Eddie Drennon & The B.B.S. Unlimited - Do It Nice And Easy

Do It Nice And Easy has to be one of the coolest cuts in the history of latin hustle music. Disco Deviance released just recently Greg Wilson's awesome disco edit of this classic and I'm loving it. The edit works like magic with hot vocals from Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby. The flipside of the 10th Disco Deviance 12" features Unwind Your Mind i.e. a fresh Greg Wilson edit of Touchdown's Ease Your Mind.

By the way Disco Deviance's excellent mix over at Cosmic Boogie is definitely worth a listen.

Eddie Drennon & The B.B.S. Unlimited - Do It Nice & Easy (With Love) (Greg Wilson Edit) [320 kbps, DivShare]

Eddie Drennon & The B.B.S. Unlimited - Do It Nice And Easy [320 kbps, DivShare]

The Fort Knox Five - Blowing Up The Barrio

A quick post before I head out to celebrate New Year's Eve. I'm hosting a small pre-party and I'll be playing some deep house/lounge stuff but what I would really love to do is to organize a big block party and play something like Blowing Up The Barrio. It's the first Fort Knox Five tune I heard back in early 2005 and I've been a fan ever since. The track is truly designed to rock the dancefloor at your neighborhood (barrio) bloc party. The beat is solid and the horns are hot. Just the way I like it.

Happy New Year! See you in 2009.

The Fort Knox Five - Blowing Up The Barrio [320 kbps, direct link]

Joe Bataan - Call My Name

The father of salsoul, Joe Bataan, took a brief break of twentysomething years and made a grand comeback in 2005 with his album Call My Name. I wish all comeback projects would be done as properly as this one. Since I'm feeling lazy today I'll just quote the good folks at Dusty Groove because they've written a decent review about the album.

Joe Bataan is alive and well -- and to our ears, the king of Latin Soul is sounding better than he has in decades! This tasty little set really takes us back to Joe's classic work for Fania -- but it's also got a slightly different twist -- one that shows a new younger appreciation of the funk side of Joe's work that wasn't always able to come to the forefront in earlier years. Joe recorded the album at the Daptone Studios in New York -- so the sound of the set is spot-on all the way through -- perfectly recorded to bring out the soul in Joe's music, and handled with some great touches that make the instrumentation as wonderful as Joe's classic-styled vocals! And even more than that, there's also a heck of great new songs on the set -- tunes that follow very strongly in the spirit of Joe's older classics, but which have a freshness that makes the album a totally essential part of Joe's catalog.

The finest moment of Call My Name is its title track. Apparently Commonfolk Records shared my opinion since they recently released a 12" that features Call My Name (vocal version and instrumental) and a nice percussion driven instrumental tune I'm A Fool.

Joe Bataan - Call My Name [320 kbps]

Off-topic: I'm sure you know that the cyberspace is full of broken links thanks to Zshare. Zshare wet the bed but that wasn't enough. Today I noticed that all the direct download links on the blog are broken as well. WTF is it with these services....RIAA, UFOs. Anyways, I'll re-up the tunes (at least the recently posted ones) during weekend. If there's something in the older posts that you need really bad, drop me a line and I'll take care of it.

EDIT: I did some serious uploading today and now all the mp3's on the blog since mid-October are again available for download. Enjoy!

Ray Terrace - Home Of Boogaloo

Originally I bought Home Of Boogaloo because I had heard the killer latin groover, You've Been Talking 'Bout Me Baby, on a couple of compilations. Pretty soon I realized that all the tracks on the album are really tight, the cover versions as well as the originals. The songs are arranged by Marty Sheller and played by a tight little latin combo lead by Ray Terrace. It's a shame that the album cover or the linear notes don't mention the other members of the combo. The band plays really well combining latin, soul and rock with a sound that was fresh and new at the time but the star of the album is the vocalist Willie Torres. The best example of his soft and soulful voice is the opening track of side 2, Listen To Me. This is definitely one of the sweetest latin soul tunes I know. The original pressing of this album is very in demand but the vinyl reissue is a good quality pressing and can be easily found for a decent price.

Ray Terrace - You've Been Talking 'Bout Me Baby [320 kbps]

Ray Terrace - Listen To Me [320 kbps]

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]

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]

The Alexander Review - I Want You

Today's post is a great latin funk version of I Want You (She's So Heavy). The arrangement is completely different from the original which in this case is a must. I really can't tell a lot about The Alexander Review (neither could discogs or allmusic) but I guess it's enough that I'm really feeling the track. It appears on the band's self-titled album released by Vaya Records in 1975. The song can also be found on Latin Breakbeat, Basslines & Boogaloo, an excellent compilation issued by Harmless Records.

You probably know (at least you should) that the song is written by THE duo Lennon-McCartney. The original version that appears on Abbey Road is one of my all time favorite Beatles' song. For some reason it's a bit underrated, I guess mostly due to it's length that doesn't make the song very radio friendly. Anyways, it's a massive song.

The Alexander Review - I Want You [320 kbps, zShare]

Har-You Percussion Group - Welcome To The Party

In 2007 Jazzman Records re-issued an amazing and very rare 7" by Har-You Percussion Group. Welcome To The Party that appears on the a-side is guaranteed to work on the dancefloor. It's a solid latin groover with great congas by Montego Joe. The name of the band comes from the fact that the members were part of Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

Har-You Percussion Group - Welcome To The Party [320 kbps, zShare]

Ray Barretto - Together

It's sunday and I feel like I should post something mellow but I chose to upload two and a half minutes of hard hitting latin funk just because this track is so amazing.

Together is a great tune by Ray Barretto. It originally appeared on his LP Together (Fania Records, 1971). Vampi Soul released a re-issue 7" that has Barretto's 1969 latin soul groover Hard Hands on the b-side.

Ray Barretto - Together [320 kbps, zShare]

Two bottles

Gil-Scott Heron's original version of The Bottle was a big hit also on the dance floors which isn't typical for his work. The song is just amazing. It's fragile and full of soul but at the same it's a funky monster that makes you dance.

Father of salsoul, Joe Bataan, made an instrumental cover of the song right after the original came out. And what a great job he did. The song remains loyal to the original but gives it an excellent latin treatment that makes the song a bit more groovy and gives it some edge. I believe this was Bataan's first cut for Salsoul so with this song he pretty much set the standard for the label.

Gil-Scott Heron & Brian Jackson - The Bottle [320 kbps]

Joe Bataan - The Bottle (La Botella) [320 kbps]

Charanga 76 - No Nos Pararan (Ain't No Stopping Us Now)

I'm trying to be clever here and link my previous post to this one. Melba Moore's version of You Stepped Into My Life was produced by McFadden & Whitehead. So is Ain't No Stopping Us Now which is the original version of No Nos Pararan. The original is somewhat played out but this great latin cover version still feels fresh.

No Nos Pararan was released as a single from the album No Nos Pararan. The album contains awesome covers of some classic disco cuts. Check out American Athlete's great post about the album.

Charanga 76 - No Nos Pararan (Ain't No Stopping Us Now) [320 kbps]

Soundtrack of a summer day

Thought I would share a tune or tune for a good summer day. I suggest you should start your day with Huba, a Helsinki based retro-soul ensemble.

Huba - Summer Morn [320 kbps, zShare]

You need some music while sunbathing, aight? The most obvious but at the same time the most proper song for the occasion is of course Everybody Loves The Sunshine. The original is by far the most mellow song ever made. I've heard a lot of edits and covers, some pretty good, some ...uh... not. Hopefully this version with ms. Badu works for you.

Roy Ayers - Everybody Loves Sunshine feat. Erykah Badu [320 kbps, zShare]

When you want to get your groove on you might want to feel some latin flavoured beats. Echosystem is a 7-member fresh latin groove machine from Finland. GAMM Enterprises has put out a whole lot of songs suitable for this post but the one that makes people crazy on the dancefloor is Karameller.

Echosystem - Alpha [320 kbps, zShare]

Dubben - Karameller [320 kbps, zShare]

After a hot night out you have hopefully found someone to get down with. When it comes to baby making music you can always turn to Leroy Hutson.

Leroy Hutson - I Do I Do (Want To Make Love To You) [320 kbps, zShare]