breaks

Various Artists
Movements 2
(Perfect Toy Records, 200?)
About a year and a half ago, a compilation appeared. The cover was all in browns and there was a picture of a man and a woman on the cover. It was Movements. Tobias Kirmayer, and the vast amount of singles that he has collected, compiled an album filled with unknown funk gems. Now, Movements 2 has arrived. More funk than one would even care to shake a stick at. Like its predecessor, the second installment really has no clunkers; everything can be looked upon in a decent light at the very least. There are a few forays into the period of funk that became a bit to mired in ‘70s production, but the tracks by Gene Boyd and Ray Anthony are easily made up for. “When Love Comes Home” features a well-rehearsed band with a rhythmically pleasing guitar line as the horn section groans out the melody. With the guitar line, there is enough empty space for each player to contribute in his own rhythmic fashion. Good choruses aren’t lacking on this release either with “Don’t Chain My Soul” checking in as a shoulda been hit. Albums like this one are cropping up with increased frequency. The Michigan compilations come to mind as well as any reissue work Stones Throw produces. Those are damned fine albums, but not as dusty and consistent as this mix from Europe. Read more

There’s apparently been a great deal of funk and soul music released from Ohio at various times throughout the last few decades. Of course, Dayton’s the Ohio Players rank up there amongst the best known, but then there’re also the La Verts as well as the O’Jays. Those names are all top tier, chart ranking stalwarts of the genre, though. And as would be expected, for just as many hits there were as many tracks cut that went pretty much nowhere.

The odd thing about all of that is the fact that it took a Chicago based record label to hunt down, clean up and distill the music that was almost lost to dust bins and resale shops in and around Columbus. Read more

At the end of 1967 rock and roll was in the throngs of upheaval. Long hairs were cranking their amps ever louder and the music was becoming less and less commercial. There were extended jams that lasted the better part of one side of a record and wouldn’t ever make it onto any radio station save for those late night spots.

Concurrently, one of the most important – and impersonated – soul singers of the decade was boarding a plane after a performance in Cleveland, Oh. Otis Redding and most of his band shortly wound up in the lake. Only one band member survived.

Redding was already a star, but at such an early age, there were inconceivable heights that he might have reached. And even while the singer was relegated to that soul thing, his music was as much rock and roll as anything else. Why else would the Rolling Stones pay him deference with “Satisfaction?” Read more

A band that’s been going for fifty years probably shouldn’t be an influential force any longer. Even as Tower of Power has continued to tour and release music – some questionable at best – it’s earliest work has become the blue print for countless soul bands (and even the Aggrolites, a reggae band hailing from Los Angeles) as well as the basis for some pretty well known samples: “What is Hip?” being the most utilized. And while at this point in the Tower of Power’s career when deejays making use of its work is the best thing going, it’s still worth a look back at an important, early career recording. Read more