torsdag den 29. december 2011

MANFRED KRUG
A LITTLE NUGGET FROM DDR!!!!!
HEAVY SCHLAGER WITH A TOUCH OF FUNK, SOUL AND PSYCH!!
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Manfred Krug "Ein Hauch von Frühling" LP.
Released on the East German AMIGA Label in 1972 as Krugs second Album.
With compositions by Günter Fischer this album takes us throug different flavors from Soul, Funk, Easy listening and Rock - which results in a pop-album all done in an attempt to please a wide audience I suppose. But it has some elements which I find interesting in some of the tracks.

First off we have the BLAZING "Wenn draussen grün wird" which is simply the bomb!!! An uptempo soul/pop mover with a driving piano and drums just everywhere!!! The song is about the coming of spring and love - but I think it works all year round!!!

next one is "Jeder Mann der dich sah" a midtempo soul/psych-ish track. Which switches between sweet sweet soul and psych-rock and some heavy strings -almost a musical-sounding piece.

Last on my list of tracks from this LP we have "komm und spiel mit mir" which is kind of a modern sweetsoul track. Not as potent as the two others - but still a nice example to the eastern-europe sweet-soul-scene.......  
  

onsdag den 28. december 2011

MASSIVE LOUNGE/SOUL JOINT BY SALENA JONES!!!
SALENA JONES AND THE KEITH MANSFIELD ORCHESTRA
"Moment of truth" LP
 Salena Jones & The Keith Mansfield Orchestra "Moment of Truth" LP
Salena Jones released her Debut Album in 1969 in the UK called "Moment of truth"
In 71 it was released in poland on Muza records with a waaaay cooler artwork on the cover which is this release Im showcasing here. The famous Keith Mansfield produced and arranged the whole album. Keith is known to many as a legendary "library-man" being one of the backbone producers on the KPM library label - but he will definately get mentioned on DONTFAKETHEBREAKS in the future. Also he is Salenas Husband. To me this Album is a "one-tracker" regarding its coherence to the FUNK/SOUL genre.
The track "right now" is an uptempo crooner/lounge-ish track, but heavy influenced by soul/jazz/blues elements. Sort of like "comin home baby" by Mel Torme is.
Rest of the Album is probably also of decent quality, but far far away from "right now"
This album is not especially rare -and pretty easy to get your hands on especially the polish version which to me is the coolest because of the cover.
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onsdag den 7. december 2011

AFRO-FUNKY FIND FROM ZAMBIA!!
NEW CROSSROADS "MAYENGE" LP
(NEVER HEARD OF IT)
I had bad luck at the weekend diggin for records at the fleemarkets. Found absolutely nothing...
Then late Sunday evening my girlfriend returned to my apartment with a record and asked me "is this something for you?..."
Just by looking at the cover I thought "heck yeah! - this looks exciting!!!"
-Her family lived in Zambia in her childhood and guess what - her father bought records!!
She pulled a record from his shelfs, -maybe after having heard me talking about afro-records - I dont know... nevertheless pretty nice pull!!! (considering my girlfriend has no interest in records)
And this is a nice little gem from the group : ”New Crossbones” titled ”Mayenge”. I have no idea from when this is, but my guess is the late 70s or even early 80s.
But the way the drums are sounding makes me think mid 70s. but the group was founded in 78 as far as I know so there you have it.
The Album is kind of an afro groover mixed up with the traditional kalindula-sound. Its not a hardcore afrofunk LP but I really dig the cover art!!! The first track is the standout-track. ”Obe Mulele” is a disco-funk-style-drums driven track mixed with the traditional kalindula sound -and with a decent break at the end of the track.
I could only find little info about the group. I dont know about its rarity since I have never seen this for sale anywhere.
To my knowledge Denmark had no significant import of afro records in the 70s or 80s for that matter, so its a rare find in this part of the world atleast.  My girlfriend saved the day!!!!
Check out the sound!!!!