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’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.
This week’s Soulful Sunday track goes back to the late sixties. You might have recently heard this track sampled by MF Doom on the track “Old School.” (I have it below for comparison.) It was difficult to choose one track off this album because there was so many stellar arrangements on it. However, most of the other tracks like “The Serpent” and “Spinning Wheel” are more jazzy and I didn’t feel it fit in for Soulful Sunday.
You can hear the opening break of this song instantly grab your attention and I’m sure some of the b-boy readers of this have already started to nod their heads. The piano breakdown and solo is one of the most uplifting parts of this track. Once you feel that this gets a little repetitive Mansfield tastefully switches it up to the piano and brings back the horns for one final call. Truly one of Keith Mansfield’s best works.
Bobby Byrd will probably be best known for his association with James Brown. However, Byrd had many successful years as a solo artist and with other groups. “If You Don’t Work” is one of Byrd’s early tracks that I feel didn’t get the same fame as “Hot Pants.” (After all, “Hot Pants” was sampled by nearly every rap artist in the late 80’s and 90’s.)
“If You Don’t Work” is a superb funk track with a pretty straight forward message. The lyrics aren’t complicated but they hold true even for today. The simple guitar riff throughout the song really keeps your attention and carries the track. The horns give it that classic James Brown/Bobby Byrd flavor. The drums keep your feet moving. Perfect track for Funk Friday.
I’ve been on a slow-mo disco edit tip as of late and wanted to share a little gem that I uncovered digging around the interwebs. This is a great edit from the Super Value crew. The album and track don’t have names to them, but the snippet of music comes from Gabor Szabo’s 1976 mellow track “Keep Smilin’.” This smooth edit is cleverly done by using a simple haunting repeat of the bridge in Szabo’s track. If you can’t tell it sounds very similar to WIlliam DeVaughn’s chorus in “Be Thankful For What You Got.” “Keep Smilin’” is what a disco edit should be. Smooth, mellow, and necessary, especially in a time when disco edits are made to just make them. This track is a perfect slow burner and compliments any summer deck chair lounging.
This year’s Lunacy Parties at Voodoo kick off this 30th. Always and insane time. To start them off this year, they invited Rocky Horror, JeffET, and me for a three man funk, soul, disco, electro, remix-ashup event. These events are always pretty crazy. I’ll post pictures if you don’t show.
This is the set that Sonar played at the Project Runway Premiere Party at Caviar & Bananas on August, 20th 2009. The intro and the outro was DJ Scrunchyface Flatbroke. And we just had to leave that Boz Scaggs joint in there. It was too smooth not to. Here’s the link to it on iTunes.
