Smooth Sailing: Sensitive Soul & Yacht Rock

Ekkah

Kenny Loggins (from Loggins & Messina) recently said in an interview that in his opinion ‘yacht rock’ is a combination of West Coast pop/rock, smooth jazz and R&B and I think he’s totally right. Mr Funk aka Seasidevibes, who helped me out on this cloudcast, calls the sub-genre ‘soulful West Coast’. Martijn Soetens and I think that it’s music that sounds best on FM radio and German DJ Supermarkt (known for his ‘Too slow to disco’ compilations) claims it’s music you can almost dance to. This is what he wrote about his latest compilation ‘The ladies of too slow to disco’:

“Turns out the guys didn’t have a monopoly on either writing great songs or the excesses that went with recording them. Fighting bigger battles even to be heard, the women of Too Slow To Disco represent the vanguard of female pop.”

Joan Smalls Instagram

Following the impact achieved with 'Small talk', London-based disco pop duo Ekkah (formed by Rebecca Wilson and Rebekah Pennington) is back with some new music. The pair has teamed up with Los Angeles-based modern-funk artist DâM-FunK on a double A-Side single including the songs ‘Space between us” and ‘What’s Up’. Both tracks are another proof of their funk-tastic way to generate disco-infused and quite cosmic gems to delight us. The songs were released on digital retailers on June 3rd via RCA Records. DâM-FunK also released a wonderful DJ-Kicks album recently. 'I wanna break' by True Design is one of tracks.

Jeremy Spencer was an early member of Fleetwood Mac. He replaced guitarist Peter Green for a 1971 world tour, but after he had gone to a book store, he never returned… Five days later, police traced him to the headquarters of a Christian sect called the Children of God, which Spencer had apparently joined after being approached on the street. A few years later he began to record again and made ‘Flee’, one of the best yacht rock albums of the 1970s.

Enjoy this new episode of Smooth Sailing! Next up is a new part of Eddy's Eighties Grooves.

Tracklist:

Jerry Corbetta ‎– Sensitive Soul (1978)
Phyllis Hyman ‎– You Sure Look Good To Me (1981)
Splashband – Last Chance (1983)
David Joseph – The Joys Of Life (1984)
Pointer Sisters – Slow Hand (1981)
Maxine Nightingale – Reasons (1976)
Sneaker – Jaymes [Northern Rascal Extension] (1981)
Far Cry – Some Things Will Never Change (1980)
Rodney Franklin – Sailing (1982)
Greg Guidry – (I’m) Givin' It Up (1982)
Bell & James – You Never Know What You've Got (1978)
Melissa Manchester – Shine Like You Should (1978)
Sun Rai – Till The Lights Come On [Yacht Rock Mix] (2013)
Airbag – One Day You Will (2016)
Robert Palmer – Every Kinda People [Joey Negro Multicultural Multitrack Mix] (1978/2016)
Ekkah X Dâm-FunK – Space Between Us (2016)
Mellowtones – Flirt (2016)
True Design – I Wanna Break (1984)
The Jeremy Spencer Band – Sunshine (1979)
Yung Bae – Blue Skies (Outro) (2016)