Quantic & Nickodemus - Mi Swing Es Tropical

A friend of mine hooked me up with a link to mixtapes they've done under the name of True Note DJs. They made these mixes consisting of all things groovy (rap, latin sounds, funk, breaks and whatnots) to promote the great parties they were throwing. If you're interested in the mixtapes, go get 'em here.

The second mixtape kicks off with one of my favorite tunes of 2005, Mi Swing Es Tropical by Quantic & Nickodemus. Yes, it's the track used for the iPod ad. This tune is especially convenient for these gloomy and cold winter days. It keeps me going though I'm freezing my nuts off standing on the bus stop in a blizzard. The reggae remix by ZEB does the trick as well. And yeah, it's okay to enjoy these tracks though you're fortunate enough to live in a warm and pleasant climate.

Quantic & Nickodemus - Mi Swing Es Tropical feat. Tempo & Candela Allstars [320 kbps]

Quantic & Nickodemus - Mi Swing Es Tropical (ZEB's Reggae Remix) [320 kbps]

Sharon Jones - How Long Do I Have To Wait For You (Ticklah Remix)

More Daptone greatness on boogiebanger.blogspot.com. I already mentioned Scion AV's Daptone remix project in my previous post. Ticklah, who used to play in The Dap-Kings but has since moved on to play in Antibalas, was asked to do a remix of some Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings' tune for this project. He chose their banging soul groover How Long Do I Have To Wait For You. Ticklah took the vocals and played all the instruments himself and created an amazing reggae tune that is completely different from the original banger. Like mentioned before, the remix appears on this compilation and on a Daptone 7" with a solid dub version on the flip side. If you're feeling this remix, you might wanna check out this one as well.

Sharon Jones - How Long Do I Have To Wait For You (Ticklah Remix) [320 kbps]

The Budos Band - Chicago Falcon (The Washington Sq. Lads Remix) feat. Wale

Because Make The Road By Walking was so amazing I've been listening to other Daptone related stuff a lot lately and rediscovered a nice remix of The Budos Band's track Chicago Falcon. The band is known for making raw instrumental afrobeat/funk whereas The Washington Sq. Lads Remix is completely different with electronic sounds and raps by Wale but still the remix works really well. The remix is taken from Scion CD Sampler Vol. 19. If you're not familiar with Scion AV, check it out. These samplers are part of Toyota's guerilla marketing campaign. The compilations are usually full of good tunes from independent labels. It would be nice to see more marketing campaigns like this one.

The Budos Band - Chicago Falcon (The Washington Sq. Lads Remix) feat. Wale [320 kbps]

Here's a cool video (made by pakratNYC) for The Volcano Songs that appears on The Budos Band's self-titled debut album (2005).

J.Rocc - Cooking Ingredients

Cooking Ingredients is a newish (spring 2008) mixtape by J.Rocc. I love the selection of the mix though I'm unfamiliar with many of the tracks...or maybe that's the very reason that makes it so great. J.Rocc mixes some really obscure jazzy funk and soul with style and grace typical of him. The mood of the mixtape is laid back and occasionally pretty hazy (in a good way) and then boom, all of a sudden you're run over by a killer break. Great stuff!

By the way, J.Rocc started a new blog last month. It's worth checking out. So far there's some Beat Junkies and Melo-D related stuff...surprise and a couple of mixes. Hopefully he keeps updating the blog.

J.Rocc - Cooking Ingredients [128 kbps]

Marvin Gaye - Turn On Some Music

"Now when the music starts,

I'm gonna groove you slow and quiet."

Midnight Love was Marvin Gaye's last album (1982). He made a great comeback with it before his tragic death. He wrote and produced some great tunes for the album. There's more to it than Sexual Healing, for example my favorite Turn On Some Music. It's an overlooked song that highlights Gaye's majestic and sensual voice. I don't know if it's just me or can you hear his life long problem of being torn between bible and bedroom from his voice on this track.

Marvin Gaye - Turn On Some Music [320 kbps]

Btw, if some of you happen to have the instrumental version of Erick Sermon's Music, I would love to have it. The song isn't anything special but I could use the beat on something.

Erick Sermon - Music feat. Marvin Gaye [320 kbps]

Patrice Rushen - Straight From The Heart

Straight From The Heart is Patrice Rushen's best and also commercially most successful album. It was released by Elektra in 1982. The album is best known (a bit too well known after Will Smith abused the tune) for the catchy hit Forget Me Nots. The album is a solid mix of melodic poppish r'n'b and smooth boogie/disco approach. If you exclude Breakout, I'm feeling all the tracks on the album. My favorites of the bunch are I Was Tired Of Being Alone, an upbeat boogiesh tunes and Remind Me which has been sampled on a lot of good songs, my favorite of those being Common's Reminding Me (Of Sef).

Patrice Rushen - I Was Tired Of Being Alone (Glad I Got Cha) [320 kbps]

Patrice Rushen - Remind Me [320 kbps]

Paul Nice - Journey To The Centre Of The Beats

Paul Nice is one of those talented DJs/producers that are consistently putting out excellent stuff but never get enough props for their work. If you aren't familiar with Paul Nice you got a lot of listening to do. Check out his excellent mixtapes Soul On The Grill vol 1 & 2, Sade Blends, Breaks For Days...the list is long.

The tracks that I'm sharing today are taken from Journey To The Centre Of The Beats released by Antidote Records in 2004. The mixtape contains some freestyles, blends and remixes. It's not as soild as Paul Nice's other stuff but the dubbed remix/mash-up of The Message impressed me back in the day and it still works for me. It really takes balls to change the beats of a Grandmaster Flash joint but Paul Nice pulls it off in style.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message (Paul Nice's Super Duty Bootleg Mash-Up) [320 kbps]

Sugarhill Gang - Paul Nice's Megamix [320 kbps]

Videos courtesy of MTV's music search.

Resense 006 12"

So far an Austrian label RESENSE has released eight EP's of great re-edits, mashups and other amazing funky latin stuff. RESENSE 006 is a 12" that consists of four latin flavored bossa brekabeat dancefloor monsters by The Captain, Sono Rhizmo, Palov & Mishkin and Mario's Tuna. I used to listen to this EP a lot last summer and now that the weather is cold, wet and gloomy at the headquarter of boogiebanger.blogspot.com it reminds me of those days in the sun and keeps me going.

The Captain - Every Man [320 kbps]

Sono Rhizmo - My House [320 kbps]

Tuomo - Don't Take It Too Hard

Active readers of BoogieBanger might have noticed the lack of posts lately. That's due to some EPIC problems with computers. First my external hard drive fell into pieces and I lost my backup copies and the majority of my vinyl rips. And then before I had time to buy a new external HD, the hard drive of my MacBook broke down and I lost ALL my files. Because I had Tiger as a OS instead of Leopard so I'm not able to recover the files. Well, now I'm back in business trying to get my schitt together but it will take time.

In addition to all this whining I hooked you up with a couple of excellent tunes. Tuomo Prättälä is a young Finnish pianist/composer/singer who influences in various great ensembles, e.g. Quintessence. Last year Tuomo released his debut solo album entitled My Thing. The songs that I'm sharing are taken from that album. Don't Take It Too Hard is an amazing upbeat northern soul banger in the spirit of Curtom Records. 26 is a more laid back tune that stresses Tuomo's skills as a vocalist. In my opinion he's easily the best blue-eyed soul singer of the 21st century.

Tuomo - Don't Take It Too Hard [320 kbps]

Tuomo - 26 [320 kbps]

Funky president

Congratulations for making the right choice. Way to go!

Fabulous Souls - Take Me

Take Me by an obscure touring funk combo Fabulous Souls is a great organ lead funky charger with nice interchanges of female and male vocals. Lamp Records released the tune on a 7" originally in 1971 and Stones Throw reissued it in 2002. The single itself is worth buying but the art work of the package is equally amazing.

If you feel like dancing to this tune but you don't have the right moves let this guy help.

Fabulous Souls - Take Me [320 kbps]

Coffee Breaks, pt. 5

What do you get when you take the best features of The Dap Kings, El Michels Affair, The Budos Band and Antibalas and mix them all together. The answer is my favorite LP of the year Make The Road By Walking by Menahan Street Band. The sound on the album is something amazing and what's even more amazing is that the album was recorded in Tommy Brenneck's bedroom on Menahan Street, Brooklyn.

The album came out just recently but the title song was released on a 7" already in 2006. Like so many times before Jay-Z was on the spot when hearing Make The Street By Walking. Or actually it was Diddy's Hitmen who found the tune and passed it to Jay-Z. You'll find more info on that here. I haven't been very impressed by Hova's production in the last couple of years but I dig Roc Boys or actually the whole album.

Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking [320 kbps]

Jay-Z - Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...) [320 kbps]

Chairman Mao & Citizen Kane - The Greatest Part

I haven't posted a mixtape for a while so I decided to make it up by sharing one of the best soul/funk/disco mixes out there. This one dates back to 2002 and it was put together by Chairman Mao & Citizen Kane. All the tunes are solid gold and it's mixed together with finesse. What else can you expect from these guys.

I can't offer you a comprehensive tracklist since it doesn't appear on the sleeve notes. Most of the tracks I've spotted but there are some obscure ones I haven't yet identified so you'll be left with some record nerd detective work to do if you wanna find all the artist and the titles on the tape. You'll find at least one tune that I've posted on this blog earlier.

If you're feeling The Greatest Part, you'll most likely digg Selects 001, another great mixtape by the same duo. Check out also Chairman Mao's new solo mixtape Run For Cover featuring cover versions of both classic and obscure soul tunes. You'll find more of Mao's thouhgts on the mixtape and DJing from this article. And here's a good interview with Citizen Kane.

EDIT: When writing this I should have remembered to recommend Citizen Kane's excellent mix Adult Section but for some reason didn't remember to mention it. Go get it, it's worth it. It's available for purchase for example on Turntablelab.com

Chairman Mao & Citizen Kane - The Greatest Part [zip-file, click to download]