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Showing posts from July, 2014

Smooth Sailing: Guilty Pleasures & Disco Classics

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Picture Joan Smalls: Instagram Enjoy this new Smooth Sailing part! This episode is packed with known and lesser-known songs from and inspired by the disco-era. The opening track was sampled by The Supermen Lovers ('Starlight') a few years ago. 'Call on me' by Enchantment is another great track from the compilation album 'Step inside my soul'. Stephen Thomas Erlewine reviewed the album for Allmusic.com and named it a true treasure of pop archaeology: “Every one of the 18 songs on Step Inside My Soul saw their first release on a promo single by Polydor but rarely surfaced outside of that original release. Some became collectable, some did not, and only one -- Creative Source -- were awarded with a full contract with Polydor.“ Tracklist: East Coast ‎ – The Rock (1978) Lowrell – Smooth And Wild (1978) George Michael Feat. Princess Freesia – Careless Whisper [Soulpersona Remix] (2014) Mario Biondi & The High Five Quintet – This Is What You Are [

Smooth Sailing: Checking In & Chilling Out

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Picture Joan Smalls: Instagram Enjoy this new Smooth Sailing part! The track by Slave singer Steve Arrington is an exclusive one! It's from a great new album called 'Opolopo Mutants Volume 2' that will be released on Tokyo Dawn Records next week: "Reopening the doors to his private zoo of mutant pets once again, mad funk scientist Opolopo shows how his sonic radiation and mutagenic chemicals can bring on a whole new level of funk. This second installment of the series features groove mutations of Slave front man Steve Arrington, disco house veteran Joey Negro with his Sunburst Band, Sweden's Drop Out Orchestra with Vinny Vero, the jazz masters of The High Five Quintet with Italian soul crooner Mario Biondi and other highlights. Funk mutations of TDR classics are also featured, including UK soul giants Personal Life, Positive Flow with soul supremo Omar, Portformat with the mothership connection Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow." Alpines is

Smooth Sailing: Summer Songs & Seventies Soul

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Enjoy a new Smooth Sailing trip! The tracks by Creative Source and Debbie Taylor are from a recent compilation album, called 'Step inside my soul'. It contains a host of wonderful rare soul tracks that mostly appeared as one-sided promo singles on Polydor, around 1975. The singles were sent to local dj's, but their power was fading at that time, in favour of national radio. Because of this failing business model the songs dropped into obscurity, amidst the bigger acts on the label. Bear Family (Cree) Records rediscovered these gems and put them together. Picture Joan Smalls by Solve Sundsbo for Vogue Italia May 2014. Tracklist: Barrabas ‎– Mellow Blow (1975) Johnnie Taylor ‎– Please Don't Stop (That Song From Playing) (1976) Noel Pointer – Staying With You (1978) William Bell – Coming Back For More (1977) Ronnie Foster – Summer Song (1972) Yellow Sunshine ‎– Yellow Sunshine (1973) Moonshoes – Yellow Summer (2013) Brass Fever – Summertime (1976) Br

Smooth Sailing: Easy Rocking & Funky Chilling

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Picture Joan Smalls by Patrick Demarchelier (Vogue) The opening track of this new smooth sailing part can also be found on Late Night Tales: After Dark Nightshift , compiled by Bill Brewster: "Musically it's pleasingly varied, moving from the string-drenched downtempo beauty of Typesun's "Last One Home", to the heady Balearic rock of General Lee, via Justus Kohnke, the soulful post-bruk smoothness of As One, and the sprightly analogue electronics of Emperor Machine's remix of Paqua's "Late Train". There's also a bunch of previously unreleased tunes to enjoy, including killer contributions from the Mang Dynasty (AKA Ray Mang), The Gino Fontaine (Chicken Lips man Andrew Meecham) and - most surprising of all - The Grid and Robert Fripp." (Album review on Juno.Records ) "One of pop music's most romantic ballads, Peaches and Herb's "Reunited" was included on the duo's 1978 Polydor album 2 Hot. Some were s

Smooth Sailing: Soulful Songs & Latin Sounds

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Joan Smalls (Patrick Demarchelier/Vogue) Because of the beautiful weather, I grabbed my bike today and rode along the water, which inspired me to create this mix. The beautiful song by Nautic will officially be released 14th of July on Deek Recordings. The EP is called 'Navy blue'. The song by Pages (an early version of Mr. Mister) is on the compilation album Too Slow To Disco volume 1. It's the first part of a series of late 1970s Westcoast yacht rock ('music you can almost dance to'), compiled by German DJ Supermarkt. Speaking of yacht rock, don't forget to check out my AOR mix on AOR Disco . “Although Steve Winwood had already established an extremely fruitful songwriting collaboration with Traffic member Jim Capaldi, he certainly was capable of writing with others. The result of one collaboration was "Vacant Chair," which he co-wrote with ex-Bonzo Dog Band member Viv Stanshall. It's an extremely elegant piece of pop with very strong Bachar

Boombox 8 Troubled Disco & Electronic Soul

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I’m a huge fan of disco music, but what kind of disco do you play when your life seems to go downhill? Most of the dance songs are about having fun, feeling good and making love. That's why I put together some dark (post) disco tracks, personal favourites and a few brand new tracks that will surely make you feel good, even when you're feeling as lucky as Kylie Minogue ;-) Don't worry about the lyrics, the songs have rays of hope as well, because of the uplifting beats and empathic words. The music makes you dance the heartache away, or something like that... The woman on the left is the multi-talented Ronika , who just released her great debut album 'Selectadisc: “She heavily mines eighties freestyle, disco-boogie and pop (and rocks a look that combines glam and dishevelment in a perfect balance evoking early, new wave Madonna), but there’s an immediacy and force of personality to her songwriting – and a club-honed directness to her production – that blows all that