Soul-Funk

Soul Clap teams up with the legendary Dr. Funkenstein himself, George Clinton for this 3 track EP, including one track featuring Sly Stone on keys! Full pic sleeve.May 2nd 2013 will forever go down in Soul Clap history as an outstanding day to be alive. About a year of groundwork was finally paying off and the Clap had just flown Dr. Funkenstein himself, George Clinton from his home in Tallahassee, FL to Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles for a three day recording session. Onsite alongside Clinton were P-Funk family Sa'D "The Hourchild Ali", G-Koop, Tonysha Nelson, Will "Digeridoo" Thoren as well as Crew Love members Nick Monaco and Navid Izadi.Soul Clap's collaboration with George Clinton has been nothing short of incredible. The team efforts of two generations of funk have created true musical dope-ness, which Clinton has proudly included on his new Funkadelic album (30 years since the last album!) including the title track "First Ya Gotta Shake The Gate" and the monster "In Da Karâ€, which features Sly Stone. Our simultaneous release on Soul Clap Records includes special EFUNK remixes by Soul Clap of "First Ya Gotta Shake The Gate" (aka Samplecopydupeitandloopittostupid) and "In Da Karâ€. Plus a west-coast, neck-snap, bonus-cut produced with Nick Monaco and with Clinton on vocals, P-Funk engineer G Koop on bass and Crew Love family member Greg Paulus on trumpet, titled 'Peep This'.

After the Brazilian Disco Boogie Sounds compilation, Favorite Recordings follows-up with the concept, this time focusing on its homeland language. Digging into the mysterious Charles Maurice’s vinyl collection, the label and the DJ extracted 10 amazing hidden dancefloor hits, all produced between 1975 and 1984 within the French music scene.In the late 70s, like most part of the world, France was deeply touched by the influence of American music. The Disco sound therefore quickly reached the French Pop charts, and as always, a creative and prolific independent scene emerged in the shadow of this trend, with quite unequal results, but also some obscure real classics.Helped by a close connoisseur friend, DJ and collector Charles Maurice presents a fine selection of what he thinks represent best the amazing energy and quality of this specific movement and period. With 10 rare titles, he draws a perfect picture of the different styles and productions you could find in French record stores at that time;On one hand, tracks by Overdrive, Marché Noir, Didier Makaga or France-Lise, were mostly composed and produced by underground artists and labels from the French Caribbean and African community, and also filled with the raw spirit and power of this Tropical stamping. On the other hand, tracks by Beckie Bell, Kelly, Le Club, or Bernard Guyvan, were all released by major French labels such as Trëma, Carrere, Disques Vogue, or Pathé Marconi, and created by confirmed independent producers, acting not only in France, but also in Canada and the US.For example, Philippe “Honeyman” Renaux was the founder of Clever label and has credits for Grace Jones, Sheila & B. Devotion, or Gino Soccio to name a few. Canadian composer and producer George Thurston is internationally known as Boule Noire, with his worldwide success “Aimer d’amour”. And Pierre “Berjot” Jaubert was part of the famous Lafayette Afro-Rock Band, before becoming a prolific producer who revealed the Disco diva Chantal Curtis among others, collaborated on recordings for Motown or Tom Moulton, and even scooted the lead singer of Vladimir Cosma’s most famous hit, “La Boom”.With all this talent and “savoir-faire”, each of these 10 forgotten songs had nothing to be ashamed of compared to some majors’ Disco hits and productions, but unfortunately didn’t get the same fate. Today, Favorite Recordings and Charles Maurice are very proud to shed some light again on these gems, and hopefully offer them a new life on your turntable.

Groove Line Records Autumn series of properly licensed rare disco / funk reissues continues with two superb slices of dance floor soul from the little known Candy Bowman - “I Wanna Feel Your Love” and “Since I Found You (Love Is Better Than Ever).”Released through RCA on 12” in 1981 under the production guidance of the team behind Stephanie Mills successful 1979 album “What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin'” (James Mtume, Reggie Lucas), both these tracks exhibit the same smooth, subtle orchestration, instrumentation and soulfulness, and have found a loving home on dance floors and in record collections on both sides of the Atlantic and further a field ever since.“I Wanna Feel Your Love” opens with jazzy interplay between the guitars and synths then settles on the tight groove at 0m18 before Bowman's stunning, harmonised vocals build up with an intense yearning while the fluid bassline and Chic-esque rhythm guitars play with the drifting synth and horn lines all the way to the fade. The single version is also included on this release.“Since I Found You (Love Is Better Than Ever)” is incredibly smooth, mid-tempo R&B heaven, favoured by many UK DJs. The ascending piano riff which opens the track can't help but give you an immediate glow even before the beat kicks in and Bowman's joyful vocal hits the first verse. The heightened verses, in contrast to the smooth choruses, make this track perfect for the dancefloor, with a great chorus breakdown at 2m46 which rises back up and glides on the chorus to the fade. The innovative production on this track surely influenced many that came after. Due to the high quality of both of these tracks the original 12”'s are always in high demand by committed collectors. Making them the very definition of 80's Rare Groove!All Groove Line Records releases are fully licensed and taken from the original master tapes, remastered by Nick Robbins at Sound Mastering, and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy (Mastering Engineer of the Year 2013). All vinyl is heavy weight 180g manufactured Optimal Media in Germany, one of the world’s finest pressing plants. Groove Line Records cut no corners when making sure that each and every one of our releases has the highest quality performance possible.Groove Line Records’ deluxe reissue of “I Wanna Feel Your Love”/“Since I Found You (Love Is Better Than Ever)” is an essential purchase for any serious Disco, Soul, Funk vinyl collector who demands the very best in quality vinyl pressings.

If you are not a top end disco collector with deep pockets you won't know this record, it's as rare as its gets. The last clean copy went for $6373. My 'Gangster boy' odyssey started for me around 12 years ago, soul collector and D.J David Ripolles played an acetate at Prestayn soul weekender and it blew me away, I asked dave what it was, he said the acetate was credited to Wanda McDaniels.Myself and Malcom Catto (Drummer in excellent band the Heliocentrics ) started tracking the record and eventually got it touch with Co-Producer Ronald Crawley. We had the opportunity to do the record but the sticking point was nobody had a clean copy of the record to make a recording from and there were no tapes. Roll on 10 years and I secured a mint copy and got perfectly clean recording so here we are.The record was not performed by Wanda McDaniel's & Ultimate choice as it has been credited up till now. The sand was 'The Reality Band And Show' from Newcastle Pennsylvania. The backing band was Ultimate Choice and the backing singer was Wanda McDaniel's (Producer Ronald Crawley sister). The lead singer was called Gladys, what happened to her we don't know but what a voice. It was recorded in 1977 at Asterix Studios in Wilkinsburg Pennsylvania, 300 copies were pressed up to test the market response which surprisingly was lacklustre. So as these things go it was forgotten about and everyone moved on to the next thing.The Label owner of 'Appleray' and its parent 'Pittsburgh Music Industry's' Ray Mitchell is no longer with us and we did not manage to find any more members of the band or uncredited chief engineer Ralph Camino. Ray recorded a couple of other decent 45s on Appleray but nothing quite touches this Disco Soul Perfection.

DJ Fryer's Athens of the North label continues its relentless charge the annals of funk and disco, focussing attentions here on the mid '70s debut of Jeanie Tracy. Glance at the discography of the Houston-born singer and you are presented with a storied recording career that includes credits alongside Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin and Sylvester so it's little surprise to see that original copies of Making New Friends / Trippin On The Sounds rarely change hands below the $1000 mark. Originally released on Marvin Holmes' Oakland-based Brown Door Records around 1975, this Athens of the North edition is a must for any self-respecting 45 wielding selectors out there! The A-side is a recognised classic of the rare groove canon but it's "Trippin On The Sounds" that you need to hear; a glorious horn-laden deep funk nugget.

Jeanie Tracey's "Can I Come & Play With You Tonight?" should probably be considered something of an in-demand gem, seeing as copies of the original 1983 12" version go for significant sums online. Happily, the crate diggers behind the admirable Athens of the North imprint have decided to give it the reissue treatment, giving all of the chance to own a copy. The original is a sweet boogie killer, with Tracey's smooth vocal riding a backing track heavy with vintage synthesizers, snappy drum machine hits and elastic live bass. Flip for "Hot (For Your Love)", an end-of-night slow dance number smothered in evocative strings and Tracey's tear-jerking vocal.

Boogie Beats Records debut release is the little known band Bourbon And Maxx, Mystery Man was originally released on 12" in 1981 on Esscore Records, New Jersey USA, it was a very limited press, its highly collectable and rarely comes up for sale. The original clocks in at a whopping 10:25mins with a beautiful vocal intro, this band really is a family affair with several of the members being related, and you can hear how tight they were when you listen to this song, great drums and percussion, seriously thumping bass line, great guitar and piano work with that oh so soulful voice to top it off, this is one hell of a jam. We are also very proud to have MadDisco do an edit of this song, slightly rearranging and extending the best parts.

Limited Edition 12" released in conjuction with the forthcoming compilation, Tropical Disco Hustle Volume Two - COS 13-LP.