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Used vinyl. VG+/VG+ -
Chicago-born composer, producer and arranger Charles Stepney is known to some for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Deniece Williams, and Ramsey Lewis, or for his work with Chess Records in the 1960s, where he was an essential creative force behind seminal recordings by Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, The Dells, The Emotions, and many many more. In the decades since his untimely death in 1976, the presence of his name in liner notes and on vinyl labels has become a seal of quality for record collectors, music historians, and aficionados, while his sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, MF Doom, and Madlib. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the music he created and the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly under-appreciated figure... a genius relegated to the shadows. -
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Used Vinyl Classic Chico Buarque. Check "Apesar De Você! VG+ -
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Used Vinyl Rare OG pressing of Nigerian Afro Boogie classic. Includes "You Can't Change A Man" & "Take Life Easy". Noisey but still enjoyable, no skips heard. G+/G+ -
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Used Vinyl Out of print repress of Nigerian classic. VG+/VG+ -
Used Vinyl Classic Afro boogie right here. Check "Rumours"! Record is maybe a weak VG but plays solid and is still enjoyable. Nice to hear, nice to have. VG/VG- -
When arists self-releases their own recordings, they do so in the hopes that a hit might develop, or even better, a sphere of influence might form. In a lot of cases these records provide a stamp of existence and intent – a sonic business card showing what musicians were made of. Compass Rises (1973), the privately pressed sole LP by Oneonta, New York’s Compass, is both a sampling of versatility and a declaration of straight-ahead purpose. Regularly active in upstate New York between 1969 and 1974, Compass was an acoustic-electric quartet that played original music and modern jazz standards. The group consisted of saxophonist and bass clarinetist Rick Lawn, keyboardist Joel Chase, bassist Tom Ives (doubling on flugelhorn), and drummer Al Colone. On the LP, percussion duties were shared across the band as well as an conguero, Ken Parmele. Every song on Compass Rises, with the exception of the opener, is written and arranged by Lawn. The album is a nod to the post-Coltrane lineage of 1970’s jazz – even at its most spry there’s an undertow of workmanlike toughness, perhaps a reflection of the industrial-collegiate hybrid towns in New York where Compass plied their trade. Ives’ “Cleanin’ Up” starts the proceedings, a modal groover that would not have sounded out of place on a Joe Henderson Milestone LP, coupled with a neat, funky turnaround in the head. “Sunflower” has a slight Latin flavor and while it’s not exactly Freddie Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower,” it does have a lilt that’s both sinewy and breezy, with Lawn’s huskily burnished tenor shimmying atop. Following the ballad “Waltz for Barbara,” a front line expanded with Ives’ flugelhorn opens up on the driving “Blues for Vito,” dry and cracking rhythm supporting a tough, metallic dance. Side two begins with “Schizoid,” the nasally incision of Lawn’s soprano saxophone in spiraling turns against pummeling toms and Chase’s fuzzed-out intervallic sprawl. “Sour Cream” is a choppy bit of soul jazz, while the closing “Pharoah’s Thing” starts off on an elegiac plateau before unfurling with a piquant, minor-key bounce. With its stark, somewhat gothic cover art and toothy, inspired playing and composing, Compass Rises deserves the critical examination that it likely didn’t have upon release. -
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Four tracks by one of the biggest names in South African disco: Condry Ziqubu. A regular on the local soul scene since the late 1960s in groups such as The Flaming Souls, The Anchors and The Flaming Ghettoes, by the mid-80s he had qualified as a sangoma (traditional healer), recorded with Harari (the biggest group in the country at the time), fronted his own group Lumumba, and travelled the world as part of Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu’s band. In 1986 he ditched Lumumba and released his first solo hit, ‘Gorilla Man’. Opening with an audacious 20-second intro, the song tells the story of a man preying on women in downtown Johannesburg. It highlights Condry’s winning formula of lyrics that touch on everyday South African issues and places (without drawing the attention of apartheid censors). Musically the song draws obvious influence from Piano Fantasia’s 1985 Euro-disco hit ‘Song for Denise’. Also included on this new anthology is another song from the same album, the politically charged ‘Confusion (Ma Afrika)’, as well as ‘Phola Baby’ from his 1988 album Pick Six – a call to men to “stop pushing your woman around … what kind of man are you?” – and ‘Everybody Party’ from 1989’s Magic Man, a straight-up party song with no political or social intimations, other than as a brief escape from the harsh reality of the time, one that still resonates today. Gorilla Man will be released on vinyl and digitally in early 2021 on Johannesburg-based Afrosynth Records (afs047), distributed worldwide by Rush Hour in Amsterdam. -
Killer boogie cuts from 1984 reissues! Double sider... 300 limited, grab it.. -
DJ Quik is a giant of West Coast hip-hop. With 1995’s Safe + Sound, he scaled new levels of musical magnificence with his signature new age P-Funk/laconic G-Funk. A quintessential, sun-scorched LA album, this is pretty much essential. Typical for mid-90s albums the original vinyl copies are now rare so here’s the Be With re-issue, complete with “Tanqueray”, the hidden track from the original CD release. A preternaturally gifted producer/rapper, DJ Quik has produced scores of LA gangsta rap classics. He’s released platinum and gold records of his own, as well as helped craft them for the likes of Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Dr Dre. Quik has always been quirkier and more interesting than his gangsta rap peers, both musically and lyrically. An old-school funk producer at heart, he’s also incredibly nice on the mic. His raps often deal in boasts, jokes and good times but also cover his beefs, his trials and his trauma. Partying and pain, all mixed up. DJing and producing hype beat tapes from age 14, Quik’s tracks blended the languid funk and rubbery synths of Zapp and George Clinton with a gangsta aesthetic, creating a more danceable foil to Compton’s more typical nihilistic hedonism. -
Tresor Records announces forthcoming special editions of its entire catalogue of Drexciya and related projects. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of James Stinson and the releases of the Transllusion and Shifted Phases albums. In recognition, the rightsholders, their families, and the label have commissioned Detroit-based contemporary artist Matthew Angelo Harrison to re-conceptualize the covers of Tresor's Drexciya-related catalogue. These editions will be released sequentially, bimonthly, starting early-September 2022. The series starts with Neptune's Lair, first released in 1999, with the Hydro Doorways single arriving shortly after. In November, Harnessed The Storm and Digital Tsunami are coming. In 2023 comes the release of Transllusion in February. The series is completed by the long-awaited re-release of Shifted Phases - The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope - at the end of March. These records, individually and as a catalogue, represent some of the most crucial moments in the Tresor label history, with the sound and mythic world of Drexciya undoubtedly inspiring generations. -
Ltd Fanclub 7' supporting his 'Expressions' album; the heavy 'War going on' is not on the album, and exclusive to this 7' and comes as vocal / instrumental version. Tip!
