Hurricane Funk.

Good thing I went for records yesterday because Tropical Storm Edouard (to be referred to from now on as Ed-O) is banging into the coast as I write this. It probably wont get gnarly until tonight so I ran up to the local liquor store to grab some Jack Daniel's and beers in preparation for hunkering down during the storm. So now it's booze up and listen to records time.

These are my dollar bin finds........

Super Cat - "Ghetto Red Hot" 12" b/w "Don Dada"

I fucking love this song. Super Cat was the first dancehall guy that I got into way back in like 1990. My friends absolutely HATED this stuff due to the Casio keyboard type beats. I honestly wasn't too big on 'em either, but discovering dancehall was like discovering hip hop all over again except WAY more foreign. This single has a hip hop mix that I used to have on a compilation called "NYC Badmen" which was lost years ago. It's basically the same beat as "Punks Jump Up To Get Beat Down" by Brand Nubian with some gunshots licked pon de track for good measure.


Mandrill - "Composite Truth" AND "Beast From The East"

I don't know much about these dudes except that they're funky as hell, they were from Do or Die Bed- Stuy, and they've been sampled by lots of rappers including P.E. and Kanye. I'll admit that I slept on these guys for quite a while, but here they are doing "Fencewalk" which I now own on "Composite Truth".......1973


Dennis Coffey - "Back Home"

I first picked up a Dennis Coffey record about a year ago called "Calling Planet Earth" on 12". I got it for a quarter without hearing it or knowing who he was but that 25 cents paid the hell off. I grabbed it because it was on Westbound. It's a really disco-ey jam with a dope computer voice and cool guitars. This is the only LP of his I've gotten and it's a bit more laid back funk as opposed to upbeat disco jams, but you can still hear that in there. He got lots of DJ spins back in the day with "Scorpio" by him and The Detroit Guitar Band. You'd recognize that tune in an instant, so here's a tune from "Back Home" called "Wings Of Fire" that you may have never heard.


I should mention now that it's two days after I started writing this that Ed-O was not much more than a nasty storm. It was cool to chill out drinking Old Fashions with my lady though. We listened to alot of records and cooked up a gang of tasty food. We got really drunk too. It was a blast. Back to the jams...........

Herbie Hancock - "Headhunters"

Ha-ha, chumps! I got this classic for a buck! I can't tell why it was in the dollar bin either. No skips, no visible scratches, hell....the wax itself is still pretty shiny. The sleeve is in great shape and it's not a reprint either. Whatever. This is a good example why I'm starting to say "Fuck Half Price Books". Half Price Books would've sold this exact same record for 15 bucks just because of it's relative fame. the most I would've shelled out for this one is about 7 bucks. Anyhow......This gem was Herbie's earliest foray into fusion and it pays off in the sense that it's not too over the top. There's still quite a bit of standard jazz in the mix, but newer synths and stuff like that which make for a funky record. You'll recognize samples off of this record as well. Specifically "Chameleon". Here it is.....


The Crusaders - "Chain Reaction"

Keep in mind that I got all of these on the same day at the same place all for 97 cents each. I'm surprised at that. The Crusaders record is pretty funky. Also in the jazz fusion category and I think there's a sample on here somewhere. I haven't finished listening to it yet. Good record though. By the way, these dudes started out here in Houston. So there.