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)