Spaced Invaders

I don’t have too much time to write a super long post about this, but it’s definitely one of the most sought after albums by beat diggers. Oddly, you really don’t hear any steel drums on the opening track entitled “Down By The River” until close to the end. Most of the songs on this album are straight covers, but the cover for Kool & The Gang’s “Funky Stuff” the steel drums can be heard prominently and give that cover a great, very danceable vibe.

This Steel band is a twelve-piece seventies party band, consisting of Surinames and Trinidadian musicians.
Since Surinam was still part of The Netherlands in those days, the name of the band abroad was The Original Trinidad Steel Band and released two albums as such (Beautiful Caribbean and Caribbean Steel & Show on Hansa, with Frank Farian as their producer), apart from their three Dutch albums. Their most interesting Dutch album is Funky Limbo (EMI, 1978), which was produced by Ernie Anches. Anches was also involved with various other funky Surinam acts, such as Oscar Harris, The Twinkle Stars and Thunderstorm. The preceding album Dance Dance Dance (EMI, 1976) made DRSSB a lot more rare, because it contained their international hit single ‘January February’. This brought them a very busy touring schedule. Today the band is still active and consists of quite a few sons of the original members like Sticko who is the son of Dolf (Mr Satisfied) the founder of this Band.

Read (if you speak Dutch) the story and discography of the band here.

The Dutch Rhythm Steel & Show Band on My Space

Tracks
A1 Down By The River 5.09 (Vocals - Armand Colla)
A2 Theme From Shaft 2.41
A3 Snowfire 3.47  (Vocals - Gustaaf Milzink)
A4 Stoned Out Of My Mind 2.39
A5 Softly 2.57
A6 Hey Joe 3.19
B1 Feelin’ Alright 7.31
B2 Serenta 2.03
B3 Funky Stuff 3.22  (Vocals - Armand Colla , Bernito E. Riley)
B4 Where Is The Love 2.39 (Vocals - Gustaaf Milzink)

I did not have the opportunity to finish this last night, due to spending an extended period of time at a local Japanese steak house. But if it were still Friday, then this gem is what I would publish. Usually, I just like to review one song, but this album is a must for any crate digger, funk head, or any person just starting to dive into vinyl. This compilation features funk and soul during the 70’s from the sun-drenched ghettos of  Rio de Janeiro. This music shares some of the same qualities and struggles as their soul brothers in Harlem. You can hear the distinct sounds that influenced the Black Rio movement from labels such as Motown, Stax, and even the Godfather himself, James Brown helped shaped this blend of “soul brasileiro.” The drum rhythms have that distinct Brazilian flavor and Manito’s “Na Baixa do Sapateiro” the opening break left goosebumps and the hairs on my arms standing. I had to actually rewind the track to make sure I actually heard what I heard. Take a listen to the opening break:

Pretty damn nice wasn’t it? Anyway here is the complete tracklisting of the album. And yes there is a version of Rapper’s Delight on this album.

Tracklisting:
1 Gang Do Tagarela - Melo da Tagarela (Rapper´s Delight) (4:10)
2 Copa 7 - Copa 7 No Samba (2:53)
3 Grupo Arembepe - Iaia (3:04)
4 Uniao Black - Black Rio (2:46)
5 Miguel de Deus - Cinco Anos (4:56)
6 Jorge Ben - Comanche (2:58)
7 Trio Mocotó - Nago (3:40)
8 Banda Black Rio - Gafiera Universal (3:06)
9 Toni Tornado - Podes Crer, Amizade (2:30)
10 Eklipse Soul - Psicose (2:11)
11 Manito - Na Baixa Da Sapateiro (3:28)
12 Orlandivo - Onde Anda O Meu Amor (3:46)
13 Dom Salvador e Aboliçao - Som, Sangue E Raca (2:46)
14 Antonio Carlos E Jocafi - Kabaluere (2:22)
15 Orquestra E Coro - Kriola (2:27)
16 Gerson King Combo - Uma Chance (5:25)

Before we dive into how great this track is, I just want to say that Sundays are made for Curtis Mayfield. For those who don’t know this is where Curtis got his start. This track is one of my all time favorite songs. Even Flatbroke dropped this one in a Stone Groove podcast. It’s just a damn good track, and the lyrics are very inspirational. The drums keep this track on a very head nodding rhythm. Curtis’s falsetto as always adds gold to any track that he does. If you feel like crap after listening to this song, then I would advise you to seek the help of a qualified therapist.

Just a short, sweet soul track with a haunting refrain. Everyone knows this song and it’s just something good to mellow out to on the start of your Sunday.

This was the first track that started playing when I turned on iTunes this morning. This San Francisco based funk band produced an awesome album “This Is The Beginning” and it completely slipped through the cracks. I wouldn’t classify these cats as “funk,” I’d say they are more a psych-soul band sort of like Sly and the Family Stone. This is the Beginning is packed full of horns, drum breaks and acid filled guitar riffs and solos, it’s perfect for those who love good funk music, for DJs who want some good floor heaters, and for the producers looking to sample something. In fact, I’m surprised this whole album wasn’t sampled more. I guess many pressings of this album didn’t get out to the public. Anyway, here is a track from the album entitled Mirage.

A stellar example of some early Detroit funk! To get the full story on the Fabulous Counts you can go here. But I just wanted to give you something good to start your hump day with.

Tom Brock - I Love You More and More

Today is more about a lesson than an album review. The dusty crate digging funk and soul lesson of today is you can almost judge a good album by its cover. To illustrate my point we’ll take this cover Tom Brock’s “I Love You More and More.” Now let’s take a minute and conjure up an image.

Let’s say that you were the smoothest cat at the bar and you actually picked up a beautiful young lady. (We all know that has never happened to you, but just make pretend for a moment that it has.) You are really attracted to this girl and you want to impress the panties off of her. Now you bring her back to your place, and you decide to get a little more comfortable and put on your pimp ass smoking jacket, and open up a fresh bottle of Columbia Crest Two Vines Merlot. You pour the lady and yourself a glass and sit down and begin to tell her how you save kitties stuck in trees, cried at The Notebook, and how much you enjoy John Mayer’s music. Now you aren’t jumping the gun to get in her drawers because you are smooth like that and want to get her so wound up that one touch from you will send her into ecstasy. Got that image in your head? Okay good. What does it look like? Chances are it looks like this cover here. And chances are this is the closest that you and I will ever get to that situation.

Anyway, this is Tom Brock’s finest and only album. It’s filled with beautiful strings, driving bass lines and rhythmic beats, with funky up-tempo rhythms. Tom Brock’s vocals on this album are top notch. Then again, what would you expect from a protégé of the walrus of love himself, Barry White. Oh that was never mentioned? That’s right Tom Brock was mentored by White himself. In fact, Barry produced this album. I am actually very surprised that this album never went anywhere. With it being produced by Barry, and just the great soul that is on this album, I’m just truly surprised that this wasn’t an instant classic.

Now for the juicy details of this album. We all know Jay-Z, well “Girls, Girls, Girls” came from this album here. Also, nearly every track on this album has sample qualities. In fact, I’m producing music for a few artists and already four tracks of there album were sampled from this. If you are a crate digger you must find this album.

Tom Brock – I Love You More And More
Track listing:

1. Have A Nice Week End Baby

2. The Love We Share Is The Greatest Of Them All

3. there’s nothing in this world that can stop me from loving you

4. I love You more & more

5. Naked as the day I was born

6. That’s the Reason Why

7. Shake Me, Wake Me

8. If We Don’t Make it, Nobody Can