Sensacional Soul Vol. 1 - Various Artists

Available to buy: MP3

Soul “Music Made in USA” for Spanish clubs Fuel for igniting dance floors and parties: that’s what Spanish Soul was during the second half of the sixties. It was an eruption that filled the locals of major cities and touristy spots with sweat, dance, diversion and recognition. Soul didn’t explode in Spain until after 1965 (the first hit was The Four Tops’, “Reach Out I'll Be There”). Soul was approachable and had playful-vindicating references (messages in favor of civil rights didn’t fall on deaf ears in a country subjected to the Francoist Dictatorship) which made it an ideal style for all young audiences. But once they were adopted by Soul, other problems arose. The brass section is one example: it wasn’t easy finding musicians who knew how to play the trumpet, saxophone or the trombone. Despite this fact, the tourist phenomenon contributed to a great number of foreign musicians establishing themselves in Spain, enriching the sound of many groups dedicated to Black music. With all these ingredients Soul in Spain was possible –and with good groups too. Hundreds of bands from all over the country added to the new music paradigm and many managed to record. Some became success stories of Spanish Pop, others were known in smaller realms and disappeared into obscurity. For that reason Vampisoul is pleased to offer a selection of the best of Spanish Soul and Funk from the 60s and early 70s: music to dance to, from Benidorm to Tokyo... and back.

(source: http://www.vampisoul.com/detail_cd.asp?referencia=43)

Tony Ronald's Summertime is sampled by GUTS for his song And the Living is Easy!!! Find it here.

Tracklisting

Disc 1

01 - Los Buenos - Woovy Groovy

02 - Shelly Y La Nueva Generación - Vestido Azul

03 - Martes 13 - Espejo Roto

04 - Tony Ronald - Summertime

05 - Los Impala - Todo Gira

06 - Top Show - Escucha Niña

07 - Henri Vidal Y Su Grupo Pop - Black Bird

08 - Conjunto Don Pelegrín - Beat Gitano

09 - El Fín - Vagando En Las Tinieblas

10 - Conjunto Nueva Onda - Golden Soul

11 - Presidents - It's My Thing

12 - Els 5 Xics - Raising Your Hand

13 - Los Gritos - Tuset Street

14 - Los Huracanes - Algo Por Nada

15 - Los Jóvenes - Simpatia En Soul

16 - Los Dixies - Black Cat

17 - Los Grimm - Want My Love Again

18 - Z-66 - Trying To Get You

Disc 2

01 - Los Pequenikes - Tabasco

02 - Manuel Gas - I'm A Man

03 - Círculos - Respect

04 - Finder's - Ven Conmigo

05 - Henry & The Seven - You Love Me

06 - Salvajes - Corre Corre

07 - Eurogrup - ¿Pots Sentirme?

08 - Jesse & James - Change

09 - Grupo Anónimo - Imprevisto

10 - T.R. Selection - Kool & The Gang

11 - Las Cuatro Monedas Y Gregory - Trauma

12 - Augusto Algueró - Laugh Laugh

13 - Conexión - I Will Pray

14 - Koldo - Disc Man

15 - Frank Miller & Hispania Soul - Melenas Club

16 - Calibre 38 - I Felt For Your Love

17 - Dúo Inter - Beggin'

18 - Los Zinkos - Tu Mandas En Mi

19 - Jimmy Stone - Family Affair

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Mix It Up - Washboard Chaz Blues Trio

Available to buy: CD / MP3

Washboard Chaz's talents are becoming synonymous with New Orleans and he was recently featured in a 2005 New Orleans commercial.  He played a small part in the CBS movie titled "Just Like the Ones", about miraculous snow storms that hit all over the country, co-starring Mary Tylor Moore and Poppy Montgomery. Chaz's song Mother Died was just featured in Werner Hertzog's remake of The Bad Lieutenant starring Nicholas Cage.

Mix It Up is a real pleasant, toe-tappin',  easy listenin' kind of album, perfect for those warm and lazy summertime afternoons. 

Tracklisting
01. Busy Bootin
02. Sailor Blues
03. Don’t Leave me Here
04. Call it Love
05. Go Round and Round
06. Summers Gone
07. I'm So Glad
08. Insane and Crazy Blues
09. 1st Shot Got Him
10. Special Streamline
11. Mother Died
12. Falling Down Blues
13. Dodge
14. So Much Trouble
15. Oh Oh Oh

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En Linea - George Guzman

Available to buy: Vinyl

George has become somewhat of an underground cult figure. His music can often be heard throughout hipster lounges around the world. A mind-boggling conga player, Guzman broke into the New York City boogaloo scene in 1968 with his debut “Introducing George Guzman”. That album quickly garnered the attention of the sophisticated music aficionado. Unlike, say Joe Cuba or Pete Rodriguez, George had a special knack for producing what’s been labeled as a softer-jazzier kind of boogaloo. Guzman’s classic track “Lazy Boogaloo” is one of those songs that showcase the mellower aspects of the genre. Chill and romantic, “Lazy Boogaloo” is a symbol of boogaloo’s wide range of tempos. This was not just party music; it was music for all occasions. 

His subsequent album, “In Line” took Guzman further into the realm of soulful boogaloo and Latin soul. His landmark, however, remains the “Introducing George Guzman”, an album that truly captured the free spirit of the late sixties. 

One of the best conga players of his generation, Guzman knew how to create the perfect lazy atmospheres and the frenetic highs that made boogaloo a swinging favourite.

(source: http://www.fania.com/content/george-guzman) 

Tracklisting

1. Misery

2. Really Bad Scene

3. Mozambique

4. No Te Olvidare

5. Y No Sabia Bailar

6. Diggin' Rice N' Beans

7. La Banda Ya Llego

8. Winter Love

9. Manteca

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Intoxica - The Revels

Available to buy: CD / Vinyl

The Revels were an American rock band, associated with the 1960s surf music craze. Their most famous song was "Church Key."

The group started in the mid- to late- 1950s as a high school band in San Luis Obispo, California called Gil Serna & The Rockets, before changing their name to The Revels in 1959. Although their instrumental style predated the 1961-65 era of surf music, their success came during that period.

They are usually considered a "pre-surf" band and were the original Central California coastal instrumental band. Other bands from the area later included the more popular groups named The Sentinels and The Impacts.

(source: wikipedia)

The Revels' sound is at its undeniable best in tracks such as Revellion or Comanche (which many will recognise from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction) where the rhythm section provides a solid, driving beat underneath bouncing guitar riffs and the growling, squealing saxaphone wails over the top of it all like a frenzied and deranged animal.

Tracklisting


1. Intoxica
2. Sano
3. The Monkey Bird
4. Church Key
5. Vesuvius
6. It's Party Time
7. Revellion
8. Comanche
9. Tough Soul
10. Soft Top
11. (Like) Tequila
12. Rampage
13. Good Grief
14. Six Pak
15. Longboard
16. Vesuvius
17. Church Key
18. Good Grief
19. Vesuvius

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Center of Attention - Pete Rock & InI

Available to buy: CD

INI was a hip-hop group composed of Rob-O, Grap Luva, I Love H.I.M., Marco Polo (not to be confused with the hip-hop producer of the same name), and DJ Boodakhan.

The group started working on their debut album together with producer Pete Rock in the mid-90s, and signed a deal with Rock's newfound imprint Soul Brother Records through Elektra. The record company eventually shelved the album, releasing only one 12" single in 1996. The track "Fakin' Jax", produced and featuring Pete Rock, became a minor underground hit. The album eventually became one of the most bootlegged unreleased albums in hip-hop's history, but in 2003 it saw an official release it was included on Lost & Found: Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics, a double LP of Pete Rock's mid-1990s production work, originally canceled by Elektra Records.

Despite the fact that Pete Rock is not an official member of the group, it is synonymous with his name, as he produced almost every track of Center of Attention, and Grap Luva is his younger brother. Rock also had verses on two of the songs albums with additional ad-libs and background vocals on basically every track.

(source: wikipedia)

Tracklisting:

1."Intro"

2. "No More Words"

3. "Step Up"

4. "Think Twice"

5. "Square One"

6. "The Life I Live"

7. "KrossRoads"

8. "To Each His Own" (feat. Q-Tip & Large Professor)

9. "Fakin Jax"

10. "What You Say"

11. "Props"

12. "Center Of Attention"

13. "Grown Man Sport"

14. "Mind Over Matter"

15. "Don't You Love It"

16. "Microphonist Wanderlust"

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Le Bienheureux - GUTS

Available to Buy : CD

If anyone is guilty of Guts’ addiction to music, his mother is to be blamed. Instead of turning her son into an overweight and diabetic child, she preferred to give him a new vinyl each week, for his good manners. Bob Power (A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots) became his ‘Paul Bocuse’, the coach able to teach him to spice and keep his preparations edible! He gets his American guides recognition and De La Soul, Rahzel, Biz Markie and Common Sense are joining him at the table. Faster Jay is opening the Kif Record label and ‘Le Bienheureux’ becomes one of his’chefs’ and goes behind the ovens for French rappers like Passi, Big Red, Sages Poetes De La Rue, the Svinkels, Les Rieurs. Impossible to please, he travels to Senegal to learn about new recipes in Youssou N’Dour studios and works with some local ‘chefs’ in Jamaica (Anthony B, Michael Rose and Sacha) The actual MC’s generation didn’t know how to prepare toasts when Guts was using an ASR Ensoniq with one hand ! Now ‘four stars chef’, Guts Le Bienheureux is proposing his menu! Mainly inspired by his travels, a meal with the taste of Pete Rock, DJ Shadow, Dan The Automator, RJD2, DJ Premier, Jay-Dee, Danger Mouse, Wax Taylor only prepared on a MPC 4000! Bon appetit!

(Source: http://www.last.fm/music/GUTS/+wiki)

Tracklisting:

1		Intro
2		Good Morning
3		Everybody Know
4		You Know That Shit!!!
5		Escucha Me
6		Metis
7		Nightmare Of Paris
8		Take A Look Around You
9		Pura-Vida
10		Skunkfunk
11		Cry & Smile
12		And The Living Is Easy!!!
13		Sweet Love
14		Endless Night
15		Narco Trip
16		I Love You ("It's So Hard To Say")

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Gil E Jorge (1975) - Gilberto Gil & Jorge Ben

Available to buy: CD / MP3

Gil e Jorge is a 1975 album featuring collaboration between Brazilian musicians Jorge Ben and Gilberto Gill. The two perform together alongside percussionist Djalma Corrèa on each of the songs, improvising and interacting directly throughout. The songs "Morre o Burro, Fica o Homem" and "Taj Mahal" first appeared in different incarnations on Jorge Ben's 1972 album Ben. Likewise, Gil's songs "Nêga" and "Essa é pra Tocar no Rádio" showed up earlier in alternate arrangements on his 1971 album Gilberto Gil and his 1975 album Refazenda, respectively.

(source: wikipedia)

Tracklisting:

1. "Meu Glorioso São Cristóvão" (Ben)
2. "Nêga" (Gil)
3. "Jurubeba" (Gil)
4. "Quem Mandou (Pé na Estrada)"
5. "Taj Mahal" (Ben)
6. "Morre o Burro, Fica o Homem"
7. "Essa é pra Tocar no Rádio" (Gil)
8. "Filhos de Gandhi" (Gil)
9. "Sarro" (Ben, Gil)

Personnel:
          Jorge Ben - vocals, violão
          Gilberto Gil - vocals, violão
          Djalma Corrêa - percussion
          Wagner Dias - bass

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A Black Man's Soul - Ike Turner & the Kings of Rhythm

Available to buy: Vinyl / CD

A Black Man's Soul is an instrumental funk and soul album released by Ike Turner & The Kings of Rhythm in 1969 on Pompeii Records. The album featured a performance by keyboard legend Billy Preston on the track "Getting Nasty". A Black Man's Soul exposed a side of Turner's music not as popular with his audiences of the time. While Turner's more popular tracks like "Proud Mary" relied heavily on vocal harmonies and popular soul influences, these tracks reflected a more traditional and simple funk popularized by acts such as Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Baby Huey, The Bar-Kays and Brother Jack MacDuff, among others.

(source: wikipedia)


Tracklisting:
all songs written by Ike Turner, unless credited otherwise

1. "Thinking Black"
2. "Black Beauty"
3. "Ghetto Funk"
4. "Blacks' Alley" (Oliver Sain)
5. "Black Angel" (Oliver Sain)
6. "Getting Nasty"
7. "Funky Mule" (Marvin Holmes)
8. "Philly Dog" (Marvin Holmes)
9. "Scotty Souling"
10. "Up Hard" (A. Miller)
11. "Nuttin' Up"
12. "Freedom Sound"

Personnel

       Bass – Jesse Knight

       Drums – Mack Johnson

       Guitar – Ike Turner

       Percussion – Teasky Tribble

       Piano – Fred Sample, Ike Turner, Billy Preston on "Getting Nasty"

       Saxophone – Washee

       Trombone – Jesse Heron

       Vocals – Tina Turner

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Expensive Shit (1975) - Fela Kuti

Available to buy: Vinyl / CD

Expensive Shit is the twelfth full-length album by afrobeat pioneer Fela Ransome Kuti and his Africa 70 band. It was ranked #78 on Pitchfork Media's "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s." The title of the album refers to an incident in which the Nigerian police tried to arrest Kuti by planting a joint on him. Kuti managed to eat the joint, prompting police to bring him into custody and wait for him to produce the excrement. According to legend he managed to use another inmate's feces and was eventually released.

The organ towards the end of Water No Get Enemy was sampled by hip-hop producer Pete Rock for InI's Grown Man Sport which was featured in the album Center of Attention. 

(source: wikipedia)

Find it here.

Tracklisting:
all songs written by Fela Kuti

1. Expensive Shit
2. Water No Get Enemy

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