“I will not deny that Arthur Russell was an absolute visionary, but I don't think he really knew how to sort out what he created. when I remixed “go bang”, I really focused that record. stripped it down. I spent hours and hours going over it.”

First up, Letta Mbulu's "What's Wrong With Groovin'", which I remember hearing in a Gilles Peterson mix a few years ago. It's hard to believe there's a more affecting piece of music out there. The groove is almost primeval in it's simplicity and sureness. In texture, it sounds like a gently loping, street-walking, Bacharach version of Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance". Immense piano chords dropping out of the sky, pinned down by crashing cymbals. A Hugh Masekala song, there's only one thing of real distinction here. Singing that is so attention-grabbing it derails the song, and the listener, utterly. It's almost phenomenological, such is its physical hold. A performance of such strength, charisma and character that you can do little else but smile in amazed beatification. From the start, she's in total control. Letta Mbulu issues a command more than a question: What is wrong with groovin'. Her voice, after lifting each second line with a rocket's trajectory, audibly shifts up gears into the bridge, becoming the most beautiful foghorn you never heard. A contradiction, sure, but wait 'til you hear it. Delicacy and power alternating from one phrase to the next, floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. John Coltrane one minute, Miles Davis the next. Her shift out of the chorus back to the verse is as subtle as the preceding entrance is raw. An instinctive angular phrase, it's effectively beyond verbal description. It's a truly remarkable piece of improvisation - it actually does remind me of the way Miles would play across changes. For me, this is up there with Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" as a piece of soul singing - not actually virtuosic, simply a beguiling mixture of natural technical genius and heartfelt expression. It lasts for almost 3 minutes, but it actually lasts about half-an-hour, because you'll just lift the needle back to the start again, such is the fascination this track inspires.

Academics are intrigued by the fact that the DJ makes a living by filtering information; he makes sense of the confusing mass of musical information that bombards us (there are well over 200 dance singles released each week). There's no way that we could find all the great music within our favorite genre, so we rely on DJs to do it for us. They are like personal shoppers who sift through the hundreds of crap records and find the ones we like. These days, fewer and fewer people buy singles; instead, we decide on our favorite DJs and let them buy them for us. Why spend your life obsessively searching for obscure records (in which case you're probably a DJ anyway) when you can buy a DJ-mixed compilation CD made by someone who does that for a living? You could say that these days we don't buy particular records, we buy particular DJs. -- Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton [more on Last Night a DJ Saved my Life]

The "Main Street Records" story is what this really is. Starting with a pretty conventional house record in Andy Caine's "I'm Your Brother", this CD traces a gradual morph in sound from that, to the ultra-deep trippy dub of Tikiman's "Na Fe Throw It", which sounds like it was mixed at the bottom of a heavy-water pool reactor. And all in between, starting with the Basic Channel remix/redux/reconstruction of "I'm Your Brother" as "Quadrant Dub II" (which was actually released on Basic Channel), this disc charts a course that leads through some of the deepest, most dusted dub this side of the ghost of King Tubby. By the time you get to the end, it's obvious that the dub wins out totally over the house that starts the disc off, and there's tracks on here you'll likely just want to put on repeat over and over again. Much to dig massively here... -- DAC Crowell

Singer Gil Scott-Heron was recently sentenced to a prison term of one to three years for drug possession.
[Comment]

Just discovered that Roy Davis Jr's 'Something Inside Me' on King Street records samples Skull Snaps' 'My Hang Up Is You'.

'Do You Know House? Vol. 1' is the debut 12-track album of continuous mix, classic House singles compiled and mixed by Stefan Prescott, the owner/founder of Dance Tracks NYC, 'the best underground dance music store' as voted by Billboard Magazine. This is the definitive house celebration and a ready made party in a jewelcase. Enjoy.
TRACKLISTING: 1) Pacha - One Kiss / 2) Gypsy - Funk de Fino / 3) Club Ice - Manhasset / 4)Model 500 - Starlight / 5) Larry Rauson - Stop we need each other / 6) DJ Rasoul - Let Me Love / 7) Norma Jean Bell - Nobody's Gonna Love You / 8) Bob Holroyd - Afican Drug / 9)Simponia - Can't get Over your Love / 10) A Man Called Adam - Techno Powers / 11) Leslie Joy - What is Happiness / 12) Arnold Jarvis - Inspiration
Do You Know House?: Dance Tracks [Amazon US]

There are new pages on Miguel Migs aka petalpusher and Naked Music. Been listening to Radio Nova http://www.novaplanet.com all evening; REALLY good music shows, broadcast live over France as well. If you follow the Naked Music link, be sure to click through to their site.

Strictly speaking, 'Deep House' is the name give to classic house from Chicago and New York in the same vein as Frankie Knuckles' 1987 LP 'Deep House' from which the name originates. Though I am undoubtedly venturing into highly controversial waters, I will venture to say that currently, deep house has meaning mostly as a counterpoint to more aggressive house sub-genres like hard house. As a name referring to a stand-alone genre, I therefore find 'Deep House' quite meaningless.

I have started selected CDs from Amazon ot my site. The recommendation engine is fun to play with.

I might as well open this place as a weblog. Artist of the moment is Moondog. I was introduced to his 'Bird's Lament' by Radio Nova's last compilation. Can, Suicide, Zappa, Funkadelic, Art Ensemble of Chicago are other featured artists on this compilation. Their website is http://www.novaplanet.com.

Saw two really good movies recently: the Japanese Odishion (1997) - not for the faint of hear - and Wonderland by Michael Winterbottom. (for all hearts)

Danny Krivit has got an excellent compilation out on Strut recordings, in the Grassroots series, which also had Ashley Beedle listing his biggest tracks of all time.

Bought Ester Phillips 12" on CTI records, mixed by Vince Montana, mid seventies.

Impressive websites for fast connections: http://www.heavy.com, a subscription based online magazine with cool Flash footage and http://www.screenblast.com, a Sony initiative to create, listen, play and look online.

2001, news archive:

jahsonic@yahoo.com