The amazing Joanna Law..produced by her brother Funky Ginger Simon Law..great EPhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_z337Kkyr0&feature=youtu.be
― MrEnergizer, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:15 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC1HGtK_qPQ
― MrEnergizer, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:16 (four years ago) link
this is the one that didn't post abovehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_z337Kkyr0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6M4PB2tkVU
― MrEnergizer, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:17 (four years ago) link
Massive tune!!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMOrHhbMDL4
― MrEnergizer, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:18 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51f2l_XR28g
― MrEnergizer, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:19 (four years ago) link
Sorry if some have been posted
― MrEnergizer, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:20 (four years ago) link
Another one of my faves...it was all about thsi mix on the 12"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD2WxSUM0FE
― MrEnergizer, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:21 (four years ago) link
<3 Mr energizer! :)
― ymo sumac (NickB), Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:33 (four years ago) link
Still haven't had the chance to catch up with these but keep em coming. I do know dark Knight though - that's one of toyin agbetu's alias yes?
― ymo sumac (NickB), Wednesday, 5 February 2020 22:35 (four years ago) link
@NickBYeah that's right.. One of the originators of the sound
― MrEnergizer, Thursday, 6 February 2020 09:30 (four years ago) link
Speaking of Toyin Agbetu...
https://invisiblecityeditions.com/products/soul-connection-ice-016-test-pressing
Invisible City Editions reissues a selection of classic street soul tunes from the legendary duo Toyin Agetbu and Earl Myers. A mix of well loved tracks from Soul Connection's 1988 "Rough & Ready" and 1990 "Raw Street Soul". Remastered from the Master Reels! This one has been a long time in the making and we are really excited to finally put it out! Full release to come in the next 2-3 months, so get your test pressing now.
― boxedjoy, Monday, 10 February 2020 00:31 (four years ago) link
Nice one @boxedjoy
― MrEnergizer, Monday, 10 February 2020 21:43 (four years ago) link
Another one from the vaults!Manchester's own Sylvia Tella..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IstKjsK44XQ
― MrEnergizer, Monday, 10 February 2020 21:44 (four years ago) link
oh i know sylvia tella! i picked up a fantastic lovers version of 'you might need somebody' that she did in '82:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXeik-BFAD0
― ymo sumac (NickB), Monday, 10 February 2020 21:56 (four years ago) link
picked up this recently for a couple of quid. new to me, pretty good too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhC85yxa558
Part II - You Lose Again (Soul Mix)
― ymo sumac (NickB), Monday, 10 February 2020 22:08 (four years ago) link
great news about the Soul Connection btw boxedjoy!
― ymo sumac (NickB), Monday, 10 February 2020 22:11 (four years ago) link
Was overcome by the urge to pull the trigger on a £40 copy of Nemesis' 'The Way Love Is' and then I remembered to check the tracklisting on the Soul Connection comp - close shave that!
Is this floating points that's selling it btw? it's gotta be surely:
https://www.discogs.com/seller/theonlysam/profile
― ymo sumac (NickB), Tuesday, 11 February 2020 22:34 (four years ago) link
I love the idea of Floating Points looking at his signed copy of Skream's "In For The Kill" remix and deciding he doesn't need it any more
― boxedjoy, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 07:35 (four years ago) link
Also how wild is it that you can pick up a compilation of Brazilian street soul fairly easily yet none of the major archival labels have managed to put together one based on the Manchester sound?
― boxedjoy, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 08:04 (four years ago) link
I was going to say, is this scene completely unarchived as it is?
Also how did this stuff fit in with the whole mid-80s Soul II Soul/Wild Bunch sound system thing? I don't know a lot about this stuff, whether they were broadly playing the same records or whether it was way more localised than that.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 11:07 (four years ago) link
It's odd - you can be on Discogs and some of this stuff is easily available for small change and then there's some stuff that's triple figures for a twelve-inch single. There's compilations from when this stuff was "fresh" but in my experience they're always mastered very quietly and there's always at least one ropey sax solo waiting to spoil the mood.
― boxedjoy, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 11:25 (four years ago) link
I'm guessing this mix might be a decent dive in?
https://thevinylfactory.com/features/vf-mix-147-street-soul-by-ruffy-and-randy/
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 11:29 (four years ago) link
https://www.discogs.com/DJ-Milo-The-Wild-Bunch-Story-Of-A-Sound-System/release/123867
This mix uses live crowd noise from Soul II Soul doing a set at New Year in the late 80s and sets out where this stuff is coming from - 80s vocal post-disco and r&b, the birth of house and hip-hop - but it's kinda a different thing.
― boxedjoy, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 11:33 (four years ago) link
Oh yeah I've got that one, way more hip-hop than I was expecting but it's terrific nonetheless.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 11:34 (four years ago) link
My impression is that this stuff was aligned more with Soul II Soul and Smith & Mighty than, say, Massive Attack. But I wasn't clubbing in the late 80s on account of only just having been born so I can only base that on comments on Youtubes and how the music actually sounds
― boxedjoy, Wednesday, 12 February 2020 11:50 (four years ago) link
I don't know a lot about this stuff, whether they were broadly playing the same records or whether it was way more localised than that.
good question - i think a lot of it was very localised around parties/clubs/radio stations/labels so whether they were playing the manchester stuff in london or not is interesting. i definitely see way more of the london stuff around when i'm looking for records (mostly on the south coast) so i don't think the distribution side of things was particularly brilliant. guessing there are major parallels with a scene like grime in it's early days
― ymo sumac (NickB), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 13:33 (four years ago) link
its
a bit more toyin agbetu from his later period:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0qWkRrABXQ
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/apr/03/features11.g2
― ymo sumac (NickB), Wednesday, 12 February 2020 13:35 (four years ago) link
(hero)
That Part II was a massive underground hit
― MrEnergizer, Friday, 14 February 2020 22:32 (four years ago) link
Soul II Soul were the first to play what's now called streetsoul in London and in Manchester you had a sound called Soul Control..it was mainly underground clubs, blues, parties, pirate stations that played the music. Very few street soul big tunes made the charts or if they did we probably played a different mix.A lot of the UK tunes came through older regae or sound system heads and so had that reggae vibe with deep basslines dodgy vocals and bad production but just worked and sounded raw. Some of the smoother stuff came from the US although usually the B sides or different mixes were played
― MrEnergizer, Friday, 14 February 2020 22:36 (four years ago) link
Also how wild is it that you can pick up a compilation of Brazilian street soul fairly easily yet none of the major archival labels have managed to put together one based on the Manchester sound?I think cos it wasn't what you could call a 'Manchester' sound. It was played in the underground circuit in most of the Black communities but Manchester and the North seemed to push it more at the time.I've made some compilations here if anyones interested.
https://streetsoulmusic.blogspot.com/2020/01/street-soul-compilation-1.html
― MrEnergizer, Friday, 14 February 2020 22:41 (four years ago) link
Wow! Look like Toyins lost the plot a bit!
If any of you guys are near Manchester then check out King Bee Records in Chorlton..you can get a lot of Street Soul 12"s for 2.50 -5 quid...or you could last time I was in there. The best place for Street Soul in MCR
― MrEnergizer, Friday, 14 February 2020 22:48 (four years ago) link
Nice Street Soul mixhttps://soundcloud.com/the-trilogy-tapes/duster-valentine-uk-street-soul-mix/comment-869641822
― MrEnergizer, Saturday, 15 February 2020 00:07 (four years ago) link
Sylvia Tella's Spell album is nice if you like lovers
― MrEnergizer, Saturday, 15 February 2020 00:08 (four years ago) link
Different version of YOU LOSE AGAINhttps://youtu.be/mv69mPbSUvI
― MrEnergizer, Saturday, 15 February 2020 00:11 (four years ago) link
That video of Agbetu and his explanation of how his actions came about makes me adore him even more. Imagine having a hand in so many amazing singles and then being able to just walk away from that into a career in activism. Most people would be lucky to accomplish half of what he has in either field never mind both!
― boxedjoy, Saturday, 15 February 2020 09:21 (four years ago) link
@boxedjoy... Where's the vid explaining his actions? Can you send a link please?
― MrEnergizer, Saturday, 15 February 2020 20:25 (four years ago) link
NickB posted a link right under his video :)
― boxedjoy, Sunday, 16 February 2020 10:03 (four years ago) link
Thanks, missed it...it's from 2007!
― MrEnergizer, Sunday, 16 February 2020 21:30 (four years ago) link
Harlem Gem....another UK group
https://youtu.be/MiTnZ0Qdh_0https://youtu.be/sMh4WbrNuRY
― MrEnergizer, Sunday, 16 February 2020 21:33 (four years ago) link
Toyin is still very much the activist, currently very much involved in the campaign for justice for the victims of Grenfell. Not sure he posts much about music these days, but here's his twitter: https://twitter.com/LigaliOrg
― ymo sumac (NickB), Sunday, 16 February 2020 22:56 (four years ago) link
Harlem Gem are fantastic, just magic music. Was kind of amazed to find out they were from Huddersfield. Would love to see a comp of their stuff, prices for the records seem to have gone a bit daft since 'More Than You Can Wish' was included on the Beautiful Swimmers comp last year.
Thanks for the playlist link btw MrE! Will check that out in a bit
― ymo sumac (NickB), Sunday, 16 February 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
This would be a really good theme for a Bob Stanley compilation
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 16 February 2020 23:04 (four years ago) link
Annoyingly the vocal version of this one isn't on Youtube but this is kind of interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGqsY2LBUak
Massonix - Just A Little Bit More (1990)
Massonix were Graham Massey's side project outside of 808 State. Vocals on the record are by Denise Johnson who was previously in A Certain Ratio (was she Donald Johnson's sister?) and then ofc Fifth Of Heaven
― ymo sumac (NickB), Sunday, 16 February 2020 23:10 (four years ago) link
xp someone needs to do one! surely gonna happen soon
― ymo sumac (NickB), Sunday, 16 February 2020 23:11 (four years ago) link
that Massonix one costs a whole 90p on the cogs right now btw
― ymo sumac (NickB), Sunday, 16 February 2020 23:15 (four years ago) link
wow..forgot about that massonix tune with the Barry White sample
― MrEnergizer, Monday, 17 February 2020 00:08 (four years ago) link