Whaddup, soul kids? Hopefully you're already familiar with Martini & Jopparelli's Music Selections, because if not, you're sleeping on one of the most amazing audioblogs in the known universe. This is one of my favorite spots to find records that I have NEVER heard, which is quite an accomplishment considering that I spend most of my waking life in pursuit of undiscovered auditory pleasures. People who think that I'm even remotely adept at serving up samples and breaks really need to spend some quality time hangin' with my Italian friends/amici, who are astoundingly knowledgeable about a variety of different musical genres. What follows is an eclectic mixture of tracks that they wanted to share with all of you.
We're planning on doing more collaborations in the future, so prepare yourself for the unseen powers of this formidable global connection. The possibilities of joining more than one nation under a groove seem infinite. One love...Scholar
What do you bring with you when a friend invites you to his crib to listen some good music? Okay, I know what you're thinkin'... let's exclude smoking and drinking...;-) What do you take with you? Some of your favorite vinyl records to listen to of course! And, if your collection is kind of eclectic like Jopparelli's, you don't limit yourself to one musical style, but rather, you try to put together different styles to see if your friend likes those sounds too...
That's exactly what we did when Scholar invited us to his spot, one of the most inspiring places in the blog galaxy, the Souled On blog...
We thought: ok let's keep it basic, let's pick up 10 interesting tracks from Jopparelli's vinyl collection, let's rip them and try to tell the people where these tracks come from and why we like them so much! Some of these tunes are not easy to find on the internet...I hope Souled On readers enjoy these gems!
1- George Clinton -"Erotic City". This is George Clinton's version of a classic hit by Prince. Need I say more? This song was sampled by a lot of producers over the years, but GC's version is still the best! One of the phattest basslines ever.
2- Cassius -"Au Reve". French duo Cassius is mainly known for house music. Actually they are complete musicians, and here they show their skills, taking inspiration from vintage sounds and bringing fresh new music while keeping an old, cool groove. (BTW the title means "in a dream"...)
3- Frankie Jugga -"Clap Your Hands". This is Frankie Jugga, straight out of the Funkmaster Flex Camp. A track in the cut-up-style used by party MCs such as DJ Kool, Fatman Scoop and sometimes Flex himself. You know what I'm talking about. This is the instrumental version, a mash up of famous beats and vocals...clap your hands to the beat!
4- The Incredible Bongo Band - "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". The band is famous for the classic break "Apache", but the whole Bongo Rock album is full of beautiful percussions (what else would you expect with that name?). This is an example, a monster tune based on the homonymous psychedelic rock hit from the late sixties. Have a nice trip...
5- Mindless Boogie - "Area 45". Mindless Boogie is a new label from Belgium. They are specialized in re-editing forgotten disco gems. Here they resurrected the original 45 sampled by Metro Area in their hit "Miura". That's why they named it "Area 45". In my opinion this tune is the biggest nu-disco floorfiller in the latest years! Try playing it at a party, and see what happens.
6- Roughneck Soldiers - "Kill Or Be Killed". To all real 90's hip hop headz this tune is a well known classic. But I suspect the new generations may have slept on this one, so here it is! Kenny Dope production, Stretch Armstrong as executive. Is that enough? No? Ok, the instumental is from Shirley Bassey's "Light My Fire", remixed by KD himself. Plus, the two young MCs rap with great style and originality....kill or be killed, that's the question!
7- Saukrates feat. Masta Ace & O.C. - "Rollin". Saukrates is one of the many underrated rappers of the 90's. I first heard him on a mixtape, and he impressed me so much that I immediately bought his EP (which, surprisingly, was imported in Italy, in about 1995). When I listened to it, this EP was definitely a good surprise: it is simply perfect, both in lyrics and production. This track with Masta Ace and O.C. explains the rest of the story.
8- Supernatural - "Buddah Blessed It". This track is famous indeed (famous but NOT mainstream), but I included it because it represented a lot to us back in the days. We liked it because it was so different from the others, and so dope... and we were crazy about the stories he tells in the song... stories about getting stoned of course.
9- Tragedy ft. Capone- "Thug Paradise". I chose this one for three reasons: First -the killer sample is from "Theme from SWAT", the #1 song in the charts when I was born, in 1976! Second -this song has the best Capone verse ever! Third -Because I want to tell everybody my opinion about it: if I was CNN, I would have included this one on The War Report.
10- Wrecks n' Effect - "Juicy (12-inch mix)". An early rap version of the "Juicy" disco tune, produced by Teddy Riley. It's dope! A perfect track to play in combination with the Biggie version.
...and that's all for the Music chapter. Next time I'll speak about Art, Politics and Life, so stay tuned! Much thanks to Scholar for this opportunity and for the dope sounds he brings us each and every day!
Word From M&J's Moms:
"Electronic transmission has already inspired a new concept of multiple-authorship responsibility in which the specific concepts of the composer, the performer, and, indeed, the consumer overlap. ...It will not, it seems to me, be very much longer before a more self-assertive streak is detected in the listeners participation, before, to give but one example, "do-it-yourself" tape editing is the perogative of every reasonably conscientious consumer of recorded music (the Hausmusik activity of the future, perhaps!). And I would be most surprised if the consumer involvement were to terminate at that level. In fact, implicit in electronic culture is an acceptance of the idea of multilevel participation in the creative process."
Glenn Gould
From "Strauss and the Electronic Future," 1964
4 comments:
The only version of "Erotic City" I ever heard was the one by Prince. That used to be my jam when I was hangin' with the ladies! Anybody know who wrote the song?
dennis b
Scholar the comment section is fucked up.
Nice selection of cuts from the M&J crew. This blog (and also the assorted 'guest blogger' series') just gets sweeter and sweeter.
EROTIC CITY was written produced and performed by prince, with vocals by Sheila E (the Revolution's drummer). Track is from 83, but was released in 84 as B side to "Lets Go Crazy" single.
George Clinton did his comeback in the late 80s early 90s with a LP on prince's label Paisley Park, shortly after he re-recorded that track (for a movie soundtrack if I remember well). He also did a couple of less memorable participations on Prince's 1991 LP Graffiti Bridge.
Nice post! All these dudes are some fun on different ways. And thats a thing really important on an artist. He's creativity.
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