Now then, drinks in hand, we head on to part two... as the sun-filled wind of afternoon gives way to a calm purple dusk, we toast the happy couple. Some sublime beats to celebrate.
Outta Sight : James Taylor Quartet - the Very Best of Acid Jazz (Disc 2)
River Stone : Lee "Scratch" Perry f.Robert Palmer - From the Heart of the Congo
You Make Me High : Terry Ellis - Southern Girl
Revival [Rebirth Edit] : Martine Girault - The Rebirth of Cool, Vol. 1 (US Edition)
To celebrate the arrival of our stuff from España... and most relevant to this forum, my hard drive with all my music on it... I'm debuting a whole new format. So far we've had the regular Soundbombing post and the Gomek Podcast. Now, it's time for...
....the GOMEKXX! What is a "Gomekxx" you say? It's a simple mix of songs on a certain subject (Gomek + Mix = Gomekxx. The double x is cuz it's double cheesy).
It's like a Gomek Podcast without my dulcet tones added to the mix. An improvement you say? Shut your mouth. A way of giving a fancy name to something that just means you're too lazy to put a full podcast together? Well, you got me there...
The initial installment of this earth-shaking innovation is the Gomekxx Bodymix. I threw together a slate of songs that all had a part of the body in their title... this resulted in a truly random selection, a genre-busting journey one might say. To make things more interesting I also adhered to the strict rule that the tracks would go in order from top to bottom.
This resulted in several weird phenomena, listed Larry King Style: ...longest streak of one country is Australia, with tracks 2 through 5 representing; ...the swinging jazz of "In Your Arms" falling between the rockin´"Big Mouth" and punishing "Chest Hair"; ...the absolutely unmixable transition from "Flatfoot Hustling" to "Head to Toe", making me have to put some Gomek theme music in there...
So I'll have new goodies very soon, but until then feast on the GOMEKXX BODYMIX!
Tracklist:
Cut Your Hair : Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Bong in My Eye : Regurgitator - Bong in My Eye
Big Mouth : Big Heavy Stuff - Shock Records 13th Anniversary Collection
Of course, there´s really no such thing as too funky... and thank God for that. But here we have some specimens that fairly drip sweat. Songs that make you say Damn! would´ve been another possible title for this one. Like the saying goes, if these don´t make you move, you must be dead.
The first one comes from an early 70s release that turns up the funk from the word go and just gets better from there. Everything about this song just fits, from the killer drums to the funky bass, guitar and horns, and straight out wailing vocals. Although this one is straight-up funk, the Stovall Sisters were primarily a gospel act... so turn it up and testify!
Hang on In There by the Stovall Sisters, from The Stovall Sisters (Reprise, 1971)
The General Crook track not only has the standard funk instrumentation, but also adds awesome disco strings on top of everything. There are also some nice female vocals that don´t make an appearance until we´re two minutes into the track. And the subject deals with a president with a daughter who takes funk to the world... visionary indeed! Included in a 2005 comp, the original dates from the early Seventies.
Do It For Me by General Crook, from Absolute Funk (Body & Soul, 2005)
And just to show that true, sweaty funk is still made today, here´s one from Lefties Soul Connection, a band that brings the noise all the way from Germany. The organ is the star attraction of this instrumental track, but the web of funk-tastic sound created by all the instruments working together gives this track its super powerful punch. There´s a part 1 to Sling Shot, on the earlier Lefties´album Hutspot, but all the two share is an organ lead... otherwise they´re completely separate and different tracks.
Sling Shot Part 2 by Lefties Soul Connection, from Skimming the Skum (Groove Attack, 2007)
Today´s subject: music by the apparently insane. There are some songs you hear that you call unusual, some strange, some downright bat-shit weird... then there ones like these, ones that convince you the artists that made them are several checkers short of a full set.
First off is a hunk of early style boogie-woogie rockabilly from Hasil Adkins... except here the subject matter is decapitation and hot dogs, and much of the verse consists of a manic and not-a-little-creepy laugh. Hasil was a confirmed lunatic who labored in obscurity in West Virgina for most of his life. Maybe it was safer that way.
No More Hot Dogs by Hasil Adkins, from Chicken Walk (Buffalo Bop, 1986)
Next up is perhaps the wackier of the two, with the music as weird as the lyrics. At least the Adkins track is scored in a traditional matter, but this one sounds just like something you´d here by a motley group of dirt-streaked buskers in a piss-smelling city underpass. I must note that opinions expressed here do not reflect that of Gomek, as the world of Soundbombing is ALWAYS ALL-INCLUSIVE. That kind of thinking just proves how insane this guy really is. But you have to enjoy the craziness.
Hello Lucille, Are You a Lesbian? by T. Valentine from Hello Lucille, Are You a Lesbian? (Norton, 2000)
Rockin' Funky Watergate by Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s from Breakin' Bread (People, 1974)
Mr. President by the Heptones with Jah Lion from the Upsetters-Turn and Fire Upsetter Disco Dub (Anachron, 1977)
Don't worry, it's not a blog about politics at all! It's an example of what I love about doing this audioblog... I can link songs by the slenderest of threads... So here we have two policaly-themed, or at least related, songs.
The J.B.'s were, of course, James Brown's backing band and had some of the most bad-ass musicians of the era. This one's a fine workout, with Fred Wesley wailing from about the middle to some truly sweet rhythm guitar from beginning to end. Songs like this show why I'll always prefer rhythm guitar to lead. And the political side? Just a then-current shout-out to tack on (and chant) to a funky instrumental.
Next we leave the US altogether to get a Jamaican perspective on things. It's the classic Heptones track Mr. President, in a devastating dubwise reworking by mad genius Lee "Scratch" Perry at the controls - and this is in '77, the prime of Black Ark Studios. This versions sees Jah Lion adding the hoarse-throated toasting. The dread beat, Scratch magic and Leroy Sibbles' vocals demonstrate why this is an all-time great.
