millions copies of that album. There are plenty of bands and artists producing their own modern take on the genre. Think Orgone, Connie Price & The Keystones and El Michel's Affair to name just a few. There are even record labels like Love 'n Haight, Daptone Records and Truth & Soul being created purely to release the records everyone missed first time round or dedicate themselves to those new bands infatuated with it.However, I have to say I never saw this one coming. Raphael Saadiq is the latest artist to join in revival with his new album The Way I See It. It's a brave move. A massive departure from his recognised sound. My initial impressions are good. I'm not expecting him to produce a true authentic 60's soul LP and I'm certainly not going to take the easy route out and brush it off as pure imitation as I'm sure some 'purists' will.He's got a few high profile collaborations in there for good measure. Joss Stone, Jay Z, CJ Hilton and a certain Stevie Wonder.Massive respect to Raphael Saadiq and Columbia Records for setting up Raphael Saadiq TV on youtube and actually posting all the tracks from the album.Picking out one track to put on this blog post was not easy. This track is called 'Oh Girl', a proper soul ballad that sounds like it could have been performed by The Delfonics... it's amazing.
Whitest Boy Alive are a hugely underated. Their music is stripped down rock/pop/funk.
Their singer & guitarist Erlend Øye is also in another band I love, Kings of Convenience. 'Dreams' was released in November last year and simply didn't receive the recognition it deserved. The video for their track 'Golden Cage' is worth a watch purely for all the optical illusions and tricks...
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