La Funk Mob - Tribulations Extra Sensorielles + Breaking Boundaries Messing Up Heads

LA FUNK MOB
Tribulations Extra Sensorielles
1994

LA FUNK MOB
Breaking Boundaries Messing Up Heads
1994


Welcome one and all to the 100th post at Soundological Investimigations! This was the week of milestones for SI, as we've received 10,000 hits just prior to wrapping up the first six months since we've kicked off and we'll be welcoming our 5,000th visitor sometime this afternoon! All we can say is... THANK YOU!!! All of you have made this endeavour a distinct pleasure! However, I would like to say a special thanks to a handful of folks in blogopolis for their inspiration, support or just plain awesomeness:

El Reza at Black Classical, Ish at Ile Oxumare and Simon at never enough rhodes for their guidance; Julian for being my first guest-post and letting me be drop my first guest mix at playjazzloud; E-mile at E-mile says songs do the matter for his enthusiasm, dedication and excellent taste; thefunkygoat for being my first "follower" and Wallofsound for being the first to tell me he'd subscribed to the feed.

Kudos especially are due to adam, alex, Andy, avocado kid, B3, Djalma, djandpete, flageolette, Gianni, Gorgon Jr., Hanimex 3000, JazzyPier, Jur, johnv, J Thyme...Kind, Lafayette, Kosta, pretoria, Solomon, the jazzman, Tom and Weekend Hippie for being class acts and consistently contributing to the comments. There's numerous others who took the time to drop a line and you're all appreciated but you folks have dropped numerous lines multiple times and you deserve recognition. You're the wind beneath my wings!


However, as a special thanks to ALL of those enjoying the blog, I've chosen to post the two groundbreaking EPs by French duo La Funk Mob. The Royaltie$ Overdue compilation on Mo' Wax we posted in July is far and away the most popular with 245 downloads compared to the next most popular post, Gato Barbieri's Chapter One which is clocking in at 140 (based on Rapidshare activity). They're followed by Blue Mitchell's Blue Mitchell, Marden Hill's Hijacked and Roy Ayers' All Blues in that order, all with 125 give or take a few. Although it's a great comp all around, it seems the LFM tracks on Royaltie$ stand up best to the test of time so I thought some folks out there would appreciate hearing more. Especially my fave track, 357 Magnum Force, which is rarely seen.

Another reason these were chosen to celebrate this milestone is that the the top two cities visiting us so far are London and Paris. What could better represent that electrosonic solidarity than the seminal sounds produced by French duo Boombass (interview and mix here) and Phillipe Zdar (some more Zdar sounds here) that were released on the incredibly influential UK label Mo' Wax?

BTW, if you're interested in where your fellow readers come from, here's the top ten urban centres ranked by Soundological citizens:

1 London, UK
2 Paris, FR
3 Berlin, DE*
4 Shinjiku, JP
5 Athens, GR
6 New York, US
7 Rome, IT
8 Melbourne, AU
9 Malaga, ES
10 Milan, IT

*Actually, the #3 city is "not set" due to net-savvy anonymous browsing and has been removed from the list.


Boombass and Zdar are using the moniker Cassius these days and have seen some deserved success in this century with their hyper-hiphop-French-touch-house-pop. Not much more to say about these legendary EPs of which these are the '96 reissues, except that Ravers Suck Our Sound And Get Fuck will always be one of my favourite song titles, even if only for nostalgic reasons.


Tribulations Extra Sensorielles
63.7 MB
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Mo' Wax MW017

357 Magnum Force


1 La Doctoresse
2 Motor Bass Get Phunked Up
3 Suspense
4 Ravers Suck Our Sound And Get Fuck
5 357 Magnum Force
6 Blunt Konnection

RS
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Breaking Boundaries Messing Up Heads
70 MB
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Mo' Wax MW023

Ravers Suck Our Sound (N.O.W. Mix)


1 Ravers Suck Our Sound
2 Motorbass Get Phunked Up (Electrofunk Remix by Richie Hawtin)
3 Ravers Suck Our Sound (Mystic Mix)
4 Ravers Suck Our Sound (Gangbang Mix)
5 Ravers Suck Our Sound (N.O.W. Mix by Nightmares On Wax)

RS
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This one's a freebie for all our visitors but next time there's a milestone, y'all will have to do a bit of work since it'll be all about the comments. Although Royaltie$ Overdue is our most plundered post, it also has one of the worst grab-to-blab (download to comment) ratios going here - only four folks found the time to drop a line. One thing you won't get from Soundological is a guilt-trip on leaving comments because it's the nature of the beast and we only have this to say: we'll go out of our way to please those who do participate so keep in mind how easy it is to leave a comment - it'll count as a vote for more of the same!

D*Note - Criminal Justice + Extras

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Boomp3.com
Boomp3.com

125 MB
320 CBR LAME mp3
CD rip & scans from TVT 5210-2


Critical darlings from the early 90s, D*Note were among the vanguard of those trying to bring jazz into the post-acid house era. Although technically a one-man band, Matt Winn collaborated with a tight-knit circle of friends connected to the Dorado/Filter label consisting primarily of Matt Cooper, Charlie Lexton (older brother to Jamie AKA Kid Loops) and Ceri Evans, with help early on from Gary Crosby (of Nu Troop and Jazz Jamaica). As the 90s petered out and the global house scene became an unstoppable phenomena, Matt W and crew kept with the times and scored a hit single in 2002 with Shed My Skin. As broken beat brought back a heavier reliance on jazz and polyrhythms in the earlier half of this decade, he followed suit and released Laguna. You can hear some of it yourself since Winn's posted a few tracks on his MySpace page.


Discogs Bio
The skills behind D*Note's brand of jazz, rap & rare groove belong chiefly to Matt Winn (Matt Wienevski), who is helped by scratcher Charlie Lexton (Cool Breeze) & occasional keyboard player Matt Cooper (who records for Dorado in his own right as Outside). Their debut album housed the singles Now Is The Time, Bronx Bull, Scheme Of Things & The More I See, each of which enjoyed good reviews in their original formats. Criminal Justice the 2nd album, built on the energy level of the debut & included stand out tracks like the title, Inquinity Worker and the monumental The Garden Of Earthly Delights with a stand out performance by vocalist Pamela Anderson, a regular on the first three albums, who for obvious reasons changed her name to PY Anderson later on.

Other collaborators on the 1st albums include Ceri Evans (Sunship), singer Dee Major & rappers Navigator and Krazy Cool D-Zine. Only Anderson resurfaced on the slightly disappointing third album, where D*Note moved in a more conventional housier direction. It does include one of their best anthems though, the moving Waiting Hopefully again starring Anderson. 4 Hero & Deep Dish graced the 12" versions with topnotch remixes.


AMG Review by John Bush
By the time of D*Note's second album, acid jazz had begun to get a bit stale, so Winn & Co. expanded the range of their sound, incorporating a bit of ragga-jungle on the title track (with chatting by MC Navigator), mainstream house on "Garden of Earthly Delights" (with the vocals of Pamela Anderson, sister of Jhelisa), and ambient jazz on "Deep Water." Despite the diversity, D*Note never fails to lose their character through it all, and the acid-jazz fusion comes off remarkably well.


Matt Winn - Composer, Flute, Drum Solos, Producer
Matt Cooper - Piano
Gary Crosby - Acoustic Bass
Pamela Anderson - Vocals
Dee Major - Vocals
Joy Malcolm - Vocals
MC Navigator - Vocals
Ceri Evans - Piano, Producer
Charlie Lexton - Producer


1 Criminal Justice
2 A Place In The City
3 Deep Water
4 Iniquity Worker
5 Perspex
6 Solomon's Blade
7 Flesh And Blood
8 V
9 The Garden Of Earthly Delights

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R S


EXTRAS

Boomp3.com
Boomp3.com

96.4 MB
192-320 mp3
CD & vinyl rips from various sources


Cool Breeze - Acoustic Blues
Cool Breeze - Can't Deal With This (Kid Loops Remix)
Cool Breeze - Can't Deal With This
Cool Breeze (Special Projects) - 27 Years of Solitude
D-Note - Iniquity Worker (Devil's Work Mix)
D-Note - Now Is the Time
D-Note - The Garden Of Earthly Delights (X-Press 2 Radio Edit)
D-Note - Waiting Hopefully (4 Hero Remix)
D-Note - Waiting Hopefully (Faze Action Dub)
Steve Reich - Piano Phase (D*Note's Phased & Konfused mix) from Reich Remixed.

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Freak Power In Dub - The Fried Funk Food EP

boomp3.com

No bio here cuz if'n you don't know who Norman Cook is, you've either been under a rock or dead for years. If it's the latter, and you've recently noticed an increase of brains in your diet, please do the right thing and walk into a rotating helicopter blade. If it's the former, then check out the link and get a clue, boo.

Let's make something perfectly clear. I bought The Housemartins' "London 0 Hull 4" on import when it came out while I was living in the wilds of Canuckistan. I purchased "The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death" on import. I found Cook's name attached to a re-mix on the James Brown "Payback (The Final Mixdown)" EP in '88 and then noticed his name on an Eric B & Rakim single I had and thought "damn, that skinny goofy bass player from the Housemartins has a helluva funky touch!" I bought Beats International's "Let Them Bingo," "Echo Chamber" and "Excursion On The Version" immediately upon their releases and played them to death. Soon after I started playing out, I picked up anything by Freakpower and The Mighty Dub Katz on 12" or LP. I even picked up a couple Pizzamans (ugh). Then when "Everybody Loves A 303" popped up in the shop, it was clear the man was a force to be reckoned and soon after, as a DJ I reckon I was practically forced to buy his output for the floor (twist my rubber arm, as they say).

But I would trade them all in for a new full-length Freak Power In Dub album. For me, these six glorious tracks epitomise the dubbed-out psychedelic instrumental hip hop productions that were categorised tritely by the British music press as "Trip Hop." Cook takes his trademark sound sensibilities through an emotional range far beyond the grasp of his club-oriented material, creating expansive vistas with sonic atmospherics while the circuitous logic of the tracks unfold. IMHO this is the high-water mark in the genre and, along with DJ Shadow's first few Mo' Wax singles and his "Endtroducing" LP, one of its definitive examples. Grab it below and you can hear what can be done by one in a home studio with their wax, minimal gear, a big heart and a good ear.


FREAK POWER IN DUB
The Funk Fried Food EP
60 MB
192 CBR LAME mp3
VINYL RIP rip from white label

A1 Turn On, Tune In, Find Joy
A2 At Your Own Pace
A3 Sugar Lump
B1 Freakpower Is A Beautiful Thing, Baby
B2 My Heart Sings
B3 Where I'm Going

OR

69 MB
192/224/256/320 CBR LAME mp3
CD RIPS from various sources & covers from discogs.com

1 Turn On, Tune In, Find Joy
2 At Your Own Pace
3 Sugar Lump*
4 Freakpower Is A Beautiful Thing, Baby
5 My Heart Sings
6 Where I'm Going**

* Not on bonus disc, inserted in correct order to replicate vinyl track listing.
** Didn't have on any comps so re-used the vinyl rip - levels slightly higher than the rest.

Ballistic Brothers vs Eccentric Afro's / London Hooligan Soul

Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afro's Vol 1
boomp3.com
Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afro's Vol 2
boomp3.com
London Hooligan Soul
boomp3.com
boomp3.com
Extras
boomp3.com

When I first heard The Headhunters' being cut up on "Blacker" back in '94, I immediately fell in love with the Ashley Beedle sound. They were a lot like the early Ninja Tune DJ Toolz and DJ Food albums but had a deep groove, were more straight-forward and not as moody and abstract. In other words, not only great for the crate but perfect summer music for patios, terraces, verandas, porches, yards and stoops which is why Soundological's give ya the real pizzoop with these long out-of-print initial efforts from Beedle's Ballistic Brothers crew.

They really fleshed out their sound on London Hooligan Soul, with Uschi Classen making a larger contribution as well as the addition of Steve Lewis' vocals and Amy Simmons providing some flute as well. Here they stretch out into ska, dub, drum 'n' bass, brazillian and more, with less reliance on samples and more on tunesmithy. In fact, this a perfect distillation of musical mindset held by the Brit kids who had moved through the Northern Soul, Two-Tone Ska, Hip Hop, Acid House, Acid Jazz/Trip Hop and Hardcore/Jungle eras. It may take a couple listens to grow on you but this album is highly regarded as a seminal classic in the UK scene for a good reason.

AMG Biography by Sean Cooper
The Ballistic Brothers are something of a quintessential London post-acid house outfit. Combining the production talents of some of the most popular figures on the progressive house and acid jazz scenes (Ashley Beedle of Black Science Orchestra, Dave Hill of Nuphonic Records, and house-tech duo Rocky and Diesel), the Ballistics pursue a hip-hop/house/jazz/soul crossover that tends to spell "party" no matter where it's played. Releasing most of their initial material on London club staple Junior Boys Own (including their 1994 debut London Hooligan Soul), the group established the Soundboy label in 1996 to release the follow-up, Rude System. The album's semantic-cum-stylistic switch came via Dave Hill's trip to Jamaica just prior to recording the album, an inspiration that also led the group to pursue a remix project (similar to Mad Professor's take on Massive Attack's 1995 album Protection) at Bob Marley's Kingston studio. Group members' individual projects also include X-Press 2, Free Soul, Low Pressing Records, Blacker, Ill Sun Records, Yellow Sox, and the Uschi Classen band.

There's a pretty thorough Beedle bio as well as a cool five-minute video interview with Ashley, Rocky & Diesel reminiscing about their old skool days over at Dancetracks. Follow the links below and you can judge for yourself if Ashley's blowin' smoke out his whazoo when he says of LHS and Rude System: “To this day,I still think those two albums are brilliant.”

Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afro's Vol 1
58.5 MB
320 CBR LAME mp3
CD rip & scans from Delancey Street Records DSTCD001

1 NYX2
2 Gangstalene
3 Uschi's Groove
4 And It Goes Like This
5 MCF 2870
6 Blacker
7 Valley Of The Afro Temple
8 Grovers Return
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Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afro's Vol 2
94.1 MB
320 CBR LAME mp3
CD rip & scans from Delancey Street Records DST005CD

1 Delancey Street...The Theme
2 Unhooked And Lost
3 Save The Children
4 Hustler (You've Been Had)
5 Jam Jah
6 Divine Fact (Blacker 2)
7 Goodvibes...Goodnight
8 Anti-Gun Movement
9 Blacker ('94 EQ)
10 Blacker (Marden Hill Sweet Green Jam Mix)
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London Hooligan Soul
138 MB
320 CBR LAME mp3
CD rip & scans from Junior Boy's Own JBO CD6, vinyl rip from JBO 31, CD rip from JBO 34 CDS

As a special treat exclusively for readers of Soundological, the version of London Hooligan Soul offered here also includes the B-Sides to the two 12" singles from the LP.

1 Portobello Cafe (Vocals - Steve Lucas)
2 Come On
3 Soho Cab Ride
4 I'll Fly Away (Vocals - Steve Lucas)
5 Jah Jah Call You
6 Mark's Lude
7 I Don't Know
8 Sister Song (Flute - Amy Simmons)
9 A Beautiful Space
10 Steppin' Into Eden (Flute - Amy Simmons)
11 Peckings
12 Uschi's Lament
13 Mystery of Ballistic
14 Step Into Eden (Rollin' Drum & Bass Mix)
15 Come On (Wax Doctor's Simon Templar Remix)
16 Come On (Luke Slater Remix)
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Extras
78.4 MB
Various
CD rips, vinyl rips and downloads from various sources

Arakatuba - Pelé (Remixed by Ballistic Brothers)
Armand Van Helden - Funk Phenomena (Ballistic Brothers Phenomenal Funk Mix)
Ballistic Brothers - Perfect Day
Ballistic Brothers - Prophecy Reveal (Night Time Is The Right Time Mix)
Ballistic Brothers - Prophecy Reveal
Brand New Heavies - You've Got a Friend (Ballistic Brothers Remix)
D-Note - The Garden Of Earthly Delights (Ballistic Barrio Boom)
United Future Organization - Doopsylalolic (Ballistic Bros Indo Fuse Per Version)
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If you like this, Soundological also has a Black Science Orchestra post here.