The Feel It Advent-ure 2021: Door 15

Here's a piece of very classy early disco. South Shore Commission, scored a big hit with Free Man in 1975, which registered as Billboard's #1 disco record of that year. This track featured on their one and only album and makes an appearance here as the B side to Free Man's follow up - We're On The Right Track. The right track turned out to be a siding as the tracks from their album were never followed up, the band presumably breaking up sometime around the end of '75. Looking at the background of the band members it seems they all had their roots in soul going back to the early 60s. So, ironically, it maybe that the industry's move towards disco music, which gave them their one and only big hit, may have ultimately left them somewhat disillusioned with the music business.

I've read that the band hailed from Washington DC meaning they were presumably named after the DC district South Shore. However, their album was mixed by Tom Moulton at Sigma Sound in Philly and Dick Griffey also had some involvement, and he was a key player behind the TV program Soul Train, going on to found LA based SOLAR records. Then again Wikipedia, and the most comprehensive write up I can find on the band suggest the bands roots were in Chicago. Now I'm confused!

The writer of this track – Carrie – is, I believe, Carrie Lucas who had a number of albums released on Soul Train and Solar labels and married Dick Griffey in 1974.

South Shore Commission – I'd Rather Switch Than Fight 1975

Groundhog day

A belated Happy New Year to you. “Happy” is a stretch at the moment I know, so perhaps a Better New Year maybe a more appropriate wish.

What follows will have you scratching your head a little with some references in relation to where we are right now, but stick with it and all will become clear.

C.M. Lord is my shepherd... she restoreth my faith in charity shop digging... she leadeth me back to the blogging world.

Charity shop digging has been challenging this year but just recently I had seen a return to almost normal service. Most shops were once again happy to put vinyl out on the floor, and stock turnover was improving. Finds have been thin on the ground though. And now we are back in a lockdown of sorts for at least another four weeks and the shops are shut again.

For just a few weeks before our latest “pause” one of my favourite charity shops (venue of some consistently good finds in the last year or two) had started putting vinyl out again. On my first visit there since the vinyl had reappeared I found an Undisputed Truth album, which was a nice surprise. However, the album was ultimately disappointing when I got it home and gave it a spin. Nevertheless it served to instil some fresh hope of future finds, and on my very next visit, just a few days before “lockdown 2.0”, I picked up this C.M. Lord album for the princely sum of 99p. For some reason it was placed next to the two boxes of albums for sale and I almost missed it completely. Maybe someone had pulled it out with a view to buying it and decided against it. Their loss. It is a fine album.

Catherine Mitchell Lord is a new name to me. This album was released very late in 1981 I think, and a single came out around that time too, but they made little or no waves it seems. I was still DJing in '81 but by the end of that year I think I had hung up the headphones and walked away from the wheels of steel so I had lost touch with the scene a little by then.

I can find very little info online about Cathy. Seemingly her first appearance on wax was in 1974 when a London single bore her name. By 1976 she had moved to Capitol – a major label that did a good job of releasing some very fine Soul music, especially in the mid '70s. - and an eponymous album appeared, and spawned a single Oh Mama which did nothing but is excellent, and now in demand. Her Discogs page tells me she released five singles and three albums between 1974 and 1983....

And that is where my “copy” stops. You see I wrote this back in early November last year, about a week into Lockdown 2.0. It was going to be my first post here for a while but it didn't happen. It just goes to show the blogging mojo is a fleeting and very fragile beast, even managing to desert me in mid composition (photo had been taken, mp3s created too). In the end it took almost another month before I snapped out of my blogging malaise and burst into life again with another Feel It Advent-ure before another radio silence kicked in. Now here we are almost another month later and into yet another Lockdown. Taking up where I left off with my two month old half a post above feels like a Groundhog Day.

So what else is there to say about CM Lord? I think I was just starting a deep dive into the internet back in November to see what else I could piece together on her when I very abruptly went off air, so to speak. I have finally completed that task now.

Initially I found reference to an article that appeared in Blues & Soul in August '76 but it was behind a paywall. That prompted me to dig out my old magazines. No August '76 copies though, I was predominantly buying Black Music back then. I fast forwarded to late '81 to see if I could find any coverage around her 1981 album but it seemed I stopped buying Blues & Soul in August of '81, a few months before this album of hers was released. A dead end.

In truth there is not a lot to find on Cathy. She also goes by the name Catherine Mitchell Wilmore, possibly her married name. My research did lead me down some interesting paths though that I think are worth highlighting here.

Robby Adcock, part of a late '70s Disco group Midnight Rhythm, offers some insight to her early career. There is a long piece here which is worth reading. C.M. Lord was, in fact, a name of an LA band active in the early '70s (and a youtube comment suggests they were playing at the Starwood in Hollywood around '73). CM Lord, the band, turned up at a small California based 8 track recording studio called Fat Chance Recording early in '72. They took their name from Cathy who was their lead singer. Their debut single, on London, was released in '74. I am sure the band would claim credit for it although 45cat show a pic sleeve where it is clearly pushing Cathy as a solo artist. (Another group comes to mind here – Rufus. Chaka Khan was, of course, their charismatic lead singer, but in their instance it was the group, not Chaka, who were very much the marketed entity in the early years). Around then the band had become part of the, then, deeply underground early disco scene in California. Cathy was a great writer apparently but she lost the rights to much of her early work it seems when Fat Chance's owner Joe Long wrangled the rights to her songs – a depressingly common story back then.

In '76 CM Lord – Cathy or the band?, might have thought they had her/their big break. An album was released on Capitol. Writing credits include all the band members names, although it is only Cathy who appears on the cover and it was clearly Cathy as a solo artist who was being pushed. The album did nothing. 

Around the same time, possibly earlier, the band, including Cathy, would appear to have been sucked into a group of musicians who became very prolific on at least one shady record label – Baby Grand. In '76 the Steven Hines Band had a release on Tiger Lily Records. Steven Hines had been / was in the band CM Lord. Cathy co-wrote many tracks on that album. 

In '77 there followed, at least in terms of release dates,  A Fat Chance (evidently named after the recording studio), released on Baby Grand. This is more of a group affair and may well have been recorded earlier than '77. Both the Tiger Lily and Baby Grand labels were, essentially, tax scams. Baby Grand in particular was prolific in '77, you can read more about the label here, and here. Fascinating stuff.

Later in the '70s and into '80 Cathy had a few writing credits on disco slanted records but nothing else as far as I can find. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, at the end of '81 suddenly she appeared again on a major label – RCA Montage – with the album featured here. She was evidently on major label's A&R radar. After that though , again, I can only unearth a few writing credits and a sole 12” disco release through into 1983 at which point she seemed to essentially disappear from the music scene.

I did find only two other co-writing credits after 1983 – on a 1989 Natalie Cole track, and a 1991 electro/hip-hop track (DJ Extraordinaire with Lord Hakim House Tha' Set), but it is possible this was just sampling one of her earlier compositions.

On a copyright database I found her name listed a couple of times with 1943 given as a birth date.

Catherine Mitchell Wilmore, I think you will agree, is not a common name and I did find a reference to a woman of that name currently living in Los Angeles. Her age is given as 78 which would be consistent with the birth date I found, and interestingly a relative (son?) is listed with a given name of Lord. It all stacks up. If it is Cathy then it seems she has never strayed from LA, or at the very least returned to her old stamping ground. There is an address and a telephone number given. I guess I could try and make contact, but maybe nowadays that could be viewed a bit too much like stalking.

C M Lord – Don't Run Me Away 1981

C M Lord – Can't Wait 1981

Tapping My Feet #19

Mrs Darce is thankfully almost fully recovered from what we assume was a dose of this dreaded virus. She was wiped out for three weeks and says it was the most ill she has ever felt. She has managed a few walks over the last few days, but is still pretty pooped afterwards. As I mentioned here (twelve days ago now) I also wasn't feeling too good. Fortunately my symptoms didn't develop and after four days I was feeling OK again and have been since. I did manage to get a test in the end, although by the time I took it (a week ago now) it was six days after I had first shown symptoms and I was back to feeling fine. I did test positive though. So I think we can safely assume Mrs Darce was also positive, and I would appear to have got off very lightly. I would like to think we now have some immunity, but you just don't know.

The cataloguing of my 12” singles collection is now complete (at least until I buy another one!). 45 Worlds tells me I have 411 of them. I finished this task a few days ago and I am missing it already. I shouldn't need a reason to interact with the various nooks and crannies of my record collection but somehow that was the way it was with my 12s. Lots of memories were stirred and it was great to be immersed in so much feel good music. It has always annoyed me that bandwagon jumpers gave Disco a bad name. There was so much great music that came out of the Disco era, tightly produced, beautifully arranged. And it was uplifting, carefree, joyous, celebratory music - and we could certainly do with some now in these strange times. Dance your troubles away.

The cataloguing exercise has confirmed something I already knew - I bought a lot of 12” singles, particularly in 1979 and 1980. Here's one...

Dynasty– I've Just Begun To Love You 1980

Parish Notices & Tapping My Feet #18

You might have noticed I've finally got 'round to updating the blogroll, something I've been meaning to do for a long time now. I couldn't believe how long dormant many of the blogs were, and there were quite a few that had disappeared altogether or the url had lapsed, or been hijacked. I couldn't bring myself to delete some of favourite blogs from the past, so they are still listed in a separate section in a sort of homage, and also in the most probably forlorn hope that they may reactivate in the future. Actually that hope is possibly not so far fetched in these strange times we are living in as I notice a few of the blogs now featured in the active list were dormant until very recently.

In recent years it seems music blogs have become an endangered species, with the rise of streaming sites, smartphones, Instagram, Twitter and the like all contributing to their demise I think. However, my blogroll overhaul has left me heartened by how many are still going strong. Even if, I suspect, the traffic to them is much reduced.

The things we do in this lockdown state. My bookmarks have generally had a throroughly good spring clean. Revisiting all these links (now, why did I bookmark this in the first place?) has made me very nostalgic. I read the other day that Stanley Gibbons, the stamp people, have noticed a definite uptick in interest and sales on their site. Stamp collecting – remember that? I certainly do, and I know exactly where my stamp albums are! On the list for activities next week!

My lockdown state is in fact a full lockdown at the moment as I have to report that Mrs Darce has symptoms of this horrible virus. No cough or shortness of breath, but general flu symptoms in spades, and 11 days and counting now. At least her temperature only lasted a few days. Also, in the last three days I haven't been feeling top notch either. One trouble with all this is that in the end you don't know whether you have/have had the dreaded thing or not. I have been daily reporting our state of health for about a month now on the Zoe app. As a result of this I was offered a COVID-19 test yesterday, effectively as a research volunteer. I duly went through the application steps only to be told there were no home tests available and the nearest drive through testing station was over 60 miles away. Check back tomorrow it said. So I have today and there are no tests of any description available today apparently. Ho hum.

Anyway, I find that immersing myself in various activities (like writing this post for example) keeps my mind off my, admittedly very mild, feelings of “not being quite right” and as a result I feel better. One such activity a couple of days ago was helping our daughter build a proper office style desk for her home working. Her makeshift use my parents old bureau was not ideal. So we, mainly my daughter I have to say, built an ergonomically friendly desk. Suitable flatpacks would have taken too long to deliver. So we did some proper construction. Measured and cut the wood (we had some in the garage), took delivery of some sturdy metal legs, glued and screwed the whole thing together, and gave it two coats of varnish. I was chief jigsaw wielder, our daughter essentially did the rest. Very satisifying.

To encourage the glue to take when we were building this desk we utilised four cases full of 12” singles (they are heavy, and to think I used to cart these around regularly back in my DJing days). It was funny, when I suggested we use these cases my daughter imeediately ran up to the spare room to get them. Where are they? she shouted. Not in there, I replied, those particular cases are in my wardrobe in the bedroom. Yes, there is vinyl everywhere.

This event has reminded me I have never catalogued my 12” singles collection on 45cat (45worlds to be precise), so that activity commenced last night!

My nostalgic state, and these cases of 12” singles, also reminded me of a couple of blog subject titles I used to use with some regularity. I have used both of them on this post, “Parish Notices” was last seen in 2015, and “Tapping My Feet” in 2013; how time flies. This leads me to the music for the day.

For all the clubbers everywhere who can only dance around their own kitchen table at the moment, here, from case 1: A-E of my most treasured twelves, is Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Dee Dee Bridgewater – Lonely Disco Dancer 1980

The A side is a sweet thing too:

Dee Dee Bridgewater – One In A Million (Guy) 1980

Changing times

Yesterday turned into a beautiful early Spring day. All the more beautiful because I had the day off work. This is the second week running I have taken a Friday off and made it a long weekend (last weekend that long weekend was taken in a bracing, but thankfully dry, Cornwall). Fridays off are a current experiment with a view to reducing my working hours and making it a fixture. A much better work – life balance and gradual wind down to retirement is my thinking.

Taking advantage of the weather Mrs Darce and I took a sunny stroll to a new favourite local watering hole. There, spurred on by some successful DIYing earlier in the day that entailed putting our fridge freezer back on an even keel (we think a leak of some description had caused a floorboard to rot), conversation turned to the subject of more general house maintenance and room makeovers. By the end of the pub visit we had a plan. Oh dear! DIY and decorating have not been on the agenda for some years.

So it seems changes are afoot.

I guess it is thoughts of approaching retirement (which have been occupying my mind a lot recently), but I have been feeling nostalgic this past week or so, and in particular nostalgic for my 70s disco days.

With changes in the air it made me think of Brass Construction. They were a go to band for me in the mid 70s. The band originally formed in the late 60s, with Randy Muller the 'leader', but in their early years only had only one record release, a 45 in 1970 on Jeff Lane's DOCC label Two Timin' Lady / Take It Easy. It can be found on YouTube (what can't!?) and it is noticeable that their brass sound was immediately fully fledged, and somewhat ahead of its time I think. However, it was another five years before they committed to vinyl again. Their debut album, released in 1975, stood out from the crowd. The brass was prominent, the guitars were insistent, and a novel string sound had been added to the mix. BT Express had featured a similar string sound a year earlier? Yes but that had also been the brainchild of Jeff Lane and Randy Muller. A Wax Poetics article from 2004 is an excellent in depth appreciation of the group and also adds some interesting detail on how the string sound came to be. They go on to feature a number of tracks that feature Randy Muller's involvement. It is interesting to note I hve nearly all of them. 

Kool & The Gang and the Fatback Band had been dancefloor fixtures with their feel good funk vibe for a while but Brass Construction's sound, although anchored in funk, seemed to mark an entry point into a new, more sophisticated, disco sound and also lay down some early markers for the jazz-funk scene.

Pulling out my copy of Brass Construction for the first time in years I was puzzled by the Virgin price sticker on the front cover. I thought I had bought this album on its initial release, but the price sticker suggests it was a few years later. Perhaps until then I had been surviving with the singles that this album spawned, or maybe I lost my original copy and bought a replacement? It's all too hazy now. Scary, I'm sure only a few years ago my memory would have been sharp enough to have had this puzzle nailed.

The whole album sounds really fresh I think after all these years. Every track is a winner.

Brass Construction – Changin' 1975

At risk of blowing my Box download bandwidth again (be sure to tell me when that happens) her is another track. This one was overshadowed by a few of the other tracks at the time but it it's finally got some well deserved love from me now.

Brass Construction – Love 1975

Hokey cokey belly buttons

Here we go then.

Quite why we, the Great British Public, are being entrusted with a simple yes no vote on something that could significantly effect our future, and our childrens' future, I have no idea. Then again, it could turn out to be of little significance. There's the rub, after all this campaigning we still have little or no idea, do we, really? 

By the way, that question is not designed to spark a political debate, I don't do politics here. It is a good excuse to play a Willie Hutch track though, and I have a feeling Willie had something else on his mind when he recorded it.

Willie Hutch - In And Out  1982       



 

10!

This blog is 10 years old today!

It was inconceivable to me back in 2006 that, 10 years later, Feel It would still be alive. So I had been wondering lately how to mark this occasion. A mix of a few things that have appeared here down the years, maybe one from each year? Perhaps some discussion on  how the internet has continued to change the way we discover, and listen to, music in the years since this blog was born? 

Nice ideas, but time is short - my life in general continues to be pretty busy at the moment. And there's the rub. Maybe I'm not quite as enthusiastic about this little project as I once was because I  am managing to do neither of the things mentioned above, which a landmark such as this should surely warrant.

Instead I will just mark another year of operation of this blog in the usual way... by thanking you for still dropping by, letting you know I'm not intending to hang up the closed sign yet... and wishing Candi Staton a Happy Birthday.

 

The Feel It Advent-ure 2015 #12

X Factor on the tele was my cue to move into the record room.

Something prompted me to pull this Fat Larry's Band album out the other day, but I can't remember what it was now. It's called Feel It! I must admit I had forgotten that, and before you ask, no, this album was not the prompt for the title of this blog, but it does contain two tracks I do really feel.

The lyrics to Center City may be banal in the extreme but the rise and fall of the song and the chorus just get me every time. This one is for all of you in the City Centres today - whether it was shopping or partying.

Fascination is a great soulful and funky reworking of the David Bowie track, ooh those horns.       

Brings back memories of my early DJing days.

Fat Larry's Band - Center City  1976

Fat Larry's Band - Fascination  1976

One Way ticket for the feet

I found myself putting together a disco mix CD for a swap over at VG+ recently. I thought it would be made up almost entirely with 12“ singles when I started but in the end a few 7” and album tracks ended up in the mix too. It was a good exercise because it led me to rediscover a few records I had probably not played for over 30 years, since my DJing days. A case in point was the album One Way featuring Al Hudson (incidentally they released two albums by that name, this is the second of them) . A track from this album was nowhere near my initial tentative stabs at a running order for the mix CD. But the process caused me to pull this album out of the collection and put in on the deck, I thought for a quick needle skip through the tracks out of curiosity. I ended up playing it all the way through, both sides. Many – most? – Disco and Soul/Funk albums from the 70s and 80s don’t really make it as an album, often one trackers , often with an awkward mix of dancefloor business and slow – dare I say dull and syrupy – numbers. This One Way album holds up well though. The funky tracks are all strong and irresistible to the feet and the slower numbers have plenty of merit too, there is some invention and texture – more than “soul by numbers”.  Al Hudson has a good voice too. Thinking about it I was evidently a fan of Al. The band were originally known as Al Hudson & The Soul Partners and I have a few of their 12“ singles – among them You Can Do It which was at the poppier end of their output and was a big hit in the UK, and Spread Love which was a killer and still finds favour. Alicia Myers was also in the group at the time of this album. This is where Detroit was in the late 70s and early 80s.   

I decided to make my Disco mix CD move through my years on the scene and I was looking for something to represent the more understated and sophisticated sounds that could grace the dancefloors as the full force of Disco waned and the 70s became the 80s. And that is how Let’s Go Out Tonite ended up on my mix CD.      

One Way featuring Al Hudson – Let’s GoOut Tonite  1980

Let's Go Ou Tonite? Hmph, I'm writing this all alone at chez Darcy: Mrs Darce has gone to the theatre, my daughter and boyfriend(!) are out at a friend's, and my son and some friends have "trucked" over to Lille for a long weekend! It's just me and the cat and the rabbits.   

(Chris: you have heard this already I know so here is another track from the album J)

One Way featuring Al Hudson – Pop It  1980

PS: I’m now catching up on YouTube with some of One Way’s output that I missed first time around. Good stuff.

Tee Time

The “big” record fair was in town last weekend. I am starting to frequent these more regularly now, driven in part by the fact that lately I am not finding much I want (at a price I can afford) on-line. I am not sure frequenting them is a good idea though. I usually get carried away and end up spending more than I really want, and come home with records I had no idea I really wanted. That is OK if they are cheap but when they are “going rate”, which they are more than likely to be at a fair, I end up feeling a bit guilty at spending the money. When I get home and play the records properly for the first time it is often with a certain amount of trepidation as I wonder if they will still grab me once the “fair fever” has subsided. This is all very silly really, and is just another symptom of my collector addiction.     

Anyway, I can report that I am happy with all my purchases this time around. Very happy with one: I now have all Candi Staton’s Fame output (big ones and little ones) as I finally bagged an original copy (at a fair price) of her 1971 album Stand By Your Man. All but one of the tracks on the album I already have on 45, but it was worth getting the album on so many levels: the album has a lovely picture of Candi and some “word up” sleeve notes, nice quality sound on a vinyl LP, and of course it completes the collection!

I also bought a few 45s, some of which may feature here along the way. While I was sifting through a sizeable stack of soul 45s somebody else was playing 80s Disco Boogie 12s on the dealer’s system. I have always had a soft spot for the genre, and have been exploring it more on YouTube recently. I’m especially drawn to anything released between ‘81 and ’85. I hung up my DJing headphones sometime in ’81 (from memory). This was a difficult decision for me and I think I have forever since had a yearning for those records I would have been undoubtedly playing had I not stopped spinning those wheels of steel.

So it was I came away from the Fair with two 12” singles I had never (knowingly at least) heard before. Both, it turns out, are mixed by a legend of those Boogie days Tee Scott who was best known for his residency at Better Days in Manhattan. Here is one of them in its full 12” glory. I can pick out little touches of other records in this mix, but can’t put a name to them at the moment. There is something insanely infectious and uplifting about this sort of music, especially with the volume turned up, and although over 7 minutes long I don’t think it gets  boring either.

Michelle Wallace – It’s Right  1982

The 2014 Advent-ure : #20

Another B side discovered in an old box of mine the other day. Uchenna Carol Ikejiani's one big disco/club hit was Hit 'n' Run Lover and this was its B side. Too slow to be a disco 'banger', featuring a cheesy horn, and not on any soul aficionado's wantlist I'd wager, nevertheless I find this really catchy.

Carol Jiani - All The People Of The World  1981      

The 2014 Advent-ure : #19

Lifers around here will know I'm a big fan of Millie Jackson. I picked up my 9th and 10th album of hers this year. So, borrowing the title from one of them, let's pause for a moment's pleasure from Millie. 

Actually, I would have liked to offer you, not one, but two moments of pleasure from her 1979 album but bandwidth is becoming a problem. After you have listened to the track I've posted head over to youtube and catch her version of  Rising Cost Of Love, there are so many great versions of this song and Millie's is certainly one of them.   

I'm posting this track because it's Friday... TGIF.... yes, something to shake a butt to is in order.   

Millie Jackson - We Got To Hit It Off  1979

Bon Rock (actually, dicso boogie proto rap electro funk)

We bought a new car recently (strictly speaking not new as it was pre-registered, but it only had 2 miles on the clock! = wallet saving). We are now driving around in comparative luxury, which includes a radio that works, and offers DAB.

At last I can listen to my at home go to radio station BBC 6 music.  “At home” means I usually listen to it in the evening. I have to say that, on recent car journeys,  I have been a little underwhelmed by 6 Music’s daytime output. Never mind.

Have just been listening – at home, pottering – to Son of John, Tom Ravenscroft. Some mighty fine tunes he has been playing too as he soaks up the atmosphere of Bestival. I often listen to Tom’s show and he definitely is following in his father’s footsteps. But I do detect a love of dance music. New dance music, of course, but tonight, at least, with a nod to the old school…. which is where I come in!

If Tom had been knocking about as a thrusting new(ish) DJ in the early Eighties maybe he would have played this. This being something I picked up at an impromptu visit to a local charity shop the other day. How do you classify this record? According to Discogs its genre is hip hop, funk/soul and its style is electro, funk, disco. Covering all bases there, then!

Whatever it is I have a soft spot for this genre, style, whatever. (A sentence that starts and ends with the same word, it won’t win any literary prizes I’m sure!). Maybe it has something to do with the fact I hung up my DJ headphones around ’81 ’82 and I am still hankering after what I just missed out on playing out. I could happily mine this early Eighties disco boogie electro funk motherlode for some time to come.

50p well spent, anyway. The rap at the end sounds so cheesy, but at the same time fits perfectly with the rest of the track.

Bon Rock – It’s Alright  1983

PS. Sorry about the out of focus piccy.

SS Stargard - Warp Factor 78*

After a good start to the car boot season the last couple of weeks trawls have been completely fruitless on the vinyl front. The trouble is I find it impossible to leave these sales empty handed and so it was, a couple of weeks ago, I returned home the proud owner of a Monkees annual, a book on Kentucky including some beautiful photographs, and a pair of miniature brass deer! And last Sunday, despite the CD being my least favourite music format, I picked up 19 of them for a total of £7 and I have to say I am very pleased with my haul (Fleet Foxes, Procol Harum, The Bees, Lambchop, Ben Harper, Emiliana Torrini, Arctic Monkeys to name just a few).

Anyway, on the vinyl front I am returning once more to the batch of soul albums I picked up at the beginning of the month. Amongst them was an original copy of Stargard’s album What You Waitin’ For. In all honesty there was only one reason I bought this album - it was still sealed! I don’t think I could not buy a vintage still sealed album no matter what it was, and it was only 50p to boot.

When I got it home I noticed that what I thought was just a storage bend on the sleeve looked a bit more serious and I guessed the record was warped. (I have read that records if sealed tightly for a long time can warp). It was just a guess that it was warped at this stage because I like to live with a long sealed record for a week or so, marvelling that it has stayed in that condition for so long, and working myself up to the actual act of slitting it open - a moment that has to be savoured.

So, a week or so ago, I finally opened this record, about 36 years after it had been shipped out of the packing plant. Just for an instant I was instantly transported back to 1978 and I like to think I was breathing in a tiny amount of 70s air that would have been trapped within during the sealing process.

Sure enough the record was warped, quite noticeably. But, miraculously, it plays fine, and I am sure that in the week or so it has been freed from the confines of its shrink the warp has already reduced.   

I wasn’t expecting much from this album – my hunch was it would be full of disco orientated filler. But I have been pleasantly surprised, and corrected. Stargard were more a funk act than a disco act – like the Brides Of Funkenstein with some sweetening -  my memory had just managed to file them in wrong compartment. This album offers up some enjoyable funk jams, and some more soulful numbers too, and I am now very pleased the warp didn’t render this album unplayable.

Stargard – Sensuous Woman 1978

This one is insanely catchy to my ears…..

Stargard – Love Me Back  1978

*Ha! Asterisks again! In your average spaceship once you reach a warp speed in double figures you start to go back in time (I just made that up  J ).   

My turntable has a competitor

It’s about time I lifted myself out of this January torpor and kicked off another year here at Feel It.

I’ll be honest blogging (and vinyl) has taken a bit of a back seat with me recently. There is a reason for this – my head has been turned and seduced by some new technology, Mrs Darce bought me a SONOS Play1 for my birthday. 

I can't help but be amazed. Great sound, thousands of internet radio stations - have already dipped into Radio Costa Rica and Radio Guyana, played a friend of ours some Latvian Polka to make him feel at home, and some Bluegrass and Funk amongst other things. WFMU Downtown Soulville can now coexist as a favourite alongside my long time DAB favourites BBC6 Music and Jazz FM (which incidentally went internet only outside of London from Jan 1). It also introduced me to Amazon Cloud Player which I wasn't previously aware of. All the music purchases I have made through Amazon down the years are there catalogued and available to play/stream! (this is actually quite scary when you think about it). Also I could if I choose to, and I think I might, upload my entire collection of mp3 files to the Amazon Cloud (for a small annual fee) and then select and play them through the SONOS. I would therefore never have to have a computer on to listen to my mp3 collection (the SONOS can be controlled via a smartphone app!). The only thing I can't do (although I might be able to if I bought a SONOS Connect at nearly £300) is play my vinyl as a line in to it). 

Anyway, back to the vinyl. Here is an excellent , and obscure, version of an early disco classic which will probably be more familiar to you as performed by KC & The Sunshine Band or George McCrae. I love the synthesizer on this. Both sides of the 7” for you here - Parts 1 & 2 – all wrapped up together. 

Sweet Music – I Get Lifted (Parts 1 & 2) 1976

The 2013 Advent-ure #21

By 1984 when this Dayton 12” Remix was released my DJ days were well behind me and I had gone from 2-3 nights in a club every week to very sporadic visits as just another “punter”. I did miss the club vibe and walking into a club and hearing songs like this one used to make me want to get behind those wheels of steels again.

Joyous, uplifting, dance your troubles away music. It stands the test of time very well as does much of the Boogie music from the early eighties.

Dayton– The Sound Of Music (X-Tended Remix)  1984

A great 20p find at a car boot sale this year.

Tapping My Feet #17 - Let The Music Play

This one has been inspired a bit of Friday night "Yeah Baby" action over at DavyH's blogcave. 

I had to interrupt the playing of my latest charity shop purchase to record this one. What is my latest purchase I don't hear you ask? I'll tell you anyway - it's Pinky & Perky's rare album (at least it has virtually no presence on the internet) "Pinky & Perky's Melodymaster", and very enjoyable it is too (surprisingly!).    

Anyway, back to Charles Earland with a jazz-funk classic. You will need to push the kitchen table to one side for this one. (The B-side of this I had completely forgotten -i.e. when I played new back in '78 it didn't have that, then essential, jazz-funk vibe - but is very good in a totally different way and I must post it here soon).

Charles Earland - Let The Music Play 1978

Slept on too long

I heard a Candido track on the radio last night. I thought - I’ve got this.

It was easy to find because I knew it was filed away under C in my Expedit full of my “original collection” from back in the day. I’ve slept on this one for far too long. I seem to remember Jingo was the track that made me buy this album, but all four tracks on the LP are joyous, percussion driven, dance floor movers. The lyrics may be basic but that is not the point of such records, there is more than enough going on in the mix to mean you don’t need to be in the vicinity of a dance floor to enjoy them. Also, although all the tracks are long – it was recorded in the middle of the disco age after all – they don’t feel over long as so much of the disco output did.

By the looks of my LP I didn’t play it nearly as much as I should have done back in ’79. My gain now though, the LP is in mint condition and sounds great.

Thousand Finger Man is the track that I heard last night. Candido Camero originally recorded this in 1970. I haven’t heard the original version but expect it is very different from this 1979 version which, I think now, sounds way ahead of its time.  

Candido has a recording career stretching back to the 50s. He was 58 when he recorded this track. He is still alive, and turned 92 last month.

That’s what congas and bongos can do for you!

Candido – Thousand Finger Man 1979

Tapping my feet #15

You will have to excuse me for the sporadic posting of late but when the sun shines the blog takes a back seat (it's turned into a proper summer and we are not used to it in Blighty).

Took the morning off today for an emergency trip to the dentist - a front crown broke last Sunday.  - I go private and British dentists are about the most expensive in Europe I believe, so I was prepared for some damage to the wallet. When he said it would be £530 for a replacement I took it in my stride as I had half expected even more. Then the bad news: I have three front crowns, another one also has a crack and, yes you guessed it, it makes sense to replace the good one in the middle too because it is likely to go soon and they are difficult to match (yes, I know, perhaps he saw me coming on that one). You can do the maths. The one good thing about dentists is at least you are sitting down when you hear the bad news.

After that I thought I deserved a quick charity shop trawl to refocus my thoughts. I picked up a few bits including this Shalamar 12". Dating from 1979 I really should have had it in my collection already, I have always been partial to their blend of disco and soul and have most of their other 12" singles from that era. A bargain at 50p (which is about all I can afford now after that trip to the dentist!).

This one sounded good as I was playing it on yet another warm summer's evening with the windows open.  

Shalamar - Right In The Socket 1979

Buy Shalamar The Ultimate Best Of

      

Alan Whicker (1925 -2013)

BBC obituary

The Evasions - Wikka Wrap 1981

It had to be done.

RIP Alan. Top bloke.