Les Disques du Crepuscule presents an expanded edition of classic festive album Ghosts of Christmas Past, featuring favourites from the original 1981 and 1982 editions now joined by newer tracks by Crepuscule artists.
Sometimes witty, sometimes melancholic, the original version of Ghosts of Christmas Past in November 1981 featured exclusive contributions from luminaries such as Tuxedomoon, The Durutti Column, Paul Haig, Michael Nyman, Aztec Camera, Thick Pigeon and The Names. Subsequent editions in 1982 and 1986 added songs by Antena, Mikado, The French Impressionists, Pale Fountains and Winston Tong.
For this new double CD version in 2015 Crepuscule have now added more chantons noel by Blaine L. Reininger, Section 25, The Wake, Marsheaux, Deux Filles, Stanton Miranda, Virna Lindt, B Music and Ultramarine.
'Crepuscule's Christmas cracker is here to rescue the festive season from the fogies and bores"(Melody Maker); "Aztec Camera's Hot Club of Christ is a busy, Django-esque run through a few well-known Christmas ditties, Michael Nyman's Cream or Christians is a silly but loveable fragmented organ collage in a typical English eccentric tradition, Tuxedomoon are in playful Residential mood' (NME)
Cover art by Jean-Francois Octave. The remastered 2xCD is sleeved in a deluxe 6 panel digipack.
Disc 1:
1. Section 25 Jesus Sweetly Sleeps
2. Miranda Dali Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
3. The Wake Jesus From the Block
4. Marsheaux We Met Bernard Sumner at a Christmas Party Last Night
5. Ultramarine Winter Circle
6. Isolation Ward Lamina Christus
7. Thick Pigeon Jingle Bell Rock
8. Aztec Camera Hot Club of Christ
9. Paul Haig Scottish Christmas
10. B Music Rocking Carol
11. Tuxedomoon Weihnachtsrap
12. Virna Lindt Festivo
13. Blaine L. Reininger Jingle Hell
14. Blaine L. Reininger Silent Blight
15. Blaine L. Reininger Xmas Blooz
16. The Durutti Column Snowflakes
17. Monks in the Snow A Theme for This Special Evening
Disc 2:
1. Hillcrest Club Breakfast at Christmas
2. Paul Haig Christiana
3. The Names Tokyo Twilight
4. The Durutti Column One Christmas For Your Thoughts
5. White Birds Possessed By the Stars
6. The Swinging Buildings Praying for a Cheaper Christmas
7. B Music Ode to Joy
8. Antena Noelle a Hawai
9. The Pale Fountains Benoît's Christmas
10. The French Impressionists Santa Baby
11. Simon Topping Peep Show International
12. Thick Pigeon Silhouettes
13. Deux Filles The Snow Falls and the Village Is Overflowing With Children
14. Mikado Message de Noël
15. Winston Tong The Twelve Days of Christmas
16. The Arcadians Write Your Letter
17. Michael Nyman Cream or Christians
18. Magazzini Criminali Honolulu 25 dicembre 1990
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2023 Repress
This the first time this title has been available on vinyl . At the risk of further labouring a rather obvious point, with Thank God for Mental Illness, their third collection of absolutely stunning music in 1996, the Brian Jonestown Massacre parallels the prolific and effortless brilliance of the Rolling Stones at their fevered late-1960s peak, the sheer scope of their achievements is stunning — rarely are bands quite so productive, or quite so consistently amazing. Thank God is the BJM's down-and-dirty country-blues outing, all 12-odd tracks supposedly recorded on a single July day at a cost of just $17.36 .The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a psychedelic rock band originally from San Francisco, California, led by guitarist/singer Anton Newcombe. Since 1995 The Brian Jonestown Massacre has released numerous albums, first for Bomp! Records, the label which gave them their start, and later for TVT and Tee Pee. BJM has been essential in the development of the modern U.S. garage scene, and many LA and SF musicians got their start playing with Newcombe, including Peter Hayes of The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.Originally Newcombe was heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones' psychedelic phase - the name comes from Stones guitarist Brian Jones combined with a reference to cult leader Jim Jones, but his work in the 2000s has expanded into aesthetic dimensions approximating the UK Shoegazing genre of the 1990s and incorporating influences from world music, especially Middle Eastern and Brazilian music.
- A1: Générique
- A2: Départ
- A3: Rencontre Brisson
- A4: Serge Sur L'île
- A5: Filature
- A6: Theme Alba & Serge
- A7: Chef Charon
- A8: Poursuite
- A9: La Lettre De Lola
- B1: Départ 2
- B2: Serge Assomé
- B3: Deux Rockers
- B4: Chef Charon 2
- B5: Grand Mère Antoine
- B6: Sortie Café Sous La Pluie
- B7: Alba & Serge
- B8: Départ Serge
- B9: Serge & Lola
- B10: Générique De Fin
Transversales is a French label based in Paris founded by Sebastien Rosat & Jonathan Fitoussi.
Transversales is specialised in the reissues of long lost tapes, rare original soundtracks and library.
Jonathan Fitoussi is a French composer residing in Paris. He works on minimalist and contemporary musical forms. He's also audio restoration engineer at INA & INA GRM. Sebastien
Rosat is a French Music Supervisor working for Films, TV and Advertising. He's also a member of French electronic duo Sommet.
This first release is the original soundtrack of the film Rock, composed in 1982 by Bernard Parmegiani (1927-2013). A major figure of Electro Acoustic music and member of the historic GRM
(Groupe de Recherches Musicales) where he composed an important work of concert, among which is the masterpiece: De Natura Sonorum.
The work of Parmegiani, a virtuoso of the magnetic tape, is widely known to the public even without their knowledge, through the famous title he composed for the TV program Stade 2', for the French radio France Inter and also through the jingle adopted by Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris (1971 - 2005).
Bernard Parmegiani produced a large number of jingles, soundtracks and indicatives but ROCK stands apart in his repertoire. He recorded it without any outside constraints in his own studio. On listening to ROCK, one is reminded of John Carpenter or François de Roubaix: a work which mixes the sounds of the TR-808 drum-machine, Synthi AKS, Farfisa organ and Clavinet.
Limited Edition Remastered from the Original Master Tapes / Exclusive liner notes
- A1: Anyway The Wind Blows
- A2: Cadillac Woman
- A3: Can't Get My Rest At Night
- A4: Days Like This
- A5: Down Home Girl
- B1: Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You
- B2: Hit That Jive Jack
- B3: I Can't Dance
- B4: Jealous Girl
- B5: Just For A Thrill
- C1: Keep On Truckin
- C2: Do You Or Don't You I Wanna Know
- C3: Motorvatin' Mama
- C4: Rhythm King
- C5: Rough Cut Diamond
- D1: Streamline Woman
- D2: The Joint Is Jumping
- D3: Tomorrow Night
- D4: Walking One & Only
- D5: Where's The Money
- E1: A True Romance
- E2: Bad To Be Alone
- E3: Bye Bye Blues
- E4: Crazy He Calls Me
- E5: Cry Baby
- E6: Every Sixty Seconds
- F1: Groovin
- F2: He's A Real Gone Guy
- F3: I Put A Spell On You
- F4: I Want To Be Evil
- F5: Long Walk To Dc
- F6: Love Letters
- G1: Snap Your Fingers
- G2: Mojo Boogie
- G3: My Handy Man
- G4: Oh Baby
- G5: Ring My Bell
- G6: Spooky
- H1: That's How Heartaches Are Made
- H2: This Ain't United Nations
- H3: Trust In Me
- H4: When Hollywood Goes Black And Tan
- H5: Yesterdays
- This four LP box set features some of the best studio recordings by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, the ten-piece band that Bill
put together after leaving the Rolling Stones in 1992. Whilst the band features guest appearances by all-star musicians (including
Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton, Chris Rea, George Harrison,Gary Brooker and Peter Frampton on these recordings), it has an all-
star core line-up that features Georgie Fame, Beverley Skeete, Albert Lee, Terry Taylor and Bill Wyman himself of course.
- For this compilation, Bill Wyman has chosen forty three tracks that showcase the fantastic lead vocals of both Beverley
Skeete, perhaps the UK's busiest session singer, and Georgie Fame, a star (and legend) in his own right since 1964 of course.
- Each singer has two LPs: Georgie's features his renditions of songs by the likes of J.J. Cale, Mose Allison, Dan Hicks, and Bill
Wyman & Terry Taylor, while Beverley's features her take on songs by Nellie Lutcher, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, J.B. Lenoir and
The Rascals.
- This box set marks the first appearance of any Rhythm Kings recordings on vinyl. The four LPs are housed in an attractive rigid
outer slipcase and the inner sleeves feature all themusician credits.
Ike Yard recombine their music looking across decades of post punk, electronic, soundtracks and come out with some of their best yet and enough to last the next 20-30 years (in Ike Yard´s very own words). Originally founded in 1979 New York City, members Michael Diekmann (keyboard, guitar, vocals), Kenneth Compton (programming drums, synths arrangements, bass, guitar, vocals) and Stuart Argabright (programming drums, synths arrangements, distortion bass, keyboards, metal perc) reformed the band once in 2007 and again in 2010. Each time different and with new ambitions. This time 'Sacred Machine' EP is defined by detailed drum layers supported by multiple basses and keyboards, some off-timing beat patterns that turn in a second of synchrony into a straight four on the floor kick and first time vocal collaborations.
Composition wise 'Sacred Machine' EP is recorded as a 'rehearsal'. As for Ike Yard songs would not be done so very many times in their existence, all threw in on each piece as they came into being. It sounds like a group that could have been doing records in Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick´s 'A Clockwork Orange'. 'Night Klub' revisits Ike Yard´s original 'Night After Night' from 1981 EP. 'Sacred Machine' might be familiar to those who caught Ike Yard dates in Europe between 2007-2014 as one of the extended jams prepared for the dark ambient shows. 'Tear Drop' night airport music with sweet vocals by Camella Lobo of Tropic Of Cancer is followed by 'Spit' that explores Ike Yard NCR style with jittery beats, clomping, stomping cross cut beats. 'Slaves Of Janet' featuring Erica Belle brings to mind scenes in an S&M parlour with unused lyrics from the Factory America LP recordings.
Finnish legends and everything-but-grey eminences of electronic music, Jimi Tenor and Freestyle Man revive their dormant partnership on this four track EP for Studio Barnhus, jam-packed with classic drum machine funk, congenial synth lines and Jimi's unmistakable lead vocals and flute-playing. The Sleepover EP is fuelled by the two maestros' mutual love for New Jersey house music and pyjama parties, as well as musical wisdom gained from numerous collaborations in the past, ranging back to some fabled mid-90s Sähkö releases. Live show booking now! Artwork by Robin Ekemark.
Black Truffle is thrilled to announce the first ever vinyl reissue of legendary performance and sound artist John Duncan's forgotten gem Klaar, originally released by Extreme in 1991 and partly created in collaboration with Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio). Duncan is perhaps most well known for his notorious early performances pieces, which explored violence, self-denial, and the establishment of extreme psychological and physical states in both artist and audience. Alongside these transgressive experiments, Duncan began to create audio works primarily using short wave radio. Where some of Duncan's earlier recordings are composed of magnificently sculpted but abrasive walls of noise, Klaar, recorded while Duncan was living in Amsterdam, occupies a more meditative territory.
Opening with 'Delta', which layers long tones seemingly sourced from slowed down voices over a distant, watery field recording, the remainder of the first side is occupied with the epic title piece, which arranges shortwave radio abstraction, vocal experiments, and field recordings (street sounds, fireworks, monastic chants) into an episodic cinema for the ear. The second side is dominated by the long, brooding 'The Immense Room', where layers of shortwave interference and field recordings are gradually built up into a pulsing, wavering bed of sound infused with a subtly disturbing sense of psychological unrest. This rises to the surface near the end of the piece as sexual moans and ominous rumbles crisscross the stereo image before being abruptly brought to a halt.
A singular work of electroacoustic composition, Klaar is both compositionally sophisticated and infused with a sense of mystery and a vital reality often lacking in more academic experimental music; it sits proudly alongside contemporaneous recordings by Duncan's friends and collaborators Jim O'Rourke and Christoph Heemann and is a must for anyone interested in their work.
- Francis Plagne
- A1: Jingo - Fever
- A2: Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats - Heavy Heavy Heavy
- A3: Steele Beautttah - Africa
- B1: Mercury Dance Band - Envy No Good
- B2: Dackin Dackino - Yuda
- C1: K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas - Kyenkyen Bi Adi M'awu
- C2: Orchestra Lissanga - Okuzua
- D1: Super Mambo 69 - Sweeper Soul
- D2: Fathili & The Yahoos - Mabala
- D3: Bokoor Band - Onukpa Shawarpo
- D4: Nkansah And Yaanom - Pem Dwe
- D5: Jingo - Keep On Holding On (Part 1) - Bonus Track
'Afro Rock Vol. 1' is one of the most important compilations of heavy original '70s Afro funk and soul to be released in recent years. Originally surfacing on Duncan Brooker's indie Kona label in early 2001, the album single-handedly kick-started the thirst among jazz, funk and soul fans and 'diggers' to rediscover lost music from Africa made during the '60s and '70s from a time when many countries were gaining independence and celebrating a Pan-African identity within their music. The album was one of the frst to reach a far different audience to the traditional 'world music' market and spawned many further projects and labels in its wake. A year later, the 'Nigeria 70' compilation surfaced on Strut and labels like Soundway and Analog Africa would continue to unearth amazing lost gems from the Motherland. The album is testament to the determined work of Brooker following several research trips, especially to East Africa - Kenya and Zaire. It brought to light East Africa's fnest funk band, Air Fiesta Matata, led by the recently deceased Steele Beautttah, 'The Nigerian James Brown' Geraldo Pino from Port Harcourt in Nigeria, and the storming Afro jam 'Yuda' by Dackin Dackino, a previously unreleased gem from Zaire discovered on a discarded reel. The album has remained infuential since its release with tracks appearing on other Afro compilations and on TV and the big screen - Jingo's 'Fever' featured in Kevin McDonald's 2006 hit flm, 'Last King Of Scotland'.Out of print since 2015, the album is being reissued on Strut in its original form with the extra dynamite unreleased psychedelic cut by Kenya's Ishmael Jingo, 'Keep On Holding On' taken from the original master tape. The package features the original sleeve notes by Duncan Brooker along with new additional notes providing further background to the album and tracks.
This obscure and difficult to find LP is the Heath Brothers' debut album and is considered to be their best. 'Marchin'on' is unquestionably a masterpiece and is a much sought-after album. With its wealth of riffs, it is much appreciated by samplers and has been sampled by various contemporary artists. It was originally released in 1976 on Strata-East, a label at the time co-owned by Stanley Cowell. The album flows fluidly, meticulously in a warm rich blend with the four part 'smilin' Billy suite being a tour de force on its own. All suites have the same anchor in melody but each branches out to its own distinctive song varying from relaxed to light to dramatic and upbeat. The Heath Brothers was formed in 1975 by brothers Jimmy, Percy, Albert Heath and the much celebrated pianist Stanley Cowell in Philadelphia. The band later on continued with the brothers and alternate new members, with at one point the very talented 'Mtume' who is Jimmy Heath's son, joining. - Rachel Kinoti
Following an accomplished EP on Perc Trax & a feature on Parallels and Influence Part II, Manni Dee returns to Leyla contributing his third EP to the labels impressive discography.
Your Public Image commences with Insurrection Erection, featuring vocals by Joke Lanz of Sudden Infant (Harbinger Sound, Raubbau). The vocal contributions harness a feeling of widespread disharmony, punctuating the bullish drums and assertive atmosphere with eruptions of frustration and expressions of malcontent. While the field recorded vocals made by Lanz feature as an empowered voice and a call for upheaval, the screams and shrieks from Lanz operate as the marginalised voice of the oppressed, sharply slicing through musical elements only to disappear and become submerged.
The A2 skips along with broken beats in very British fashion, reminiscent of Manni's earlier work on Black Sun Records, with added ingenuity and percussive flare.
The application of vocals, which has become a key characteristic of Dee's recent work, is creatively exhibited on the B1 Combination Acts; a track that displays a deft percussive density unique to Dee's style, adding a frenetic touch to a steadfast substructure. The tempo ramps up on the EP closer, satirically & appropriately titled The Jingoism Stench. The distorted & frantic yet nimble foundation propels the track forward, with reverberated contact mic and vocal recordings bouncing off the stolid walls of rhythmic pressure.
An acute understanding and implementation of rhythm and sound design results in provocative dancefloor material that blurs the lines between industrial traditions and (post) punk artistry. Dee continues to flourish as one of the most innovative and exciting voices in techno today.
- A1: Willie J Charles - Feelin' Kinda Lonesome
- A2: Little Joe Hinton - Let's Start A Romance
- A3: Ki Ki Page With Plas Johnson & Orchestra - Big Boy
- A4: Frank Heppinstall - Sweetheart
- A5: Faye Adams - The Hammer Keeps A Knockin
- A6: Roosevelt Jones - I Say! That's Alright
- A7: Johnny Appalachian - Up In Smoke
- A8: Jimmy Breedlove - My Guardian Angel
- B1: Ernie K-Doe - Love You The Best
- B2: Justin Jones - Dance By Yourself
- B3: Bruce Cloud - Lucky Is My Name
- B4: Chance Halladay - Bury Me Deep
- B5: Mary Ann Fisher - Put On My Shoes
- B6: The Knockouts - Fever
- B7: Roger Green - Betty Mae
- B8: The Chandeliers - She's A Heartbreaker
Belgium 'Popcorn' borrows its name from the 1969 James Brown LP, The Popcorn, which also became the moniker for the Popcorn Club in Vrasene, Flanders which, in its heyday, attracted 3,000 youths to its Sunday sessions. It was DJ Gilbert Govaert who pioneered the sound, blending blues, soul, jazz, latin, doo-wop and high-school pop in a unique melting pot that appealed to dancers seeking that chugging cha-cha beat.
Our POPCORN SOUL PARTY carries on the tradition with many tracks culled from the original playlists and others, such as the incredibly elusive Willie J Charles Feelin' Kinda Lonesome' which has become popular in more recent times.
This unique set will appeal to Popcorn oldies fans, new breed Northern Soul fans and R&B collectors alike. Look out for new-to-vinyl reissues courtesy of Ki Ki Page and Chance Halladay!
The Party Continues...
Limited repress of the desperately cool super hip post punk mega rarity. With different label so it's different from the first pressing.
The first trunk repress of this classic lost post punk single was way back in 2010. They all sold very fast. The original 7' then shot to £500+ if you can ever find one. And the Trunk 12' repress is now about £50. Three record companies approached Trunk in the last month to repress it, but it was easier just to repress this classic 12' with the original version, a radio edit and three further edits from various underground superstars.
Jive baby On A Sturday Night' is incredibly hooky. It was originally played by John Peel back in the day, but as a privately pressed record with no distribution apart from being carried about ina sprts holdall, it sold just 30 copies.
Rediscovered by Thurston Moore in 2009, this super hip single is now back out with the full original version plus edits and mixes by Lemon Jelly's Fred Deakin, Tommy Stupid and Georges Vert, AKA the Advisory Circle.
The good ship Ransom Note sails on!
Continuing our commitment to releasing the finest dance music from planet Earth, our latest missive comes from fresh-faced Belgian kit freak Placid One. Squeezing out analogue techno from a studio full of synths that burble and shimmer and croak, Placid's lead track 'C Balloon' is a drum-less masterpiece, an arpeggiating ascent into a chrome-plated future. The track belongs in the lineage of the emotional best of Detroit, as mysterious as it is melancholic, it's a vision of computer blues for the 21st century.
It's followed by 'Bombay Persuasion', a jitter of broken tech-funk building to a rumbling throb of bass, and 'Life', which chops up classic breakbeats with late night acid secrets. All three tracks combine Placid One's youthful exuberance with a yearning for the hardware mentasm of early Brit pioneers, the ghosts of Aphex Twin, Orbital and Kirk Degiorgio can be heard echoing through their grooves.
On remix duties we have Deutschland's finest Cass. who provides a blissed out reimagining of 'C Balloon', unravelling its synths into an epic of found sounds and ambient drift. This is followed by a floor ready refix from Ransom Note favourite Timothy 'Heretic' Clerkin, who rolls 'C Balloon' into a warm house jam, all classic synth hits and sun-rising acid bubbles.
3 overlooked jams on one 12" single, excavated from the deepest realms of the TK Disco vaults. Remastered, represented and brought back into focus for 2017's DJ bags and dance-floors. Side A sees Wizzdom's 1980 boogie jam 'Free bass' kicking off proceedings. A P-funk-ish, low slung jam indeed, it has everything you'd want including some Furious Five esque shouts of 'Free-Bass!' weaving in and out of the mix. This one is a true heads cut, one for the diggers! Over on side B we get Jimmy 'Bo' Horne's slamming 'Is it in' - a stomping piece of Disco-funk that in the right hands will cause maximum damage. Also, Jimmy's mildly double-entendre lyrics are hugely entertaining! Following up we have a cut from Herman Kelly & Life, 'A refreshing love' was an LP only release and is some serious downtempo Latin tinged soul super soaked in Miami sunshine! All in all, 3 majorly overlooked gems nestled away in the TK archive now brought back into the light. As usual, these TK represses are always done in the proper manner. 100% legit re-edits, from the archive, remastered and released in conjunction with Henry Stone Music / TK Disco - Miami FL.
*Restless Mashaits hailing from Geneva are based around the core of Jil and Stuf. They released a sizeable amount of new roots classics throughout the 90s and 00's. Recently becoming active again, they are best remembered for the sessions they recorded at Kingston, Jamaica in the mid/late 90s with legendary musicians such as Vin Gordon, Deadly Headly and Dizzy Moore. The original releases have been since long deleted, but some are now unearthed thanks to Partial Records.
*`Lion' from 1996, features the legendary Jamaican percussionist Scully Simms (who recently passed away) and was in every box of all serious roots selectors back then. Now long deleted, this will fill in the gap for the many collectors who have this on their wants lists.
*`Dub Lion' is a different dub version to the one previously released in 1996.
Ethiopian UrbanandTribal Music(Recorded By Ragnar Johnson&Ralph Harrisson)
Mindanoo Mistiru / Gold From Wax
- A1: Drum Dirge
- A2: Wub Allem Beautiful World
- A3: Galla Song
- A4: Afar Divination Chant
- A5: Two Afar Flutes
- A6: Anuak Toum Thumb Piano
- A7: Nuer Harpnuer Har
- B1: Lome, Dorze Song
- B2: Jigsaw's Give Me Money Song
- B3: Bagana
- B4: Habeebe (My Love) Ma
- B5: Nuer Dance
- B6: Konso Dance
- C1: Eyo Dorze Song
- C2: Anche-Lej-Amaleh
- C3: Kofu
- C4: Bagana
- C5: Galla Song
- C6: Harambeh Africa
- C7: Konso Song
- C8: Msgana
- D1: Fanno Mary Armeede
- D2: Fila Flute Dance
- D3: Nuer Wire Strung Harp
- D4: Jung Nai
- D5: Anauk Toum Thumb Piano
- D6: Walla-Lam
- D7: Afar Flute
Mindanoo Mistiru means 'What is the Unknown' and Gold From Wax refers to the layers of meaning in Amharic poetry.
Ethiopia has many languages and styles of music.
These recordings were made in the Empire of Ethiopia in 1971. The music recorded in Addis Ababa uses masenko fiddles, craar and bagana lyres, washint flutes and kabaro drums. There is folk music played in Addis Ababa tej beit bars with vocals, craar, masenko, washint and kabaro, Ethiopian Christian songs accompanied by the bagana large 'Harp of David' and Mary Armeede's craar accompanied Amharic sung poetry. There are Afar chants and flutes from the Danakil Desert, Anuak thumb piano, Nuer harp, laments and drumming, a Konso dance and a Gidole flute dance from the Sudan and Kenya borderlands.
- A1: C'mon Everybody
- A2: Summertime Blues
- A3: Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie
- A4: Teenage Heaven
- A5: Boll Weevil Song
- A6: Somethin' Else
- A7: Weekend
- A8: Twenty Flight Rock
- B1: Three Steps To Heaven
- B2: Blue Suede Shoes
- B3: Pretty Girl
- B4: Pink Peg Slacks
- B5: Cut Across Shorty
- B6: Sweetie Pie
- B7: Skinny Jim
- B8: Long Tall Sally
It was a tragic waste of a life, but the influence Cochran imparted on those he'd played and toured with, like Joe Brown, Georgie Fame and Marty Wilde, would ensure he'd not be forgotten. And with acts as diverse as the Who, Sex Pistols and Rush reviving his songs in future years, it was certain he would not be forgotten. But who needs an excuse to enjoy Eddie Cochran's music These tracks, some well known and others less so, tie up the first half of his tragically brief but unbelievably influential career. Pull your blue jeans on and enjoy!
Irish label Fatty Fatty spreads its wings with their 'International Disco Mafia' EP.
Extending from Dublin out to Drogheda and Galway and onward overseas, the EP provides something peak-time for all tastes.
The lead off track sees label top dog Pablo going off on a solo tip, delivering an end of nighter take on an eternal UK street Soul classic. Chopping together many different mixes to create an epic whole, this one has been road-tested thoroughly, and always brings the house down.
While Pablo was fiddling around endlessly with that one, usual production partner Shoey slithered off with newcomer Kellser to produce a dreamy, stretched out take on a late 70's staple , another guaranteed winner, and possibly the most bliss inducing song ever to run at 130BPM
The international part of the EP comes from Italian edit king Belabouche, who delivers a lovely take on 'Willie and The Hand Jive'.
Last but not least, Galway boy Island Time makes his bow with a straight up, brassy slice of soulful Disco aimed straight at the dancefloor...
Until he was about 20, Texas-born Melvin Sparks was a rhythm & blues guitarist, backing Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye as a member of The Upsetters. But Sparks gave up his seat on The Upsetters' bus in New York City, where a chance introduction to George Benson led him to a place in soul jazz history. Melvin played and recorded with Lou Donaldson, Leon Spencer, Bernard Purdie, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Idris Muhammad, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Charles Earland, Grover Washington Jr., Reuben Wilson and so many more. Even during the quietest years of soul-jazz Melvin stayed relevant through hip-hop and r&b, a quick search at WhoSampled turns up more than 150 samples of his funky chicken scratch. And Melvin's legacy is heard in contemporary soul/funk bands like The New Mastersounds, Soulive and The Greyboy Allstars, all of whom he also guested with several times before his early departure from this realm in 2011.
This release documents Melvin's final band just months before his death. Organist Beau Sasser and drummer Bill Carbone had been working with Sparks for several years, and, despite the power dynamic - they were in their early 30s, Melvin an elder-statesmen of the genre - the unit was sharp, relaxed and performed Melvin's music with a jovial spirit. The trio played the Burlington, VT club Nectar's regularly, but this night featured two "onlys." Per the recommendation of Nectar's agent they used the "Grippo Horns," the only time Sparks used a horn section in the last several years of his life, and they allowed a multitrack recording of the show. Both were strong decisions.
The tracks on this album, lovingly mixed by guitarist, producer and Melvin Sparks fan Eddie Roberts, demonstrate that Melvin played as well in the final months of his life as at any time. Sparks counts "Whip! Whop!" off at what he said The Upsetters called a "showtime tempo," and peppers it, as well as most of the album, with quotes from jazz standards, pop songs and cartoon themes, all woven effortlessly into the bebop-funk dialect he helped create. He unfolds amiable melodies, patiently and methodically, through his several-minute lead on "Breezin'." And Sparks is audibly uplifted by the Grippo Horns helping him perform his 1973 arrangement of "Ain't No Woman" for the first time in decades.




















