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Bobby Boyd congress - Bobby Boyd congress

March 21st, 2011

Bobby Boyd Congress - Bobby Boyd CongressBOBBY BOYD CONGRESS

  • Bobby Boyd congress
  • Okapi
  • 1971
  • France

Bobby Boyd congress was formed on Long Island, NY. Deciding America was already overloaded with funk acts, they moved to France in 1971 and recorded this one album. The self titled Bobby Boyd congress album was originally pressed with really small amounts of 300 or so. When their frontman Bobby Boyd returned to the States, guitarist Larry Jones, bassist Lafayette Hudson, keyboardist Frank Abel, horn players Ronnie James Buttacavoli and Arthur Young, drummer Ernest “Donny” Donable and percussionists Keno Speller and Arthur Young renamed the band as Ice. After the success of Ice’s debut album in 1973 their producer Pierre Jaubert changed the group’s name to the Lafayette afro rock band and the rest is history.

This album, Bobby Boyd congress, is truly a great album. Their sound is a mixture of funk and soul with a hint of rock. A combination of funky guitars, brass, organ and tight drums. The sound is clearly a foretaste of what’s coming later in their career with Ice and Lafayette afro rock band. There’s no fillers in this album. Songs vary from mellow ballads like “I’m undecided” to midtempo funky soul tracks like “In this strange strange land”. There’s several highlights on this great album. “In a toy garden” starts with a 1:40 intro and suddenly turns into a psychedelic funk jam with nice funky drums and a lot of electric guitar. And the guitars still disturb me a little. “Straight ahead” is a rough midtempo funk track with a break in the middle. Uptempo “Train” is also a good one. The best track however is “It’s good to see your face again” that starts a little mellow’ish, but turns into a frantic funk monster. There’s even a huge break in the middle. Bobby Boyd congress was reissued by Vadim music in 2011 with limited quantities, so finally it was possible to get this album without paying over 800 euros.


In this strange strange land


Straight ahead


Train


In a toy garden


It’s good to see your face again

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, funk, soul | No Comments »

Noel Quinlan - The man from Hong Kong

March 19th, 2011

Noel Quinlan - The Man from Hong KongNOEL QUINLAN

  • The man from Hong Kong
  • Overseas records
  • 1977
  • Japan

Hong Kong based Australian composer Noel Quinlan scored a number of Hong Kong movies, and of these, The man from Hong Kong was the first. This Hong Kong-Australia co-production movie was long considered as one of the holy grails of Hong Kong action movies since for long time it was not available outside Australia. It was also the first martial arts movie out of Australia. Starring in the film are Jimmy Wang Yu, legendary Sammo Hung and “the worst Bond ever” George Lazenby. As a soundtrack composer, Quinlan does his job very well. The man from Hong Kong is a very strong action movie soundtrack that rivals even the top blaxploitation soundtracks.

The only track not composed by Noel Quinlan is the theme song “Sky high”, as performed by British pop rock group Jigsaw and composed by the band’s dynamic duo Clive Scott and Des Dyer. It’s a pretty basic late 1970s disco oriented soundtrack song with a hint of pop and even funk. The rest of the album is magnificent work of Quinlan. Midtempo “The carrier from Hong Kong” is one of the best tracks with it’s funky tension feelings and haunting melodies. Similar one is the one and half minute long “Airport”. Synth driven midtempo groover “Kite in the sky” and funky “Roof top” are also great tracks. There’s also three different chase songs. A little odd “The revenge (car chase)”, “Escape” that sounds like British Themes library track within it’s pace and the best one “Foot chase”, that is a acoustic guitar driven funky chase theme á la blaxploitation movies. There’s of course love theme and even some dialogue included in the soundtrack too. Pretty scarce album, but should pop up every now and then.


The carrier from Hong Kong


Kite in the sky


Roof top


Escape


Foot chase

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under asia, funk, soundtrack | No Comments »

Ingfried Hoffmann - Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt

March 17th, 2011

Ingfried Hoffman - Robbi Tobbi und das FliewatüütINGFRIED HOFFMANN

  • Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt
  • Diggler
  • 2002
  • Germany

Join the adventure of Tobbi, a small boy and Robbi, the robot in their Fliewatüüt on the ground, in the water and in the air. Together they built a vehicle which can swim, fly and drive and takes them on their journey. In 1972 the producers of the series used a break-through filming technique: A combination of back projection and puppet acting. Today this series is regarded as a true classic of German TV-history. (Diggler)

Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt is a German children’s book written by Boy Lornsen that was released in 1967. It spawned a film adaptation of 11 episodes in 1972. Besides being a children’s series with groundbreaking techniques, the music is also top class. Composer Ingfried Hoffmann, undoubtedly the best organ player in 1970s Germany, used contemporary sounds like funk, jazz, beat and bossa nova to create this extraordinary soundtrack that remained unreleased for 30 years. This Poland born organist, pianist, trumpeter, composer and arranger was also known for his projects under a pseudonym Memphis Black and for playing with Klaus Doldinger, Klaus Kühn, Peter Nero and Peter Thomas. He did several other soundtrack recordings too during the 1960s and 1970s.

This release by Diggler includes the complete original music from the Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt series, selected dialogues of the characters and as a bonus track, a remix of the title track by The Frank Popp ensemble. The title theme “Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt” starts the album with a rumble. It’s a groovy and funky uptempo track with a slight easy listening feel. It sounds like it suits for any tight early 1970s action movie. Sounds even a little Bond-esque to me. The Frank Popp ensemble’s remix of the title track is really a magnificent one too. It has strong acid jazz feeling but it’s also as much banging as the original, or even more. “Himbeersaft” (raspberry juice) is kind of a downtempo version of the title theme that repeats the melodies slowly with certain grimness. “Nordpol” (north pole) and “Kartoffelschälmusik” (potato peeling music) are both uptempo early 1970s style easy listening soundtrack tracks, latter being the better one but only 36 seconds long. Another great but short track is the breakbeat one “Nessie”. Along the title track, the best one here is “Guten flug! (orgel)” (good flight! (organ)), that is a repeat of the “Guten flug!” track but with whistling replaced by organ sounds. With it’s happy feeling and uptempo beat it just won’t leave anybody untouched. Overall the album is a mixture of early 1970s movie/tv sounds, library music and beat grooviness. Big respect to Diggler for bringing this up.


Himbeersaft


Nordpol


Kartoffelschälmusik


Nessie


Guten flug! (orgel)


Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt


Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt (Frank Popp ensemble remix)

Check also the trailer of the series here.

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, funk, soundtrack | No Comments »

ABC Ansambl Angela Vlatkovića - ABC Ansambl Angela Vlatkovića

March 15th, 2011

ABC Ansambl Angela VlatkovicaABC ANSAMBL ANGELA VLATKOVIĆA

  • ABC Ansambl Angela Vlatkovića
  • Мелодия
  • 1975
  • Yugoslavia

Yugoslavian composer, arranger and band leader Angelo Vlatković did a lot of writing and arrangements during his active years in Yugoslavian music scene. He also had a group of his own called ABC. It was called Kvintet A-B-C first, but then the name evolved and several different forms appear depending on the country of release. In this self-titled album from 1975 the band was called Ansambl Angela Vlatkovića and Vokāli-instrumentāls ansamblis Angelo Vlatkovića, the latter being the Latvian form of writing. Why Latvian? The Russian national record company Мелодия (Melodija) had at least seven different manufacturing plants all over the huge country and all of those released different cover and label designs and used different languages. This one was pressed in Latvian factory, so the song titles and credits are written in Russian and in Latvian. There’s also different cover versions of this album pressed in other factories.

Musically this album follows quite well the trend that was prevailing that time. It’s full of cover songs from both Eastern bloc and the west. Only one song is an own composition by Vlatković, the really mellow and jazzy, flute driven instrumental groover “Za Tebe”. Among the western covers are Abba’s “Waterloo”, Demis Roussos‘ “Goodbye my love” and Gianni Nazzaro’s “Quanto è bella lei”. These are all quite dull nevertheless. There’s good ones included too of course. The cover of The Sweet’s “Poppa Joe” starts with a break and continues as a song very similar to the original. Uptempo cover of Junior Campbell’s “Hallelujah freedom” is a good one too with a break at the start and nice uptempo beats all over with some occasional organ work. Then there’s cover of Doobie Brothers‘ classic “Long train running”, a very interesting rockish breakbeat one, but not that banging as I hoped. On top of the cake there’s two local songs that are really funky and banging. Uptempo instrumental funk track “Snovi” (Dream) and an uptempo vocal number “Ima Vremena” (There are times) with a break in the middle and all. Although it’s hard to say if these are covers or own compositions as there’s no band members mentioned on the cover they’re still pretty darn tight. Nice record from the former Yugoslavia.


Poppa Joe


Hallelujah freedom


Long train running


Snovi


Ima Vremena

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, funk, rock | No Comments »

Houseband - De Houseband

March 13th, 2011

Houseband De HousebandHOUSEBAND

  • De Houseband
  • VPRO
  • 1976
  • Holland

Houseband started their career literally as a houseband. They started out in 1973 as the in-house orchestra at Amsterdam’s legendary club Paradiso, and they were one of the first funk outfits from the whole country. The very same year the first appearance of multi-instrumentalist Peter Smid, and guitarists Frank Sutherland and Harry Hart occurred for the VPRO show Monday night, the radio show by Wim Noordhoek. Noordhoek invited the guys to play there more frequently. Together with some other members that were involved also in the Paradiso sessions, they started out as the house band for the VPRO. The VPRO (originally an acronym for Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep, meaning Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcasting Company) is a Dutch broadcasting organization that started out in 1926 and is still active today.

In 1976 VPRO launched the Zeldzaam & zonderling -series (meaning Strange and rare) and the first volume was studio recordings by the Houseband called simply De houseband. The following volumes were mostly spoken word, comedy and other vocal material. Overall it’s very uninteresting series except this first release. The records were given out as a promo and as far as I know, they were never for sale anywhere. As a radio show studio orchestra, the Houseband played really wide variety of music, although their touch was very soul and funk oriented. The debut album contains all kinds of stuff from pop to blues and beyond. What makes this one interesting, is the cover versions of the JB’s hit “(Givin’ up) food for funk”, the Meters medley “looka-pye-pye / Cissy strut” with a nice break and one original composition, “Baby funk” as written by Frank Sutherland. Obscure record with some good funk for all funky music enthusiasts. Houseband released three more albums in the 1970s and all these are worth mentioning later. All the volumes of Zeldzaam &n zonderling -series have the same cover and only the small sticker on the bottom left corner indicates what’s inside, so don’t be mislead by the cover.


Baby funk


(Givin’ up) food for funk


Looka-pye-pye / Cissy strut

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, funk | No Comments »

Secret oyster - Vidunderlige kælling

March 11th, 2011

Secret Oyster - Vidunderlige KaellingSECRET OYSTER

  • Vidunderlige kælling
  • CBS
  • 1975
  • Denmark

Secret oyster was a short lived jazz-rock fusion supergroup from Denmark that was active only few years during the mid 1970s, but still released four albums. The group was basically a collaboration that emerged from the remnants of Danish prog, psych and fusion bands Burnin’ red Ivanhoe, Coronarias dans and Hurdy gurdy. Musically Secret Oyster was close to the fusion greats Mahavisnu orchestra, Nucleus and Return to forever. Vidunderlige kælling (wonderful bitch) was released in 1975 and was their third album. When Royal Danish Ballet asked them to provide the music for their forthcoming erotic ballet based on the poetry of Jens August Schade they accepted the offer. Besides being very controversial project due the nudity, the musical choice was also quite surprising. Jazz-rock fusion is not the first what comes to mind when thinking of ballet.

The album starts out calmly enough, with the orchestral “Intro” and the spacy “Stjernerne pa gaden.” Next up is “Sirenerne”, a funk-rock esque fusion track, that had some critics comparing them to Miles Davis‘ band at the time of Bitches Brew. “Astarte”, with its Middle Eastern vibes due the sitar work and quite hypnotic rhythm is also a great track. The best track can be found on the b-side however. “Bellevue” starts with a long break and continues as funk track with some fusion elements and two additional breaks in the middle and in the end. The rest of the b-side is again very calm and essential orchestrated material. The album ends with “Outro” that starts with an ominous Moog and string synths before climaxing to a fluttery finale. Weird but beautiful despite the slightly disturbing cover. Vidunderlige kælling was also released internationally with the same cover but under the name Astarte.


Sirenerne


Astarte


Bellevue

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, fusion | No Comments »

Guy Pederson & Raymond Guiot - Contrebasses

March 9th, 2011

Guy Pedersen - ContrebassesGUY PEDERSEN & RAYMOND GUIOT

  • Contrebasses
  • Tele music
  • 1970
  • France

Established in the late 1960s, Paris based Tele music may not be as famous as the bigger French production library companies like Montparnasse 2000 or Chappell, but it was equally good when it comes to funky library releases. Contrebasses from 1970 was a concept album composed by well known session musicians Guy Pedersen and Raymond Guiot. The musical scenery is built around the bass sound but there’s of course other instruments involved too than the double bass of Guy Pedersen - drums and percussion played by André Arpino and flute, piano and harpsichord played by Raymond Guiot.

Music in Contrebasses is pretty much what it should be when it comes to a library release. Quite wide variety of styles from downtempo drama to uptempo funky beat. There’s three tracks that go over the others. Midtempo groovers “Indian pop bass” and “Les copains de la basse” and uptempo “Bass session”. Contrebasses is definitely one of funky ones among those countless French library records that were released.


Indian pop bass


Les copains de la basse


Bass session

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, library, rare groove | 1 Comment »

Yutaka Mizutani - Necchû jidai

March 7th, 2011

Yutaka Mizutani - Necchu JidaiYUTAKA MIZUTANI

  • Necchû jidai
  • For life
  • 1979
  • Japan

Originally from Ashibetsu City, Hokkaidō, Yutaka Mizutani moved to Tokyo when he was eight. He started taking acting classes at the age of 12 and that launched his reluctant career that has been lasting for decades. Late 1970s his agency encouraged him to start doing music. His albums sold very well and he’s been releasing albums every now and then to this very day. In 1978 he starred in a drama comedy tv series called Necchû jidai, where he also did the soundtrack.

The soundtrack is quite typical Japanese soundtrack with variety of different types of music and dialogue placed over the songs. Music is either Japanese soundtrack-disco oriented or orchestrated drama. Album starts with the short uptempo disco’ish vocal track “水谷 豊/カリフォルニア・コネクション 1″ (Kariforunia konekushon 1) (read “California connection 1″). The last one on the first side, “水谷 豊/カリフォルニア・コネクション 2″ (Kariforunia konekushon 2) continues the theme of the first track. “タケシベーダー” (Takeshibēdā) is a mellow funky track with a slightly reggae feel and a lot of dialogue. “ノスタルディア・フライト” (Nosutarudia furaito) is a midtempo disco boogie track with some dialogue at the start and a lot of strings. The funky midtempo “絶対絶命！授業参観” (Zettai zetsumei! Jugyō sankan) starts with a dialogue and continues with nice funky percussion beat and oddly some effects that sound like they’re straight from Super Mario games - although the first Mario bros was released four years later. The only negative thing is that it’s only 47 seconds long. One song however goes over the others within it’s pace and bboy friendliness. “翔べ！夕陽に向って” (Tobe! Yūhi ni mukatte) is an uptempo track that starts with a break, continues as a funky disco song before it turns to the break again. Only one dialogue shout is involved at the start. Overall these songs are all quite short, as is the case with most of the soundtracks from Japan. The cover is also worth to mention, the guy with a huge revolver in the upper pic and the class of little kids in the pic below is a strange combination, but surely it’s a nice series. Or is it? Have anyone even seen it?


Kariforunia konekushon 1


Kariforunia konekushon 2


Takeshibēdā


Nosutarudia furaito


Zettai zetsumei! Jugyō sankan


Tobe! Yūhi ni mukatte

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, soundtrack | No Comments »

Tequila - Power

March 5th, 2011

Tequila - PowerTEQUILA

  • Power
  • Toniton
  • 1974
  • Sweden

Power was supposingly the only album by this obscure funk outfit that hailed from Sweden but consisted of one Swede, one Englishman and four Mexicans. And it’s not to be confused with the Danish group with the same name that was also active during the mid 1970s. Very little is known of these guys, except that guitarist Jörgen Höglund did a solo album in 1980 and some of the Mexican guys are still playing today. Along Höglund the other funky cats here are Rafael “Chatcho” Sida (percussion), José “Pepe” Ballote (saxophone, flute and bass), Jesus “Chuie” Sida (trumpet and percussion), Renato Lopez (bass, guitar and percussion) and Sam Mardsen (keyboards). They are all on vocals too.

The music on Power varies from downtempo funky soul like “Gotta find a way” to uptempo funk like “Someone to love”. The latter being definitely the best track here. Latin influenced jam “Amigo mio” is also worth to mention with it’s nice flute work and funky latin rhythms as well as the caribbean flavored “Cozumel”, that also has a small break in the middle. Then there’s “Smog city” with a hint of rock feeling and the midtempo instrumental funk track “Soraya”, that starts with a break and continues as a hypnotic funk jam. Overall this is a very funky little obscurity from the land of the elks.


Gotta find a way


Amigo mio


Soraya


Smog city


Cozumel


Someone to love

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, funk, soul | 1 Comment »

Pablo Discobar - The only thing

March 3rd, 2011

Pablo Discobar - The Only ThingPABLO DISCOBAR

  • The only thing
  • Private pressing
  • 2006
  • Australia

Melbourne based Pablo Discobar was established in the early 00s. It consists of some of the funkiest musicians of the whole Melbourne area. Throughout the years there’s been some changes in line-up and in this The only thing EP the following guys are playing - Julian Feldman (vocals), Arik Blum (guitar / vocals), Paul Glezer (bass), David Orlanski (drums), Simon Greenfield (saxophone), Matt Mahoney (trombone), Tomas “The Rev” Correa (trumpet) and Hue Blanes (keyboards). After the success of the EP, they have also released a self titled full length album in 2009, although it’s only in cd format as far as I know.

In this one you can find five heavy floor shakers recorded in one all-night jam session. “Devil’s song”, a midtempo vocal funk song starts the album. Next up is “I got it”, an uptempo breakbeat funk track similar to the interestingly named “Interlude”. It’s not an actual interlude as we think of the term, but only shorter than the others. “Pleasure-come-pain” is downtempo but funky vocal track quite similar to the last song “Don’t gimme the loop”. On the flipside there’s instrumentals to all the tracks except “Don’t gimme the loop”. No fillers, only killers as you can say.


Devil’s song


I got it


Interlude


Pleasure-come-pain


Don’t gimme the loop

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under australia, funk | No Comments »

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