Smooth Sailing: Chilled Out Jazz Funk

-
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´. The band’s extensive influences range from Thundercat through Amy Winehouse to Bon Iver. Their music is an eclectic mix of trumpet outros, sax solos and acoustic “e-bow” guitars bound together with dreamy indie-pop melodies for a sweet curve-ball of a finish.

Enjoy this new part of Smooth Sailing!

Tracklist:

Leroy Hutson – Cool Out (1975)
Rasa – When Will The Day Come (1978)
Chuck Cissel – Don’t Tell Me You’re Sorry (1978)
Tomi Malm – Walkin’ On Air (2017)
George Michael – Heal The Pain (1990)
LTJ Xperience – And I Love Him (2003)
Soweco – By The Sea (2017)
Space Captain – Blue (2017)
Simon Law – Morning Love (2017)
Kommode – Shoes (2017)
Work Drugs – Cheap Shots (2017)
Hypnolove – Winter In The Sun [Pilooski Edit] (2016)
Bluey – Sky [Ski Oakenfull Remix] (2015)
Hil St Soul – Wash Away (2008)
Air – You Make It Easy (1997)
Boy Dude – Rainbow Waterfall (2017)
Brett – Lovers [Gangplans Zouma Beach Remix] (2016)
FKJ – Better Give U Up (2017)
Silo – All Night (2017)
My NamE – Bad Day For Travis (2017)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Disco Knockouts!

-
Image
Apart from the picture of Sharron Davies, there are two songs that inspired me to make this mix. One of them is a recent track from Duck Sauce. The repetition of the female vocals reminded me of Stars On 45 (I believe they both sampled 'Gotta Go Home' by Boney M). The other one is from Dutch singer Dee Dee. I heard ‘I put a spell on you’ on a recent episode of Tim Sweeney’s ‘Beats in space’. In the accompanying video she looks a little bit like a sex doll, but I love the song! I like the closing track from soul veterans the Drifters, but isn’t it strange to hear guys who were in their thirties at the time sing about schoolgirls? Different times, I guess, when no one had heard of R. Kelly yet... One of my personal favourites is ‘Night time’ from Maggie MacNeal. I bought the 7” which was produced by Michael Lloyd (known for his work for the Osmonds, Lou Rawls and Solomon Burke) way back in 1979. Maggie MacNeal was one half of successful Dutch duo Mouth & MacNeal. Their bigg
Read more

The Smooth Operators Present Classic Yacht Rock

-
Image
Unsplash The Smooth Operators (Martijn Soetens and I) introduce you to yacht rock songs that you must have heard at least once in your life! We present some real yacht rock classics and yacht rock songs that we think should have been classics. Harden My Heart by American pop/rock group Quarterflash was written by guitarist Marv Ross and included on the band's debut album, Quarterflash (1981). The song was originally released as a single in early 1980 by Seafood Mama, Quarterflash's predecessor band. Quarterflash's version became a top-10 hit in the United States, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1982. Guitarist and songwriter Marv Ross remembered that a friend of his had given him the title and that he came up with the lyrics very quickly. Last Monday Michael McDonald, front man of the Doobie Brothers, celebrated his 72th birthday: "Emerging from the laid-back California rock scene of the '70s, McDonald found his niche in a unique blend of
Read more

West Coast Sundown: Yacht Rock, Late Night Pop & Sunset Soul

-
Image
Unsplash Enjoy the soundtrack to a West Coast sundown! 😊 The closing track by Matt Duncan is brand new, by the way. It sounds like a lost recording from The Nightfly sessions by Donald Fagen. At the time critics sometimes called David Cassidy’s music bubblegum pop. That was simply defined  music manufactured to sell as much records as possible and it was mostly aimed at a very young audience. Bubblegum's classic period ran from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. At that point disco music took over the single market. However, David Cassidy certainly made some very good records, although in later years he found it difficult to shake off his teen idol image. “His wispiest, breathiest hit was called ‘I Am A Clown’. Poor, sweet, forlorn sexy David – marshmallows could’ve bruised this sound.“ (Bob Stanley in his book Yeah Yeah Yeah )  Midas Shadow by Al Stewart is from his classic 1976 album The Year Of The Cat . The message of this song is that when a successful businessman stops
Read more