What are you eating for breakfast? How about some biscuits n gravy? I’m serving up a blend of funk and rap in this delicious podcast. This is the first podcast I recorded using The Bridge. I figured since Serato and Ableton created something so good together, I could serve up some mixes that would go together like some good southern comfort food. You’ll hear a lot of party breaks in this but it holds true to what the Stone Groove is all about, old school funk and soul. Let me know what you think about the mix. As always link to the podcast on iTunes is after the jump.
I wanted to start 2011 off with a stone solid Funk Friday track. I’ll admit I didn’t dig to the dusty section of my closet or reach to the ends of the Earth to find this one. However, despite it not being the rarest selection out there, this track will take you on an amazing funk odyssey to the edge of the galaxy and back again. As always here’s a little knowledge on the artists themselves.
Slave was an Ohio based funk group lead by Steve Washington. Who’s Steve Washington you ask? Well he’s the nephew of Ralph Middlebrook of the Ohio Players. Slave preformed some very gritty and hard edged funk and it’s no secret once you listen to this track how the tracks father “Slide” topped the singles charts in 1977 which helped bring their self titled album to number 6 on the U.S. R&B chart.
“Son of Slide” can almost be considered an instrumental version of “Slide.” However, after listening to both tracks one can hear that the bass line in “Son of Slide” is more prominent and chunky. “Son” also features a hypnotic chant at the end softly alerting and assuring that dancers can, “Slide with me till morning.” It’s a shame that part of the song is only a few seconds long. I’m sure any DJ can play that part at least three minutes and get away with it. (Thank you looping function in Serato!) The guitar solo in the middle of the track is set to power any funk mothership throughout hyperspace and cruising speeds are brought to you by the horn section. No wonder why Tribe Called Quest sampled the hell out of this on their People’s Instinctive Travels “Go Ahead in the Rain.” All in all, this track embodies what Funk Friday is all about. Don’t sleep on this track.
I felt like getting back to a more traditional Soulful Sunday post today. This album from Brother to Brother has got some groovy tracks on it, but I wanted to point out the title track “In the Bottle” which has a very particular jazzy groove and the lyrics still have relevance today. The sweet flanged-out vocals really add to the piece by recanting the lyrics in a pseudo club chant style. What might come as a surprise to folks listening to this is that this track is actually a cover of a Gil Scott Heron’s “In the Bottle” and even contains a similar flute solo like Heron’s.
This track has been getting a lot of reworks done as of late. The most notable is the rework done by Yosaku & DJ Day titled “The Bottle” on the BSTRD BOOTS label. (I have included the tack down at the bottom for your listening pleasure.)
“In the Bottle” is a must have in any DJs crate if they need just a solid groove early on in the evening. I don’t believe that it is a floor filler, but in many cases it’s going to get people’s heads nodding.
Yo everyone, it’s that time of year when all the radio stations and department stores are playing all the commercial tunes featuring some contemporary artist R&Bing every Christmas song memory you have. If you are like me then you are fed up with the junk and you want to replace your Christmas playlist with some holiday funk! Hit the jump to download the Stone Groove Christmas Mix 2010.
I’m still on the “Christmas songs that don’t suck” mood. For this Soulful Sunday I present to you a James Brown track off of his “Funky Christmas” album that was released in 1995. Unlike the loud talking, direction giving Brown that we know and love from the early days, this song goes back to his crooning days. It has that 50’s big band sort of rhythm and blues feel. Take a listen and let us know what you feel.
I decided to keep the spirit of the holiday season by bringing you a nice change from the commercial holiday music that has been bombarding your eardrums lately. (Is it just me or is everywhere really overdoing it this year for the holidays?) The good folks at Strut Records dug up some rare Christmas Grooves and put them into a funky compilation titled, “In the Christmas Groove.” I mean to recreate James Brown’s legendary “In the Jungle Groove” album cover, you know they had to deliver the heat with this one.
One particular gem on this album was from a little known funk artist named J.D. McDonald. In fact, Google searching his name will yield bathroom and hygiene products. I really wish that there was some liner notes or something that can trace the history of this guy. So, I can’t give you much history of the track.
If you need something to spice up your dulling Christmas party or just need something to shake up your daily commercial Christmas songs sung by Mariah Carey or Miley Cyrus, then this is the perfect track! The drums are like just cooked stove top Jiffy Pop. The bass line adds a buttery smoothness (almost feeling a little overpowering at times.), and the yelling vocals definitely conjure up a funky dancing, boogaloo breakin Santa Claus. Santa apparently even stops boogalooing to do the funky chicken. Hit the jump for the track.
If this song was real, how much cooler would department store Santas would be if the requirement was to boogaloo like Boogaloo Sam.
