November 27, 2005

IT'S IN OUR VAULTS AND WE'RE HAPPY!

It's been a while since we've posted anything, but hey, it was a busy time! I did a lot deejaying gigs the last couple o' weeks and just when I got the excitement of those gigs out of my system, there was the big record fair in Holland last weekend. And that, dear reader, is sho' nuff excitement! Hundreds and hundreds of stands offering nothing but "the best there is to find," which basically means you have to dig your way through huge amounts of crap hoping to find an interesting item. Gold digging for sure...I only visted four market stands and still I had to be satisfied with whatever my wallet allowed me to spend. But it was worth it..Here's a quick overview, or better yet: a "best of" the bought items:

- In the funk '45 section it turned out to be a good day! After turning down a beer from the very friendly Canadian seller, I also got loads of info on the 7"s for free. And that is something you don't encounter much these days. The result is a good 100 euros spent. Leaving me with good, funky tunes like, amongst others, Contributors of Soul: Yum Yum Man (on Emase), Clarence Reid: Funky Party (on Alston), Count Sidney and his Dukes: The Grandpa (on Goldband), Oliver Sain: Bus Stop (on Abet), Jason & Pam: Soul Train (on Happy Fox) and The Incredible Bongo Band: Bongo Rock (on MGM). I've uploaded some of these tunes to the funk45 website, so who knows, in about two weeks you'll be able to listen to these gems on their great site.


- In the reggae '45 section it gets mad! So no overview here..Well, some highlights then...I'm very content with the purchasing of "Fattie Bum Bum" by Carl Malcolm (on the "Leo" imprint, which is a sub for Impact), Winston Reedy's update of the Burning Spear classic "Door Peeper" (on the "Room in the Sky" label), Marcia Aitkens take on "Woman is like a Shadow," originally recorded by the Meditations, on the Joe Gibbs imprint "Belmont" (here it's called Narrow Minded Man), Bobby Melody's "Let it be," which is not a cover of the fab four but a true classic in its own right (on the "Errol T" label, produced yet again by Joe Gibbs), Sizzla and Jah Cure's "King in this Jungle" (On Beres Hammond's imprint "Harmony House") and some great tunes on the "Things and Time" riddim by Super Cat (Cry fi di Youth) and the "Rougher Yet" riddim by Reggie Stepper (Commanding wife) which were released on the mighty Techniques imprint. And then some more...

- In the afrobeat section there were a lot of mediocre sounds to be found. Often the records for sale displayed too much disco or way to less funk. Still I found some great '45's: The Simon Kenyatta Troupe's take on the Manu Dibango classic: "Soul Makossa," which doesn't add much to the original but is still pretty impressive (promo copy on Avco) and future classic: Weyman Corporation "Le Chat" (on Barclay), which has a B-side called "Kumbayero" that is a serious afro beat contender!

And lucky for me: all these did good inna di dancehall!

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