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]