39 Steps, 12 inches

Back in the 00’s, Walker and I used to put on a party about once a year at bar called Positively 4th Street (sadly now gone). It was an interesting venue, with a long bar upstairs a bit like something out of Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood For Love and a candle-lit sweatbox downstairs where the dance floor was. We had some good nights there, and there was always some drama. The two drunkest Swedes ever to walk the earth (quite an achievement) showed up once; a crazy Scot tried his hand at cab-surfing outside; there were occasional tears on the dance floor; and one party culminated in a giant bout of whipping, using bamboo switches conveniently placed around the dance floor. But most importantly, lots of people from back in the day would turn up to drink and dance, and it was always great to see them.

Saul and I always DJ’ed, occasionally joined by McDisco, Robin (see below), Tom or Jankster, playing mainly funk and disco. For these sorts of nights – when it’s a party crowd rather than punters there just for rare 45s/jazz, and the sound system usually leaves a bit to be desired – I always think 12″s work best (praise be to Tom Moulton for his 1974 discovery that the sound is louder and richer when spread over more than 7″ of vinyl). Disco is an obvious choice, but what I really like are funk 12″s, the tracks that sneaked into the new format before the 4-to-the-floor beat took over and the sound became more ‘produced’. I felt this approach was vindicated when someone (Lorraine?) shouted, “Liked your music…much better than that fucking Harry Potter!”

To me, the ultimate record in this category is Catch A Groove by Juice, which has a monster breakdown that only appears on the 12″, but I put this in an earlier mix so haven’t included it here. Similarly, Jim Burgess’s 1978 remix of Herman Kelly’s Dance To The Drummer’s Beat would probably also be there if I hadn’t already put it in an earlier mix, as would The Bar-Kays’ Holy Ghost (in this mix). There were plenty of others to put in though, and it’s always fun working out how to put them together (the complex arrangements and unclicked beats limit you to a few bars for beat matches and/or quick cuts/fades).

The first mix is from a while back and was made to highlight just this sort of 12″. T-Connection’s Groove To Get Down has a monstrous break for a 12″ single and always sounded to me like the funk record Crosby, Stills and Nash would have made (Dark Star notwithstanding). The intro to EW&F’s Africano you’ll recognize from countless sampled records, and maybe it’s sacrilege but I prefer Platinum Hook to George Clinton. If Tony Rallo (thanks Neil) doesn’t make you tap your feet, you have no soul (or at least no rhythm). And remember Dazz = Disco + Jazz,  Cameo weren’t Chic, and Timmy Thomas wasn’t James Brown. Jimmy ‘Bo’ Horne’s Spank rounds off the mix, the track that would provide the basis for the warehouse classic Sixty-Nine by Brooklyn Express.

1. I Get Lifted – Sweet Music
2. Groove To Get Down – T-Connection
3. Africano – Earth, Wind & Fire
4. Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On – Platinum Hook
5. Holding On – Tony Rallo & The Midnite Band
6. In The Forest – Baby ‘O
7. Dazz – Brick
8. Say A Prayer For Two – Crown Heights Affair
9. We Got The Funk – Positive Force
10. Good Times – Cameo
11. Stone To The Bone – Timmy Thomas
12. Get Off – Foxy
13. Spank – Jimmy “Bo” Horne

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The second mix is a new one. It’s in a similar vein and again all 12″s. It starts with a cover of Roger Troutman and Zapp’s More Bounce To The Ounce.  Next there’s a Roy Ayers promo (I don’t think this ever got a commercial release as a 12″) and Eddie Grant showing with The Equals he could do much better than Electric Avenue. The Equals track is actually a bit of cheat because it’s an 80’s 12″ (there wasn’t an original 1976 studio 12″) but I had to include it for that fade. Then Barry White shows his original is infinitely better than Robbie Williams’ derivative and the UK’s Armada Orchestra improve on the O’Jays. Esther Williams is the pick of the bunch – a rare Friends 12″, first comp’ed by Louis Flores on Ultimate Breaks & Beats (how I first heard it) in the mid-80’s and 20 years later reissued by Gerald Jazzman (Mark at Resolution Records made me an offer I couldn’t refuse for the original, so now I make do with a Friends repress/bootleg). The Brothers Johnson and Gaz tracks are two other 12″s that later made it onto Ultimate Breaks & Beats.  The mix ends with Jimmy Castor’s classic B-Boy break remixed for the 80’s. The 1972 original is probably my favorite (included in this mix), but Larry Levan still did a great job updating it for 1983.

1. More Ounce – Bobby Demo
2. Love Will Bring Us Back Together – Roy Ayers
3. Funky Like A Train – The Equals
4. It’s Ecstasy When You’re Next To Me – Barry White
5. For The Love of Money – The Armada Orchestra
6. Getting Down – East Harlem Bus Stop
7. Last Night Changed It All – Esther Williams
8. Spaced Out – Cloud Nine
9. Nights Over Egypt – The Jones Girls
10. Is It In – Jimmy ‘Bo’ Horne
11. Sing Sing – Gaz
12. It’s Just Begun (Larry Levan remix) – The Jimmy Castor Bunch

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~ by ricardosevere on 07/12/2014.