‘Special dedication to all the people who live inna House… Ain’t no house like Waterhouse… Ain’t no house like Firehouse.’
From the Sleng Teng era but played live. Total, heart-lifting class.
Altogether now…
Delroy’s bro in two feeling excursions on his punchy Better Must Come rhythm.
Aka Ricardo Villalobos & Argenis Brito.
His startling 1970 comeback for Reprise, recorded at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. A blend of blues, Sly Stone and country rock loaded with the Richard scream, rollicking piano and booting saxophone. ‘He was just singing his booty off,” recalled Travis Wammack (who wrote Greenwood, Mississippi for the session).
The title track kicks off side two with a staggering dollop of super-heavy funk: ten increasingly frazzled minutes of breaks-and-beats heaven pilfered by everyone from Big L and Lord Finesse to Prodigy.
Sixteen wonders from the first three years of Franco’s own imprint Les Editions Populaires, founded in 1968. Mostly OK Jazz, performing ravishing rumbas and bolero ballads in Lingala, traditional songs in Kikongo, Kimongo, and even Yoruba, collaborations with Ngoma artists Camille Feruzi and Manuel d’Oliveira, and their own tough take on US funk.
Glorious music. Bim.
‘The first LP compilation of songs by the great Eddie and Ernie! The duo produced tons of great singles throughout the 60s and early 70s. This LP features a couple of dance numbers, but mostly slow dramatic soul ballads reminiscent of the best moments of more well-known acts like Sam & Dave and Otis Redding. Some pretty eerie soaring vocals and existential lyrics of the highest order.’