Hello Friday, hello friends,
I hope you’ve had a lovely week. Over the last two weeks we’ve had a surge in people joining our family – hello to anyone who’s new! You’ve picked a good week – I think this is our best yet.
If you’re new here, the playlist is loosely built across three sections; calm, circus, and then re-entry. This is shamelessly stolen from our hero David Mancuso, who himself shamelessly stole it from 60s psychonaut Timothy Leary. It should be a trip, so listen to it in order ♥️.
As for this email, well… The first section (just below) is where you’ll find the link to the playlist. The second section contains my rambling notes. The third section is where you’ll find the full tracklist.
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As I said above, I think that this week might be the best yet. I’m biased, sure, but something feels different this week. There’s a whole bunch of first hip-hop appearances (Dilla, Pharcyde, J5), some powerful funk and soul (Level 42, Manzel), some brilliant disco stompers (Chemise, Kiki Gyan), and some beautiful soul and jazz towards the end (Paul Simon, Puma Blue, Alfa Mist).
Anyway, I’m rambling, HERE’S THE PLAYLIST.
Long time listeners note: THE SAX IS BACK 🎷!
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If you hear anything you’d like to share, please drop it in here, our Love Will Save the Day record pool.
The opener this week comes from mysterious Frenchman, Paul Martin. I’ve heard this sampled or covered somewhere, but I have no idea where (not the KZA track The Troubled Acid, although that is a belter). Anyway, the track felt like a lovely way to open this week’s list. If you’ve heard this before, let me know where. It’s melting my brain.
BadBadNotGood are back for their second appearance, if you haven’t already, I beg you to go and listen to their whole back-catalogue. I bought III on a whim, and then after one listen bought everything they’d ever produced. Their LateNightTales compilation is great too.
There’s more hip-hop on this week’s list than usual, inspired by reading about the new book from Raph Rashid, Back to the Lab. It’s a sequel to Behind the Beat, which is brilliant. You can pre-order the new one here. If those interest you, it’s also worth hunting out RBMA’s For the Record, Dust and Grooves, and the Blue Note book, Uncompromising Expression too.
Kenny Dope (one half of MAW) had a big influence this week, after reading a post on the Discogs blog on his top 10 45s. Difficult not to trawl through each one, and then dig right back through each artists discography.
There’s lots of jazz and soul from South London again – with work from Puma Blue (check him out), Ezra Collective (second time they’ve appeared), and Alfa Mist. One of the singles from Jordan Rakei’s new album is on the list too – big fan of Rakei – his new album was reviewed on XLR8R this week too.
There’s also a great feature on The Vinyl Factory from Binker Golding (half of Binker and Moses, one of my favourite new jazz bands), where he gives his Guide to Coltrane. Worth a read and listen.
Eamon Harkin (from inspirational collective Mister Saturday Night) was on The Vinyl Factory’s longstanding series Crate Diggers this week. Their second compilation is great too. Have a listen here. The first is here, and is a classic.
In other news, RA pulled together an amazing feature on one of the worlds best record shops, here – Rubadub: 25 years later.
One final, and slightly nostalgic note. Baxter Dury, son of Ian Dury makes an appearance. The song is brilliant, and his new material sounds great. It also sparked a memory of hearing him for the first time on an NME new bands cover-mount CD. They were the days 😃.
As always, if you’ve read to here, thanks for indulging me ♥️.
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- Paul Martin – Le Troublant Témoignage de Paul Martin
- BadBadNotGood – Time Moves Slow
- Vulfpeck – Wait for the Moment
- Jeff Parker – Cliche
- Dungen – Aladdin och Lampan (version 2)
- J Dilla – Requiem (instrumental)
- The Pharcyde – Runnin’
- Jurassic 5 – If You Only Knew
- Angie Stone – Wish I Didn’t Miss You
- Eddie Simpson – Hard Working Man
- Level 42 – Love Meeting Love
- Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music
- Manzel – Space Funk (Dopebrother 7inch remix)
- Mystic Pleasure – Back Door (Getting Down)
- Chemise – She Can’t Love You
- L’Imperatrice – 1998
- Borrowed Identity – Queens Bridge
- Jaakko Eino Kalevi – I Wanna Win
- Kiki Gyan – Disco Dancer
- Luther Davis Group – You Can Be a Star
- Black Truth Rhythm Band – Ifetayo
- Paul Simon – Can’t Run But
- Jordan Rakei – Goodbyes
- Taylor McFerrin – Florasia
- Puma Blue – (She’s) Just a Phase
- Ezra Collective – Enter the Jungle
- Alfa Mist – Keep On
- Baxter Dury – Miami
- Robert Palmer – Woke Up Laughing
- Suicide – Dream Baby Dream
See you on the dance floor.
Love Will Save the Day.