Uku Kuut and his mum, on boogie patrol.
Guaranteed to put a beam on your bean and a glide in your stride, the DVD here compiles moments from a local 1982 TV show, broadcast live from a club called The CopHerBox. It’s pleasurable enough just watching people get down so naturally, in a real-life club… but you also get ventriloquists, contortionists, body-builders, impersonators, ‘the full-figured ladies fashion show’, comedy sketches, android group-dancing to techno, rubber chickens… and bands like Universal Togetherness miming to their latest records. There’s also a mini-documentary, complete with Phil Cohran section; and twenty-three full musical performances. (Finally the Dingwalls posse gets a glimpse of Luba Raushiek in action.)
The CD and vinyls are culled from a trove of self-released 45s and small-time twelves; a die-cut cathode-ray jacket and six in-package stills are your tickets and souvenirs.
Great fun.
‘Numero does it again: a whole new discovery. Made some music between ’79 and ’82. Never came out until now, so the backing tracks were mixed by the Phenomenal Handclap Band’s Sean Marquand. You know what I love about that period? Around that era, it’s like jazz, funk, and disco mixed together… you get this unique sound… bands like Light Of The World and Hi-Tension… This could almost be British from that era. It’s my album of the week’ (Gilles Peterson).
A brilliant, tough, mid-70s funk work-out; and some nostalgia, with wistful falsetto and low-riding narration.
The UFB was formerly known as Bump And The Soul Stompers, led by Jerald ‘Bump’ Scott, from Kansas City.
45s of It’s Just Love by John Andrews and Look Away by The Shirelles are both gold-plated dancefloor classics; so it’s thrilling to present these interpretations by their co-composer — the great Valerie Simpson, of Ashford & Simpson — out here for the first time.
Look out for Wayne McGhie, Jackie Mittoo and Johnny Osbourne passing through from Studio One. Also Alton Ellis’ son, Noel, and numerous local one-aways. Lovingly researched.
Giddying soul music from early-eighties Estonia!
A rework of I See Red by Frida, from Abba, with raw fiddle, and poetic new lyrics by Velly about camels and maidens; plus an unnerving version of Feel Like Makin’ Love.
Check it out!
‘Triumphant experiments in privately-issued sci-fi soul music; lonely transmissions from a planet in a state of cultural fugue. Packaged in a one-way portal to the further limits of expression. Some assembly required.’
Arranged and produced by Leroy Hutson, who co-wrote all the songs, and part engineered at Curtom. The Voices’ best album, brimming with good vibes, bubbling grooves, great singing, political resistance.
Sanctified, southern soul — lost, crying, frank harmonising, and swaying horns and organ — recorded at FAME, Muscle Shoals, in 1964, by cousins Johnny Simon and Ervin Wallace from Atlanta. Lover’s Prayer is a scorcher.
The vinyl is a facsimile of the original LP (on Russell Sims’ Nashville label); the ‘Complete Sims Recordings’ CD from Kent adds ten more sides.