Professor Eddy

Unsplash It's sunny in the Netherlands (at last!), so this cloudcast is all about that star at the center of the Solar System! It's a variation on the ‘ Groovy, sexy & soulful ’ series. One of the most remarkable characters in recent pop history is Green Gartside from Scritti Politti. He started Scritti Politti as a political punk band, but changed his style after hearing 'Off the wall' from Michael Jackson. He became more R&B orientated and developed a very distinctive way of singing. It comes close to some kind of natural auto-tune! He became very successful in the mid eighties with electro pop hits like 'Wood Beez', 'Absolute' and 'The Word Girl'. But he was very unhappy being a superstar and after a string of hits he disappeared for almost ten years from the music scene. In the 1990s Green visited his local pub frequently and bought loads of hip hop records. By the end of the decade he returned as a hip hop artist, looking q...

This sixth part of ' It's soul covered up ' is most of all a tribute to Donna Summer (picture). The one and only Queen of Disco died of cancer yesterday. I felt really sad when I heard the news. I have a weak spot for her from the moment I saw her on Dutch television in 1974. I bought all her singles from then on, like the masterpiece 'MacArthur park' that I selected for this episode of ' It's soul covered up '. The original was sung by Richard Harris in 1968. The most remarkable cover version of this sixth edition is probably the one from Ladders. It's in fact a solo project from Andy Scott, bass player of glam rock band The Sweet. He turns the Motown classic 'Gotta see Jane' from Canadian singer-songwriter R. Dean Taylor into an interesting combination of rock, disco and new wave (by the way, the keyboards sound almost exactly the same as in 'Laugh and walk away' from the Shirts). Scott makes the song even more threatening than...

The wonderful tracks in this mix from Gavin Christopher and Ann Peebles are from a recently released compilation album called 'Soul a la mode'. The tracks on that very nice album are selected by dj and radio presenter Ian Dewhirst. I threw in the superb song 'Angel eyes' (in a slightly extended version) from the sophisticated rock band Roxy Music. The visual concept of funk band Chic ('Le freak') was completely copied from Roxy Music, as guitarist/co-founder Nile Rodgers told in a Roxy Music documentary a few years ago. Even their cover of their first album was inspired by the art work of Roxy Music. Later on Chic began to influence Roxy Music, as you can hear in 'Angel eyes', which sounds quite funky. In the 1980s band members of Chic played on 'Avalon' that was probably more a solo project from charismatic front man Bryan Ferry than a Roxy Music album. Nowadays Nile Rodgers is a guest musician on most of Ferry's solo albums, like his late...

On Monday 14th of May a 10 (!) cd box will be released that celebrates the 40th anniversary of Philadelphia International. The box is (surprisingly...) called ' Philadelphia International: 40th Anniversary Box Set ' and is compiled by Philly soul connoisseur Ralph Tee. One of the tracks is 'Baby don't go, yet' from the Jones Girls, which was previously unreleased. This incredibly good song (why was it not released at the time?) inspired me to build a brand new Philly mix around it. Again a handful of songs from the archives of the legendary Philly sound, originally created by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff in the Sigma Sound Studios of Philadelphia, 40 years back. Some of the songs are a little bit polished up, mixed or edited by the best reconstructing artists around, like the one and only Tom Moulton. He remixed 'When will I see you again' from the Three Degrees (picture below) brilliantly. The Philly sound reproves its value with a track like that. Enjoy! O...