After hours grooving…
Herbie Hancock – Headhunters (Watermelon Man)
This is the album that started it all for me at the age of 5. Never get tired of it.
Scritti Politti – Songs To Remember (The Sweetest Girl)
I got this on cassette from my girlfriend a few years after it came out when the band were riding high in the charts with Wood Beez etc. I was really struck at how different it sounded to the big budget hits.
Kate Bush – Kick Inside (Strange Phenomena)
A staple of wine and cheese parties my parents dragged me and my sister to when we were little. Definitely going to try catch her live show this year !
Steve Reich – Octet
I got in to Steve Reich in a big way when I went off to study music at college in Nottingham. This remains my favourite.
Laurie Spiegel – The Expanding Universe (Patchwork)
I had the same synth as her at one point, a rare Electrocomp EML 100, so had to become a fan really.
Charles Cohen – The Middle Distance (Club Revival)
Charles is the leading expert on the Buchal Music Easel, an analogue synth in a suitcase. I booked him to perform at NYC’s PS1 museum so was delighted to find out his extremely rare recordings have been re-released.
Black Uhuru – Red (Sponji Reggae)
Greatest band of any genre in the world ! Can’t get enough of them. The dub versions of their albums are really hot too.
Collie Ryan – Indian Harvest (It’s Gonna Rain)
Heard this on the “Computer Chess” movie and had to track down the original vinyl, and great personal expense !
Pleasure – Special Things (Spread That Feelin’)
A highlight from David Mancuso’s Loft party, which I’ve been a regular at these past few years. They call it Disco Church for a reason !
Steve Arrington – Hall Of Fame Vol 1 (Beddie Bye)
I’ve been a fan since I was 14 and still can’t believe we’re working with him. The man is truly inspiring.
Shawn Lee / Tim Love Lee ‘New York Trouble / Electric Progression’ (Tummy Touch)
Here before you is an album Tim Love Lee’s Tummy Touch label has wanted to make for quite some time. A total passion play and one for the crate diggers, the beat producers and the Library geekers among us, it’s full of weird and wonderful sounds and samples.
Produced by Shawn Lee and Tim Love Lee, the album came about when the pair somehow found copies of two very rare 1970’s KPM 1000 series LPs featuring only the sparse rhythm section of bassist Herbie Flowers and drummer Barry Morgan. The duo then set out to faithfully bring the original recordings to their logical conclusion 40 years later by putting their unique overdubs all over them and hey presto, this album was born.
For those who don’t know, Herbie Flowers & Barry Morgan are giants of the British session and Library music worlds. The late Mr. Morgan played with Bowie, Elton John, The Walker brothers, Blue Mink and countless others and Herbie has recorded some of the greatest bass lines in the history of popular music, including Lou Reed “Walk on the wild side”, David Essex “Rock On” and David Bowie “Space Oddity”. As for the music, it’s a curious mix of drum parts, fuzz guitars, spacey synths, percussion, Hammond organ, Rhodes, horns, vibes, marimba, xylophone and even banjo. Often tracks are short sketches but every one is hugely expressive, fun and charming and frankly needs to be heard to be believed. Multi instrumentalist Shawn Lee is a living breathing musical polymath, and possibly the most prolific musician of his generation with over 30 full-length artists albums released to date, whilst Tim Love Lee, the eccentric A&R maverick, DJ and analog synth nut behind Tummy Touch, started out his career in music playing Hammond organ for 80s pop stars, Katrina & The Waves but it was as a DJ on the early UK Acid House scene that Lee really developed his skills as a “selector” of fine and far out music. Between them the pair have produced one of the quirkiest and most interesting albums of the year…give it a listen, you’ll surely be bowled over by its off kilter charm!
Shawn Lee/Tim Love Lee ‘New York Trouble/Electric Progression’ is out on Tummy Touch Records 07-04-2014
