Park Bench People

American jazz-vocalist José James not only made an impressive coverversion of Freestyle Fellowship's Park Bench People, James' version now has an equally impressive video too!

Freestyle Fellowship - Park Bench People
Jose James - Park Bench People

Born to Make You Happy

Britney's Born to Make You Happy is really a deeply emotional song, best sung by a man who's been around, who's seen things, who has lived, loved and got drunk. The result looks and sounds like this:


The Spears - Born to Make You Happy

Wonder Wrote It

Just cuz we felt like it, me and my mate Dewey decided to make two mixes of our favourite Stevie Wonder songs. Either songs sang by Stevie, or that were written by him. Plus some remixes. Every track was mixed from vinyl. Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Tracklist Stevie Knows 1 (download from HERE):

Syreeta - To Know You Is To Love You
Stevie Wonder - Respect
Stevie Wonder - My Cherie Amour
Joe Farrel - Too High
Amp Fiddler - Too High rmx
Stevie Wonder - As If You Read My Mind (Underdog edit)
Michael Jackson - I Can't Help It
Art Pepper - Isn't She Lovely
Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel
Yesterdays New Quintet - You've Got it Bad Girl
Stevie Wonder - Uptight
Bobby Byrd - Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Stevie Wonder - If You Really Love Me
Stevie Wonder - Send One Your Love
Small Change - Nuff Man Live Fi Yah City
Stevie Wonder - Shoo Be Do Bee Da Day
Stevie Wonder - I Was Made To Love Her
Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothing
Jose Feliciano - Golden Lady

Tracklist Stevie Knows 2 (download from HERE)

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (DJ Smash rmx)
Stevie Wonder - So What The Fuss
Ellen McIlwaine - Higher Ground
Stevie Wonder - Fingertips pt 1
Stevie Wonder - Please, Please, Please
Stevie Wonder - My Love Is On Fire (DJ Spinna rmx)
Stevie Wonder - All I Do (House rmx)
Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (House rmx)
Stevie Wonder - From The Bottom Of My Heart (Tarantulaz rmx)
Stevie Wonder - Jesus Children of America
Weldon Irvine - Don't you Worry Bout A Thing
Ramsey Lewis - Spring High
Stevie Wonder - Boogie On Reggae Woman
Stevie Wonder - For Once In My Life
Luis Gasca - Visions
Houston Person - Yester Me, Yester You
Stevie Wonder - Stevie - Gamm Re-edit

Adele in the remix

Adele's Chasing Pavements (a great live version above) is a great break-up song. But how d'you like this drrrums of death-remix by Various Productions?

Adele - Chasing Pavements (Various Productions remix)

Christmas a go go!

CHRISTMASAGOGO

Is back!

Go get your groovy vintage Christmas tunes!

Swedes Please!

A few weeks back I linked to a podcast featuring Canadian bands (and one American group, by mistake), the guys from Nieuwe Revu magazine now made a Swedish update. Go here to download (where it says: Download De Podcast)

Tracklist:
1. The Tough Alliance - First Class Riot
2. Those Dancing Days - Hitten
3. Robyn with Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat (Meatboys Remix)
4. Studio - No Comply
5. Little Dragon - Test
6. The Honeydrips - Fall from a Height
7. The Embassy - Some Indulgence
8. Air France - Beach Party
9. Boat Club - Always Away
10. Moonbabies - War on Sound
11. Harlem - Cat Scratch
12. Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks (Diplos Drums of Death Remix)
13. Detektivbyran - E18
14. Promise and the Monster - Antarktis

(the title of this post was stolen from the marvellous Swedes Please blog.)

Beasties vs Alphonse

A few weeks back I was sitting in this Amsterdam café. The owner hooked his iPod to the soundsystem, and played some funky jazz. I was reading the paper when all of a sudden a very familiar drumroll filled the room, that i recognised instantly as the intro to Beastie Boys' Shake Your Rump. But this was the sample-source. At first, because of the trumpet, I thought it was a Donald Byrd song, but it turned out to be Alphonse Mouzon, a drummer/keysplayer who recorded a few albums for Blue Note in the seventies. I got hold of a Japanese reissue. Great funky album (personnel features Randy Brecker, Steve Berrios and Gary King), great find and yes, a great sample source.

Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump
Alphonse Mouzon - Funky Snakefoot

Oh Canada

Like Canadian bands? Want to download a podcast featuring 19 new 'n exciting bands from the maple leaf-country? Go here. Click on 'download de podcast'.

Here's the tracklisting:

1. The Arcade Fire - Intervention
2. Broken Social Scene - KC Accidental
3. Feist – My Moon My Man
4. Immaculate Machine - Nothing Ever Happens
5. The Weakerthans - Virtute the Cat Explains her Departure
6. Hot Hot Heat - Oh, Goddamnit
7. Mstrkrft - Street Justice
8. Caribou - Melody Day
9. Young Galaxy - Swing Your Heartache
10. The New Pornographers - From Blown Speakers
11. Black Mountain - Stormy High
12. Malajube – La Monagamie
13. Tricot Machine – L’ours
14. Low - Murderer
15. Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry (not Canadian, but a great song)
16. Miracle Fortress - Next Train
17. The Dears – Ticket to Immorality
18. Stars - Personal
19. Sunset Rubdown - For The Pier (and Dead Shimmering)
20. Patrick Watson - The Great Escape

Five Recent Releases That I Love

1. The Roots of Chicha - Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru
Very intriguing title, very intriguing music. It's cumbia, but with farfisa organs, surfguitars and phat phunky bass. Music that wasn't written about by critics, but in the 60s and 70s loved by a large audience. In Peru, that is, it never got abroad. Thanks to the compiler of this compilation, now everybody can hear this exciting sound. More? Here.

MP3: Juaneco Y Su Combo - Linda Nena

2. Budos Band - II
Suppose the theme to series like The Streets of San Fransisco, or a movie like Bullit, was written by a set of African funkateers. How it would've sound? Something like the mighty Budos Band, probably. They sound from waaaaay back, but this is brandspanking new album by guys who also play or played with Sharon Jones, Amy Winehouse and Antibalas. More? Here.

MP3: Budos Band - Mas o Menos

3. Elan Mehler - Scheme for Thought
This was released on Gilles Peterson's Brownswood label, and so far every release on that label is f*cking amazing. Elan's a Newyork jazzpianist, he plays with a guy on Rhodes, one on bass and one on sax. Review-quote: "Harmonically there's a pleasing idiosyncrasy to this record with Mehler's chord progressions standing tantalizingly between jazz and classical while bursts of rythmic energy have subtle electronica undercurrents." You need to listen to this a few times to 'get' it, but it's worth the trouble. More? Here.

MP3: Elan Mehler - Elvis Presley Blues

4. Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Hits the Hits
James Last's not dead, but he can be assured; his legacy will be in good hands. The hands of leftfield funkateer Shawn Lee, that is. On Hits the Hits big hits are covered in a funkymuzak-y way, but very well executed. It's elevator music you sure can dance to, best track is Shawn's faux-Dick-Dale-ification of Missy's Get UR Freak on.

MP3: Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - Get UR Freak On

5. Ticklah - Ticklah vs. Axelrod
Ticklah 's real name is Victor Axelrod, he plays with Antibalas and Sharon Jones, and this is his dubreggae/latin-record. He played almost all instruments. A killer record, up there with the best work of dubreggaeheroes like Scientist, Dennis Bovell and Mad Professor. Light up yer spliff, and feel the bass down your spine. More? Here.

MP3: Ticklah - Si Hecho Palante (Featuring Mayra Vega)

Party!

see www.bossaboogie.com

Radioactivity

Fatboy Slim compiled a really nice edition of LateNightTales, for which he himself covered Kraftwerk's indestructible Radioactivity. His version, the original and two great covers are below.

Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
Fatboy Slim - Radioactivity
Divine Comedy - Radioactivity
Frederic Truong - Radioactivity

Friends Forever

Rose - Can We Still Be Friends?
Robert Palmer - Can We Still Be Friends?
Todd Rundgren - Can We Still Be Friends?

More Rose here.

Indie-Electro-Licious

If you do not think that Plushgun needs to get signed REAL FAST, that Dancing in a Minefield is a brilliant song, that Just Impolite is as good as Postal Service's Such Great Heights, then you're no friend of mine. (More Plushgun here)

Plushgun - Dancing in a Minefield
Plushgun - Just Impolite

Woo-hoo!

John Bourke. Heidi Cannon (pictured). The Toxic Avenger. These guys (aka Trash Yourself) made one of the trashiest punksjumpup-covers I heard this years. Song 2 by Blur, up to eleven. "I think my fucking ears are bleeding", someone says near the end. Ain't that a bitch.
Trash Yourself isn't the first to cover Blur's Song 2, Earl Zinger did it before, inna reggae stylee.

Blur - Song 2
Trash Yourself - Song 2
Earl Zinger - Song 2wo

FUMIE HOSOKAWA

If you've ever wanted to hear surf's up version of France Gall (I can't say it's ever crossed my mind, but I'm open to new things of course), here's your chance. This track comes off of 2002's compilation Gainsbourg Made In Japan, which is exactly what it sounds like. As for Fumie, Wikipedia tells me she's one of the pioneers of the big bust bikini craze in Japan. Here's to you, Fumie.


Fumie Hosokawa - Poupée de cire, poupée de son

Kurt Elling

For a few years now, I treasured a vinyl 12" record by remixers Backroom Bandits. On the label, it simply said You Don't Know What Love Is. Sung by, what I thought, a black soulsinger. Very deep, very touching, the singer really dug into the song and the lyrics. He's feeling the blues, and so does the listener. The beat's deephouse, not too heavy. You can dance to it, but a slight sway's better. I never found out who that singer was (did not look for 'm too hard, mind you), until I was sitting in a bar recently, and the bartender put on Kurt Elling's most recent cd. That voice! Unmistakeable. Kurt's not black, but a white guy from Chicago. He's considered to be an extraordinatry jazzsinger, one that shows that easy listening isn't as bland as that label suggests. I'm going to dig deeper in his records. For now, here's the remix and the original.

Kurt Elling - You Don't Know What Love Is
Kurt Elling - You Don't Know What Love Is (Backroom Bandits remix)

RetroBabe! gets Stoned

Hi Folks !! By way of making a loooooong overdue post at Splendida Project and as an unashamed tool to plug the fact that my own blog 'Retrobabe!' is back up & running with regular, yes! 'regular' posts, jus' like befo' ........ I'm posting this blog twinning post based around tracks that appear in this months 'Mojo' magazine cover CD. Celebrating yet another Stones Anniversary the Mojo cd offers tracks both covered & written by the Stones by a variety of artistes offering covers of the Stones numbers & originals of songs that Keef & the boys covered themselves! So, in keeping with Splendida & it's general style here are three excellent covers by some Retro girls ......

Time is on my Side ~ Irma Thomas

Sympathy for the Devil ~ Sandie Shaw

As Tears go By ~ Nancy Sinatra

[zip file]

..... Now when you're finished at Splendida Project feel free to check out more 'Stoned' samples at RetroBabe!

Back Soon, IanB

My 50 Favourite Reggae Tracks: 43/42/41

When the bass is real low, when the drums come thunder-r-r-r-ing in, when the fx are up to 11 and when the voices are still sweet, than you're in deep dub. There are big differences in dub-style, from the minimalistic (but effective) take of Berlin's Rhythm & Sound (they will pop up again) to Mad Professor (who transforms Massive Attack) to oldies-but-goldies Augustus Pablo & King Tubby.

Feeling irie already?

Massive Attack - Radiation Ruling the Nation (Mad Professor dub)
Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown
Rhythm & Sound feat. Willi Williams - See Mi Yah

My 50 Favourite Reggaetracks: 46/45/44

Reggae in the Lowlands? You betcha. If there ever was an equivalent of The Beatles in Holland, it was Doe Maar. They ruled the hitparades and the hearts of thousands of teens in the eighties, and made reggae with rock-touches (The Police, but more to the reggae-side). The odd thing was that the members weren't heartthrobs in a Boyzone/Westlife-sense, but thirtysomethings that wrote songs in Dutch about thirtysomething-issues. Like having a fight with your girl during which she says: je loopt je lul achterna (transl: you think with your dick). Imagine a sportsarena filled with 13-year olds communitysinging that song. It all became too much for the bandmembers, they called it quits while making their last album. A few years back, when their former audience finally got the message of the songs, they did a couple of comebackshows, and then buried Doe Maar forever. Great memories, but a great band too. Guitarplayer Jan Hendriks and bassist/singer Hennie Vrienten sure knew what reggae was about. Vrienten also oversaw a great dub-session of their second album - even Kruder & Dorfmeister dug Doe De Dub.
Another brilliant Dutch reggae band was the Postmen, named after a Burning Spear-song. At the end of the nineties they fused JA-music with rap in a very organic way. They made three albums before they imploded. Nowadays rapper Anonymous Mis works solo as Postman.

Doe Maar - De laatste x
Doe Maar - Winnetou (Winnetoe-dub)
Postmen - U Wait

My 50 Favourite Reggaetracks: 48/47

This year marks the 30th anniversary of two of the most important, most beloved and probably best reggae records ever; Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers and Two Sevens Clash by Culture. It was Marleys fifth studioalbum for Virgin, and the band and the bandleader were at their peak - notwithstanding the fact that Marley had been shot in an attempt to kill him. To let things cool off at JA, he went to London to record both the album, and play a fantastic concert at the Rainbow. A selection of that show is on a dvd that's added to the anniversary-edition.
Exodus is political, but also has a mellow side. Two Sevens Clash is all about the mysticism of rastafarianism, with nods to Marcus Garvey and his Black Star Liner, the Lion of Judah and numerology (1977, when two sevens clash). Culture was the name of a trio of singers, but leader Joseph Hill eventually became Culture, just like Burning Spear. It's not just roots reggae here, there are hints to funk, bigbandswing and calypso. Both albums are still as strong as they were 30 years ago. The anniversary-version of Two Sevens Clash features a nice booklet with liner notes and interviews, plus dubversions.
ATTENTION: I'm giving away one Two Sevens Clash 30th Anniversary Edition. For real. Just tell me why you want it in the comments, and leave an emailaddress or other way to get in touch with you.

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus
Culture - See Them A Come

My 50 Favourite Reggae Tracks: 50/49

To keep this blog in action, I'm going to post my 50 favourite reggaetracks in the coming weeks. Traditional rootsreggae, dub, dancehall, ska, triphop, whatnot. No particular order, just sweet smoke, so to speak.

These two tracks have something in common: the brass section. Fat Freddy's Drop is a band from New Zealand that have no drummer, no bassist (that's all electronics), but do have a guy with the sweetest reggaevoice out there (I collect everything Joe Dukie sings on) ánd some mad hornblowers. They sound mellow, but if you see them live you think they play in a freejazz band. Just great.
Melasse is a Berlin-based project by producers Andreas Schoenrock and Felix Haaksman, who are also part of Dutch Rhythm Combo and Haaksman+Haaksman. Soulmap is their first offering, released in June, that features the wonderful voice of singer Cherie. The song is like watching a beautiful, coffee-and-cream-coloured honey peel an orange, very sensual.

Fat Freddy's Drop - Ernie
Melasse - Soulmap

Nightclubbing

The second single Candie Payne (see below) released, was Take Me. On the flipside of this vinyl seven inch is a cover of Iggy Pop's Nightclubbing. That original version is on Pop's acclaimed album The Idiot, the song's written together with David Bowie. Candie's version's great - I like the semi-bored way she sings it, and the sparse, but soulful instrumentation. Other people who had a go at this song were Grace Jones (who reggaefied it), Acapulco Radio (aloha from Germany!), Delta Moon (blues) and Skeletal Family (artsy blues). Did I miss one?

Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing
Candie Payne - Nightclubbing
Grace Jones - Nightclubbing
Acapulco Radio - Nightclubbing
Delta Moon - Nightclubbing
Skeletal Family - Nightclubbing

Floris

On blogs like these, special songs are posted. To me, There's Nothing to It by Floris is a special song. It was my introduction to the boy wonder of Dutch soulectronics (that's Floris) and to the lovely Rose. He's a small blonde hyperactive soundfreak, she's a tall, cool and very beautiful singer. On Floris' first (untitled) album they worked together for the first (and not the last) time. There's Nothing To It should've become a massive summer hit, but alas. The album was released in 2002, and still sounds as fresh, weird and soulful as it did back in the day. Five years later, Floris is busy with his plug-ins, Rose just released a new album (with songs written by Floris), and somebody slipped me a cd with unreleased remixes of There's Nothing To It - a hiphop-mix, and a brokenbeat-version. Great music, wonderful timing.

Floris featuring Rose - There's Nothing To It(original)
Floris featuring Rose & Deirdre - There's Nothing To It (live)
Floris featuring Rose - There's Nothing To It (hipmix)
Floris featuring Rose - There's Nothing To It (breakmix)

Candie Payne

Rumour has it that Amy Winehouse will sing the theme-song of the next James Bond-movie. Good choice, but Candie Payne would've been better. Her heavy soul (lots and lots of strings, guitars and organs, but her husky voice stays firmly on top) refers to great Bond-theme-singers like Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey. Her songs are about the dark side of love, with added tristesse. Candie Payne, her name sounds like a porn star (but that's Candye Kane, ofcourse), but she comes from a very musical family. Both her brothers are or were in bands (The Zutons, The Stands), and her parents played records by Billie Holiday, Sinatra and Artie Shaw. She sang in a band called Tramp Attack, before she met producer Simon Dine. Together they made Candie's debut-album I Wish I Could Have Loved You More. "Nancy Sinatra meets Dido", someone called her, but I think she's an update of good ole Cilla Black.

Candie Payne - In the Morning
Candie Payne - All I Need to Hear
Candie Payne - All In Need to Hear (acoustic)
Cilla Black - Love's Just A Broken Heart