look what i found

Unlike most twenty-something white rap dj's, I don't own The Isley Brothers' Go For Your Guns for "Footsteps in the Dark" which is better known as the song that "Today Was A Good Day" sampled. (I've got that on 45.)

I picked up Guns because, hey, Isley Brothers record for a dollar. I had kind of forgotten about it until I reorganized a bunch of stuff this weekend and ended up finding a bunch of records I forgot I actually owned.

Guns isn't the Isleys' best work. It's a little generic for its 1977 release and leans on some boring rock influence a bit much. But it's got some jams, not the least of which is "Tell Me When You Need It".

It's a medium funk jam about a man who can't take his lover's mess anymore. It also features a lot of fuzz guitar. This really could be a Devin the Dude song.



The Isley Brothers - Tell Me When You Need It (Parts 1 and 2)

Recess Radio

I recently had the honor of being on Recess Radio with Cropsy and Chester Copperpot. Over the course of about an hour, you will hear hip-hop, disco, house, post-punk, jazz and more. This show is everything your ears have ever wanted.

Recess Radio - Jungle Gym Session 7

You can find other episodes of Recess Radio here.

Remember

Sorry Vivien, but this song is much better without you!



Vivien Vee - Remember (SR's instrumental edit)

PHILA to MD to ITA

I love italo, I love club music, I love making both. Why not make both at the same time, with a bit of that BASS thrown in for good measure???



DJ Apt One - Mickey Dreidels in Rome (320 kbps)

HOLLER.

And by the way, if you're in Philly this Friday night, the 18th of January, catch Skinny and me at Fluid Nightclub as we welcome Baltimore Club king DJ Tittsworth. It's free before 11:30 on the internet-only guestlist, which you can sign up for here.

Pigbag!!!

This band wore many hats, three of which are showcased here - Pigbag flavored disco-funk, dub and jazz. Hit the 'O' Deck and Six of One are off of their final 12" from 1983. The band broke up that year, so I imagine the single tanked. I just found my copy at Own Guru in Baltimore last weekend.

I used to use Schounda, a b-side from 1982, to open my dj sets. People don't really know what to expect after that.



Pigbag - Hit the 'O' Deck

Pigbag - Hit the 'O' Deck - Instrumental

Pigbag - Six Of One

Pigbag - Schounda

Talkin in my sleep

Most people know West Street Mob for their Break Dance Electric Boogie breakbeat on Sugar Hill, that track flips Michael Viner's Apache with some vocoding. Surely you know it, it was even repressed on Sugar Hill, maybe even twice. But recently I stumbled upon a West Street Mob record that I must have passed over dozens of times over the years. Perhaps I heard just one side of this particular record if I ever tossed it on the platter. But I ran into the unfamilar West Street Mob record recently at Jerry's Records back in my hometown of Pittsburgh (perhaps the largest all-vinyl store around, including Amoeba Records in the Bay, certainly the best.). I dropped the needle and guess what I heard? A vocoded version of Sly and the Family Stone's Sing a Simple Song.



West Street Mob - Sing a Simple Song

Mice or Monsters

Whoever decided to omit this track from their retrospective is fucking stupid! Quality punk funk from 1981.



Medium Medium - Mice or Monsters

Double - Woman Of The World

Double were a Swiss synth-pop duo consisting of Felix Haug & Kurt Maloo. If you stand in an elevator or department store for 45 minutes or so, you may catch their 1986 chart hit "The Captain Of Her Heart". Those of you cursed with being a thirty-something will undoubtedly remember this track from massive radio play back when radio play meant something.

Two years before they broke, Double were making dark, Italo-influenced proto-House. An incredible and underrated example of their abilities exists in the form of a track called "Woman Of The World". If you are craving oddball cosmic sounds with some sort of percussive "edge", this is your tune and it sounds relevant 24 years after its initial release. Bravo, Double!



Double - Woman Of The World (Instrumental Long Version)

Rock the throwie

I guess I've gotten into the habit of posting tracks from the "hey, you know that sample" file in my brain. Here's another one for you, and it's a goodie to be sure.

Saxwhoadie Grover Washington, Jr. is one of the most important and prolific figures in jazz history, but he inspires little more than ambivalence from those outside the 50+ African American demographic. Recording with Bob James and others on CTI and Kudu records, he put out a number of tracks that hit the Muzak-Rap Hit-Quiet Storm trifecta. CTI/Kudu is best known for spawning as many puke-inducing smooth jazz hits as it is famous breaks and hooks. Now, Grover was a little more pop-sensible than Hank Crawford and Bob James, Just the Two of Us, Mister Magic, Black Frost, Inner City Blues and this track, Hydra are listenable to the max.

Take a listen to this jam, and you'll immediately recognize it as being the basis for the Artifacts' Wrong Side of the Tracks, Biggie's One More Chance and, most obviously, Black Moon's How Many MCs not to mention some others if you're well versed (All On My Nut Sac anybody?). Oh, and all that aside, it's SICK!



Grover Washington, Jr. - Hydra (320)

Oh, and if you're in New York this weekend, be sure to catch me (Apt One) and Skinny Friedman along with our special guest Nick Hook of the band Men, Women and Children (and the dope throwback house outfit Sports) at our I PIRATE NY monthly at the Lucky Cat in Brooklyn. See yinz there!

New Hot Chip Remix!

Don't sleep on this one! New hella funky Hot Chip remix by Philadelphia's own Peter Dragontail. Live basslines to start your party proper.



Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor (Peter Dragontail Remix)