Curtis Mayfield - Now You're Gone

1971 was a good year for music. James Brown and the JB's were refining the essence of funk, Led Zepplin were creating riffs left right and centre and Lee Scratch Perry was tweaking the controls making dub reggae a new viable genre.

Curtis Mayfield was in his second year apart from The Impressions on his newly created independent Curtom label. His eponymous LP was released the year before and when this his new LP - Roots hit the shops he was only a year away from penning his most critical and commercial sucess of his career the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film - Super Fly.

With his trademark falsetto vocals and his hard hitting social commentary lyrics this album is a far fly from the bubblegum pop of the time. None more so than the track Now Your'e Gone - an ode to a lost love. Sit back and enjoy "The Gentle Genius" as he was named. A real master at work.

Curtis Mayfield - Now You're Gone

Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Chances are that you would have heard this track before but you just don't know it by name. Surprising because the LP from which the track comes from was in fact the first LP to be ever certified a "Platinum LP" and has sales of over 25 million to date.

Iron Butterfly were a San Diego based band formed in 1966 releasing a debut LP, "Heavy" in early 1968 and then this their second LP "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" in July 1968.

The song i want to talk about is the title track which the LP was named after. Clocking in at 17 minutes and 5 seconds long the song is famed for its droning bass and guitar riff and one of the first extended drum solos in recorded rock music. Very different to the jazz drum solo's which pre-date rock music this drum solo is more tribal and very psychedelic. Also another important component is an extended polyphonic organ solo which ties the guitar and drum sections together.

There are actually very few vocals (only at the beginning and near the end of the record) but even these have a story to play. Most common of the stories is that the track was called "In The Garden Of Eden" but singer Doug Ingle was drunk at the time of rehearsing the song and slurred the words which drummer Ron Bushy wrote down phonetically. The next day the band decided they preferred "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" better and stuck with it.

Probably the most important aspect of this song and album is that it is seen (along with various other bands) as the point that psychedelic music evolved into to the "Heavy Metal" sound that began in the late 60's and early 70's

I'm not going to upload a full mp3 of the track due to the length of the track but i found it on YouTube (split in 2 half's) so here are the links for you to have a listen. If you're a film buff you will recognise the song from a very famous mid 80's film. Let me know if you can get it.

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Part 1
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida Part 2

To Know Or Not To Know

Just got off the phone to my main record dealer from Canterbury. I went there on Saturday and had an average digging session. Found some cheap 12" in the local Oxfam and then saw him and bought some nice reggae re-issues and some original late 60's/early 70's rock and folk rock which i knew i would be able to sell on. The phone call went along its normal route of asking if he was ok and then checking to see if he had any new stuff in or was going on any interesting calls. Alas there was no new stuff and goodbyes were just about to be said before he mentioned that in a hall just behind his shop on the very day i was there on Saturday two women had brought a load of records to sell at a jumble sale. Some lucky buyer had stumbled on them and proceeded to buy masses of their stuff (singles for 25p and LP's for £1) and this stuff was a goldmine. One single he mentioned normally sells for £650!!! The buyer clearly didn't clean the women out as they did a boot fair on the Sunday and people were still finding gems.

It got me thinking along the lines of did i actually want to know this news. Or was i happy be oblivious to the fact that someone else had the luck for once. Ive had my fair share of luck where digging in the crates is concerned but it still irks me when someone else beats me to the loot. With certain records becoming rarer and rarer finding them is like winning the lottery. Think 200 copies in the world then take out the copies that are unplayable or smashed. Then take out the copies in private hands that will never be sold. Doesn't leave at lot.

Population of the world = 6.7 billion / 100 surviving copies of a record.

By any calculations they are not good odds.

My conclusion is i would rather know if only for the fact it may spur me on to new levels of digging where no stone is left untouched. Door to door vinyl enquiries anyone?

Here We Go Again With The Funky Intro

I'm not very good at introductions but i suppose i better try and let you know who i am and what i have in store for this blog.

My name is Ben and im from a small town on the South-East coast of England. I work for a large pharmaceutical company and in my spare time i like to play football, tennis and golf. My main love in life is music of all kinds and i have been collecting vinyl since i was in the 6th form at school way back in 1995 (it did help that there were 2 second hand music shops literally metres from the school). I got into hardcore in late 1993 and that was my first love for many years progressing from the more happy side into drum and bass. I was fortunate to hang around with a few mates who were local DJ's in my formative buying days and they also got me hooked on techno, house, garage and hip hop. From there it was a short step to travelling to London to grab cheap records and start buying up collections of DJ's who were giving up.

Its 2008 now and i have managed to amass a collection of over 10,000 records in virtually every genre going. Its my aim in this blog to educate you with some lesser known gems of all the styles of music i like so expect some classic Breakbeat, UK Hip Hop, Dub Reggae, Acid House, Detroit Techno and even some Funk in the forthcoming posts. Ill also keep you informed with what i have been finding in the crates and maybe air some of my general thoughts on life.

House Music All Night Long

I've been buying a lot of house music recently. Why? Well for one its easier to find than the remaining bits of hardcore im still looking for (numerous as they are) and for two there are so many decent house tunes that can be picked up for literally nothing it seems rude not to.

I'm looking for real house not any of the myriad of styles that have come into existence since the mid 90's. So no Handbag House, no Scouse House, no Funky House, no Hard House .... the list goes on.

Real house is not about drum rolls, ridiculously un-funky basslines or rave style stabs. Its about a groove. A 4/4 beat, a bassline, some strings and if you're feeling frisky some vocals is all you need. Thats what Larry Heard created his legacy on and if it was good enough for him its good enough for me.

Last month i ventured to London and checked out the Music & Video Exchanges (which i try to do at least a month). In the basement of Greenwich MVE i stumbled across amongst others a stash of early 1990's Italian records. For 25p each i really couldn't say no especially after i tapped a few into my phone (the wonders of Internet phones and discogs) to check if it would worth taking them to sell on.

One caught my eye for 2 reasons. Firstly the picture on the back of 3 Italians draped over some Bose speakers looked particularly retro and secondly one of the artists involved was Leo Anibaldi (if you know your techno then say no more).


Blue Zone - Dreams (Extended Mix) - Blue Village (Italy) - BV 3008 (1991)

Forget the A side as that contains two run of the mill jazzy deep house numbers. The real winner on this E.P is the B side. Starting with a solid bass kick it is quickly joined by a viciously strong bassline slightly reminiscent of Mr Fingers - Can You Feel It and the classic "I'm A Real" male vocal sampled from Satoshi Tomiie's and Roberts Owen's masterpiece - Tears, before some strings are added.

This continues for a while before the Robert Owens vocals fade out and another vocal comes into the mix - one of the all time classic and popular sampled accapellas - C'hantal - The Realm. If you don't know this you would have heard it sampled on at least 2 dozen other records ("Sensations Of The Mind" "The Ultimate Seduction" "Wrong Is Right").

Once this vocal has run its course theres time for yet another accapella of unknown origin (although i do recognize parts of it) and a short breakdown with some delicate breakbeats before the track is dragged back to the incessant bassline and kick drum.

Overall not a very original track for its use of vocal samples but it really does the job and gets you in a groove from the off. Judging by discogs not many people know about this track and i managed to pick up a mint spare copy for under £5.00

Blue Zone - Dreams (Extended Mix)