James Brown - In The Jungle Groove

YOURZ

From sample kings The Avalanches to a sampler's choice artist, James Brown.  But what to say about him?

He's the undisputed Godfather of Soul and quite possibly the funkiest of the funkiest. He lived for music, for entertaining and never slowed down, earning himself the title of 'the hardest working man in show business' and, despite numerous health problems, continued a heavy touring regime right up until his death on Christmas Day, 2006.

In The Jungle Groove features two versions of the heavily sampled Funky Drummer. Used by everyone from Public Enemy to Sinead O'Connor, it's perhaps telling that in certain circles, a sample from it is now considered a cliché.  But there's no doubting the track, and the rest of the album, are classics of the genre and quite literally one of the best party starters around.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

F to the U to the N-K-Y this album just shows how great a musician he was, and how he surrounded himself with the best of the best.  I got to see the late Mr Brown sometime I think in the late 80s.  (Viv, Bill, do you remember when it was?)  And I must admit I was less than impressed by him.  By him, that is, not by his band which produced the tightest, funkiest, sharpest, most amazing sound I had heard to date - and probably the best I've ever heard.

The problem with James Brown was that his band played several songs before he came on, and in between each one, some poor bugger in his band had the job of exciting the audience about the proximity of his arrival.  The audience was definitely left with the feeling that if we didn't scream loud enough, applaud hard enough, he just wouldn't bother gracing us with his presence.

When he made it onstage he was magnificent.  But as I recall, he didn't stay that long.  Maybe I'm maligning him, maybe he was feeling under the weather that day but made it onstage anyway, in the best show-must-go-on tradition.  Whatever it was, it was a bit of a sour note for one of the best in the business.  Can I get a witness?

VERDICT: TURN IT UP get on down

For more information: http://www.jamesbrown.com/

Katalyst Presents Dusted - Essential

YOURZ


Welcome to our first compilation review.  In our introductory note way back at the start of this month, we said we'd pick one out of our extensive collection of compilations and review it for your reading pleasure.  For both of us, there was no argument about which compilation we'd pick first.  Katalyst Presents Dusted won hands down. 

So, if you could put together a collection of songs guaranteed to keep a party rockin', who would you put on it?  I think someone must have asked this question of Ashley Anderson, otherwise known as Katalyst, because he has put together quite possibly one of the greatest collections of tracks known to man, deftly mixed together on two discs of pure listening pleasure.  But Dusted is more than a compilation or a mixed tape. Katalyst has seamlessly blended old school, new school and rare grooves into a listing transcending the very idea.

Oh sure, it doesn't have anything approximating hard rock or even medium rock, for that matter, but he does have the original track Eminem sampled to use for My Name Is..., Labi Siffre's I Got The... and some of the world's biggest hip hop luminaries in acts such as A Tribe Called Quest (Check The Rhime), Public Enemy (Burn Hollywood Burn), Wu-Tang Clan (Uzi (Pinky Ring) ) and Run DMC (Down With The King) as well as some classic old school acts like Fred Wesley, The JBs, Roy Ayers, Nina Simone and The Meters.

It's surprising how well this blend of old and new works and this album never fails to inspire and delight.  But it's in his own tracks he really shines, highlighting both his love of hip hop (Let The Music Talk) and funky grooves (Uprock This).  Both are instant classics.

If you've not heard this collection before and you want something 100 percent guaranteed to kick start your party, even if the party is of one, you won't find anything better.  It even makes me wanna dance, something very few recordings can do.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP hit repeat and let 'em dance all night

MINE

Party party party party - this 2-CD album is an essential for an "all back to mine" event.  We saw him - erm "live" - a couple of years ago and he was a-ma-ZING!

As a collection of songs, it works beautifully - from the first strains of California Soul to Run-DMC's Down With the King on CD 2.  My personal favourites are the funky tunes (have I mentioned I like to dance?) especially Cherrystones and I Changed My Mind.

But the rappier and rockier songs work too - showing he's well worth all the gongs he's garnered as a music producer and DJ.  This is the second copy of this album we've owned after the first one walked - and I'm voting for it as one of the CDs I'd buy first if the whole collection vanished tomorrow.  Nothing else to say but...

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (invite your best mates over and get the cocktail shaker out)

For more information: http://www.katalystmusic.com.au/

In our collection we also have What's Happening