Ring The Alarm playlist, 17 April

Stevie Wonder - I wish

Aaron Neville - Hercules

Myron and E with the Soul Investigators - Broadway

Naomi Davis and the Knights - Talking about a good thing

Barbara Lynn - I'm a good woman

Shirley Wahls - Tell the truth

Wendy Rene - Bar B Q

Booker T and the MGs - Hip hug her

Jeanne and the Darlings - Soul girl

Leroy Sibbles - Express yourself

Karime Kendra - 90% of me is you

Jackie Mittoo - Earthquake

Pauline Morgan and the Consummates - Give me a chance

African Head Charge - Animal law (remix)

Big Youth - Jim Screechy (Smith and Mighty remix)

Dillinger - Cocaine in my brain (Groove Corp remix)

Tha Feelstyle - Leave it at that

AP and Kamahumble - Heka horcy

Herbs - Meteli

Roy Ayers - Funk in the hole (Platinum Pied Pipers remix)

Masok - Right up your alley

Sampology feat Jordan Rakei - My place

Nicola Cruz - Barretto (tienes algo)

Dizzy Gillespie - Manteca

Sun Ra - Where pathways meet

Erma Franklin - I'm just not ready for love

The Dells - I want my momma

Ring The Alarm playlist, 10 April

Nina Simone - I put a spell on you

Esther Phillips - Home is where the hatred is

Cannonball Adderley -Walk tall (live)

Marlena Shaw - Woman of the ghetto (live)

Ike and Tina Turner  - I idolise you

Dionne Warwick - You can have him

Brenda & the Tabulations - Stop sneaking around

Rufus Thomas - Little Sally Walker

Otis Redding - Don't mes with cupid

Underground Vegetables - Melting pot

Karime Kendra - 90% of me is you

Dry & Heavy - Night flight pt2

Black Uhuru - Solidarity

Reggie Steppa - Drum pan sound

Angie Stone meets the Viceroys - My man

James Brown - Papa don't take no mess

Clarence Wheeler and the Enforcers - Right on

War - Cisco kid

Labelle - Moon shadow

Spanky Wilson - Kissing my love

Ella Hamilton - I'm gonna fool

Sparkles - Trying to get over

Jean Carn - Time waits for no one

The Bamboos - Right on time

Sola Rosa - Lady love (Bigga Bush version)

Joe Dukie & DJ Fitchie - Midnight marauders (El Head version)

New DJ Format album 'Devil's workshop' out 30 April

New bizz from DJ Format:

‘DEVIL'S WORKSHOP’is an instrumental album that sees DJ Format going in a slightly different direction to what you might have expected. Continuing the blueprint laid down in DJ Shadow's groundbreaking early work that made it possible for a hip hop producer to create genre-defying new compositions from old records, everything you hear is painstakingly pieced together from 100% samples – creating the illusion you're listening to a band assembled by David Axelrod. 

There's no time for stagnant, repetitive loops that leave you wondering when a rapper is going to appear, instead each song keeps building in mood and intensity by the clever use of layer upon layer of carefully chosen samples. A rich tapestry of musical instruments from keyboards, horns & guitars through to vibes, bamboo flutes & sitars paint an exciting soundscape throughout the album. 

While it is primarily an instrumental album, Format utilises a variety of vocal samples from sources as wide ranging as '60s spoken word, '70s religious records, right up to '80s & '90s rap records, all used out of their original context to tell a new story. ‘DEVIL'S WORKSHOP’steers away from DJ Format’s past releases and from a typical hip hop record - an introspective journey for the open-minded, is an album that leaves the door open to personal reflection... as Format puts it “Everyone may have different ideas as to the meaning of certain songs but as long as they make you think....and feel something...that's all that really matters.” ‘The Light’ and ‘The Curse’ are the first tracks inviting us into the the world of ‘DEVIL'S WORKSHOP’

Out 30 April on digital/CD/LP

Ring The Alarm playlist, 3 April

Johnnie Taylor - Testify (I wonna)

Cookie Jackson - Go shout it on the mountain

Eddie Floyd - Hey now

James Brown - Say it loud I'm black and I'm proud

Carlton Basco - Don't chain my soul

Freddie Wilson - In born soul

Betty Wright - Clean up woman

Patrizia and Jimmy - Trust your child (pt1)

Spanky Wilson - Sunshine of your love

Marie Queenie Lyons - Your thing aint no good without my thing

Betty Davis - Anti love song

Cymande - The message

Hugh Masekela - Languta

Fulgeance - Tribute to Masekela

Charles Mingus - II B. S. (RZA remix)

Dee Felice Trio - Nightingale

Bobbi Humphrey - Harlem river drive

Miles Davis & Robert Glasper feat Laura Mvula - Silence is the way

Erykah Badu - Turn me away (get munny)

Opensouls feat Ladi6 - Falling in

Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - In the bush

Suzy Q - I can't give you more (DC edit)

Sylvester - Over and over

Dalvanius - Who said that?

Eliza Keil - Evil ways

The Dynatones - The fife piper 

James Brown - New breed (the boo-ga-loo)

Lulu - Sweep around your own back door

The Illusions - Just an illusion

Tubbs - It's love

Jonny Faith - Open my eyes

Ring The Alarm playlist, 27 March

The Luvmenauts - Spice always flows

Raekwon and El Michels Affair - PJs (clean)

The Headhunters - God made me funky

Nuyorican Soul - Black gold of the sun (MAW remix feat Q-Tip)

The Ojays - For the love of money

Stevie Wonder - As

Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs - Back on the street again 

The Meters -  A mesage from the Meters

The Dixie Cups - Iko iko

Oliver Morgan - Roll call

Reginald Milton & the Soul Jets - Clap your hands

Lil Buck and the Top Cats - Monkey in a sack

Sugarman 3 - Turtle walk

Joyce Jones - Help me make up my mind

Claudia Lennear - Everything I do gonna be funky

Aretha Franklin - Get it right

Chaka Khan - I know you, I live you

Parliament - Testify

The James Brown Soul Train - Honky tonk pt1

James Brown - Love don't love nobody

Hank Jacobs - Elijah rockin' with soul

Jackie Lee - I love you

Jimmy Sabater  -Yroco

Ray Barretto - Acid

Mongo Santamaria - We got latin soul

Jazzanova feat Joe Dukie - What do you want (Don Philippe remix)

Julien Dyne feat Mara TK - Layer

Interview with sound engineer Peggy McCreary (Prince)

If you're a Prince fan, this interview with sound engineer Peggy McCreary is worth a watch (they even ask some questions that massive Prince fan Questlove sent). 

 In two parts (approx 90 mins each), she talks about working at Sunset Sound,  and some of the other artists she worked with, like Elton John (they swapped makeup) and Tom Waits.She talks working for Prince making 1999, Purple Rain, Around the world in a day and Parade, and and what he said when he mixed out the bass on When Doves Cry.

"Recording Engineer, Peggy McCreary started her career as an engineer at Sunset Sound in the 1970's. Being one of the first female engineers was not an easy task but with in a short amount of time she was working 2nd chair on Van Halen and Elton John as well as being head engineer for 5 years with Prince during his most productive years. Peggy came in Sunset Sound studio 3 to share what she remembers from her start in the recording industry and how Prince was the greatest and most difficult artist to work with."

Plus a fun discsusion on just what drum machine Prince used at Sunset Sound - Linn LM 1 or LM2? 

Ring The Alarm playlist, 20 March

De La Soul - Say no go

Pacifican Descendents - Tuesday blues

Freestylers - Ruffneck

London Posse - Money mad

Incognito  -Wild and peaceful (Kenny Dope mix)

Herbie Hancock - Bring down the birds (b-boy edit)

Ike & Tina Turner - I idolise you

Impressions - Fool for you

Etta James - Can't seem to shake it

Bettye Swann - Chained and bound

Patti Drew - Hard to handle

The Emotions - I like it

Charles Bradley - The world is going up in flames

Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - Rumours

Darondo - Luscious lady

Roy Ayers - Running away

The Supremes - Come into my life

Kamauu - Far Rockaway

Nicola Cruz - Individuality riddim

Hector Plimmer - Step (Daz I Kue remix)

Tubbs - Five day night (Fat Freddy's Drop remix)

Lady B -To the beat y'all

J Dilla - Body movin'

Carlos Nino & Miguel Atwood Ferguson - Find a way

Manuel Bundy - Danger pt2

Lewis McCallum - Syntheology

Karate Boogaloo - Bumpy's lament

Karate Boogaloo - KB’s Mixtape No. 3 out soon

"Melbourne cinematic funk outfit Karate Boogaloo announce the third instalment of their KB’s Mixtapes series - KB’s Mixtape No. 3 - Songs from Film & Television.

On this mixtape, Karate Boogaloo reapproach, reinterpret and reengineer themes from film and TV that were used as sample material in hip hop, diving deep into a plethora of sources and flipping them in their wonky, left-field instro-soul style.

The KBs Mixtapes series, self-produced collections of interpretations of hip hop samples, fast became cult classics amongst Melbourne’s diggers; since KB’s Mixtape No. 1’s independent release and distribution by the band, crusty funk reimaginings of deep tunes from the world of hip hop subversively found their way onto turntables around the world.

KB’s Mixtape No.3, was produced and engineered by Karate Boogaloo bass player Henry Jenkins. A pivotal cog in the engine of Melbourne soul, Jenkins is responsible for the production of every record on the College Of Knowledge catalogue, including both Surprise Chef LPs All News Is Good News and Daylight Savings."

Out 2 April 2021 on College of Knowledge Records.

 

Ring The Alarm playlist, 13 March

 

Opensouls - Rise up (Lewis McCallum remix)

Che Fu - Misty frequencies (Submariner remix)

Freddie Cruger - Pushing on

Nightmares on Wax - Ease jimi

Quantic - Death of a revolution

The Ethiopians - I'm gonna take over now

Don Drummond - Don cosmic

Andy & Joey - You're wondering now

Norma Fraser - The first cut is the deepest

Bob Marley and the Wailers  - Simmer down

Restless Soul - Turn me out

Backyard Dog - Baddest ruffest

Che Fu - Random

Debruit & Alsarah - Khartoum

Indeep - Last night a DJ saved my life

Evelyn King - Get up off your love

Reuben Wilson - Got to get your own

Earth Wind & Fire - Moment of truth

Johnny Jones & the King Casuals - Purple haze

The Mighty Hannibal - Somebody in the world for you

Barbara Acklin - Am I the same girl?

Margie Joseph - One more chance

Charlene & the Soul Serenaders - Can you win

Tyrone Davis - Can I change my mind?

Sidney Joe Qualls - How can you say goodbye

Bill Coday - High on your love

Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - Take me with you

Stovall Sisters - Hang on in there

James Brown - In the middle

Che Fu - Share the info

Ring The Alarm playlist, 6 March

The Meditation Singers - Change is gonna come

Sam Cooke - Bring it on home to me

William Bell - I forgot to be your lover

The Dramatics - In the rain

Charles Bradley - Hurricane

Esther Phillips - Your love is so doggone good

Nina Simone - Seeline woman (MAW reix)

Soul II Soul - Back to life (Zepherin Saint club edit)

Lido Pimienta - Te queria (Chancha Via Circuito remix)

Minyo Crusaders - Hohai bushi

Christoph El Truento - What we used to know (Riki Gooch arrangement)

K-Saba - Antique ivory

Nicola Cruz - Subtropique

Aaron Frazer - Can't leave it alone

Patrice Holloway - Evidence

Betty & Charles - There's someone for everyone

Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - Give me a reason

The Dapkings - NBL

Thee Sacred Souls - It's our love

Jerry Butler - I'm a telling you

Ray Charles - Just about to lose your clown

Mickey and the Soul Generation - How good is good

Alter Ego - Bongo rock

Inez Andrew - I hear music

The Originals - Goodnight Irene

The Madd Rackett - Get it (good god)

Johnny Hammond - Higher ground

Auf Togo meets Becker Mukai - Inside the human mind

Dreamcast Moe - Up 2 U

Strawpeople - Inject me (Breaks Co-op remix)

Team Dynamite newie out March 5th

Team Dynamite return with a new album 'Respect The Process' this friday, it's been a while since we heard from them, here's what's been going on for them, very cool backgrounder...  

 

 

And here's the tale behind the album cover  -  if it looks a bit like Che Fu's first album, that's cos they were both photos by Glenn Jowitt.

 

Naomi Shelton

Posting this amazing live clip of Naomi Shelton to commemorate her passing away a few weeks ago. Apprenty she had the Gospel Queens used to play every Friday night at a regular gig in NYC. If it was anything like this, it must have been incredible. Below is a clip from same gig, recorded after soundcheck. Plus a visit with her at home.

Shelton released her debut album 'What have you done, my brother?' on Daptone Records in 2009, at the age of 66.
 

excerpt from 'Singer Naomi Shelton Made New Yorkers — and Everyone Else — Feel the Love'

“I met Naomi around ’67 or ’68 while playing in Cliff Driver’s band at the Night Cap,” recalls bassist Fred Thomas, who would go on to replace Bootsy Collins in James Brown’s sonic circus as well as sing with Shelton for fifty years. “She was strictly singing R&B and soul then, not gospel. Her voice sounded tough.” She also caught Driver’s ear; he had worked closely with and recorded such singers as Baby Washington. “She had a different type of voice,” he told me before he died, in 2016. “She had that raspy sound, like Mavis Staples.” 

Shelton preferred the male voices of Lou Rawls, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding, however — “hard” voices that demanded attention, which she got more of after Gabe Roth stumbled into Flannery’s one night to learn a few licks from his idol Fred Thomas, who happened to be accompanied by Shelton and Driver, and convinced the latter duo to record a few 45s. “Naomi has that raw gospel sound, that phrasing,” Roth told me once. “I don’t know if there’re any singers that can sing like her.”

Ring The Alarm playlist, 27 February

George Benson and MAW - The ghetto

War - The world is a ghetto

Charles Wright - You are the one for me

Fred Wesley and the JBs -  You can have Watergate but gimme some bucks and I'll be straight

Lou Donaldson - If there's hell below (we all gonna go)

Grover Washington Jr - Knucklehead

Clemon Smith - Brother man, sister Ann

Sylvia Striplin - You can't turn me away

Renee Geyer Band - Really really love you

Aretha Franklin - Rocksteady (alt mix)

Naomi Shelton and the Gosepel Queens - Trouble in my way

Janet Jackson - Sya you do

Ardijah - Watchin' U (extended version)

George Clinton - Do fries go with that shake?

Prince - Hot thing (dub version)

David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto - Bamboo houses (remix 2000)

Stone Roses - Fools gold

Johnny Hammond - Fantasy (Marc Mac beatdrop version)

Mark de Clive Lowe and Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra - Take the space trane

Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble - New frankiphone blues

Sarah Vaughn - Whatever Lola wants

Ring The Alarm playlist, 20 February

Recloose - Aint changin'

Moody Boyz - Free

Roots Radics - Babylon wrong

King Tubby - King at the controls

Prince Jammy - Champion version

Scientist - Pick up the dub

Bullwackies Allstars - Nature dub

Prince Fari - Clean hands, pure heart

Manasseh - Dubbing the gorgon

Gulls - Mean sound

Architeq - Birds of prey (Fulgeance emotronical mix)

Cermakk and Doug Shorts - Loves gone wrong

Social Lovers - Cosmic love

Dee Dee Bridgewater - Sweet rain

Patrice Rushen - Music of the earth (Mr K edit)

Chaka Khan - Too much love

Lewis McCallum feat Cherie Mathieson - Deviate

Hollie Smith and Mara TK - Transcendence

Prince Tui Teka - Let's stay together

James Brown - I'm shook

Vicki Anderson - I'm too tough for Mr Big Stuff

Marva Whitney - It's my thing

Bobby Byrd - I know you got soul

Eric B and Rakim - Don't sweat the technique

El Michels Affair - C.R.E.A.M.

Penza Penza - Why do we care about anything?

Manny Corchado - Chicken and booze

Djar One - Tequila

Kutiman - Sakla beni

Ring The Alarm playlist, 13 February

Kahil El Zabar - Express yourself

Meditation Singers - A change is gonna come

Aretha Franklin - It only happens when I look at you

Nina Simone  -Work song

Esther Phillips - Home is where the hatred is

The Meters - Tippi toes

Clarence Reid - I get my kicks

Nadine Brown - Leave me alone

Donny Hathaway - Come little children

The Sorcerers - Elephant

Issa Bagayogo - Fimani

Manu Dibango - Africa boogie

Miriam Makeba - Ibande

Tony Allen - Love is a natural thing

Dele Sosimi x Medlar - Gudu gudu kan (Daz I Kue remix)

Mala - Como como (Theo Parrish remix)\

Sabres of Paradise - Duke of Earlsfield

Eal Zinger  - Song 2wo

Unitone Hifi - Up to eleven

Mr Clean & the Soul Inc - What's going on

The Supremes - Love is like an itching in my heart

The Supremes - Your wonderful sweet sweet love

The Supremes - Everybody's got the right to love

The Supremes - Bad weather

The Supremes - Come in to my life

Aaron Frazer - Over you

Stanley Pedigree - Groove merchants inst

Penza Penza - Mad madi's twist

East Side Symphony - Hot pants road

Embryo  -Wajang woman (Frankie Francis' Sofrito edit)