Professor Eddy

Liliane Maestrini The sky looks very grey today, so hopefully this Latin soul mix gives you the feeling of taking a well-deserved South-American trip. It summarizes almost 60 years of suntanned fun in modern music. Enjoy! Years ago my parents bought a house from the Meek's family, but they were not related to music legend Joe Meek, as far as I know. He was the first independent record producer in music history. In the late 1950s Meek started as an engineer and soon made a name for himself, because he added instruments and sound effects to recordings, which no one had done before. He experimented with the weirdest electronic effects and built his own early versions of synthesizers, a decade before Kraftwerk did. The spacy instrumental 'Telstar' by Tornados is particularly noted for being the first British record by a band to hit #1 in the United States, in 1962. You can hear Joe Meek sing on it as a drunken sailor at the end. He also created 'Have I the right',...

Ghostbusters I was very suprised to be #3 on the Mixcloud Best of 2017 Jazz, Funk & Soul chart ! I'm really happy with it :-) This week I chose to play (non-chilled) 80s (inspired) boogie, soul & pop, for a great part contemporary songs, like ‘Light years’ by The Midnight. I think that their 'Nocturnal' is the best album of 2017. Every track seems to be taken from the soundtrack of the 1980s hit series Miami Vice, but the songs are brand new, actually. And I've never heard sax solos played so wonderfully since 'The heat is on' by Glenn Frey or ‘Maneater’ by Daryl Hall & John Oates. The Midnight consists of Tyler Lyle and Tim McEwan. One of the tracks is 'Ghostbusters' by Ray Parker Jr. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 11, 1984. Everyone knows that it sounds very similar to 'I Want a New Drug' by Huey Lewis & The News. Lewis had been approached to compose the main theme song for the film fir...

Kenny Loggins (from Loggins & Messina) once said in an interview that in his opinion ‘yacht rock’ is a combination of West Coast pop/rock, smooth jazz and R&B . Connoisseur Mr Funk aka Seasidevibes calls the sub-genre ‘soulful West Coast’ and German DJ Supermarkt (known for his very successful ‘Too slow to disco’ compilations) claims it’s music you can almost dance to. The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) think that it’s music that sounds best on FM radio. Enjoy our mellow yacht moods! Picture: Heather Gildroy for Camp collection - C-Heads Magazine Tracklist: Thundercat Feat. Kenny Loggins & Michael McDonald – Show You The Way (2017) Ned Doheny – Labor Of Love (1979) The Waters – If There’s A Way (1977) Cool Uncle Feat. Jessie Ware – Break Away (2015) The Ray Camacho Band ‎– Hollywood (1980) Toto – Waiting For Your Love (1982) Wouter Hamel – Can’t Do Without It (2017) Lalo Schifrin ‎– Middle Of The Night (1979) Photoglo – Steal Away (1980) You...

Aurélien Buttin This time I selected chilled grooves with their roots firmly in the 1980s, mostly cover versions that are not well-known or not known at all. For instance, Scandinavian band Amason turned the bombastic power ballad ‘I want to know what love is’ into a fragile love song. And I bet you’ve never heard of Kaoru Akimoto’s ‘Dress down’ before. It’s on 'Tokyo Nights: Female J-Pop Boogie Funk - 1981 to 1988', out on Cultures of Soul. Japanese boogie didn't reach Europe at the time, but the album proves that they could make solid and well-polished funk in Japan in the 1980s. They surely knew how to handle American R&B, boogie, fusion and adult-oriented rock (AOR) there. These foreign influences clearly reflect on the songs that are on the album and make them as least as good as their contemporaries from outside Japan. The track by Laytonwoohbill is from The Boogie Volume 6 , out on Tokyo Dawn Records. Enjoy this 21st part of Eddy's 80s Grooves ! Trac...

Basically, love songs contain three possible themes: pain (things are going downhill), peace (things are going steady) and pleasure (things are going uphill). And my definition of a love song is a broad one: songs about love for someone special as well as love for mankind in general. Two tracks are from new compilation albums. The first one, ‘Deep inside of you’ by The Harden Brothers, is from ‘Message In Our Music’, out on Favorite Recordings. And the second one, ‘Free and easy’ from Satyr, can be found on ‘Soul Festival’ (1971-1979 soulful floorfillers), released by Expansion Records. Both albums contain wonderful (rare) soul songs. Maggie MacNeal used to be one half of the successful Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal. Their biggest hit was ‘ How do you do? ’ that peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. Two years later they became third in the Eurovision Song Contest (which was won by Abba). After a quarrel Maggie MacNeal went solo in 1975. The closing track by The Mi...

Corynn Oceana by Brooke Olimpieri The opening track is on the recently released compilation album The Heart Volume 4, out on Tokyo Dawn Records. The Karen Carpenter solo album had been shelved for 16 years before it eventually came out in 1996. Some say that her brother Richard, the other half of successful easy listening duo The Carpenters, did not like the sexual content of some of the lyrics. Others claim that label boss Herb Alpert did not like the project, because it did not sound like the Carpenters. Most probably we will never find out the real reason why it has been withheld for so long. Fact is that the album has a very good slow disco sound and it is a real treat to listen to, no matter what the commanders in chief thought back in 1980. Enjoy this new slow disco car ride! Tracklist: Vindahl Feat. Jenny Wilson – The Question (2011) Space Captain – Blue (2017) Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band – I’ll Play The Fool (1976) Andrew Gold – Genevieve (1978)...

Alissia Once in a while I step out of my smooth and mellow comfort zone to create a heavier, (electro) funk based sound on the Funking Up The Dance Floor series. If you’d ask me to do a gig at your local club, it would probably sound something like this. Enjoy the 6th part of Funking Up The Dance Floor ! When American disco faded because of the ‘disco sucks’ movement in the early eighties, European disco flourished, especially in Italy. The Italians created their own ‘italo’ sound with non-complicated sing-along hooks (often about space adventures) and dominating keyboards and electronic sounds. They were by inspired by electro pioneers like Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder. The British, Dutch, Germans, French and Belgians made some very good euro disco songs too. Popular disco artists like The Three Degrees and Donna Summer went to Europe to record albums with hit producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman, for instance. Those Euro Disco songs filled the gap between seventies American dis...

The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) take a step back in time again. We start with Dutch band Blue Feather and Billy Ocean closes the mix. This Sunday I’m going to see him live on his greatest hits tour in Groningen. Looking forward to that! After some commercial break downs, Carly Simon (picture) moved to her fourth record label, Arista, and returned to soundtrack work, which had given her her second biggest hit, "Nobody Does It Better," from The Spy Who Loved Me, in 1977. This time, she wrote "Coming Around Again" for Heartburn, and it hit number 18 in early 1987, her biggest hit in more than six years. That set up Simon's comeback with the same titled album, which became her biggest success in a decade, producing two more chart singles, "Give Me All Night" (number 61) and "All I Want Is You" (number 54), and going platinum. Along with "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of," they all made the Top Ten of the adult contempor...

Joan Smalls Instagram At a moment when winter is approaching fast I selected music to look back on those wonderful summers of the past. The first two tracks are from the best mix-album I’ve heard in years: ‘DJ Kicks’ by Kerri Chandler. ‘All night’ by Silo is from the excellent compilation ´The Move volume 2´, out on Tokyo Dawn Records. Multi-instrumentalist and music producer Jordan Chini armed with an array of guitars, basses, drum machines, and vintage synths has fused the spirit of lo-fi songwriting and psychedelia with the aesthetics of experimental funk and soul under his brand-new moniker “BOY DUDE”. The LP 'Cassette for you' came about when Jordan was digging out some of the records of his father, guitarist Robert Chini, from the late 1970s. They inspired him to begin writing and experimenting in a similar style. The track 'Rainbow waterfall' is an outcome of that. Folk and soul never blended so well as on the new Space Captain album ´All Flowers In Time´....

Grandmaster Flash & Tina Weymouth (Tom Tom Club) If BBC One would have asked me to join their mix series Essentials , it would have sounded something like this. All of my musical influences squeezed together in one cloudcast! There’s some old-school ground-breaking hip hop, modern day nu-disco and all of the soulful subgenres in between. Enjoy this special edition of Boombox ! Personal Life is a London-based jazzy-soul collective formed by Robert Strauss, featuring the classic sounding voice of Stuart Lisbie plus core members of Amy Winehouse’s touring band. The Honesty remix of ‘There’s a time for everything’ is from the compilation album ‘The move volume 2’, out on Tokyo Dawn Records. Tracklist: George Duke ‎– I Want You For Myself (1979) Deodato – Night Cruiser (1980) Grandmaster Flash – The Adventure Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel (1983) Chic – Good Times (1979) Lyn Collins – Think (About It) (1972) Davy DMX ‎– One For The Treble (1984) Toro Y Mo...

Mike Kearney Again I dug deep into the crates to find some forgotten gems of the past and a few more recent ones. ‘Let’s Get To It’ by Tomi Malm is from ‘Walkin’ On Air’, his brand new debut solo album. On this collection of outstanding tracks, the Finnish wizard (co-)wrote all but two of the songs. The tracklist presents a variety of styles, from jazz-infused pop gems to refined ballads, smooth funky jams and cleverly made fusion instrumentals. Malm's inventive arrangements and top-notch production is brought to life thanks to legendary session players, like Simon Philips (Toto, Mike Oldfield) and Robbie Buchanan (Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand, Chaka Khan). This record is highly recommended by the Professor! Enjoy this new part of Grooves From The Crates ! Track list: Three Degrees – Can’t You See What You’re Doing To Me (1973) Dance People – Midnight Breeze (1979) Citrus Sun – What Color Is Love (2014) Kalyan – Hot Tea (1980) Tomi Malm – Let’s Get To It (2...

Sade & Mr. T. (The A-Team) Music from and inspired by the 1980s, like 'Straight from the heart' from Beverly Girl. Hailed as “one of the funkiest groups Finland has to offer for 2017” by Kaltblut Magazine, Beverly Girl has a deep, modern disco and R&B -influenced style that has taken the group via Internet blogs all over the world, and brought the band a #5 slot in the Official Top 50 Viral Playlist on Spofify Finland. The Helsinki-based trio has also gained a noticeable amount of airplay on national radio. On Instagram they recently announced that their next single will be a cover that they are very eager to share soon. The last 3 tracks of this cloudcast are from the new compilation album ‘FTG presents The Vaults vol. 3’, out on Sony Music. Step back in time and enjoy this 20th part of Eddy's 80s Grooves ! Next up is a new part of Grooves From The Crates . Tracklist: Full Flava – Bad Habit (2009) Norma Jean Wright – Love Attack (1983) Beverly Gir...

Constance Jablonski‏ @constancejab Twitter The summer seems to be back in the Netherlands with rising temperatures, so let’s make a sailing trip again. Enjoy this sunny October edition of Smooth Sailing ! In 1979 The Jones Girls' hit ‘You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else’ showed that Philly soul legends Gamble and Huff still had the magic touch. The classic went top ten on the Billboard R&B and Disco charts. However, lead singer Shirley Jones and sisters Brenda and Valorie were not new to the game. The Jones Girls travelled the world as fellow Detroiter Diana Ross’ backup singers. She told Gamble and Huff The Jones Girls were too good to be standing in the shadow of someone else. The Philly years brought the sisters a string of hits, like ‘Who Can I Run To’, ‘(I Found) That Man Of Mine’, ‘Dance Turned Into A Romance’ and their Grammy-nominated classic ‘Nights Over Egypt’. After a brief unsuccessful stay at RCA Records and an album of previous unreleased songs from Philad...

Philly soul group The Stylistics achieved their greatest chart successes in the 1970s. They were created from two different groups, namely The Percussions and The Monarchs. All of their hits were ballads, characterized by the smooth falsetto voice of Russell Thompkins, Jr. and the slick production of Thom Bell. During the early 1970s, the group had twelve consecutive R&B top ten hits in the US, including 'Stop, Look, Listen', 'You Are Everything', 'Betcha by Golly, Wow', 'People Make the World Go Round', 'I'm Stone in Love with You', 'Break Up to Make Up', and 'You Make Me Feel Brand New'. When disco broke loose by the end of the decade, their popularity faded. The opening track by Patti Labelle is from the new mixed compilation album 'Glitterbox - Disco's Revenge', out on Defected Records. Enjoy this new part of ‘ Best Of 70s Soul ’! Tracklist: Patti Labelle – It’s Alright With Me (1979) The Stylist...

Angel A. Acevedo Boombox 15 is inspired by the so-called New Retro Wave sound. The founder of the NewRetroWave label, the New York-based producer known as Ten. S, has been in love with the sound of that decade for years. “I remember one day I stumbled across an old-school ’80s breakbeat/freestyle song, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I literally became obsessed with it. I decided to find more sounds like it. Before I knew it, I was traveling down into the deep depths of ’80s music stations." (Quote: Bandcamp ) Enjoy! Tracklist: Flamingosis Feat. The Kount – Keep Shining (2017) Phenonemal – One Two Three (Come See About Me) (1982) Niteshifters – Show Me What You’ve Got (2017) Earth, Wind & Fire – System Of Survival (1987) Prince & The Revolution – Katrina’s Paper Dolls (1984) Roosevelt – Close [Midnight Version] (2017) Ralph – Cold To The Touch (2017) The Aces – Stuck [RAC Mix] (2017) Aly & AJ – Take Me (2017) Midnight Star – Operator ...

Tamala Jones Get on your roller-skates and dance! The title of this cloudcast is inspired by ‘Disco’s revenge’ from Gusto, which was built around a sample from Harvey Mason’s ‘Groovin’ You’. 'Isabelle & The Rain' by Jo Boyer is from the new compilation album 'Best of Disco Spectrum'. C.J. & Co. were a soulful disco group from Detroit (USA). The band was created by producer Mike Theodore and Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey, who played on many classics like 'Cloud nine' and 'War'. Coffey also worked with Del Shannon and wrote the soundtrack to 'Black Belt Jones'. 'Devil's gun' is the only song you can find of the band on Spotify. Their output is somehow hard to track down. The closing track by Bag Raiders is from the excellent Nexflix tv-series Riverdale, which is some kind of a mixture of Twin Peaks and Beverley Hills 90201: “Set in the present, the series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and ...

Unsplash To close the summer of 2017, I created a special eclectic episode of Smooth Sailing with all kinds of genres. I even selected a couple of folk tracks, which is a genre that I usually don't play that often. By the start of the 1970s, Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye were in completely different creative territories. Ross was trying to make it as an actress, while Gaye stepped into a new musical direction with ‘What's going on’, ‘Trouble man’, and ‘Let's get it on’. What they shared, apart from a mutual admiration, was that they were two of the biggest artists on Motown at the time and that their voices blended wonderfully. So it wasn't entirely surprising that Motown boss Berry Gordy asked Marvin Gaye to record an album with Diana Ross. Until this day the ‘Marvin & Diana’ album is still a bit underrated, because it didn’t spawn any classics. It is, however, one of Ross' best efforts of the decade. Although the vocals were mostly recorded separately, they...

Théo Gosselin Probably the best music ever for a car ride comes from jazz-pop band Steely Dan, who were named after a sex toy in William S. Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch. Last Sunday co-founder and guitarist Walter Becker sadly died. I selected ‘Peg’ from their 1977 masterpiece ‘Aja’. The album, one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, sold over 5 million copies and peaked at Number Three on the Billboard 200. Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White started his musical career as a session drummer for legendary Chicago-based labels OKeh and Chess Records. He can be heard on records by Etta James, Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart and Ramsey Lewis. With the help of legendary producer Charles Stepney he created EWF and made it one of the supergroups of the 1970s. They combined high-calibre musicianship, a wide-ranging musical genre eclecticism, and multicultural spiritualism that included Biblical references. Best known hits are 'Shining star', 'Boog...

Brenda Russell On this cloudcast music from and inspired by the 1980s. Two of the tracks are from the incredibly good compilation album ‘ Jeremy Underground Presents: Beauty ’: “Thirty-one-year old Parisian DJ Jeremy Underground first came to prominence in the deep house scene, and his legendary My Love Is Underground label and parties celebrate the authentic NY/NJ house sound. This selection for U.K.-based Spacetalk focuses on his other musical love, delving into obscure soul, disco, and boogie. The album is full of sun-kissed rarities including Maureen Bailey’s much-coveted “Takin’ My Time With You” and the jazzed-out “Unity” from Creative Arts Ensemble. Beauty manages the rare feat of appealing to both the casual listener and the hardened record collector in equal measure.” (Quote: Bandcamp ) Enjoy this 19th part of Eddy's 80s Grooves ! Next week a new episode of Slow Disco . Tracklist: Johnny Guitar Watson – I Miss Your Kiss (1981) Richardi Mac ‎– Told You So (1...

Aurélien Buttin Songs about love, loss, leaving and letting go never sounded any better than on FM radio between the mid-seventies and mid-eighties, don’t you think? Soft rock or AOR are probably the best labels you can put on this cloudcast. Adult Oriented Rock (AOR) can be divided between West Coast rock and stadium rock. West Coast rock (or yacht rock) is some kind of a melting pot of rock, soul, disco, funk, jazz, folk, psychedelic and all the pop genres in between, with its foundation in the Californian music scene of the seventies. It's well-crafted, soft-focused pop that was mainly made and played along the West Coast. Kenny Loggins, The Doobie Brothers and their singer Michael McDonald are some of the big names. This sub-genre is somewhat different from rock ballads played by heavier stadium rock bands, like Foreigner and REO Speedwagon, but there’s always room for discussion. How to categorize Fleetwood Mac, for instance? Is it stadium rock, yacht rock or classic ro...

Slow Disco not only sounds good in the early hours, but also at the poolside with a cocktail in your hand and good company nearby! After singing backup for artists like Elvis Presley (who died 40 years ago last week), Aretha Franklin, and Solomon Burke and being a member of gospel band The Sweet Inspirations, Cissy Houston started a solo career in the 1970s. Already in her early forties, Whitney's mum made a couple of soulful, but not very successful disco albums with producer Michael Zager (best-known for 'Let's all chant'). The first album they did was 1977's highly underrated 'Cissy Houston', which was a straight, tear-jerking, heart-wrenching, soulful album. 'Morning much better' was released as a single. At that time her disco albums did not leave a mark. Cissy Houston was too much a soul singer to become a disco performer. After four disco albums she stepped back from the music industry. She made room for her daughter, who almost immediate...

Jessie Ware Sophisti-pop is a sub-genre of pop that especially flourished in the UK between the mid-1980s and early 1990s, incorporating elements of rock, jazz, new wave, and blue-eyed soul. The genre made extensive use of electronic keyboards, synthesizers, and polished arrangements, particularly horn sections. The Human League moved from electro pop to sophisti-pop in 1986, when they released 'Crash'. ‘Human’ was written and produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis (Janet Jackson, S.OS. Band). It reached the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 in the late summer of 1986. The Human League influenced all kinds of electro based artists (especially their album 'Dare'), like Lady Gaga and David Bowie. The latter once referred to them as "the future of pop music". Since 1987 the group has essentially been a trio of singer Phil Oakey and long-serving female vocalists Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley (both of whom joined the band in 1980), with va...

Ángela Burón ( Flickr ) The closing track of this new cloudcast is ‘Summer madness’ by Kool & the Gang. Khalis Bayyan of the band changed the track that was originally called ‘You Don't Have to Change’. It was composed by trumpet player Robert "Spike" Mickens and Elton Taylor. Bayyan started the new version of 'Summer madness' with the piano, as he told Rolling Stone : “And then at that time, the Arp 2600 had just came out. I went in the studio and detuned it so it'd get five octaves. I'm in there by myself — it's 5 o'clock in the morning — so I turn on the portamento and it went [makes sound of sliding pitch]. I asked [engineer] Harvey [Goldberg], "What do you think?" He said, "That's amazing!" When I did that portamento, it was done! It was a wrap.” King of the medley, James (Hansi) Last, who passed away two years ago, could be a funky guy too from time to time! I remember him as the conductor who was more in...

@joansmalls Instagram Because of the heat it’s “too slow to disco”, to quote German DJ Supermarkt, so it’s best to listen to the music in a beach chair instead of being on the dance floor. The wonderful song by Tears For Fears is from the GLOW soundtrack: “If anything on TV is going to leave people on the ups, it’s “GLOW.” Liz Flahive’s new Netflix series is upbeat, enthusiastic, and empowering. Chronicling a start-up group of women’s wrestlers in the ’80s, the 10-episode half-hour comedy is edgy, both in quick bursts and its overall message, but still consistently light enough for fluffy fun. It’s a great pop song built around great pop songs.” (Quote: Indiewire ) Enjoy this new part of Smooth Sailing ! Next up is a new episode of Grooves From The Crates . Tracklist: Mascara (feat. Luther Vandross) – See You In L.A. [Eddy’s Edit] (1979) Poom – Adagio (2017) Future World Orchestra – I’m Not Afraid Of The Future (1982) Rac Feat. Scavenger Hunt – Johnny Cash (2017...

Imagine you’re chilling out with an intimate friend until the sun comes up… ;-) Having made her mark on Brazil’s rich musical legacy with three best-selling albums to date, Rio’s original nu-bossa queen Sabrina Malheiros has returned with a tour de force of golden-era Brazilian soul music. From the spiritual swing of the early pioneers of modern Samba, to the dizzying hedonism of Brazil’s eighties disco/boogie craze, her new album 'Clareia' is a life-affirming journey through the rich and varied sounds Sabrina Malheiros has been immersed in since she can remember. For her most up-lifting and danceable album to date, Sabrina has (as always) enlisted her father Alex Malheiros (bassist of samba jazz-funk legends Azymuth) and London based producer Daniel Maunick (aka Dokta Venom), son of Incognito’s Bluey. Singer/songwriter Jamison is not a typical R&B singer. With a voice that garners comparisons to Anthony Hamilton and R Kelly his baritone sound coupled with outside the b...

This time I made some kind of a “Boombox Beach Special”. The term ‘daytime disco’ was first used by L.A. based dance duo Poolside. It's music best to be played at times when you're too comfortably seated in a beach chair to dance, but you certainly wouldn't mind watching other people do it. It’s, in other words, pre-party music to steam you up for the night. Future funk recaptures the feeling of retro dance with modern equipment. It’s basically new dance music with a wink to the 1970s and 1980s. Enjoy part 14 of Boombox ! Next up is new episode of Groovy, Sexy and Soulful . Tracklist: Gladys Knight & The Pips – Save The Overtime (For Me) (1983) Two Another – Over My Shoulder (2017) Luther Vandross – I Really Didn't Mean It (1986) Kasso – Brazilian Dancer [DJ Version] (1981) Pop Up! – You Know How (2016) Cape Coral – Chest Pop (2017) Kiki Kyte – Disco Chick (2016) Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel Feat. Andre Espeut – Innermotion [Petko Turner's ...

Sade Enjoy 'Digging your scene' by The Smooth Operators ! Sophisticated pop is a smooth, jazzy style of mainstream pop/rock that first appeared during the mid-'80s. Sophisti-pop artists, like Sade and The Blow Monkeys, merged jazz-soul characteristics with their sound. About three decades later bands like Work Drugs and Capital Cities borrowed elements from that style to create something new. Sophisticated pop sounds best on lazy days when the weather is extremely hot. "Sophistication" by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel is originally from 1986 and was produced by Harley and Mickie Most. Like much of Harley's output from the same period, the song was due to be released on Harley's solo album El Gran Senor. However, the album was shelved and left unreleased after RAK Records went bankrupt later in the year. Although many of the songs would later be re-recorded for Harley's 1992 album Yes You Can, "Sophistication" remained unreleased. Despit...