Platinum Record [Level 8]
ZONE by The Rhythm Makers is like Moving by Brass Construction with a stronger more booming beat and without the chants. Housesque and about as driving as anything can get. If I am lying let my suffering be legendary even in hell. Ask any knowing dj now, apparently this track has quite a following. My copy is a Delite pressing from 1976 but the tune is timeless. If you want to impress use this.
The Lo label Barry 7s Connectors albums are also essential and easier to get. These contain mondo bizarro sounds from the seventies like ROGER RHYTHM by Roger Roger. This jumpy, tripping instrumental is one of the oddest protodisco tracks I have ever heard with a fast jittery beat, a twanging synth, wild tambourine clashes, bongos that are recorded very loud and churning fat guitar riffs. The melody consists of quick clashes of action movie type chords and there is no buildup or an arrangement as such. The whole thing simply kicks off with the groove and the spaced out whinings and bleeps and goes on like that until the fade. Perfect for making trendies dance like mad. FORGOTTEN WORLD by Anthony King is also good being equal parts Martin Denny exotica, Ennio Morricone stuff from The Good The Bad and The Ugly - check out the restored 3 hour version of the film, coming soon to an arthouse near you - and throbbing Kraftwerk robotics. There are insect noises as if the tune was recorded on a swamp, and you can picture a mutant Frog Queen rising from the depths to perform a sinister mating dance before her tongue lashes out at you. Both tracks are off volume one of the series. The packaging and design by Eckhornforss Non Format is excellent.
I have also been spinning the new Alcazar album – no fillers, just no frills disco dynamite, some tracks with real strings and all with massive hooks. The Last Days Of Disco, Menage A Trois, Not a Saint Not A Sinner and especially the anthemic Someday are probably the closest anyone has come to pure disco during the last 10 years. The group sports the tackiest Versace type fashions imaginable with lots of white leather, turquoise rhinestones and gold heels. The two girls are beyond Barbie but the two guys seem to wear more makeup.
One has to play a lot of late sixties latin boogaloo tracks too which are very summery. The weather here has been horrible though, got to make a move to a town that is right for me.
Gold Record [Level 7]
Interesting, Jussik...I have always had a thing that without 'Zone', there would be no 'Let's Start The Dance' - and without Mass production's 'Welcome To Our World (Of Merry Music)', there would be no 'It's Serious' by Cameo. In a funny sort of way, I feel there's something that holds all of these records together...Originally Written by JussiK
No Longer Charting
Jussik: I'm glad to see someone else bangin' on about Zone, which if you remember, I put at #1 in my top 25. I still think it was an absolutely unique record and it was revolutionary at the time; it was so different. Just for the record, I put it at #1 'cos it caused more of a stir than any other record I ever played (to all the nationalities I played to in Mallorca to boot) and had an incredibly long 'shelf life'.
Can't say I've ever seen the relationship between it and Movin' (one is stripped down, bare bones, almost psychadelic funk, the other rather lush, upmarket, sophisticated funk) but they would certainly fill the floor back in the day and now 30 years on.
Good on Ya!!
As for the link between it and Bohannon's Let's Start The Dance, surely the Rhythm Makers owe a lot to earlier Bohannon tracks such as those from the South African Man LP (or even Stop & Go), rather than the other way around? Keep On Dancing was the prototype for Let's Start The Dance and other tracks such as Truck Stop, Red Bone (which gets kinda spacey) and South African Man were all straightish 4/4 pounding funk gems that were played and played.
Gold Record [Level 7]
Speaking of this track, has anybody heard the 7" version?
To me it's like a remix version... the percussion is a lot more definitive, vocals are up.
Gold Record [Level 7]
Yep...the 7" is a completely different recording, it's a lot faster too. Ever checked the Chocolate City 12? It's a remix of the standard LP version, with the party noises lower in the mix and the wah-wah and 'Rhodes pushed right forward.Speaking of this track, has anybody heard the 7" version?
To me it's like a remix version... the percussion is a lot more definitive, vocals are up.
What would you do without your muesli...where would you be without a bowl?
Platinum Record [Level 8]
The tremendous ZONE and the track MOVIN by B.C...are they somehow connected in style? Well, you're right, they're not! No brass to speak of in Zone, among other things. What I meant in my post was they somehow seem similar in mood and ...what, "spirit"? But then again, I could now name 10 tracks that would fit the bill far better come to think of it, so I better stop right here before making a bigger fool of myself :roll:
No Longer Charting
Jussik: I take and understand exactly what you mean. '70's funk did have a certain je ne sais quoi that's been almost impossibly slow at being recreated, whereas '60's boogaloo style funk has been sought after and copied over the past few years. Perhaps the '70's funk will have a resurgence sometime soon?
I'm really glad you posted this thread. Perhaps some of the other regulars might just get into Zone now.
Really funny thing though (oh s**t here he goes again). Since I've had this on CD I've partly gone off of it, as it seems a tad too sparce and somehow less urgent. Weird or what? Maybe vinyl does add a spark of life to some tracks?
Gold Record [Level 7]
'70s Funk to get a resurgence soon? Where have you been - have you not heard of that 'deep funk' scene whereby middle-class rich kids make records about grits and greasy chicken? Never heard of Desko and all that nonsense? Don't see the adverts on the TV promoting and/or using new/old funk/'funk'? If funk were any bigger, we'd be in the '70s! Maybe Southampton, nay, SOUTHAMPTON's still in the stone age...
What would you do without your muesli...where would you be without a bowl?
Gold Record [Level 7]
I would say it's making a come back of sorts... I recently played at a birthday party, and a request came for Funkin' For Jamaica this was after I started off by playing Brick House ... The same dude that requested "Jamaica" also was amazed and just stared at me when he heard Do It Any Way You Wanna I think he was either Australian or British. :D I just love that!!!
No Longer Charting
Forrrce; Are we talking Keb Darge etc? To my ears, what I've heard of this sounds more like '60s funk than '70s, grits and greasy chicken being a sixties thang. I agree that funk is used an awful lot by the media (especially auntie beeb), but I haven't seen or heard all of this attention translate into mass CD sales or anythink. Most of the CD compilations I've seen or heard are just full up with obscure crap.
Is any '70s funk being played on mass appeal radio stations for instance? I don't think it is. Leave Southampton alone. It's quite happy where it is and you'd be amazed which radio waves or hip CDs/records don't travel this far. At my age, I'm hardly likely to get the collecting fever all over again.
BTW: What are those guys (K.D.) on, making records on antiquated recording equipment that are deliberately made to sound distorted and shite. They really do need their heads examining. Valve equipment is used by anyone else to enhance the sound, not totally destroy it!!!
Gold Record [Level 7]
Do you not agree that funk's 'mass' appeal is somewhat limited? It would have to be like everything else these days - sanitised, quantised and sampled to be anything but a novelty. The CD comps you're on about do sell moderately well - the market place is so crowded that the bigger named compilers, ie Darge, Goldmine, BGP, etc, dominate what really is a really minority interest. '60s and '70s (styled) funk adds 'something' for advertisers and trailer men on TV - but that's the only way it's gonna be heard in the nation's homes.
Yes, these comps are full of obscure crap. Yes, the misguided revivalists need their heads seeing to - and I'm more than happy to leave your rural backwater alone. Maybe if you got out of there a bit more you wouldn't have such a damning perspective on everything.
What would you do without your muesli...where would you be without a bowl?
No Longer Charting
Forrrce: Dear oh dear you've really burst my bubble. Moi a damning perspective? Please explain, I'd be interested, honest (promise not to beat up on ya). I've always thought I was a pussy cat.
Advance Promo Copy [Level 3]
I've never heard the Mass Production "Welcome To Our World Of Merry Music" song, but I was wondering if it is sampled by Moodymann in the song "Music People" on his Silent Introduction LP. Does anyone know? It wouldn't surprise me, because he samples the Flirts in the same song...
Gold Record [Level 7]
The Mass Production track is the Moodymann sample.
What would you do without your muesli...where would you be without a bowl?
Indie Release [Level 4]
O my lord, I learnt so much about disco from you Jussi, don't let me down like this. I loved "Crying At The Discotheque", which had a self-evident retro feel to it, and we all know why that was. I just listened to the four tracks you mention, and only "The Last Days Of Disco" could be described as having any aural relation to "pure disco" at all. No, I take it back. Not even that song.
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