Bar-Kays - Memphis Masters doco

This short doco on the Bar-Kays looking back on making their1968 album Gotta Groove is worth a watch. Also makes me want to go back to Memphis. Visiting the Stax Museum there was incredible. 

Here's a playlist of other episodes starting with Booker T and the MGs

Ring The Alarm playlist, 19 June

Bacao Rhythm and Steel Band - Dirt off your shoulder

Booker T and the MGs - Bookerloo

Staple Singers - Pray on

Junior Lewis - Raise your hand

Rev Oris Mays - Don't let the devil ride

Deedee Sharp - Gravy

Della Reese - If it feels good, do it

Ann Peebles - Beware

Betty Wright -  Let me be your lovemaker

The Hueys - You aint no hippie

Jamie and the Numbers - Magic touch

Garnet Mimms - As long as I have you

Darlene Love - Too late to say you're sorry

Rita and the Tiaras - Gone with the wind is my love

Charlene and the Soul Serenaders - Can you win

Wendy Rene - Bar-B-Q

Willie Mitchell - The champion

Ike and Tina Turner - Somebody somewhere needs you

Sly and the Family Stone - Only one way out of this mess

Jeanne and the Darlings - Hang me now

Isaac Hayes - Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquidalymistic

Eddie Floyd - Baby lay your head down

Jackie Mittoo - Chicken and booze

The Marvels - Rocksteady

Manasseh - Skenga 12" mix

Solomonic Sound - Children of Israel (Blakdoktor version)

U-Roy and Francois K - Rootsman

Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns - Tumakokiri (Unitone Hifi remix)

Aaradhna - Keep my cool

Opensouls - Hold you close dub

Lord Echo - Molten lava

Phoenix City Allstars - White riot dub

Plumstead Radical Club - I shot the sherriff

Dr Tree - Eugino D

Kamo Mphela’s “Nkulunkulu”

 

 

Via SFJ's newsletter: "The [northern] summer listening has made itself clear. Kamo Mphela’s “Nkulunkulu” is one of the bigger hits of 2021 in amapiano, a new(-ish) extrusion of house in South Africa. Mphela’s dancers and the wordless chorus will meet your needs. Is this song about the ancient creator God of Zulu? Possibly!"

Ring The Alarm playlist, 5 June

Recloose - Aint changin'

Fat Freddys Drop - The raft (Jet Jaguar remix)

Pat Kalla and Le Super Mojo - Hymne a la vie

Scrimshie feat Omar - Loving is loving (Photay remix)

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Big man still standing (Woolford and Hazel mix)

Auf Togo meets Becker Mukai - Inside the human mind

Doris Troy - Just one look

Barbara Mason - Come to me

Inez Foxx - Hurt by love

Little Sonny - You can be replaced

The Impressions - Meeting over yonder

Peaches and Herb  - I need your love so desperately

The Elgins - Heaven must have sent you from above

Frank Wilson - Do I love you (indeed I do)

Jamie and the Numbers - If this is love

Jo Ann Hamilton - I love without a love

The Chi-lites - I like your loving (do you like mine)

Johnny Pate - You're starting too fast

Erma Franklin - Hold on I'm coming

Eliza Keil - Evil ways

Bobby Byrd - If you got a love you better (hold on to it)

Marva Whitney - Unwind yourself

Lyn Collins - Mama Feelgood

Parlet - Play me or trade me

Kid Creole and the Coconuts - Annie, I'm not your daddy (Soul Mechanik edit)

Fulgeance - Sour socca

Ray Barretto - Mercy mercy baby

La Lupe - Fever

Dave Pike - Sandunga

Mara TK - Colours

Ring The Alarm playlist, 22 May

Fat Freddys Drop - Hope (3 Generations Walking remix)

Pitch Black - 1000 mile drift (Simon Flower remix)

Shogun Orchestra - Falko

Conray - Flower fair

Ladi6 - Dark brown

LostTribe - Summer in the winter

AP & Kamahumble - Hecka horcy

Urban Disturbance feat Danny D and Hame - Relay

Salmonella Dub - Loop 7 (DLT version)

Collision - Love is forever

Dalvanius - Who said that

IQU - Witchcraft

Strawpeople - One good reason

Rhythm and Business - Deep groove (love theme)

Fuemana - Cool calm

Sulata - Never

Unitone Hifi - Sitting by the telephone

Ermehn - Stranded in the city

Moizna - Just another day

Submariner - Tha natural

Jahlicious - Something (Beatlicks remix)

DJ Vee feat Mighty Asterix - Best in me

Bongmaster - Brothers and sisters

Phase5 - Realistic biscuit

Karl Steven and friends - Pokekare ana

Jeb Loy Nicholas: from Wyoming to Wales, then Finland...

Great soul groover from Timmion: "Straight out from the green hills of the Welsh countryside comes Jeb Loy Nichols, the newest sensation in Timmion's growing roster of soul-fuelled vocalists.

And we certainly have a double sider of the highest calibre on offer. A seasoned and versatile music scene veteran with a major label past, Jeb has everything it takes to polish Cold Diamond & Mink's rough grooves into shining gems.

The A side gives us a rolling southern-style soul banger, which the Wyoming-born singer attacks effortlessly with his praise for an honest dance. Jeb's talent for clever song writing shines through in the lyrics which connect to our current reality, where truth has become an endangered species.

The slower flip side kicks off with a Sunday afternoon worthy duo of organ and acoustic guitar before Jeb shows us how a story is weaved from minimalistic ingredients. From the rural beginnings to pastoral hardships, he lays it all bare for the listener.

In addition to this single, Jeb and Cold Diamond & Mink have a whole album of soulful gold dropping later this year. Make sure to be there to catch it when it drops." (7" single out 30 April, album out 12 June)

Nicols also did a country/reggae album with On-U-Sound, in 2010. The story behind that goes back to the beginnings of that label in the early 80s...

Producer Adrian Sherwood on Long Time Traveller:


"In early 1981, as we were preparing to release the first On-U Sound album, I was living in a squat in Battersea, South London with Ari Up, Glenmore "Junior" Williams, and a 16 year old Neneh Cherry.

One day Jeb Loy Nichols knocked at the door. He had just arrived from the United States and was looking for Neneh. Jeb had been living in the same New York apartment block as her and her family (Don, Moki and Eagle Eye Cherry, as well as members of Talking Heads) and had come to see how she was doing staying in London with us lot.

Jeb came originally from Austin, Texas, but as a 17 year old had got a scholarship to a prestigious art school in New York and had moved there. Jeb was now 20 and making his first trip to London, a short visit during a break from studies. I really liked Jeb’s voice and took him on his first venture into a recording studio where we recorded two tracks, "Hostage In Iran" and "Things that made U.S.”.

On his last night in London, in the kitchen of our squat, we talked all night with Junior Williams and Ari’s ‘father-in-law', John Lydon. Early next morning Jeb headed off to the airport in a tired/wired state. Jeb must have had a really good time as he returned to London some eight months later and started making plans to resettle in the UK, which he duly did.

In the following years Jeb continued with his art, and while based in London established himself as a great singer/songwriter, releasing to date some ten albums. Although I remixed the track "As The Rain" for him, and even though we remained friends and often talked of working together again, it would be 30 years before I got him back in a studio. The result is this album.

I had "baked" lots of the old On-U master tapes of Roots Radics/Dub Syndicate recordings and also recorded a batch of brand new recordings with "Style" Scott, Franklyn "Bubbler" Waugh, George Oban and Vince Black. Jeb chose the rhythms he most liked, voiced all the tracks in one day and we overdubbed and mixed the whole album in three, old school style and most enjoyable…so enjoy."

And he also did artwork for reggae reissue label Pressure Sounds. Clever chap!

New album coming from Pat Kalla

New from Heavenly Sweetness: "Hymne à la Vie' , Pat Kalla's second full-length LP forthcoming on Heavenly Sweetness is not only as the title has it, a hymn to life, it's also a fine showcase of his band, the Lyon-based groovers Le Super Mojo and a select group of guests from West Africa (DjeuhDoah, Doctor Lass).

Parisian singer Lieutenant Nicholson joins Djeuh Doah to perform a touching duet on the closer and West Indies singer/songwriter - and fellow Heavenly Sweetness artist - David Walters shines on the LP in a lilting pop-funk number drenched in a luxurious groove.​

Add to this the delicate, sophisticated production pallette of Guts - another Heavenly Sweetness label mate - and you have a release of subtle, satisfying power.

Throughout his multi-decade musical career, the singer/songwriter and MC born Patrice Kalla N'Galle (his Cameroonian father named him after the assassinated Congolese political leader, Patrice Lumumba) has created music that responds to his African heritage in strikingly creative and innovative ways.​

Pat Kalla's music is a unique mix of African groove and ‘Chanson Française’ with a naïve poetry you can find in African tales. He is also a vessel to convey the musical culture of his ancestors: the Cameroonian musician, Manu Dibango's ‘Soul Makossa’ is a strong influence for the artist. In 1996, Kalla was taught how to play West African percussion instruments - the dun dun, djembé in traditional, polyrhythmic styles - using this knowledge to his recordings with his first group, Boulfalé.​

Indeed, there is a lightness to much of Hymne à la Vie - both in terms of instrumentation, the light picking guitar and punctured drums - that resembles movement of a dance; moreover, this music is made for the stage, and a dancing crowd before it."

Out May 28 on CD/LP/digital

Ring The Alarm playlist, 15 May

Scratch 22 - Shivani strut

Julien Dyne - Rice and beans

Manuel Bundy - Jazzy bizz

Illphonics  - One of those days (edit)

Sola Rosa - Promises (Tall Black Guy remix inst)

Lewis McCallum feat Deva Mahal - Take a step back

Fredericks Brown - Betrayal

Aaradhna - Wake up

Jamie and the Numbers - If this is love (I'd rather be lonely)

Billy Karitiana - Cool jerk

Howard Morrison - Keep on running

Eliza Keil - Evil ways

The Keil Isles - Monkey stomp

Maori Hi-Five - Poi poi

Patea Maori Club - Poi E

Ardijah - Watchin' U

Snap  -Sidewalk city (dub)

Upper Hutt Posse - Do it like this

Teremoana - Four women (Deez remix by DLT)

Joint Force - Burntime (Iraia Ignition mix inst)

Sound Foundation - Ram dancehall (dub mix)

DLT feat Mighty Asterix - One love

Ladi6 - Bang bang

Eru Dangerspeil - Coq au vin

Shogun Orchestra - Rivers of Sanzu

Che Fu - Scene III (Mull of Empire remix by Submariner)

Mara TK - Colours

Unitone Hifi feat Bobbylon - Turn around

Dub Asylum - French letter

Stinky Jim - Strictly love explosion

Ring The Alarm playlist, 8 May

Mara TK - Bad meditation

Fat Freddy's Drop - Midnight marauders (DJ Vadim remix) Peter Mac edit

Scrimshire - Love is loving (Photay remix)

Prince - Love sign (Shock G's silky remix)

DJ Format - The light

Ike and Tina Turner - Can't chance a breakup

Sharon Jones and the Dapkings - What have you done for me lately?

Erma Franklin - Hold on, I'm comin'

Barbara Mason - Come to me

Inez Foxx - Hurt by love

Lou Courtney - Skate now

Four Tops  -7 rooms of gloom

The Elgins - Heaven must have sent you from above

Bull and the Matadors - Funky judge

Johnnie Taylor - Love bones

Eddie Floyd - Baby lay your head down

The Yoots - Tutira mai

Lennie Hibbert - Real hot

Overnight Players - Shaka the great

Freddie McGregor - Bobby Bobbylon

Mara TK feat Troy Kingi - Every Hori is a star

Nicola Cruz - Individuality riddim

Sunken Cages - Intezaar

Rebel MC - Jahovia

Myele Manzanza - Big deal (Mark de Clive Lowe remix)

Build an Ark - Door of the cosmos (take 1)

The Clash - Idle in kangaroo court 

Kokolo - Magnificent seven

Mulatu Astatke - Yegelle tezeta

Staff Benda Bilili - Sala mosala

Mara TK - Colours

Debut solo album from Mara TK out today

 

 

"In the five years since the last Electric Wire Hustle album, Mara TK has been on a journey of musical self-discovery, as he says; “writing this album has been a form of therapy over the last few years trying to figure out what kind of music I wanted to make next”. The result, ‘Bad Meditation’, is his thirteen-track magnum opus, written and produced by Mara himself.

Speaking of the process of making the album he says; “I was offered what was basically a whole studio worth of gear from a friend who was moving overseas. I took a gamble and bought that gear and have spent the last five years learning how to use it. I had to bet on my own ability to learn new things so it was scary, but also keep in mind that music, like any other creative form doesn’t have to be perfect - the brush strokes don’t have to be exactly straight”.

‘Bad Meditation’ is an account of love, loss, healing and the story of Mara’s Māori heritage. As he explains; “Growing up poor, everything goes through our indigenous lens. Here in Aotearoa we have our own Gods, our own values our own ways of speaking that are different to the colonial/capitalist culture”.

An alumnus of Red Music Academy in Toronto, Mara TK’s work beyond Electric Wire Hustle has seen him collaborate with critically lauded names including Om’Mas Keith of Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Detroit producer and J Dilla collaborator Waajeed, and Steve Spacek."

 

Out on Digitial/LP. 

Ring The Alarm playlist, 1 May

Meditation Singers - A change is gonna come

Lou Rawls  - Fa fa fa fa (sad song)

Etta James - I got the will

Irma Thomas - Security

King Floyd - Think about it

Barbara Lynn - Money

Chis Clark - Do I love you

Bobby Marchan - Shake your tambourine

Billy Preston feat Sly Stone - Can't she tell

James Brown - There was a time

Sam and Dave - Said I wasn't gonna tell nobody

Otis Redding - That's a good idea

Inez Foxx - Confusion

The Sapphires  -Who do yuo love

Isley Brothers - Spill the wine

Chairmen of the Board - Pay the piper

Senor Soul - It's your thing

Aaron Frazer - Can't leave it alone

Boogaloo Assassins - No no no

Ray Barretto - O elephante

Dave Pike - Aphrodite

Nicola Conte - Missione a Bombay

Magic Circle Express - Magic fever

Grace Jones  -My Jamaican guy

Fonda Rae - Over like a fat rat

Patti LaBelle - The spirit's in it

Style Council - Everybody's on the run

Hector Plimmer  -Step (Daz I Kue remix)

Prince - When will we B paid?

Stanley Pedigree - Groove (inst)

DLT - Black Panthers

Ring The Alarm playlist, 24 April

Prince - Love sign (Shock G's silky remix)

Prince - Hot thing (dub version)

Sheila E - Love bizarre pts 1&2

Madhouse - 6

Parliament - Up on the downstroke

George Clinton - Nubian nut

Digital Underground - The humpty dance

Ardijah - Watchin' U (extended version)

OMC - Right on (off 25th anniversary vinyl edition, sounds amazing)

Love & Bass - In the deep of the night

Che Fu - Fade away (Solephonic remix)

K-Saba - Clapparatus

Issac Hayes - Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic

Ike and Tina Turner - Can't chance a breakup

Little Cesar and the Empire - Everybody dance now (inst)

Bill Coday - High on your love

Wilson Pickett - Hey Joe

Andre Williams and Velvert Hammer - Happy (is my life)

Carleen and the Groovers - Right on

Joyce Jones - Help me make up my mind

Baby Washington - Carefree

Betty Harris - Ride your pony

Slyvia - Sweet stuff

Eddie Senay - Cameo

ZZ Hill - Clean up America

Prince - Kiss (extended version)

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