Arrocha is the latest from Afro-Japanese-Brazilian artist Curumin. It’s been almost four years since Curumin’s last record, Japan Pop Show, but he’s lost none of his genre-defying style. Arrocha shifts effortlessly from big beat funk to more psychedelic tracks to the more soulful and just downright tender, such as my favorite on the album, “Paris Vila Matilde.” LA Peeps, Curumin will be in town shortly, playing at the El Rey along with another Brazilian phenom, and another personal favorite, Céu, on June 21st!!!
After not posting much of anything for most of May, I wanted to make sure I got off on the good foot for June, so here’s some straight up Latin heat courtesy of Miami’s Los Coke. I’d seen this record several times before running into it at Groove Merchant a couple of years ago. Needle dropped on “Na Na” and I was sold…but didn’t have enough money to get the album at the time. Fast forward to earlier this year and during some internet searching I came across a dealer who was selling a copy on the cheap because of condition. Took a chance and rolled the dice on a record that was graded as a “G” and ended up getting an “O.G.” copy with much better sound than I even remember the Groove Merchant copy having.
Los Coke, as they were sometimes called (at least before Coca-Cola forced a name change to “Opus”) were a clearly Santana influenced bilingual group that didn’t necessarily hit big outside of the Miami area, but the sounds on this LP (from the same label that brought you the legendary “Quit Jivin'” from Pearly Queen) have made many a DJ and crate digger happy, especially those drums from Ruben Perez. Clean breaks just jump out of the speakers on each of the chosen tracks and a few others on the LP, I only wish the group had been mic’ed a bit better so they were a bit warmer, but when they hit this hard over so many tracks, really who can complain? “Na Na” remains my favorite and something that I’m just DYING to put on at a place like Funky Sole to see the dancers dance. Everytime Paul Fernandez sings “Life Could Be Much Better, If We Had Our Shit Together,” I say “Amen, ain’t that the truth!” The way things frequently drop out, often with just the voice and drums, on the song slays me each and every time.
What I particularly like about this copy is that somebody took the time to color in all the parts of the LP cover that weren’t fully colored originally, which gives it an even more striking look than the version sold in stores. You can find represses of this LP on the cheap, not sure if the sound quality is much better, but I’m sure the price will be, though I’m sure you know that originals are always tastier.
First heard about Sonnymoon a few years ago when KCRW DJ Anthony Valadez was raving about them to anyone with ears. With an abstract future soul sound reminiscent of Little Dragon and Quadron I was convinced that the band just had to come from Europe, but alas no, they hail from the Boston area and are mainly comprised of Anna Wise and Dane Orr. For some time I’ve been wondering when we might get more sounds like these from stateside artists and finally the duo’s full-length has arrived courtesy of Plug Research, already a contender for indie label of the year. I know it’s not technically Summer yet, but “Every Summer Night” still seems an apt choice, especially since the group just spent time here in LA for the UCLA Jazz & Reggae Fest Memorial Day soiree. They’ll be back in town later in June and hopefully I’ll be able to corral them into the KPFK studios to find out more about how they create these sounds.
…as an added treat here’s a bonus clip of the band performing “Near Me” in fine trippy style at this year’s SXSW:
Really apologize for being MIA virtually this whole month of May, but I’ll be back starting this week with new posts. I won’t however be on the air for Melting Pot on June 3rd, instead it will be a fundraising special. We’ll be back on the KPFK airwaves on June 10th to celebrate the radio show’s 2 year anniversary.
Folks I’ve been so incredibly busy this past week (and clearly for the last month or so, based off of the pace of posts) that this has been the first chance I’ve had to catch up with things. Last Sunday’s show began and closed with a couple of Mother’s Day inspired tracks, featured a fair amount of new tracks, and also had a tribute to Donald “Duck” Dunn, one of the most respected bass players in Soul music history because of his work with Booker T & the MGs. This coming Sunday we’ll be raising funds for KPFK with a lot of fantastic music and giveaways for subscribers. Now that the semester is done I’ll be getting back into the swing of things again with regular posting (this time around I mean it!) and hopefully some more interesting things this Summer.
Wanted to make sure to give proper respect to Adam Yauch aka MCA this past week, leaving his tribute post as the top post. One of the other best ways I felt to pay tribute to his legacy and the legacy of the Beastie Boys was to highlight music that I never would have discovered without their help. With so many fantastic samples over the years, which shaped my musical sensibilities from searching and tracking down so many of them, it’s hard to choose a particular breakbeat used by the Beastie Boys to highlight. Personal favorites have always been the massive drums that serve as the beat for “Lookin’ Down The Barrel of A Gun,” from the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Last Bongo In Belgium” and the multiple ways the band used Jimmy Smith’s “Root Down” on a their own track of the same name. I don’t own those records anymore, but I was lucky enough to run into this collection of flautist Jeremy Steig which includes the immediately recognizable “Howlin’ For Judy,” later sampled by the Beastie Boys in “Sure Shot.”
Even since this was sampled, Steig remains somewhat underrated. Most diggers I don’t think realize that he recorded a lot of material in the late 60s and early 70s that was just as funky if not more so. This collection compiles some of the best tracks from three records, This Is Jeremy Steig, Legwork (both released originally on Solid State) and Wayfaring Stranger (originally released on Blue Note). Most of the tracks feature his usual rhythm section, Eddie Gomez on bass and Don Alias on drums, and the band really knows how to lay down some slinky funky, as they do on “Waves,” but as is the case with most of Steig’s music, things rarely just stay in the pocket for long. Steig and his players are constantly playing around with sounds, quite a lot of “Rational Nonsense,” moving in a variety of unexpected places and spaces, just like MCA and the Beastie Boys did musically. For this, and all the rest of the music I never would have heard without them, I have the Beastie Boys to thank, Adam Yauch especially…may you rest in peace.
On yesterday’s Melting Pot, Guest host Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com broadcast this 48 minute tribute to MCA and the Beastie Boys, with a mix of classics and rarities from their entire career.
Shocking news in the music world today that Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, passed away at the age of 47. Yauch had been battling cancer for the last several years, but the news still came as a shock to me. Growing up in the 1980s, the Beastie Boys were a favorite band of mine, both in their party-hard early days and their conscious prankster later years. Tracking down samples from Beastie Boys records broadened my tastes and my appreciation of Hip-Hop production as much as any other groups, save the Native Tounges. MCA’s conversion to Buddhism expanded my curiosity into a variety of philosophies and helped me to find greater calm and patience at times when I was dangerously close to losing both. Here are 5 of my favorite tracks that MCA cut with the Beastie Boys, and the 5 I’ll remember him most for.
Beastie Boys – Brass Monkey
My first experience with the Beastie Boys, I can still remember a crew of four of five black kids at my elementary school in the halls singing the lyrics to this song, at a time where Hip-Hop was still thought of as purely “Black Music.” I’m not sure if they even knew the Beastie Boys were white, or if the fact they made Hip-Hop was enough for them to claim them as their own, but that moment is forever etched in my brain, as well as MCA’s classic line that was probably the first time I’d even ever heard of Brooklyn.
“I drink Brass Monkey and I rock well
I got a Castle in Brooklyn – that’s where I dwell”
Beastie Boy – Sabotage
Quite possibly the single most entertaining music video of all time, “Sabotage” marked the emergence of Spike Jonze and got me to appreciate 1970s genre cinema. Even though you don’t really hear MCA’s voice in this track, that fuzz bass is so important to the sound, especially when everything breaks down in the second half, that it’s impossible to imagine this song being a success without that rumbling sound.
Beastie Boys – Jimmy James
A tribute of sorts to Jimi Hendrix, featuring 5 or 6 separate Hendrix samples, I’d never known until today that this was originally just an instrumental track and that all the cuts were by Adam Yauch himself.
Beastie Boys – Sure Shot
Aside from the blistering Jeremy Steig sample and one of my favorite lines, “I Strap On My Ear Goggles And I’m Ready To Go,” which caused me to refer to headphones as “ear goggles” for about a year, “Sure Shot” was also the song where MCA publicly denounced the misogynistic lyrics and behavior of his past and called for other artists to follow suit.
“I Want To Say a Little Something That’s Long Overdue
The Disrespect To Women Has Got To Be Through
To All The Mothers And Sisters And the Wives And Friends
I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End”
That kind of mea culpa and statement of solidarity, affected my own thinking on issues of gender, and likely helped to put me on the path where today I educate other men and women on the influence of popular culture on our ideas of gender, race and class.
Beastie Boys – Bodhisattva Vow
There are so many songs the MCA had great lines and rhymes, but this track from Ill Communication remains what I think is his signature song. A deeply personal and sincere take on his Buddhist faith and who his beliefs have affected his character.
“If Others Disrespect Me Or Give Me Flack
I’ll Stop And Think Before I React
Knowing That They’re Going Through Insecure Stages
I’ll Take The Opportunity To Exercise Patience
I’ll See It As A Chance To Help The Other Person
Nip It In The Bud Before It Can Worsen
A Change For Me To Be Strong And Sure”
The backing track was also stunning, with its use of Buddhist chant, drums from “Kissing My Love” and what sounds like the doors of a monastery crashing and closing. Hearing it the first time was like a revelation, one only made possible because of Adam Yauch, Rest In Peace.
{LA People there’s a special Jean Rollin event at Cinefamily May 7th, featuring an special remixed screening of La Vampire Nue (original trailer below) and new score by Demdike Stare!!!}
Jean Rollin was a french film-maker best known for his horror/gore/exploitation films of the late 1960s and 1970s. Given his filmography, it’s not a surprise that music associated with his films would be right in the wheelhouse of B-Music and Finders Keepers and they’ve recently compiled a bunch of it for this collection. The spot on appropriately titled “Gilda & Gunshots” stands out for me, just because of the absurdity of it all. I’m sure seeing the visuals would make this song make more sense, but hearing it, with those driving drums and bass line, a woman in pain or ecstasy and all those gunshots, it sounds like pure mayhem is going down.
As a further taste of Jean Rollin’s style, here’s the trailer to his 1970 film, La Vampire Nue, a heady mix of wild visuals for sure:
Currently getting a set together for Elevation, an incredible DJ event with fellow KPFK DJs Morgan Rhodes, Mark Maxwell, Carlos Nino, Santana Westbrook, Teddy Robinson, Abraham Beltran, the Breakbeats & Rhymes crew, Kristi Lomax and our special guest Marques Wyatt! Tickets cost $15 or $25 for VIPs and all the proceeds go directly to KPFK.
I’m thinking of doing a set of classic breaks and sampled funk, we’ll see what I come up with when I go on at 10pm tonight! I’ll be sure to share the playlist and maybe the set itself with you all in the near future.
Had expected to have a guest DJ, Alberto Sol, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to make it (you can catch him at Funky Sole’s Cinco De Mayo fiesta), so that meant I had to bring a little extra vinyl but I’ll never complain about that. Only thing that I knew I wanted to play for today’s show was something to commemorate the LA Uprisings of 1992, since Sunday was the 20th anniversary. I mention a bit of what I remember living in Atlanta at the time of this historic event and decided to play Ben Harper’s “Like A King,” which I think is probably one of the better songs written in the wake of the riots. When I was at WRAS, Album 88, we had a 7 minute long acoustic version of this that he’d performed at the station, I really wish I still had that somewhere, it was just amazingly raw and beautiful, as good as the studio version is, it’s always paled in comparison. From there we have a couple more songs that seemed fitting for the date, “A Tree Never Grown” from the short lived, but very necessary, Hip-Hop For Respect project and “The Creator Has A Master Plan” from Leon Thomas. After that first set, all bets were off as I went all over the map, from some funky funky sounds from La Clave and Soul Toranodoes, to psychedelic tunes from Edip Akbayram, John Howard Abdnor and spiritual jazz from Charlie Haden & the Liberation Music Orchestra. Next week I’ll be at KPFK’s Hero Awards, so Oliver Wang of the legendary Soul-Sides.com will be filling in for me…see you back on the air in two weeks!
{opening theme} Boris Gardiner – Melting Pot – Is What’s Happening (Dynamic)
~~~~ Break ~~~~
Ben Harper – Like A King – Welcome To The Cruel World (Virgin)
Hip-Hop For Respect – A Tree Never Grown – Hip-Hop For Respect 12” (Rawkus)
Leon Thomas – The Creator Has A Master Plan – Spirits Known And Unknown (Flying Dutchman)
El Chicano – Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child – Viva Tirado (Kapp)
~~~~ Break ~~~~
La Clave – Latin Slide – La Clave (Verve)
The Hook – Homes – The Hook Will Grab You (UNI)
Charlie Musselwhite – 4 p.m. – Stand Back! (Vanguard)
Natural Gas – Live & Learn – Natural Gas (Firebird)
~~~~ Break ~~~~
Ranil & his Tropical Band – Cumbia Sin Nombre – Ranil’s Jungle Party (Masstropicas)
The Soul Toranodoes – Go For Yourself – 7” (Magic City)
Edip Akbayram – Ince Ince Bir Kar Yagar – 7” (Sayan)
Muddy Waters – Herbert Harper’s Free Press – Electric Mud (Cadet Concept)
Nancy Priddy – You’ve Come This Way Before – You’ve Come This Way Before (Dot)
Zoo – Mammouth – Zoo (Mercury)
~~~~ Break ~~~~
The Moon People – Happy Soul – Land Of Love (Speed)
Ohio Players – Funky Work – 7” (Westbound)
Clarence Reid – Masterpiece – 7” (Alston)
BW Souls – Marvin’s Groove – 7” (Round)
Jorge Ben – A Historia De Jorge – Africa Brasil (Philips)
Johnny Lytle – Daahoud – Be Proud (Solid State)
~~~~ Break ~~~~
Uniao Black – Geracao Black – Uniao Black (Mercury)
Jeremy Steig – Nardis – Portrait (UA)
John Howard Abdnor Involvement – Relaxation – Intro To Change (Abnak)
~~~~ Break ~~~~
Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra – La Santa Espina / Els Segadores – Ballad OF The Fallen (ECM)
~~~~ Break ~~~~
{closing theme} Joe Henderson – Earth – The Elements (Milestone)
Here’s another record that I basically walked into and then just had to have. In this case it was at Scott Craig’s Records LA a few months ago. Someone was buzzing through a couple of records just as I walked in, and a few moments later they dropped the need on “You’ve Got To Love The World.” At first I was thinking it was just pretty straight ahead 60s swinging jazz with vocals, nothing too noteworthy, but then the the song got to the bridge and that manic drumbeat with the banging organ and vibes completely floored me with how hard it was. When I hear moments like that it makes me really consider buying an MPC and getting started making beats. I could literally listen to thos moments where everything breaks down after the vocalists hold the “the” part of “you’ve got to love the world” for a series of beats and then the drums and organ lay out as they say “world.” Clearly there’s much more to dig on with this LP, but I keep coming back to those brilliant moments, particularly in the last 45 seconds of the track when they hit on it without the vocals. Absolute brilliance, that I hope you’ll dig too, just watch your neck…
It seems like it’s been a long minute since the Soul Investigators dropped music, but they’ve been busy since the breakthrough LP with Nicole Willis (STILL waiting on Myron & E’s debut to come out after a series of fantastic singles in 2009 & 2010). “Creepin'” is their latest release, put in the spring on the Timmion record label, and it is a gritty and tough bit of wax, in two parts, each with a little different feel. I dig on Pt. 2 a bit more with the nice hard drums at the beginning and the organ that bubbles up slowly (dare I say creepin’ up on you…pun intended). Can’t wait for more from one of Europe’s most consistently fantastic modern soul groups.
It was my distinct pleasure to welcome Josh Haden and Spain to our studios at KPFK for an interview and performance last week. As I mentioned in the interview I can still remember the first time I heard Spain’s music, when the music director at Album 88 played, “Ray Of Light” from their debut release Blue Moods Of Spain back in 1995. They’ve been one of my most cherised favorite bands since then. Back in 2009 I was overjoyed to hear that Josh had put the band back together and they’d released some new music. On my one and only time as a guest host on Morning Becomes Eclectic I played a track from the new Spain and was surprised to later get a thank you message from Josh. He’s kept in touch making sure that I had new music and when he offerred to bring the band in for a performance, there’s was absolutely no way I was going to say no.
The band plays four songs, two from the brand new release The Soul Of Spain, “Sevenfold” and “Without A Sound,” and the interview closes with renditions of two songs from that debut release, “Untitled #1,” and perhaps Josh’s most famous composition “Spiritual.” During the interview we talk about why it took so long, over 10 years, for the world to hear a new record from Spain and spend a bit of time discussing Josh’s frustrations with the music industry, how the new group got together and plans for the future of Spain. Big thanks to Stan Misraje for working his magic on the sound to get everything just right. I sincerely hope you enjoy this as much as I did, this was definitely one of my favorite moments in my entire radio career.
