Bohannon: Stop and GO

Enough, this has been enough of not updating this blog! Good music needs to be cherished, and my craft must be exercised on the daily level. Let's do this shit.

I've been bumping HARD the arranger, drummer, and percussionist Alexander Hamilton's first full release, Stop & Go, put out by Dakar/Brunswick in 1973. Before this release Hamilton worked on tour for Stevie Wonder, holding down the percussion section, and then worked in Motown recording studios for a few years. This album is pure and simple hard pulling, rhythmic funk that hits you over the head and electric kicks your aorta. The eight songs each hold on their own, weaved together intricately with the driving bass lines and thumping wa wa guitars that you might hear sampled by Dilla or even Large Professor.

The spirit of the album originates in a sense of the daily grind (the first track "Stop & Go"), penetrating that hustle with astounding resonance. Hamilton takes us to the grit of the streets in "The Pimp Walk" but raises the blaxploitation theme to an apotheosis of drum licked bluesy soul. And then shit gets flipped up. "Run it on Down Mr. DJ" is a bombastic proto-disco track that anticipates Bohannon's signature style captivating the club music of the late 70's and forever changing the game.

But nothing in his repertoire compares to the breadth of spirit that endlessly floods Stop & Go. Just after the boogie friendly joint, we get pushed into a crunching, funkified gospel number that sweats with a call to "Save their Souls." It's not enough. Hamilton grounds himself from the celestial realm into an earthly jazz croon to the mothers of this land in "Singing a Song for my Mother." And how else to end such a powerful sonic reflection on the struggles, styles, and joys of life than a push towards "Happiness" that makes you realize that you're not so jaded after all. A drum clap bass line holds down this anthem, and just wait for the booming vocals chant "happiness, everywhere / talkin' 'bout happiness everywhere" to baloon this song into the heavens of the funk.



Stop & Go

01. The Stop and Go

02. Getting to the Other Side

03. The Pimp Walk

04. Run it on Down Mr. DJ

05. Save Their Souls

06. Singing a Song for my Mother

07. It's Time For Peace

08. Happiness

Showbiz and AG - Represent

I've been thinking lately about, let's call it, my socialization into "underground" Hiphop culture and give the much due credit to both Friday Night Flavas on Power and the Wake-Up Show on the Beat. Once I picked up Soundbombing 2 and right after that, Mos Def's Black on Both Sides shit was ovah. Bumping my headphones to Gangstarr, Mobb Deep, Black Sheep, Brand Nubian Tribe, Ultramagnetic, De La, and all that goodness from New York's so-called Golden Era. And the music worked because it still existed in the sound of L.A. backyard heavyweights like Jurassic 5, the Visionries, and even the more gritty grind of Dilated Peoples.

But digging in the crates for our generation doesn't really begin with James Brown era funk, you really got to start reaping the gold catching rust in the Hiphop category at Amoeba. And then I find shit that I've heard sampled in other tracks, phrases like "catchin' wreck" or something about pockets being "fat not flat", or even these little twists about diggin' in the crates, ya' know that ultimate "d - i - t - c" crew.

One way or another I stumbled upon Showbiz and A.G., a powerhouse rap duo produced by Diamond D that for one reason another I have never heard of up to this point. Maybe this is my own embarassing lack of knowledge, after all we're talking about the monstrous funk samples courtesy of Diamond D, the foundation of them funk riffs and soul clap bangers. But, I have a hunch that more than a few people of our generation and love for Hiphop are not in the know about these cats.

And these cats got everything with their flow, stamping the expanding the mental brand nubian cue while skittling down the grimey street spitting knowledge about hustling words. They got the party bass to some of early 90's heaviest funk samples really intertwined so seamlessly into the sound. Hailing from the Bronx, Showbiz and A.G. hold down some of the hardest sounds, still reverberating in the sonic and lyrical styles of the nicest MC's today. Definitely my favorite come up in awhile.

I'm hooking up their debut album "Runaway Slave," which came out in 92'. I still haven't even listened to any of their other productions, but considering Hiphop history, odds are they aren't any better than this.

My favorites joints are "Represent", cutting the same psych nastiness as Artifacts "Attack of New Jerusalem" and the the loudest bboy slam "Soul Clap." Shit is ill. I'm a giant, and I got lotsa' soul... Keeps me wondering what I'm missing from the just lightly dusted over crates. Keep em' coming.

By the way, to link something you highlight it and then click the little link thing that looks like a paper click.

Pharcyde- Testing the Waters

Initially I didnt really plan on posting anything for a minute because I've been bogged down with prolonged responsibilities, but this album came on play yesterday and took me back and I thought youd like it if you didnt already have it.

I cant really front on how much Pharcyde means to me. While other groups taught me more about life and how to live, Pharcyde made me feel better for being me. Ortega actually leant me Bizarre Ride in 9th grade, and while I dont remember anything he taught me, I do remember how that album grabbed me immediately and made me think that things might turn out alright with the girls I was crushin on (they didnt turn out all right).

I dont know if you remember this, but back in the day in that shopping center on Laurel and Ventura there was a WHEREHOUSE music store on the eastern front. This store is largely accredited with teaching me to steal, and in between iced coffee drinks and cigarettes I would take a deep breath, go in, and test the steadiness of me hand. This album is one of the first I got away with, and though it was released to lackluster reviews I thought it was dope and entered quickly into my rotation of 'music to listen to when stoned or depressed' which in high school, took up roughly 97% of the time.

It was released in 2000, and was a precursor to the equally flat effort Plain Rap (id like this to be blue with a link but dont know how). Its the first run of the group without its lifeforce, Fatlip, and to me at least, it sounds like theres a greater melancholy to Pharcyde, like a group of kids who have less of an idea of what theyre doing than before, but still trying really hard. Hella dope cut on the album: pain. That song was my joint!

link here for album: http://sharebee.com/2ce1d89b

Zapp's Bounce Boogie

The first post on a new blog is always the most intimidating. I've been delayed a good week in writing a simple piece about what I'm listening to. Eventually I hope that writing about music, from a personal perspective rather than that of a journalist, will be just as second nature as listening to it. There's something incredible about the passive nature of listening, how easily music can be processed and felt immediately, while as words sometimes trudge out in sloppy gushes.

Cut the intro, let's get the roll on!

A few months ago I saw a 4onefunktion show in San Francisco's Elbo Room. They were opening up for the now hip to the press and blog starchild, Dam Funk, Los Angeles boogie DJ and new Stonesthrow signed West coast luminary. The sounds of 4onefunktion and thumping, sticket cosmo-boogie set courtesy of Dam Funk catalyzed my monstrous fascination for boogie funk.

Digging through the virtual crates of boogie, I quickly fell upon Zapp, a boogie band that I heard endlessly on Power 106 throwback shoes when I was kid, little did I know. And, I think little could I appreciate the sounds of Zapp's "Computer Love" or "More Bounce to the Ounce" when I was snot nosed Jewish kid, not knowing anything of throbbing dance clubs or electronized blues love ballads. Times have changed. Although I'm still Jewish, years of grinding with Hiphop, from the spray paint to the swagger, have certainly informed me how fucking amazing this music is.




Zapp was formed in 1978 among the Troutman brothers, Roger at its head with Terry, or "Zapp", on the vocals. The vocals though are insane. They are the blues sent from Jupiter. The talk box zapped down from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, upgraded for the electronic age, and made souful by sliding effortlessly through melodic chords over heavily synthesized hand-clap slapp bass. The songs are multilayered and polyrythmic, definitely taking influence from the sustained beats and switchovers, sometimes without ever needing a bridge, that define the P-Funk sound.

The tightest album is the 1982 Zapp II, the creatively titled second album, sandwiched between the groundbreaking Zapp of 1980, which made the band famous with "More Bounce..." (the still most sampled track in their repertoire) and Zapp III of '83. All the joints pack heat, beginning with eleven minutes of the nasty, synth groove "Dance Floor", that achieves just what its name suggests when cut up on the wheels of steel. But the most satisfying, the absolutely delicious, and fucking furious kick comes with "Doo Wa Ditty", the track that inspired the sound of G-Funk, and helped define the sonic vibrations of a whole generation of Los Angeles gangsta' funk. And Zapp can flip up the style, smoothing the bump with the melodic groove pummeled on with a balance between keyboard and synth heavy rhythms on "A Touch of Jazz".

Picture it: slick low-riders cruising down the block under the spotlight of ghetto birds, you know that grand theft auto type shit, bumping up and down to the sounds of... Zapp baby.

What would Dre be without Zapp. What grind would Snoop be on? Would Warren G had ever learned how to sing? Or would Cube have ever kicked it with Angela Davis and releashed Lynch Mob monster moves on Death Certificate? All this of course led up to Tupac's funky apotheosis with "California Love", arranged by Zapp and featuring the talk-box in its electric prime. To flip over the cliches about West Coast sound, let's not forget that EPMD sampled "More Bounce..." in their most popular, and still lasting track, "You Gots to Chill."



Boogie is the funk that connects the dots for me. This is the synth banging, club throbbing, wet and sticky funky soul music that connects up my love for the James Brown brand of funk and the dirty electronic grooves.

Ike Tuner

First and foremost, my bloggers cherry is in the process of popping while typing this, so excuse anything that may be overly glib or amateurish.

Perhaps I should have started differently, with a statement of purpose or direction. What is the purpose of our creating this blog? What are we trying to achieve?

Well for starters, theres two of us. Im presently typing this in New York City, while my other 50% of the blog lays his head in San Francisco. We've grown up listening, sharing, and influencing our respective musical aptitudes and decided to start this as a way to keep each other posted, as well as inspired to what we're doing.

Is there more I should add?

Onto what Ive been meaning to post for like, ever..

Ike Tuner & The Kings of Rhythm came out with A Black Mans Soul in 1969, which was a time where funk was at our equivalent of mid 90's hip hop. Everything was dope and this album is no exception. Its difficult to express how moving good art can be; ummm....

Ike Turner beat Tina constantly and died fairly recently atop a mountain of cocaine. I dont know why its necessary to mention this, but everyone who ever says anything about Ike seems bent on saying so. Though its sad he was a less than outstanding citizen, Ike Turner was a truly incredible composer.

I often profess to love funk a lot more than I actually do when it comes to listening to music. Why listen to an hour of blaring horns with synchronized concessions from an ensemble when Primo can sample it, loop it, and have me listening to the same beat for 30 minutes. Nas or Jay still grab me from jump and Im left with a constant craving for music with urgency, or more simply, words.

This album is different, and on my list of shit to put on whenever, and easily one of my favorite albums. Look, heres what I want to say; for me this album speaks volumes, and its because of Ike's genius when composing a song.  Throughout this album, the production and flow of everyone is flawless and grabbing. Everything sounds so damn soulful. I have yet to hear someone better at leading a track while simultaneously leading everyone to do what you want to do as well as Ike Turner (he did make like 20 albums with Tina) and sounding so fluid while doing it. Tracks actually gain composition as the album progresses. I cant get enough of this album, yo.

P.S.

If the track 'getting nasty' were never created, there would be no Main Source, Nas, or any underground hip hop movement.

http://www.zshare.net/download/5117794061d9395b/